In the evening, when we were with the Bey, he sent for the poor youth, and frightened him again by telling him that, by virtue of the drawing we had made, we had a magical power over him, and should transport him with us into our own country. He opened his mouth aghast, asked every body if it were true, and seemed struck with horror at the idea of never again seeing his native deserts. He addressed his inquiries particularly to Sheakh Seyd, who, as chief of the Ababdes, he did not think capable of deceiving him; but I verily believe many of the meleks and chiefs present, who affected to join in the laugh, really had doubts and misgivings that such, in truth, was the necromantic power of our pencils, and particularly of the camera lucida, with which I drew several of them. My artist took the Bey’s likeness, at his own particular desire; I conceive, for one of his favourites. He was very well satisfied with the representation of his figure, rich costume, his sword and accoutrements, and of the fierceness of his mustachios; but he did not understand the shading, and begged my artist “to take away those black things.” Before leaving Makkarif, the Bey showed me round the indigo and hide manufactories belonging to the government. I parted from him with some regret, for he is decidedly the best Turk I have ever known; and it was a great pleasure for a few days to meet with such courtesy in these wild regions of interior Africa. Makkarif has little appearance of a capital. The bazaar should scarcely be dignified with such a title, as it only consists of six or seven miserable shops. The town is divided into seven divisions. The population may, perhaps, amount to 3500, though it is difficult to obtain exact information as to numbers. The houses are quadrangular huts of one story, like those in Lower Egypt—not however crowded together as those, but usually standing detached. Some of them are circular, and have thatched conical roofs—a description of cottage very general to the south of Berber. The residence of the governor, and of some of the sheakhs, resembled the fortified house surrounded by large courts, described at Abou-Hammed. There is here a large manufactory of indigo, a valuable branch of culture, which was introduced by the Pasha into this province five years ago. They cut it three times during the season, at intervals of about two months. To extract the dye, they place the stalks and leaves for eighteen hours in a cemented mud basin or cistern of water, which is then drawn off into another vessel: in this last they leave it only a few hours, stirring it well with sticks, and afterwards let it off into a caldron, in which the final process of boiling takes place, and indigo is produced of very good quality. The Pasha receives from this manufactory nearly 14,000 okres (weight), which is sent to Cairo, and sold there for fifteen dollars per okre. The government has greatly extended the cultivation of the cotton plant in this province. Considerable quantities of wheat and oats are also grown in it; but barley and dourah, particularly the latter, are the chief produce. In the Turkish province of Berber, which extends from Abou-Hammed to two days journey beyond Shendy, there are 6000 feddans (measure) of cultivated land, and 500 sakkeas. There were 800 of the latter, when first the Pasha took possession of the country, but misrule, or, perhaps, the system inevitably adopted in order to subdue entirely the country, has impoverished as well as depopulated it. The number of peasants, merchants, Arabs, and other residents, so far as I have been able to learn, may be estimated (including their families) at 30,000: this is independent of the Bishareen and other desert tribes who pay their tribute here. The number of sakkeas may appear small in comparison to the extent of the cultivation and the number of the inhabitants; but it may be remarked, that a great proportion of the arable land in this province is irrigated by the inundation of the Nile and by manual labour. Besides, the peasants, as well as the wandering tribes, subsist in a great measure by their flocks and by their camels, which are bred in great numbers, and of the finest quality, and sent to Cairo. Many also are sold here to the merchants and carriers of this place; also to those of Shendy and Sennaar. The price of a strong, ordinary camel is about ten or twelve dollars; of a dromedary, ten to thirty dollars. For several years the government have sent to Cairo from 1500 to 2000 hides. This year the Pasha has required 20,000. These hides are prepared with lime, salt, and the pod of the mimosa. The Pasha has also tried the sugar cane, which flourishes luxuriantly in the islands, though the people have not yet acquired any skill in the manufacture of it. There is a small sugar-house, but of the rudest construction. The canes are placed between two rollers, turned by oxen, which squeeze out the juice. The peasants themselves make a coarse kind of linen cloth, which may be called fine canvass, but seldom deserves a better name.
