Travels in Ethiopia, above the second cataract of the Nile

by G. A. Hoskins

KASR TOWAGA. — DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING THE RIVER. — INDOLENCE OF THE ARABS. — ARAB SHEAKH. — TEMPLE OF AMARAH. — PRESENT INHABITANTS. — WADY EL HADJAR. — FORTIFIED HOUSE ON AN ISLAND AT DAHL. — CATARACT OF UCKMA. — BIGOTRY OF THE INHABITANTS. — VARIOUS CATARACTS OF THE NILE. — MINERAL SPRING AT TANGOURE. — TEMPLES OF SEMNEH, ON THE WESTERN BANK. — CURIOUS MANNER OF CROSSING THE RIVER. — TEMPLE OF SEMNEH, ON THE EASTERN BANK. — INSCRIPTIONS ON THE ROCKS. — THE ARAB ROBBER ISAH. — SECOND CATARACT OF THE NILE. — INDUCEMENTS FOR TRAVELLERS TO EXTEND THEIR JOURNEY BEYOND THIS POINT. — COMPARISON BETWEEN VOYAGES IN THE DESERT AND AT SEA.

At Kasr Towaga I wished to visit the remains of the Temple of Amarah, on the eastern bank; but for several hours I despaired of procuring a raft or boat, or any other means of crossing the river. After waiting some time, I observed at a distance a Sukkot ferry-boat, and immediately offered nine Turkish piastres to an Arab to go for it, and the same sum for the boat; and, as the camel-drivers began to be mutinous at the idea of being detained another day, I promised them a backsheesh of eighteen piastres; but such is the character of the Arabs in this country, that, so long as they have enough to procure any kind of food, they will seldom exert themselves to procure more. They prefer to live miserably, scarcely better than their fellow-labourers the camels, rather than to better their condition, secure an independence, and a provision against a day of distress.

To increase their possessions, and elevate themselves to a higher rank by their activity and frugality, are ideas which never enter the minds of these children of destiny. If they earn a little money, or if some favour of fortune places unexpectedly in their hands a hundred piastres, they more generally spend it in a few nights of festivity, and burden themselves with the expense of another wife, than reserve it for the day when the fickle goddess may cease to befriend them. With what alacrity would a poor European accept the offer of 9 piastres (2s. 3d.) to walk two miles for a boat! How gladly would a European boatman earn the same sum by merely ferrying us across the stream; yet it was more by threats than by this offer (although equal to eighteen days’ wages) that I induced one of my camel-drivers to go, during the heat of the day, for the boat. As, of course, I promised the reward only in case of success, he was unwilling to undergo this little fatigue on an uncertainty. My firman was also necessary to dispose the boatmen to earn more in twenty-four hours than they certainly have gained during the whole of the past week.

My camel-drivers were very mutinous when they found me determined to pass the night at Amarah: my guide threatened to leave me, but he changed his tone when I told him to go, and declared I would not pay him. By the present of eighteen piastres, added to certain threats of the korbash (whip made of the hide of the hippopotamus), if they annoyed me, order was restored. Backsheesh has great influence on the Arabs, but without a certain degree of firmness they are sometimes difficult to manage.

We crossed the river, landed on the eastern bank, and went to the nearest village, called Heber. We found the sheakh and the principal inhabitants assembled under the shade of the palm trees. The sheakh, a noble-looking fellow, with that dignified gravity which I have so often found among the Arabs of this rank, received us with the usual attentions; and, in compliance with my request, immediately procured us donkeys, and conducted us to the village of Amarah, a ride of an hour and a half. The sheakh had a house at Amarah, to which he took us, and gave us an excellent supper and angoureebs to sleep on, which are very necessary here, on account of the number of scorpions. The road between the villages of Heber and Amarah is through the desert. I found on it some beautiful specimens of red Egyptian jasper and hornstone nodules. We passed a large mountain, called Hadjer el Heber, of a very imposing appearance, which we had remarked this morning, on the opposite side of the river. It is about ten miles distant from the Nile.

PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF AMARAH.

The Temple of Amarah is about half an hour’s walk from the village of the same name, and is situated between the villages of Heber and Amarah, in the desert, to the right of the road we passed. There is sufficient remaining of the Temple of Amarah to exhibit the style and epoch. The architecture is Ethiopian (see [Plan]). A gateway, 19 feet wide, and ornamented with two columns, fragments of which are remaining, 3 feet 8 inches in diameter, leads into a room 53 feet by 30, ornamented with eight columns, also 3 feet 8 inches in diameter. Not a fragment of their capitals remains; but a considerable portion, covered with sculpture, of each column is standing.

The sculpture on the columns is Ethiopian, but very indifferent, and the hieroglyphics so wretchedly executed, and so defaced, that it was scarcely possible to decipher any of them. The lowest row on the columns represents divinities of the Nile, besides which I observed a goddess with the globe, long horns, and two feathers, perhaps Koht, another with a plain helmet such as Neith often wears; and there is a representation of a king making offerings to Kneph, represented with a ram’s head, globe, and two feathers; and also to Thriphis, with a tiger’s head; a plain figure of Amun Ra, and the same with the figure of a mummy and globe and two feathers: I also remarked Honsoo with the globe and short horns. In the centre of the columns is a line of hieroglyphics, which I copied as well as their ruined condition would permit: they contain some curious titles, and the name of a king which is unknown. I conceive the temple to have been dedicated to Kneph, as the representations of that divinity are more frequent, and in more conspicuous situations, than the others.

The foundations of the temple are of brick, and, for some distance around, are scattered fragments of pottery with branches of the palm tree painted on them, remains, no doubt, of the ancient city. The columns are of sandstone. Plate XLIV. (see [Frontispiece]) shows two of them in detail, and their situation in regard to the Nile, or rather, I should say, as the river is not visible, to the palm groves on its banks, and will enable the reader to judge of the style of the sculpture. Ptolemy places the second cataract in latitude 22° 30′, and Berethis, on the eastern bank, 21° 30′. The difference of 1° agrees very exactly with the distance between the cataract and the ruins of Amarah.