The assida and woika are the common dishes of the natives of Kordofan. The former consists of flour, boiled after the fashion of the Italian polenta[30]; but there is a considerable difference in the mode of preparing this mess; for the poorer class use the flour in its natural state, whereas the wealthy natives have it several times washed in water, a process rendering it much whiter and purer. Woika is prepared in the following manner:—The natives take pieces of beef, dried in the sun, cut for the purpose into long slips, of the thickness of a finger, which form in every family a part of the household stores. This is reduced with dried bamié[31] to a coarse powder in a wooden mortar. Some onions are now burnt with butter in an earthen-pot, over which water is poured. When the stock boils, one person stirs it up, whilst another gradually adds the pounded meat and bamié, until it forms a thick mass. This ragout, or currie, is then poured into the assida before described, and served up; it has a pleasant flavour, is very nutritious, and far more wholesome than any other kind of animal food. A great deal of meat is consumed; for it is very cheap, and nearly every one keeps goats and sheep. The Turks, indeed, do not eat the beef, nor is it to be recommended to Europeans, for it is very indigestible, and of ill flavour. The oock’ckah,[32] of two pounds and three quarters, does not cost more than twenty paras (twopence); and it is sold in the market-place of Lobeid without the bones. In the country, it is retailed at half this amount; and the price of the piece bargained for is fixed, without weighing it, by judging by the eye alone. There is no deficiency of fowls, pigeons, and various species of gazelles; these, however, are luxuries which are only to be met with in the houses of the wealthy, and on festive occasions. Every family dines at midday; the men are first served; and when they have finished their meal, the women and children sit down. A straw-mat is spread upon the sand, in the centre of which a wooden dish is placed, containing assida and woika; while the necessary bread is served up on a flat straw-dish. Every one present in the hut, the family as well as strangers, for no invitation is required, sit down, with their legs bent under them, on the straw-mat round the dish; and, on being invited by the master of the house with the word, Bishmillah (in the name of God) to help themselves, all plunge their hands at the same time into the dish. Each person now takes as much as he can hold in his five fingers, and conveys it to his mouth. The bread is generally eaten at the same time; and thus they proceed, taking one handful after the other, until the dish is emptied of the last morsel. If a stranger cease to eat first, the master of the house invites him to continue, not as a matter of ceremonious courtesy, but in true kindness. During dinner little is spoken, for each individual endeavours above all things to satisfy hunger. In the villages, curds and bread are served up in the dish at meals. The poorer class have not always assida, but the woika alone, and bread and milk. When the contents of a dish are coming to an end, one man rises after the other. The master of the house receives no thanks, nor does he, indeed, expect them; for it is regarded as an understood thing, that every one must be satisfied who happens to be present at the time of the meals. They wash their hands before, and after eating, and the same ablution is performed in the evening at sun-set.
During the dinner, water is only handed round in gourds to drink; when the meal is over the merissa is served up. This description of beer is met with in all the villages of Kordofan with but few exceptions; and even among the nomadic tribes, it is seldom missing, except, indeed, when the harvest has been particularly unsuccessful. Merissa is brewed in the following manner:—the dokn forms the chief basis: it is allowed to germinate first, as the barley in Germany, dried in the sun, and then bruised between stones. Cakes of bread are now made, placed in a pot and covered with water, and when this liquor has sufficiently fermented,—a process requiring two days,—it is filtered through a sieve formed of rushes. This merissa must be drunk immediately, for with the third day it begins to turn acid, a result which is not to be wondered at considering the intense heat of the climate, for they have no cellars in which they could preserve it for any length of time. The same merissa repeatedly filtered until it has become clearer is called bill-bill; but bill-bill prepared with sugar, nutmeg, cloves, and other optional drugs forms sansugot. The latter beverage is made in various ways. It is an agreeable drink and very cooling. As a rule it is far more conducive to health to drink a larger quantity of merissa than of water in this climate, and I advise travellers in particular to observe this prescription, the more so as I found by experience that, as soon as I discontinued water, and commenced drinking merissa and brandy, the fever and dysentery, of which I could not get rid before, left me. I have also known natives, who, confining themselves to merissa, never drank one drop of water throughout the year, and these men were, without exception, the healthiest; whereas the water-drinkers were always attacked with fever during the rainy season.
