Travels in Ethiopia, above the second cataract of the Nile

by G. A. Hoskins

The country on this side of the Nile is richly cultivated, and the inhabitants bear no appearance of poverty. Notwithstanding the heavy taxes which they pay, those who are industrious may easily earn sufficient to render them comfortable. I saw about thirty of the peasants, who were all particularly clean and well-dressed. A party of them were feasting on raw liver. The custom of eating raw kidneys and liver is very common south of the second cataract. The same custom is, I understand, very general in Syria, and once existed in Scotland. I observed here, also, a custom which I had often heard of, but never before witnessed. When an Arab loses any near relation, his friends are expected to condole with him on his loss, by literally mingling their tears with his; for they place their cheeks together, and sigh and sob often for ten minutes at a time. This custom in the land of crocodiles reminded me of our expression of “crocodile tears.” A French merchant, Sheakh Ibrahim, who has often visited these regions, was described to me as a perfect Arab; and when I asked why, “Oh,” said they, “he eats raw liver, and cries as we do.”

I saw here a description of guitar, which is very common in Upper Nubia, but it may be called the guitar of the Shageea, as that tribe possess more beautiful ones than are found elsewhere. They consist, as the vignette will show (see [vignette]), of a circular bowl, about nine inches in diameter, of wood, or sometimes of the shell of a tortoise of the Nile: this is covered with prepared sheepskin, in which are six small holes, marked E. The three sticks B, C, D, are generally of acacia; but in Dar Shageea they are sometimes of ebony, and ornamented with silver and ivory. There are five cords attached to the cross stick C, but they have no pegs, merely folding several times round the latter in rather a clumsy manner: they, however, manage to tighten them. F is a string to attach it to the wall; and G is a plectrum, with which they strike with their right hand the cords near the bridge; playing, at the same time, with the left. Their music is wild and simple,—little variation in it,—but some of their airs are not unpleasing. The reader will perceive, from the vignette, that the form is not very unlike that of the Greek lyre.

June 10. We returned at noon from the Temple of Amarah to the village of Kasr Towaga; started from the latter place at two in the afternoon, and advanced five hours in the desert. The first part of this wilderness is desolate and frightful, beyond any I have ever seen. After a short space its appearance became still more terrible, resembling a sea agitated and driven into the most awful shapes by wild winds. For the first few hours the ground was covered with pebbles and quartz nodules of various colours. The rocks, which are of gneiss, serpentine, and flinty slate, occasionally appear. Four hours after starting, we passed a mountain called Hellal, of a conical shape, the second we have observed of this form since we left Kasr Towaga; and an hour afterwards we encamped in the desert.

June 11. We started at sunrise; and in half an hour entered among a chain of granite rocks; fine, bold, roundish masses, having all the appearance, at a distance, of being detached and piled on each other. In two hours and a half from the time we started, we arrived at the Nile, opposite the Island of Dahl. For some time before arriving, we observed, on the eastern bank, a fine eminence, which, at one point of view, reminded me somewhat of the western mountain of Thebes, although smaller, and of a less brilliant colour. The place at which we stopped (see [vignette]) offers one of the most picturesque views in the Batn, or Wady el Hadjar, into which we have now entered. The Island of Dahl is the principal object: on a picturesque rock, in the centre of it, is a fortified castle of a sheakh, the successor, perhaps, of one of the forts on the islands represented on the walls of Thebes.

ISLAND OF DAHL IN THE WADY EL HADJER.

The latter part of the small desert I passed this morning was strewed with quartz, generally white. The gneiss of which the rocks, at the commencement of this little desert, are formed, is soft, friable, disposed in strata: there are also rocks of mica slate of a grey colour. The granite rocks, at the other extremity, consist almost entirely of felspar and quartz; the former predominating, with very little mica: the grain is extremely coarse, generally very friable, of a pink, but mostly of a grey colour. There were also in this desert some rocks of felspar, porphyry, and a great variety of granite—tone-granite, syenite, and others.

At two o’clock, we left, with great reluctance, the shade of the doum trees, and the enjoyment of one of the most beautiful views in the valley of the Nile, to encounter again the horrors of the desert and a burning sun. For the first part of our route, the rocks were of syenite. The circular summits of these dark red rocks were visible as far as our view could reach, rising sometimes in hills, but mostly in pyramidal and conical forms. I observed a line of calcareous rock about 13 feet broad, almost resembling the foundations of a wall, which crossed the road, and extended east and west among the granite rocks. This was followed again by the granite; and shortly after these was a similar narrow, but less regular, cross of jasper, and also one of porphyry. I brought away no specimens of the latter, for the masses were large, and difficult to break. Afterwards, we had a succession of granite, porphyry, compact felspar, hornblende slate, grey gneiss, and serpentine; and the rocks, immediately before arriving at the Nile, were of syenite.

We passed this little desert in five hours, with great fatigue to the camels and the men on foot, on account of the sand and heat. We encamped, for the night, at the small village of Uckma, which consists of only eight houses; but I am informed that this is the name of the district, as there are two other little villages, one on the opposite side of the river, and the other on the island, which bear the same name. My servants, or, rather, my guide and camel-drivers, made us pass for Turks; saying, that the peasants of this district were so bigoted, that, if they knew us to be Christians, no consideration would induce them to supply us with either milk or meat for ourselves, or straw for our camels. The noise of the cataract here is very fine.