Pliny says, that Ethiopia, as well as Egypt, was by the Greeks called Etheria, “without wool;” which may have been owing to the circumstance, that the Ethiopians, like the Egyptians, wore only linen; but perhaps it may rather allude to the extremely bad quality of the Ethiopian wool. The Bishareen pay their tribute to this government. They occupy the territory, and are generally supposed to be descendants, of the ancient Troglodites; but there is a name sculptured on the walls of Thebes, of a captured people, called Sharim, which, with the Coptic article Pi, makes Pisharim or Bisharim. Souakim, the capital, is fifteen days’ journey from this place, on which road water is found every day and a half: its inhabitants are called Edherbi and Hadendoah. Besides these, the Bishareen have other subordinate divisions, as the Amarrah and the Benishamah. As I have before stated, they are the most uncivilised of the Arab tribes, if they can be called Arabs, when they speak a language without any Arabic words, and lay no claim to Arabian descent. Their features are often striking, but their manner of dressing their hair, making it bushy and prominent both in front and behind, and often shaving it a little, gives them a savage appearance. Their dress generally consists of folds of linen of the country, often ragged and dirty, but always put on in a graceful manner, not unlike the ancient Greek drapery. War and plunder seem to be their element, and they are accused of being treacherous and deceitful: they are addicted also to petty theft. Many are poor in the extreme; some few rich and powerful, living luxuriously, as they deem it, on camels’ flesh and milk. The principal persons at Makkarif tell me that they count 200,000 houses or tents; but, notwithstanding the vast extent of their territory, this must be an exaggeration. The government finds always great difficulty in collecting their tribute. “We generally send,” said the Bey, “two soldiers at a time. If they are murdered, it is of no great consequence! for two men it would be absurd to lay waste a whole province; but if we sent twenty or thirty, and they were destroyed, it would create great alarm, and be a serious loss out of my small force of 400 cavalry. Once,” said he, with an air of triumph, “I was there with a large retinue, when a greatly superior number of Bishareen attacked us, during the night, as is always their custom. Nine of my men fled at the first onset, and falling into the hands of the enemy were immediately massacred. We resisted and escaped, but it caused great terror among my troops. Soon after we avenged the death of my nine brave fellows in our usual manner. We enticed to this place many of the Bishareen engaged in this affair by a promise of pardon: then we enclosed them in one of our fortified houses, and put them to death.” Some divisions of this tribe, who are almost quite independent, often plunder the caravans and small villages, and carry off cattle and other property; and they sometimes extend their predatory incursions as far as Dongolah.
The Ababdes are divided principally into two tribes, the Maleykab, from Esneh to Assuan; and the Hashibani, from Assuan to Kash Kosseer. They are a fine race of men, and wear their hair in ringlets hanging behind their heads, and at the sides, nearly to their shoulders. Sometimes, but very rarely, their hair is bushy in front like the Bishareen. Their dress of coarse linen is always folded around them with the same graceful elegance. This tribe is much less numerous than the Bishareen, but they have the character of being braver. The number of their houses and tents was stated to me by their chief, Sheakh Sayd, at 50,000. During the conquest of this country, and on other occasions, they have been of great service to the Pasha, who therefore levies no direct tribute except from such as have allotments of land, and sakkeas, who pay for them like the peasants of the Nile. Burckhardt speaks of the treachery of the Ababdes. I have been with them for months in the Oasis Magna and other places, and cannot say I have experienced it. On the contrary, I have observed them more grateful for kindness, more attached, more proud of their liberty, and tenacious of their character, and more disinterested, than any other of the Arab tribes. The number domiciled in this province is very considerable. Besides these, I saw individuals of several other Arab tribes who frequent Berber, while others I only heard of. Among these are the Hassanyeh, who range from Berber to Kordofan, principally near Dongolah,—the Kababysh, to the south-west of the latter, extending to the White River,—the Benegerar, from Dongolah to Kordofan, in the Desert,—the Erfara, near Sennaar,—a large and powerful tribe called Rafarah, numbered with the Erfara,—the Shukriah, settled principally near Shendy, but also between Berber and Sennaar, and the Atbara and the Bahr el Azruk. The Eddibina, also, near Shendy,—the Djamelyeh, on the Bahr el Abiad,—the El Amran, to the east of the Mugrum, or Astoboras,—the Shelouks, ten days up the White River, or Bahr al Abiad. They are said to be tall, powerful men, always quite naked, and armed with bows and arrows, spears and shields; and I am told that they worship the sun. Their territory extends for a considerable distance on both sides of the river, but the division on the east side is called Denha. The Shelouks inhabit also numerous islands, communicating with each other by means of canoes, some of which are very large. The Bahr el Abiad was represented to me as being, in that part, ten times wider than the Bahr el Azruk:—the Numrum, also, a negro race of naked Pagans, twenty days’ journey from Sennaar, upon the White River. All these tribes, except the two last, are wholly or partly