His horse, richly caparisoned, was led to an earthen seat, from which he mounted, three led horses preceding him. He was surrounded by his armed slaves, and fanned by men with ostrich feathers; and thus proceeded, slowly, and amidst an immense crowd, to the Castle, a distance of about five hundred yards. When arrived there, he remained for a few minutes in the court-yard, seated in his state chair, and receiving the homage of his subjects, leaning on two of his principal people; he then ascended into the Castle, where we followed him, and were allowed to sit on the same carpet as himself. He here paid to Mr. Ritchie the three hundred dollars which he owed him, and at the same time made most flattering promises about assisting us at any future period in money matters. We implicitly believed his professions, and left the Castle much delighted at possessing such a friend in one, who, had he been ill-disposed, had so much power to injure us.
At our return home, on examining our stock of eatables, we found that we had been robbed of a large sack of rice, another of flour, and a great quantity of cusscussou. From our hardware we missed one pistol, both locks of a double-barrelled gun, and several bags of shot. We made instant complaint to Mukni, who promised that every inquiry should be made for the stolen articles, and that they should, if found, be faithfully returned to us. We laid in a stock of dates for our horses, and commenced keeping house on our own account.
Our habitation was a very good one, and as all the large houses are built on nearly the same plan, I may, by describing this, give an idea of all the rest. A large door, sufficiently high to admit a camel, opened into a broad passage, or Skeefa سكيفه; on one side of which was a tolerable stable for five horses; and close to it a small room for the slaves, whose duty it might be to attend the house. A door opposite to that of the stable opened into the Kowdi كودي, or large square room, the roof of which, at the height of eighteen feet, was supported by four palm-trees as pillars. In the centre of the roofing was a large open space, about twelve feet by nine; from this the house and rooms receive light (not to mention dust), and excessive heat in the afternoon. At the end of the room, facing the door, a large seat of mud was raised, about eighteen inches high, and twelve feet in length. Heaps of this description, though higher, are found at the doors of most houses, and are covered with loungers in the cool of the morning and evening. Our large room was fifty feet by thirty-nine. From the sides, doors opened into smaller ones, which might be used as sleeping or store-rooms, but were generally preferred for their coolness. Their only light was received from the door. Ascending a few steps, there was a kind of gallery over the side rooms, and in it were two small apartments, but so very hot as to be almost useless. From the large room was a passage leading to a yard, having also small houses attached to it in the same manner, and a well of comparatively good water. The floors were of sand, and the walls of mud roughly plastered, and showing every where the marks of the only trowel used in the country—the fingers of the right hand. There are no windows to any of the houses; but some rooms have a small hole in the ceiling, or high up in the wall.
Morzouk is a walled town, containing about 2500 inhabitants, who are blacks, and who do not, like the Arabs, change their residence. The walls are of mud, having round buttresses, with loopholes for musketry, rudely built, but sufficiently strong to guard against attack: they are about fifteen feet in height, and at the bottom eight feet in thickness, tapering, as all walls in this country do, towards the top. The town has seven gates, four of which are built up in order to prevent the people escaping when they are required to pay their duties. A man is appointed by the Sultan to attend each of these gates, day and night, lest any slaves or merchandize should be smuggled into the town. The people, in building the walls and houses, fabricate a good substitute for stones, (which are not to be found in these parts), by forming clay into balls, which they dry in the sun, and use with mud as mortar: the walls are thus made very strong; and, as rain is unknown, durable also. The houses, with very few exceptions, are of one story, and those of the poorer sort receive all their light from the doors: these are so low, as to require stooping nearly double to enter them; but the large houses have a capacious outer door; which is sufficiently well contrived, considering the bad quality of the wood that composes them. Thick palm planks, of four or five inches in breadth, (for the size and manner of cutting a tree will not afford more) have a square hole punched through them at the top and bottom, by which they are firmly wedged together, with thick palm sticks; wet thongs of camels’ hide are then tied tightly over them, which, on drying, draw the planks more strongly and securely together. There are no hinges to the doors; but they turn on a pivot, formed on the last plank near the wall, which is always the largest on that account. The locks and keys are very large and heavy, and of curious construction. The houses are generally built in little narrow streets; but there are many open spaces, entirely void of buildings, and covered with sand, on which the camels of the traders remain. Many palms grow in the town, and some houses have small square enclosures, in which are cultivated a few red peppers and onions. The street of entrance is a broad space of at least a hundred yards, leading to the wall that surrounds the castle, and is extremely pretty: here the horsemen have full scope to display their abilities when they skirmish before the Sultan. The castle itself is an immense mud building, rising to the height of eighty