From this short dialogue, we may conclude how the hospital at Lobeid is managed, and what condition the poor patients who are sighing for relief must be in. No medicine, no attention, and a hard couch! My heart misgave me every time I entered this place of misery, and saw the cool deliberation with which the poor sick soldiers are murdered, in the strictest sense of the word. If the other inhabitants of Lobeid died in the same ratio, the capital of Kordofan would be totally depopulated in less than fifty years.
CHAPTER XIII.
PRODUCTS.
The two seasons prevailing in this country and so strongly defined, are the chief reason why the ground does not yield as many products as might be obtained by the assistance of art; for, if field and garden fruits were cultivated with the utmost care during the dry season, no success could be expected, as there is a total want of water wherewith to irrigate the plants, and, in the wet season, the rain beats down with such force that it would wash all small plants out of the earth; hence agriculture is confined to articles which thrive without much attention, and proceed quickly to maturity. I have no doubt that, if wells were sunk and large reservoirs excavated to collect, during the rainy months, the quantity of water necessary for the irrigation of the soil during the ensuing dry season, many vegetables might be produced which it is now quite impossible to rear. There are no running streams, and the few small lakes, or rather ponds, met with in the country, are not supplied with water throughout the year, and are, moreover, very inconsiderable when compared with the extent of arable land.
Horticulture is limited to certain spots, and, excepting at Bara and some other small villages, where there is plenty of water, no gardens are to be seen in the whole province. The wants of the natives who live in fixed places of residence are not such as they may supply by cultivating gardens; and the frequent change of residence is a yet greater hindrance to the nomades from occupying themselves with tillage of the ground. The blame, however, is chiefly to be attributed to the government, who would lay their hands upon the harvest, or levy large contributions upon it, which the natives would not be able to pay. When the Egyptians first took possession of the country, under the Defturdar, they found merely dokn, a little douhra, water-melons, bamíyeh, meluchia (lentils), onions, and tobacco. The Defturdar’s army, therefore, suffered greatly from want of provisions, until it was supplied from the stores in the north, and the necessary articles of consumption were subsequently produced in the country. Since these times, the Turks, who have become residents, and the Dongolavi have cultivated gardens, in which they now grow wheat, bedingajoti[54] (Poradies-üepfel[55]), small beans, radishes, celery, dill, and garlic; some vineyards have been planted, as also pomegranates, lemon trees, Indian and common figs. In the larger plantations sim-sim, ful-Darfûr (beans from Darfour), rice, and cotton are grown. It is, however, by mere chance if garden fruits, or green vegetables, are ever seen exposed for sale in the market place at Lobeid; weeks frequently pass without any such luxuries coming to sight, for the gardeners are very far backward in their art, and take but little pains to produce any plants. The natives, in fact, leave the cultivation of the gardens, like everything else, to chance, and do not give the vegetation the slightest assistance, so that it is really by mere hazard if anything thrive. Should the traveller wish to obtain vegetables for his own consumption during his residence in this country, he must make a kind of agreement with the proprietor of a garden to deliver the produce of the season at his house; for to wait for what might be exhibited in the market, would be, indeed, to wait in vain, as such an exhibition is, in the first place, according to my former statement, of very rare occurrence, and vegetables are only offered publicly for sale when all the private consumers are supplied, and there is a surplus of one or the other production. The vegetables indigenous in temperate climates are not of the same succulent quality in this country, partly because they are not properly attended to, and partly because the tropical climate causes them to grow too luxuriantly to arrive at the same state of perfection in which we obtain them in Europe. Grapes ripen twice in the year, but the leaves must be gathered off the vines, or all the sap will be exhausted by the foliage and tendrils, and no grapes will be formed. Those which ripen in the month of August are very watery, those, on the other hand, which come to perfection at the end of December are very sweet. A great number of lime-trees are planted in the gardens, but the lemons are too small, have but little juice and acidity, and are quite exsiccated in a few days after they have been gathered from the trees. The orange tree produces no fruit, for it is not suited to the climate. Indian (cactus) and Syrian figs bear fruit, but not of the best quality. The same observation applies to other garden productions: they have not the flavour that might be expected, and do not in general attain their full size, for all plants form too much leaf to produce sound and good fruit. Thus even onions are too sweet in taste, of small dimension, and without the slightest acridity. Salad is not to be met with. The water-melons, which are chiefly cultivated in Dar-Hammer, are not of an agreeable flavour. The fruit of the few date-trees to be seen in the province ripens during the rainy season, is, consequently, very watery, and will not keep for any time, like the dates of Egypt, but decomposes shortly after it is gathered. Sim-Sim is largely cultivated, whence the natives express an oil used in the preparation of their pomatum; for they never burn oil, and, if they wish to illuminate their tukkoli at