tributary to the Pasha. When we consider the slight comparative force with which his governments are generally supplied, we must confess his officers know how to manage their affairs, although the means they adopt are not always the most honourable. The government of Berber has only 400 cavalry to keep in subjection a population of 30,000, besides the many powerful tribes of the neighbouring deserts. The ancient chiefs of the country are almost all alive and at large. Each native is armed, and acquainted with the use of the sabre and lance, and some few have matchlocks. They see the prosperity of the country gradually decaying, and the population daily diminishing; yet such is their terror of the Pasha’s power, that, notwithstanding the small number of his troops, and the length of time it would require to bring forward reinforcements, no monarch in Europe has such absolute power, or sleeps more safe from bodily fear than the Governor of Berber. The relentless system, which has completely succeeded in Lower Egypt, of impoverishing the peasants, and reducing them by distress to complete vassalage, is gradually but successfully carried on by the Pasha in this country. The descendants, perhaps, of those tribes who defied the power of the Greeks and Romans, have been taught by Mohammed Ali to crouch beneath his yoke. He has done so, in despite of all the obstacles man and nature opposed to his ambition;—a brave resistance, cataracts amongst which many of his barks were lost, the horrors of the desert, burning climate, malaria, and fever, which at first nearly annihilated his army at “one fell swoop.” The statement of Cailliaud, that at Sennaar, the Pasha saw one third of his forces fall a prey to malignant and intermittent fevers, dysentery, and bilious attacks, shows at how dear a price these conquests were purchased. But the Pasha’s power in this country rests now on a basis which it would be difficult to shake,—a combination of vigorous policy in council, with superiority of arms and discipline in the field. The tribes now know from experience the weakness of their half fighting, half dancing hosts, with their lances, swords, and large unwieldy shields,—against the regular fire of disciplined troops. The very report of a cannon is irresistible to beings who have the utmost dread of a musket; and they can now contrast the effects of artillery with those of the comparatively harmless implements of their own warfare, which seldom inflict more than flesh wounds. Their former chiefs and meleks are now sinking fast to the wretched level of the peasants. Stripped of their patrimonial wealth and estates, and shut out from their other sources of gain—commerce and exactions—they are now obliged to pay court to the Turkish governors, to obtain or preserve a scanty pension, which is almost their only means of subsistence. The chiefs have suffered more than the peasants from the domination of the Pasha, who has followed the usual policy of all conquerors, by systematically aiming “to cut off the highest of the poppy heads.” The great mass of the people of every nation are generally indifferent to the misfortunes of the aristocracy, and are rarely animated, by individual attachment, or more enlarged views of national independence, to rise and deliver from oppression those who, perhaps, were once their own oppressors. Possibly, they may even feel a selfish exultation in seeing them reduced to their own level; forgetting that, while their ancient chiefs sink thus into poverty and obscurity, every hope of restoring the liberty of their country vanishes.
I have not spent sufficient time in this province to judge accurately of the character of the people, and I dare scarcely attempt to delineate what the masterly hand of Burckhardt has so admirably accomplished. I have not his work with me, and do not remember minutely his account of the natives of this district. I must, therefore, make a short record of my own observations, though, probably, they will add but little to the information which he has communicated. I am sorry to confirm his statement, that the most extreme profligacy of manners prevails among the Berbers. They are entirely devoted to women; unfortunately, not only to their own wives, but, with lawless passion, to the wives of their neighbours. Adultery is far more common here than in any other part of the valley of the Nile; and there exists, also, in this and the adjoining provinces, a system which is a disgrace to human nature. The sheakhs, meleks, and chief men hire out their female slaves, or, rather, oblige them to carry on an infamous traffic here and in the different villages, and to pay to their master a monthly tribute out of the fruits. This is the climax of profligacy. A correct idea of the immoral state of the country may be formed, when those who, from their station, ought to endeavour to repress vice, are, by this system, its chief promoters. Slavery is horrible under any guise; but when the task of the unfortunate victim is to sacrifice every principle of honour, virtue, and decency, in order to satiate the avarice of a remorseless master, a more distressing picture of human wretchedness cannot be imagined. Besides the monthly tribute, they are dependent also for their own subsistence upon the passing caravans.
The superstition of the Berbers keeps pace with their gross ignorance. I have already stated that, notwithstanding many attempts, I was never able, unless in the Bey’s presence, and through his despotic mandate, to overcome the apprehension and scruples of the Berbers, of both sexes, to allow their portraits to be drawn. Among those, too, who knew I was a Christian, I could often distinguish an ill-disguised contempt when I deviated in any respect from the Mahometan customs.
