As soon as the harvest is concluded, and the stubble is quite dry, the natives proceed to burn the remaining herbage. This occupation offers a very singular spectacle. The grass is in part collected into heaps, and old and young congregate around them to witness the exhibition which ensues: the pile is ignited, and a dense smoke issues from it. Disturbed by the fumes, and frightened by the noise of the multitude, thousands of locusts, which had lain concealed in the grass, fly up, but are quickly seized upon by the bystanders, impaled and roasted, and offered for sale in the market-place, at the price of five for one para or hassasch; they constitute a favourite dish with the natives, by whom they are greedily devoured. After this act of purification the place again presents itself to view in all its nakedness, and many other matters come to light, which had hitherto been hidden by the grass: bones of men and animals lie scattered about in all the roads, for no one thinks it worth his trouble to inter them. The cause of this barbarity will be readily understood when it is known that, as soon as a slave dies, a rope is bound round his foot, by which he is dragged out of the hut with as little ceremony as a dead beast, and scraped into the sand anywhere, or even left to decompose in the grass until the hyænas come to gnaw his bones in the night; the remains are devoured in the morning by the dogs, two or more of which may not unfrequently be seen fighting over a human arm or foot. The hyænas are really in some respects a blessing to these countries, they are, in fact, the scavengers, consume all the dead bodies and garbage, and thus prevent the air from being poisoned with miasmata and nauseous vapours. A fallen animal is treated in the same manner as a dead slave; it is thrown on to the neighbours’ territory, and is likewise devoured in the night by the beasts of prey; whilst the remainder is enjoyed during the day by the hungry dogs, in company with greedy vultures, eagles, and other rapacious birds. The places of sepulture are not held sacred by these uninvited guests; for the dead bodies being generally very superficially covered over with earth, they are disinterred at night by the hyænas and ravenous dogs, and totally consumed, or the remains are left exposed in the high roads.
Lobeid counts five mosques, only one of which is a brick building. This is situated in the quarter of Wady-Naghele; it is quite a plain edifice, without that decoration so generally observed about the places of worship in Egypt. All the other public buildings, as also the houses belonging to the chief Turks, are simple huts of clay, differing from the others merely in their internal arrangements, which consist, however, only in the construction of a few divans. There are three barracks at Lobeid, constituted by a series of straw-huts, likewise about fifty in number, which are enclosed by a fence, furnished with an entrance, the gate of which is represented by a large branch of a tree. The hospital, that terror of all the soldiery, is also erected of clay. One of the largest buildings in Lobeid is the governor’s residence. It is distinguished from the other houses only by its magnitude, and a rather more comfortable arrangement of its interior, for in construction it resembles all the other buildings. There is, in fact, no choice of material; thus the palaces of the great, and the hovels of the lower orders, are raised of clay, and their outer walls covered with a coating of cow-dung. Besides a large saloon and court, the government-house has an orangery. In the court, at the back of the house, the divan, or chamber of audience, is situated, where public business is transacted, and the visits are received of foreigners and natives, as also of all subordinates, who, according to Eastern custom, are obliged to do honour to the governor periodically. To the left of this saloon is the lesser divan, as it is called, in which a captain disposes of the less important matters, or arranges disputes, and other trifling affairs, that the governor may not be unnecessarily troubled. The scriptoria of the Coptic secretaries, met with in all Mehemed Ali’s divans are situate on the left of the court. During my residence in Kordofan, Mahommed Bey, colonel of the first regiment of the line, was at the same time civil and military governor of the province. This man, a Circassian by birth, who was brought as a slave to Egypt, became a mameluke of Mehemed Ali’s, and in a short time rose to his present high station. He is a man of very limited capacity, without the slightest education, and is entirely governed by his dependants and flatterers. Besides his ignorance, he possessed a very large share of pride, and knew how to keep up the appearance of great importance and dignity; he passed, however, the greater part of his time in conversation with a fakeér, to whom he paid far more attention than to his other subordinates, and whose visits were far more agreeable to him than those of his officers. He could not write at all, could read but little, and only understood how to make the impression of his kashef[68] (seal). If instructions, or other orders, arrived from Cairo, his secretary, a copt, was obliged to read them aloud, and when he came to a passage which was to be kept secret, he stopped him, and ordered him to finish it in his private room; the reports for Egypt were then laid before him to seal with his kashef: the remainder of his time he passed in smoking, and drinking coffee; he very rarely walked in the open air, or rode. To drink twenty or thirty cups of coffee daily was to him a trifle, for as soon as a visitor arrived, he merely looked at the attendants in the apartment, who understood his meaning instantly, and brought coffee and pipes, the former was kept in an adjacent room continually on the fire. It is a rule and should be made general to pay the governor visits of etiquette, as they are termed, at certain times, for the Turks attach great importance to this custom, and a neglect of this mark of respect might give offence. Very often visitors arrive, who, after a mute salutation, sit down, as soon as invited to do so, drink the coffee presented to them, and in a short time rise, taking their departure as mutely as they came, with a silent greeting.