night-time, light a wood-fire. Wheat is grown in some few places, but only in small quantities, and in the dry season, indeed, by artificial irrigation; a sufficient supply for the few Turkish residents during a few months is, however, merely, produced, and even they are obliged to eat dokn-bread during the greater part of the year. This description of corn is very dear, and cost, in the year 1838, two hundred piasters (£2 18s. 4d.) the ardeb; whilst in Egypt the value of the same quantity rarely exceeds the sum of thirty or sixty piasters. Only the Bakkara cultivate rice on the borders of the lakes Arrat and Pirget, but it differs totally from the variety generally met with in commerce; for it is small in grain, and of unpleasant flavour. The greater quantity of rice consumed in Kordofan, by the Turks more especially, is imported, therefore, from Egypt. Cotton is grown in very inconsiderable quantities, in proportion to the demand for this article; in fact, not one-third of the quantity consumed in the manufacture of their calicoes. It is of the finest quality, and resembles that of Sennaar,[56] well-known in the trade in Europe. The fibre is rather longer than that of the Makko[57] variety. I have often enquired of the natives, why they do not attach more importance to the cultivation of plants, which would prove of so much advantage to them, since they are at present necessitated to purchase the calico required for their simple clothing at a very high price; but they always answered me, they were well aware that the growth of cotton was very profitable, but they had no desire to work for the soldiers of the government, as they knew very well that they would leave them little or none of the cotton produced, and they should therefore be obliged to buy the cloth for their own consumption as they do at present; hence they save themselves the labour. Indigo would thrive very well in various parts of Kordofan,—for it grows spontaneously in some districts,—and its cultivation would prove a source of great profit to the government. Experiments have been already made, and have furnished indigo of a quality superior to that of Egypt; but the government pays no attention to this subject, and the natives are far too ignorant to stumble upon an object of so much importance without a hint from some kind friend.
All the articles above mentioned are reared in gardens, the cultivation of which is entrusted to slaves. The irrigation is effected artificially by means of draw-wells. As soon as the rainy season is at an end, every native hastens to put his garden in order, which during the former period had been, as it were, lying fallow; for if any one were to venture to sow or plant during the period of the rains, he must expect everything either to be washed out of the earth by the violent showers, or to rot before it arrived at maturity. Very few articles are, therefore, cultivated, and these merely where the position of the land is suitable. The absolute tillage, or treatment of the soil, requires but slight trouble, for the clods of earth are simply broken by means of a short-pointed stick, beaten into mould with a rather thicker staff, and then levelled with the hand, or with the same instrument. The seed is now sown, and covered with a little earth; and small furrows are made in the various beds, which are daily watered from a draw-well. Agriculture, in general, is confined to dockn, a species of field-fruit which may be compared to the millet, from which it however differs in the circumstance that the stalk, with the inflorescence, attains the height of seven or eight feet. It is the only species of grain used by the inhabitants of Kordofan and the bordering countries, and is indispensable to them for their bread. It is a very exuberant and profitable plant, and is cultivated everywhere throughout the whole province. The fields in which the dockn grows are generally very large, and many of them are situated in the forests. To render these woodland tracts arable, the trees are hewn down to the height of a man; by the next year they are dry—when fires are lighted, the stems being burnt at the same time with the brushwood. These fields do not require as much labour and attention as our corn-fields. The natives are not acquainted with the plough, the harrow, or, in fact, with any other civilized engine of husbandry; a single falciform piece of iron, pointed at either extremity, and furnished in the centre with a staff, answers the purpose of all necessary implements. This instrument is called a hashash, and is to be found in every hut; thus all the agricultural utensils of a Kordofanese peasant cost twenty paras (little more than three-halfpence). After the fall of the first rain the grass is raked up in the fields, and preparations are made for sowing, an occupation requiring the services of two persons only; the one walks before the other, making, at about every two paces, a hole with the hashash in the sandy soil, in which his companion each time places a few seeds, and then treads down the hole with his right foot. This operation is performed with extraordinary rapidity. The ensuing rain imparts to the ground the necessary moisture, and as soon as the rainy season terminates the fruit ripens. The chief condition for a successful harvest is, that an over abundance of rain do not injure the seed, and on this account the field should be situated on a declivity, that the water may run off; but if too little rain fall, a failure is likewise the result. With the straw the natives build their tukkoli; the remainder is consumed as food by the cattle. The grain is thrashed out in the field, laden upon camels or oxen, and brought into the village, where it is shot into pits lined with straw mats, and subsequently covered over with sand. The latter proceeding is chiefly for the purpose of securing the produce from the over-abundant vermin, and frequently also from the rapacity of the government.
