Travels in Ethiopia, above the second cataract of the Nile

by G. A. Hoskins

Pl. 38.

SHAGEEA FIGHTING.

On stone by Walton from a Drawing by L. Bandoni.
Printed by C. Hullmandel.

Published by Longman, Rees & C^o. April 6^th. 1835.

May 11. The return of the expedition was celebrated with great rejoicings. The Mahmoor, shortly after sunrise, reviewed about 300 troops, who have arrived, within these few days, from Handek, Meroueh, and other parts of the province; he marched out with these, and joined the armament encamped at a short distance from the walls, and all together then entered the citadel, in procession. The governor, at the head of the regular troops, who kept up a continual fire, went foremost, followed by the Turks and sheakhs on horseback, going through their evolutions, which consisted in a kind of mock battle, where they certainly displayed admirable horsemanship; sometimes galloping at full speed, suddenly halting, and wheeling round and round, the Turks firing their pistols, and the sheakhs brandishing their lances. Some of the meleks and sheakhs made a very picturesque appearance, being well mounted, with their peculiar costumes, lances, swords, and shields, the latter of the hide of the hippopotamus. After these came the Jelabs, or merchants of the bazaar, making liberal use of the muskets and ammunition given to them by the governor. Then followed a great number of the Hassanyeh, and some few of the Shageea Arabs, mounted on camels, dromedaries, or horses, and some on foot, going through their evolutions as in battle, brandishing their spears, leaping in the air, first on one leg, then on the other, at the same time turning round and shouting their war cry, “Cip! cap!” and beating their shields with their spears. Lastly came a tribe, formerly mentioned, the Funge,—fine athletic men, said to be very brave. They wear, like the others, their garments in the antique style, and their heads, as is the custom of the Arabs of the desert, uncovered, but protected from the sun by bushy tresses, reaching almost to the shoulders.

The coup-d’œil was rendered particularly striking, by the variety of costumes, complexions, and arms, and the singularity of the evolutions. We saw in one field the regular troops, Fellahs from Egypt, marching and firing in the European manner; the natives of the Caucasus, the Turks, exhibiting their more dashing Mameluke exercise; but neither of them attracted half so much my attention as the wild extraordinary manœuvres of the dark peasants of the country and the Arabs of the desert. I should not forget, also, the cries of the women. The house-tops, and the walls of the citadel, were covered with them, cackling (I think that the most appropriate term) a welcome to their husbands in the same curious manner I have before described; but on this occasion the note was different, being expressive of joy at their return.

The governor, afraid of the Pasha’s censuring, and, perhaps, dismissing him, on account of this affair, pays, from his own purse, the expense of the expedition; and he has made a present of 100 piastres to each Turk, 50 to each melek, 30 to each sheakh, of 10 to each peasant and merchant. He pays for the gunpowder also,—no trifle, since, beside what was consumed in the action, they have been firing ever since, to indulge their fondness for the report of a gun, under the plea of celebrating the governor’s triumph. The day is to be devoted to feasting and rejoicing. Those who can afford it have killed cows, others sheep. The mallums, the Coptic treasurers and writers of the government, are now very conspicuously exhibiting their joy. They have been terribly alarmed during this affair; conceiving, perhaps with some reason, that, besides their office, and having the character of being individually rich, their obnoxious titles of Christian dogs and tax-gatherers would have ensured to them, had the citadel been taken, being the first to have their throats cut.

In relating the causes of this insurrection, I shall only be giving a sketch of the Turkish system of governing the provinces, which has rarely, if ever, been sufficiently elucidated. The government of the pashas in Egypt is essentially military. The officers all of whom (except sometimes the baractars) are Turks, decide every question connected with the revenues, and often interfere, in other affairs, with the decisions of the cadis. The system of the government is to extort from the peasant the utmost possible amount of tax, leaving him only what they consider, or pretend to consider, a sufficient subsistence, but it is usually a most miserable one.

I will give a more detailed account of the system in Egypt, at a future opportunity, and shall here only say a few words respecting that unfortunate country. If the peasants did not actually steal from their own fields, in some places, they could not exist. Although they bury their grain under ground, and by various other methods deceive their oppressors, numbers perish from the want of sufficient nourishment and clothing. I have seen them, in winter, assembled in a corner, round a miserable fire, shivering with cold and hunger. In the most favoured clime under heaven, and the most productive country on the face of the earth, a vast proportion of the peasants may be said barely to exist upon food more calculated for cattle than for human beings, and, bad as it is, they have rarely enough.