or ninety feet, with little battlements on the walls (a fancy of the present Sultan’s); and at a distance really looks warlike. Like all the other buildings, it has no pretensions to regularity: the lower walls are fifty or sixty feet in thickness; the upper taper off to about four or five feet. In consequence of the immense mass of wall, the apartments are very small, and few in number. The rooms occupied by the Sultan are of the best quality, (that is to say, comparatively), for the walls are tolerably smooth, and white-washed, and have ornamental daubs of red paint in blotches, by way of effect. His couch is spread on the ground, and his visitors squat down on the sandy floor at a respectful distance; we, however, were always honoured by having a corner of the carpet offered to us. The best and most airy part of the castle is occupied by the women, who have small rooms round a large court, in which they take exercise, grind corn, cook, and perform other domestic offices. The number called Kibere, or great ladies, seldom exceeds six. This dignified title is generally given to the mothers of the Sultan’s children, or to those, who, having once been great favourites, are appointed governesses to the rest. There are, on the whole, about fifty young women, all black and very comely; and from what stolen glances we could obtain, they appeared extremely well dressed. They are guarded by five eunuchs, who keep up their authority by occasionally beating them. The Sultan has three sons and two daughters, who live with him in this cage, the doors of which are locked at night, and the keys brought to him, so that he remains free from any fear of attack. The castle is entered by a long winding passage in the wall, quite dark and very steep. At the door is a large shed, looking on a square space, capable of containing three or four hundred men closely huddled together. Under this shed is a great chair of state (once finely gilt and ornamented), with a patchwork quilt thrown over it; and behind it are the remains of two large looking-glasses. In this chair the Sultan receives homage every Friday, before he ascends the castle, after returning from the Mosque. This place is the Mejlees, مبولبس, and was the scene of all the cruelties practised by Mukni when he first took possession of the country.
| Drawn from Nature by G. F. Lyon. | On Stone by D. Dighton. |
The Castle of Morzouk.
London. Published by J. Murray Albemarle St. Feb.1.1821.
C. Hullmandel’s Lithography.
There are several pools of stagnant salt water in the town, which, I conceive, in a great measure, promote the advance of the summer fevers and agues. The burying-places are outside the walls, and are of considerable extent. In lieu of stones, small mud embankments are formed round the graves, which are ornamented with shreds of cloth tied to small sticks, with broken pots, and sometimes ostrich eggs. One of the burying-places is for slaves, who are laid very little below the surface; and in some parts the sand has been so carried away by the wind, as to expose their skeletons to view. Owing to the want of wood, no coffins are used; the bodies are merely wrapped in a mat, or linen cloth, and covered with palm branches, over which the earth is thrown. When the branches decay, the earth falls in; and the graves are easily known by being concave instead of convex. The place where the former Sultans are buried is a plain near the town; their graves are only distinguished from those of other people by having a larger proportion of broken pots scattered about them. It is a custom for the relations of the deceased to visit, and occasionally to recite a prayer over the grave, or to repeat a verse of the Koran. Children never pass within sight of the tombs of their parents without stopping to pay this grateful tribute of respect to their memory. Animals are never buried, but thrown on mounds outside the walls, and there left. The excessive heat soon dries up all their moisture, and prevents their becoming offensive; and the hair remains on them, so that they appear like preserved skins.
May 15th.—I was attacked with severe dysentery, which confined me to my bed during twenty-two days, and reduced me to the last extremity. Our little party was at this time miserably poor, for we had only money sufficient for the purchase of corn to keep us alive, and never tasted meat, unless fortunate enough to kill a pigeon in the gardens. My illness was the first break up in our little community, and from that time it rarely happened that one or two of us were not confined to our beds. The extreme saltness of the water, the poor quality of our food, together with the excessive heat and dryness of the climate, long retarded my recovery; and when it did take place, it was looked on as a miracle by those who had seen me in my worst state, and who thought it impossible for me to survive. I was no sooner convalescent, than Mr. Ritchie fell ill, and was confined to his bed with an attack of bilious fever, accompanied with delirium, and great pain in his back and kidneys, for which he required repeated cupping. When a little recovered, he got up for two days, but his disorder soon returned with redoubled and alarming violence. He rejected every thing but water; and, excepting about three hours in the afternoon, remained either constantly asleep, or in a delirious state. Even had he been capable of taking food, we had not the power of purchasing any which could nourish or refresh him. Our money was now all expended, and the Sultan’s treacherous plans to distress us, which daily became too apparent, were so well arranged, that we could not find any one to buy our goods. For six entire weeks we were without animal food, subsisting on a very scanty portion of corn and dates. Our horses were mere skeletons, added to which, Belford became totally deaf, and so emaciated as to be unable to walk.