Besides this species of grain a small quantity of douhra may be met with, and I doubt very much whether a species of corn of the temperate zone might be cultivated with more profit or with the same facility as the dockn. It happens, however, in some years that the necessary quantity is not grown, and then whole villages are frequently necessitated to betake themselves to the woods, and live upon the egelit,[58] a fruit of the size of a plum, of a yellowish colour, and pulpy consistence, which has not an unpleasant flavour. Kordofan is altogether blest with many useful trees notwithstanding its poverty in other respects, and an addition might be made to their number with very little artificial aid, were the inhabitants not too lazy and too stolid to engage with energy in any undertaking, whilst the government, on the other hand, only directs its attention to those objects which return an immediate profit.
Among the most useful trees growing without cultivation, must be reckoned: the gum-tree, the tamarind, the beautiful tabaldi, and the egelit before mentioned. The gum-tree (mimosa Nilotica) as it is termed in books, merits a different denomination in Kordofan, for the shape of the tree, its leaves and spines, differ materially from those of the mimosa Nilotica, properly so called. The latter tree yields common gum only, whereas that of Kordofan is of the finest description, so that it is erroneously distinguished by the name of gum-Arabic. In some parts of the country, the mimosa forms whole forests of vast extent; but the district of Bara furnishes the largest quantity of gum. The harvest is modified by the annual fall of rain, for, if it rain much, the trees sweat the more. The gum exudes from the bark of the stem and large branches, nearly in the same manner as the resinous exudation from the cherry-trees of Europe. In digging for a beetle, I casually observed that the gum proceeds from the root also. Sennaar, which is situated under the same degree of latitude as Kordofan, yields a far less quantity of this product. The gathering takes place a few months after the rain, in the months of December, January, and February, it is an exceedingly profitable affair to the government, and therefore a monopoly. But even in this undertaking, the Egyptians act with unparalleled neglect, and do not interfere when they see whole forests of gum-trees hewn down, and the ground converted into dockn fields, although immense tracts of the country far better adapted for arable land remain uncultivated, by making use of which, the gum-trees would be spared. But the government does not trouble itself about such trifles, it merely scrapes together that which comes within its reach without paying the slightest attention to ulterior consequences. Of the plantation of young trees and the extirpation of such as are unprofitable, it has no idea, nature must attend to that business.
The Garrat,[59] whose pod is employed in tanning, and the tamarisk (tamarindus Indica) are likewise frequently seen in the province, but not in the same abundance as the gum-tree. The pods of the tamarind are collected and trodden into the form of cakes, which are dried, and either kept for domestic use or converted into commodity. A large quantity of this production is consumed in the country. This tree suffers greatly by the locusts; for sometimes the inflorescence, sometimes the fruit, is totally devoured by these destructive insects, and in those years, there is, of course, a scarcity of this fruit in many villages.
The Tabaldi is one of the most beautiful specimens of the vegetable kingdom indigenous in this country. When in blossom, the majestic tree is nearly covered with flowers, resembling those of the double red hollyhock, and, at a distance, gives the idea of hills covered with roses, while the eye rests with delight on so beautiful an object. It blooms at the commencement of August: the sarcocarp is three-quarters of a foot in length, interiorly divided into many cells, each of which includes a stone. The fruit is of a pleasing acidulous flavour, but causes diarrhoea in those who are not accustomed to eat it; it is, however, also employed for allaying dysentery; but, to produce this opposite effect, it must be eaten in large quantities. The stems of these trees measure sometimes more than forty feet in circumference, and the wood is as hard as ebony; their age may be estimated at thousands of years. Of the fruit of the Doum palm[60] and fan-shaped palm,[61] the outer skin is eaten, and a kind of syrup is also obtained from them.