A WOMAN OF SHENDY.MOUSSA.
Son of a Melek of Berber.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Shendy, Berber, Dar Shageea, Dongolah, &c., previous to their submission to the Pasha, had each its own Melek, independent or tributary to the great Melek of Sennaar. Each of the sons of these petty kings had estates assigned to him; but they all acknowledged the head of the family, that is, the reigning Melek, contributed to his support and defence, submitted to his laws and commands, and served him in war. This order of Meleks, or nobles, was most numerous; and they established their power by the same base system alluded to in my account of Berber, and to which I refer with reluctance, as developing the means by which the Meleks obtained political influence in this part of the interior of Africa. Such a profligate, and, fortunately, unique system of family aggrandisement tended obviously to the complete demoralisation of the country. They purchased, or made captive in their wars, female slaves; of which some possessed thirty, others as many as a hundred, and some five hundred. These unfortunate creatures, as already stated, were placed by the meleks in the different villages, and obliged to gratify the avarice of their masters, and earn their own scanty livelihood by the abandonment of their virtue. The only privilege these most wretched of slaves possess is, that when they have paid to the melek a sum equal to their purchase money or present value, the custom of the country precludes him from selling them. It is at his option to sell or not the child to the father. The price of the infant is generally from 150 to 200 piastres. The daughters, when grown up, succeed to their mother’s “heritage of woe.” The compulsion under which these victims act is some apology for this systematic depravity. They pride themselves as superior to the common almæ, and are not considered in the same light by the virtuous women in the village, who never admit the almæ into their houses, or hold any intercourse with them. These slaves, on the contrary, are not only permitted to visit them and join in their occupations and festivals, but are admitted to their friendship. They are allowed to be present at their wedding and funeral ceremonies, though not to join in the dance. The sons of these slaves, as already noticed, are sometimes sold, particularly when the melek is in want of money; but generally they are brought up to cultivate the ground of their chief, and, when necessity requires, rally around his standard, and accompany him to battle. From their earliest infancy, they are entirely devoted to the despotic will of their melek; evincing great attachment to his person, and zeal in the execution of his commands, as the only means by which they can hope for emancipation. This singular kind of family connection may, perhaps, account for the supreme authority in this country having been so seldom disturbed, and for the rare occurrence of those revolutions so common in such petty uncivilised states. The result of the system was, that the melek had always a large force of slaves and dependants, besides those of the meleks his kinsmen, who were also implicitly devoted to his will, and deeply interested in maintaining the peace and security of the kingdom.

The meleks were the only aristocracy of the country. Each, before the Pasha’s domination, took four wives; and many, regardless of the limit set by the Koran, even more. They tell me that Melek Tumbol of Argo has had twenty-one.[20] Their wives, who are always daughters of meleks, pass their time in the harem; for it is considered a degradation to have a son by a slave or woman of low rank, or to allow their wives to work. The Pasha, by depressing the meleks, has diminished, but not destroyed, this system of slavery; and at some future period it may be the means of exciting a combined effort to expel his descendants. Serving, as some of the Shageea slaves do, in his army, they have, of course, learned the use of fire-arms, and could turn them against their oppressors. There are 500 of the Shageea tribe in the pay of the Pasha. But, perhaps aware that the security of their dominion over this country consists in their discipline, and the superiority of their arms, the government have not admitted into their army any of the Arab tribes of this vicinity; and these Shageeas being at a distance, near Habeesh, little danger is to be apprehended from them now: indeed, so long as they are so far distant with the army, they may be considered as hostages for the fidelity of their province. Hourshid Bey, the governor of Sennaar, besides the 500 Shageea slaves, has also under his command nearly 5000 men, consisting of Mograbins, from Lower Egypt, Fellaheen, and Turks. With this force, he extends every campaign the Pasha’s dominion on the Blue River, and sends every year never less than 500, and often as many as 3000 slaves, the trophies of his victories, to Cairo.