In those districts, where the inhabitants occupy themselves with agriculture, as at the foot of Mount Kordofan, merissa flows in great abundance, and the greater part of the men are, consequently, in a state of intoxication all the year round, for they never take the vessel containing it from their mouths from early in the morning until late at night. In Lobeid, and in many villages, there are houses for the sale of merissa, where this beverage is served by very pretty girls, who are also excellent dancers, and thus attract many guests. They are, moreover, so very acute that you might believe them to have been brought up, or at least to have received a lesson, in one of the capitals of Europe. Mehemed Ali, a few years ago, put down public prostitution in Egypt, and some of the refugees found an asylum in Kordofan and Sennaar. When the governor or other Turks give a fête, they always engage some of these able performers to amuse their guests. They come accompanied by a clown, and besides their original dances give plastic representations which, be they ever so trifling or even offensive against the mahommedan law, afford much pleasure. I saw travesties of this kind performed in presence of the governor, in which the government and its respective functionaries were faithfully portrayed, and affairs were represented such as too frequently occur in reality; but no offence is ever taken at these plays, they, on the contrary, only increase the laughter of those who feel themselves hit.
Brandy is distilled at Lobeid only, from dates imported from Dongola: the natives are very fond of it, but it is too expensive an enjoyment for them to indulge in to intoxication, or to drink instead of merissa; for the bottle costs nine piasters or fifty-four cruitzers (equal to about two shillings and sixpence). The wealthy inhabitants, therefore, and the Turkish officers only drink brandy. Festivals like those kept in Egypt are not known in Kordofan, for the natives in general are not sufficiently wealthy to spend large sums on the like amusements, and it is not, moreover, customary to give feasts at marriages, circumcisions, and other occasions of this kind. If a man be about to marry, he goes straightways to the father of the bride he has selected, and before exchanging a word with her concludes the contract, determining the allowance he proposes to make to his future wife.
The marriage portion consists either in money, oxen, sheep, goats, or other articles of domestic economy, and is at the same time the property of the woman, although she may be shortly divorced from her husband. Marriages are contracted with very little ceremony, for as soon as the bridegroom has agreed with the father of the bride on the bargain, he takes the woman of his choice home, hews the rahat, or fringed virginal girdle with a knife in innumerable pieces, covers her with a melayeh as a sign that she is now his wife, and the ceremony thus terminates. The nearest neighbours are at the most invited to a dinner; merissa is served up, and the whole affair is concluded with the customary dances. If the bride belong to one of the tribes who practise circumcision, she is certainly forced to subject herself to a fresh operation twenty days before her marriage. When a woman is ill-treated by her husband, or there exists any other cogent reason, she requests to be divorced from him, and the separation is effected without the slightest difficulty. She takes her marriage portion, and if there be children, the girls away with her, whilst the boys remain with the father. A separation is, however, frequently insisted upon without any good cause, for if the husband does not make his wife a sufficient allowance of telka,[33] she may sue for a divorce. Many men separate from their wives when they begin to age, as they generally do after the birth of the second child, and marry a second time with a young girl. To these cast-off wives a tukkoli is then accorded, and a maintenance sufficient to keep them, consisting generally of twenty paras, little more than three halfpence daily. The rich of course are only able to follow this custom, one man, however, scarcely ever has more than two wives in lawful wedlock; but every one keeps a number of female slaves as concubines, especially when his wives begin to grow old. They do not pay much attention to those clauses in matrimony, prescribed by the mahommedan religion, and to which the Moslemins rigidly adhere. The birth of a child is attended with little or no festivity, and the husband pays but slight attention to his wife during this critical period, for every one knows that labours are mostly natural, and terminate quickly and successfully. A midwife and an elderly relation at the utmost are present in the hut with the parturient woman, and when the child is born, a drink, consisting of soda, dried dates, and milk, which is very cooling, or water only, is offered to the mother. On the second, frequently even on the first day, the woman leaves her bed and goes about her ordinary occupations. Parents are very fond of their children, and are never known to beat them for any error they may have committed. The care and education of the young is left entirely to the mother; until they have attained a more mature age, the father troubles himself but little about his children. When a mother weans her child—children at the breast are, however, frequently fed with bread soaked in water—and it has attained the age of one year, it may be seen with an onion in its little hands, gnawing it with as much pleasure as our European children evince in sucking preparations of sugar. Wild fruits are also given to them, and yet the children are for the most part healthy and strong, with this one exception, that they all, up to a certain age, have protuberant abdomina, a consequence of feeding them on bread, which causes distention even in grown-up persons. Whilst the children are very young, they are laid in cradles, or rather hammocks, consisting of a cotton cloth, attached with cords by its four ends to a beam.