Intoxication is another vice to which the Berbers are generally addicted, but seldom to any very gross excess. Their beverage is the bouza, a species of beer made of dourah, boiled in a jar, and drunk after a day or two, when it ferments. It is not of a very intoxicating quality, but they drink gallons of it at a sitting. One of the peasants intimated to me his regret that the Prophet had only promised them rivers of milk in his paradise, instead of bouza. They have also the meresi and bulbul, more delicate descriptions of the same beverage; and a strong but tasteless spirit (arrake), with a very wretched liquor which they call wine; both these last being extracted from the date. They are civil and attentive to strangers, but there is something overstrained in their obsequiousness. They have the reputation of being great thieves. Several old Egyptian merchants, and also my camel-drivers, advised me to take care of my baggage during the night, when I passed through Berber; always recommending me, for that reason, to encamp near the house of the sheakh. The women go about with their faces uncovered,—a privilege which, in Egypt, only the wives of the Arabs of the Desert enjoy. They have, generally, good figures, and a rather pleasing expression of countenance. The men are stout, but their features are seldom very prepossessing, or at all noble; and they are deficient in that open and dignified manner and deportment which distinguish the generality of the Arab tribes. The Arabs in general, but especially the Berbers, are averse to active exertion. I have often seen several of them sitting together for many hours in the shade, with their eyes half closed, in a listless and supine state, neither talking, nor engaged in any occupation. Sometimes they were smoking, yet at the same time apparently unconscious that pipes were in their mouths. Perfect repose of body and mind, the dolce far niente of the Italians, is the highest felicity they are able to conceive. Endowed with an imperturbable stock of apathy,—more comfortable, perhaps, although not so intellectual, as European philosophy,—they submit to a distressing accident, which would throw one of our countrymen almost into a fever, without allowing their equanimity to be in the least disturbed. “Mactub min Allah!” it is written, It is the will of God! they exclaim, with placid resignation; and, instead of brooding over their misfortune, become immediately reconciled to it, and, with amazing facility, banish it from their thoughts.
The Sennaar and Shendy merchants, chiefly Arabs, pass sometimes by this route; others go to Dongolah, across the Bahiouda desert. This is, however, a much shorter route, and for that reason often preferred. They furnish the bazaar of Makkarif with soap, spices with which they make an ointment to keep their skin soft, rice, Mocha coffee, mirrors, glass beads, and shells; and articles in cotton, such as handkerchiefs, shawls, and other dresses: they also bring tobacco and pipes, crockery, cooking dishes, &c. A great many camels are employed on this route, in conveying the officers, soldiers, and provisions from Assuan to Berber, Shendy, Khartoun, and Sennaar. When no other article is ready, the camels are laden, in return, with charcoal made of the osshi plant, which is excellent for gunpowder; but even for culinary use, the difference between its price at Berber and at Assuan, in consequence of its scarcity at the latter place, fully remunerates them for the carriage. A great number of camels are, at certain seasons, employed by the government in conveying down to Assuan the indigo, grain, hides, &c. levied as taxes in kind. This gives employment to the Arabs of the desert, and attaches these roving tribes, by the strongest chains of interest, to a more regular and less barbarous government than they have ever been accustomed to, and thus reconciles them to the relinquishment of their independence. When we consider the predatory and lawless habits they gloried in for ages previous to the Pasha’s conquest; the anarchy and confusion which afforded them such facilities for rapine, and in which their bold unruly spirits delighted, as the short though dangerous path to distinction and wealth,—it is surprising to see them thus quietly occupied in the vocations of peace, and earning their livelihood by honest industry. A tribute of applause is certainly due to Mohammed Ali, for effecting this great improvement in the habits and pursuits of the uncivilised hordes who occupy so considerable a portion of the continent of Africa.
CHAPTER V.
DEPARTURE FROM MAKKARIF. — VARIOUS VILLAGES. — THE MUGRUM, ANCIENT ASTABORAS. — ROUTE TO GOSS REDJAB. — VERDANT APPEARANCE OF THE ISLAND OF MEROE. — VOYAGE ON THE ASTAPUS. — NUMEROUS VILLAGES. — COTTAGES. — HIPPOPOTAMI; MANNER OF DESTROYING THEM. — VILLAGES. — ARRIVAL AT THE PYRAMIDS OF MEROE.