Before the conquest of Ismael Pasha, Shendy, I understand, was rather more populous: but this was the town where that unfortunate prince met his fate. The circumstances connected with this event, according to the information I obtained here, differ, in some respects, from those which have been stated by other travellers. It might seem that the accounts obtained by those who passed immediately after his death were likely to be most correct: but often the contrary is the case; for events in the course of time have new light thrown upon them, and the rashness and imprudence of Ismael Pasha were naturally glossed over at the moment. He came from Sennaar to Shendy with about ten Mamelukes. The Meleks Nimr (tiger) of Shendy, and Messayad of Metammah (a eunuch who once belonged to Sultan Foddal of Darfour), came to pay their homage to him. The Pasha demanded of Nimr a subsidy, to the value of 100,000 dollars, in money, slaves, and cattle: Nimr, in no very polite terms, declared his inability, when the Pasha, in a fit of passion, struck him with his pipe. Nimr, enraged at this insult, was on the point of drawing his sabre and attacking the Pasha; but Melek Messayad pacified him, advising him, in the dialect of the Bishareen, which they both understood, to delay his revenge until evening, and at present to promise a compliance with the exorbitant requisition. The two chiefs, after leaving the presence, ordered their slaves and people to prepare a quantity of wood. The Khasnar Dar Bey of the Pasha observed these preparations, and was overheard by an Arab advising the Prince to effect his escape: but the latter, with the pride peculiar to the Turks, replied, “Am I not a Pasha? and what Arab dare touch me?” A few hours after dark, they surrounded the house with faggots, set fire to them, and the unfortunate Prince and the Mamelukes who were with him perished in the flames. Nimr fled up the country, married a daughter of a king of Habeesh, and is still the inveterate enemy of the Turks. The same night Melek Messayad fell upon the few troops that were stationed at Metammah, and massacred them. Messayad was afterwards killed by the Deftar Dar Bey, as were also a great number of the Shendyans, suspected to be connected with the murder of the Prince. In consequence of this event, the government have made Metammah, on the opposite side of the river, their chief place of residence, and several of the inhabitants of Shendy have removed thither.

Metammah, situated one hour’s walk from the river, is a much more desolate-looking place than even Shendy. You see streets full of sand, scarcely an inhabitant, no brio, no bazaar: the houses are common hovels. Such are the present capitals of Ethiopia. The only habitable abode is one of the fortified castles of the Sheakhs, now occupied by a Katshef, who commands this part of the province. I paid him a visit, but found him a stupid fellow, and could procure no information from him on any subject, especially concerning the locality of the antiquities in the desert I was anxious to visit. His house presented a complete contrast to that of the governor of Berber, being filthy in the extreme, so that I was almost afraid to sit down on his divan. The servants who presented the coffee were the most wretchedly dressed fellows I have seen in the country. The conversation was chiefly about backsheesh (presents), and the spirit they exhibited, in discussing the prices of the camels I required for my journey into the desert, was very disgusting. The Katshef’s son entered the room, and fired off an English pistol at the window,—a Turkish hint that another pistol would be acceptable. The Katshef asked me to stop and dine with him; but really the appearance of the place was not sufficiently promising to induce me to accept his offer. He ordered me a horse to convey me back to my tent, and gave me a dirty scoundrel as a guide who did not know the road. The moon had not risen; and, it being extremely dark, we missed the track in crossing the plain: fortunately, the light of a fire, which I knew came from a hut near my boat, served me as a guide. The horse, several times, nearly fell, in consequence of the roughness of the ground. On arriving at my tent, I gave the urchin three piastres, with which he was not satisfied, although the clothes, or rather rags, on his back were not worth half the sum.

March 8. I returned this morning to Shendy, and waited on the Katshef, an old retired officer, not now in the employ of the Pasha; but, having been useful in his day, he receives his pay, and lives here in good style. He gave us an excellent dinner: the most remarkable dish was a preparation of meat with raib, a kind of sour milk, which is very refreshing in this climate; he also assisted us in making the necessary preparations for our excursion into the desert.

CHAPTER VIII.

DEPARTURE FROM SHENDY. — DIFFICULTIES. — DESERT. — VISIT FROM AND ANECDOTES OF LIONS. — IMMENSE RUINS. — CONFUSION OF THE PLAN. — BUILT BY BAD ARCHITECTS. — DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL TEMPLE. — STYLE OF THE SCULPTURE. — OTHER RUINS. — SINGULAR SITUATION OF THE RUINS. — THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH THEY WERE CONSTRUCTED. — THEIR PROBABLE AGE.