Circumcision is generally performed according to the custom of the Moslems, between the fourth and sixth year. I also met with some few tribes, where circumcision of the female was practised; this, however, is a popular custom, totally unconnected with religious rites, and is probably intended to prove to the bridegroom, who is about to marry, that the girl is a virgin,—a circumstance to which these tribes attach much importance. The Turks, and others, have a peculiar ceremony on the occasion of their marriage festivals, by which the bridegroom, on the day of his marriage, convinces himself of the virginity of his bride; but this test is liable to fallacy, which is not possible with circumcision. The operation of circumcision[34] is performed on girls when they are five, or, at the utmost, seven years of age, and is attended with festivities, for which no expense is shunned; it constitutes, indeed, a festival, against which the poorer people begin to save money a year before it takes place, that nothing may be wanting to add to its celebration. From four to eight days before the period of circumcision they dance and sing all day long until late at night; but on the actual day of the operation, the dancing and singing is kept up during the whole night. Professional performers are hired for the occasion, merissa is distributed, in short, everything is done to afford amusement to the poor victim, and to induce her to forget the bitter moment which awaits her. When the important hour arrives, all the men are turned out of the hut; but the mother, and a few women, remain with the girl, partly to hold her during the operation, partly to encourage her to bear it with fortitude. The patient is now stretched upon an angareb, and the women surrounding her grasp her feet, arms, head, and body firmly, so that she cannot move; an elderly matron then approaches with a common razor, and performs the operation. At this moment, both those within the hut, and those without, become merry to ecstacy; they applaud until their hands burn with clapping; the dara’book’keh is beaten until the skin is ready to burst; and the singers exert their voices to the utmost, with deafening eagerness, in order to drown the cries of pain of the little sufferer, which, nevertheless, penetrate through all this noise. The incision is performed from below upwards, and removes the external organs of the girl. Hæmorrhage is stopped with butter, the bark of a tree, beaten into fine fibre, is laid into the wound, instead of lint, and a piece of wood, about the size of a quill, is inserted, to prevent its edges from adhering together. The great toe of each foot is then firmly tied together, and in this extended position the little patient has to lie for twenty long days on an angareb. During this period, very little is given her to drink, and she is lifted out of bed, at the most twice, daily. The wound generally heals successfully; but it frequently happens that a girl has to undergo a second operation two years after the first, or a little later, for they marry in this country at an early age.
When the bridegroom has concluded the marriage contract with the father,[35] (...) The second operation is now performed, which the girl bears with more patience, as she enters on a married life immediately after she has recovered from her sufferings. Twenty days are on this occasion required for the cure; whereupon the bridegroom, as I before mentioned, hues the rahat of the girl into pieces, and dresses his bride with the melayéh.
Another operation, which is quite as painful, and infinitely more revolting, is performed on the young male slaves, who are intended for the guards of the harems of the Turks, and other moslems. A sheikh at Lobeid, named Sultan Tehmé,[36] performs this operation. Boys of eight, or nine years of age, are generally brought to him for mutilation. The operation is performed in his court, where the poor victim is stretched upon the ground like a head of cattle. Sacks, filled with sand, are laid upon his feet and chest, which are so heavy that the poor boy can scarcely breathe beneath their weight. With one incision, with a common razor, the organs of generation of the unfortunate being are removed; hæmorrhage is arrested with melted butter, and the bark of a tree, beaten into fibre, is then laid as dressing on the wound, while a piece of lead, of the size of a quill, is inserted into the urethra, to keep that necessary passage open. The patient remains twenty days under treatment, at the expiration of which term, he is returned to his master. More than one half of these unfortunate boys die under the operation, or during their march to Egypt, for very few of them ever reach the place of their destination. The price of these eunuchs is, consequently, generally double that of a common slave. The operator receives ten reals, at fifteen piasters, for each operation. Two boys are also frequently given to the mutilator, the one of which must be returned to the owner, whilst he keeps the other in lieu of payment. Castrates are, indeed, made in Sennaar, and Upper Egypt; but those of Lobeid are in greater request.
The death of a native is immediately made known by the cry of “Lu, lu, lu, lu!” which the women set up, bringing the notes out separately at certain intervals, and resting upon them with their voice. Not only the mourners, but all the women, who happen to be present at the time, join in the dismal dirge. This lamentation is continued until sun-set, and repeated on the following day. The corpse is then washed, wrapped in a white cotton cloth, if his means were adequate to the expense, and is carried on a stretcher to the place of sepulture, and there interred. His widows mourn always in company with their female friends, until their grief is allayed,—a result which requires a few days only, especially if they be young, and pretty, and wish to marry again. This mode of mourning is not only customary where the deceased was a grown-up person; but if a child, a few days old, die, it is honoured with the same ceremony during a few days. The negro women are very susceptible, both to pain and pleasure; and I have frequently, on these occasions, seen them writhing, as if beside themselves, in the sand, biting their arms, until the blood flowed in sincere grief, and not for outward show.
There are certain districts in Kordofan, the agricultural population of which inhabit two different villages in the year; for even in several of the most fertile tracts of land, water is at times entirely wanting, more especially during the dry season. Whole villages, therefore, are frequently necessitated to reinstate themselves in localities a few miles distant from their former place of residence, where they find wells. The whole of their domestic utensils will not overload an ox, hence an emigration of this nature is quickly effected, and without much difficulty. Those tribes who occupy themselves with the tillage of land, possess but few horses or camels, but a more considerable number of oxen, sheep, and goats. The oxen are broken in for riding and carrying loads. In some villages the herds of horned cattle are very considerable. When the herds of a village are driven out, the drover either rides before or after them on an ox; each animal has its peculiar name, by which the herdsman recalls it, if it stray to either side or remain behind the drove. The animals quickly hear his voice, understand it well, and are very obedient to his command. If a head of cattle stray too far from the herd, and do not hear his call, he rides after it, and brings it back without any difficulty. These herdsmen ride very well, and it is a matter of astonishment to see them going along at full gallop on a very young ox. They ride on the bare back of the animal, with a cord passed through the nose of the beast, answering the purpose of a bit. In many villages in isolated situations, far distant from other habitations, where the cattle, therefore, cannot easily stray and become mixed with other herds, there are no drovers, but when the cows have been milked in the morning the enclosures are opened, and the whole herd is let out. They all proceed straightways to a well, where they are watered in troughs, hollowed out of the trunks of trees, and when they have finished drinking and are all collected together, an old ox taking the lead, shows them the way and the whole drove follows him. It is astonishing how accurately they follow their leader, who frequently conducts them to a pasture situated at a distance of two hours’ march from the village, and brings them all safely back again. The most remarkable part of the affair, however, is that they always re-assemble at the well punctually at half an hour before sunset, whether they have been one mile or eight miles distant. I observed this fact at the village of Ledet, where I met the cattle at a distance of eight miles from the huts, and, to my great astonishment, saw no herdsman. On my arrival in the village I asked what this meant, and was told that it had been the custom from time immemorial, to allow the cattle to go unattended to pasture in this village, as it is in many others; and that an animal very rarely strayed. In order to be the better able to look after a beast which might possibly be lost, a circumstance, however, of very rare occurrence, it is only necessary to observe the direction the herd takes in wandering out in the morning. I was told that, a few months before my arrival, a cow belonging to this place was missing when the herd returned. As the animal did not come back in the night, the owner mounted a camel with the first dawn of day, provided himself with a supply of bread and water sufficient for four days, and rode out in the direction the cattle had taken on the former day. Having arrived at the place of pasture he traversed it in all directions, until he came upon the track of a camel and a cow, which he followed up during two whole days, until it brought him to an encampment of the Kubbabeesh, where he found his lost cow alive; nor did he experience the slightest difficulty about its restitution. The cows are milked throughout the country twice daily, once in the morning at sunrise, and again in the evening, but they yield very little milk, which in an hour’s time turns sour and thick. The baskets made of rushes, into which the cows are milked, can never be washed thoroughly clean, and are probably the chief cause of the deterioration of the milk; it is consequently impossible to keep it for any length of time. Butter is quickly made, and without any difficulty. As soon as the necessary quantity of milk is obtained it is put into leathern bags, which are fastened to a piece of wood, and shaken about for some time until the butter is ready. A small yellow fruit is sometimes added to the milk, and greatly accelerates the butyration.