The ammunition, and other military stores, are contained in an appropriate building, enclosed by a mud wall, and surrounded by a fosse, which is, however, scantily supplied with water during three months, and remains empty for the remainder of the year. The wall is constructed of clay, and might easily be breached by stones. It may be imagined what superintendence is there prevalent; and it is really astonishing that an invasion is not undertaken on the part of the natives of Darfour to revenge themselves for the loss of their stolen camels, more especially at the time of the slave-hunts, when nearly the whole of the military force is absent, and the entire garrison of Kordofan does not consist of six hundred men. They might very soon, and with but little trouble at that time, capture or destroy all the military supplies, and before a reinforcement could be despatched from the Nuba mountains, the enemy might plunder and sack everything without meeting with the slightest resistance.
Opposite the government buildings the gallows is erected. This engine of civilization is composed of two posts driven vertically into the ground, and surmounted by a cross-beam, to which the victims of a rigid penal law are suspended, without further ceremony. Not far from the fatal scaffold is an elevation, or clay mound, furnished with a few steps, where the priest reads a prayer on high-feasts, the service being only attended by the male population of the town. The Soock, or proper market-place, is contiguous to this mound. It would be an egregious fallacy to imagine that order reigned here predominant, as in other towns in the equally uncivilized East; for not only are all objects intended for sale jumbled pell-mell together, and exposed without consideration to the inclemencies of the weather, and other destructive influence, but it costs, moreover, indescribable trouble to obtain even such articles as you may be willing to purchase. Close to this market-place on the right, stands the only coffee-house in the whole province of Kordofan. In the year 1838 it was closed, and no tenant was to be found for a considerable time on account of the high rent demanded by the government; the price of coffee had also risen at this period to eighteen piasters (five shillings and threepence) the rottolo (about three quarters of a pound), as none had arrived from Abyssinia. In the year 1839 the establishment was again opened by the new governor Yussuff-Bey, in consideration of this beverage being so indispensable to the Turkish officers.
The remaining store-houses consist of three walls of clay covered in by a thatched roof; the goods are here laid down on the sand and exposed, as I before mentioned, to all weathers. The upper part of the market-place is appropriated to the sale of dockn, camels, cows, sheep, goats, asses, and other domestic animals; next to these may be seen the djelabi with the commodity they have brought from Cairo lying on the sand; then come the water-dealers, and lastly, at either side of the soock, the women exhibit themselves, sitting down in four or six rows, to sell sour milk, butter, lard, garden and wild fruits; they bring also in addition to the articles mentioned, tobacco pipe-bowls, eggs, etc., for sale; the stands of the dealers in wood and grass are contiguous to these, and occupy a large extent of the market-place, for as wood and grass may be collected by any one, there is considerable competition in this branch of trade. The portion of the market occupied by the women, affords a most singular sight, for they sit crowded together without order or regard for personal comfort, and the small vacant space is densely filled with buyers, who will not budge an inch to make room for each other; thus, in order to move from place to place, you have, literally speaking, to walk over the heads of the women, cowering down on the ground, and they allow this want of gallantry without a murmur. Altogether, that quarrelling, so common in Egyptian markets, is never to be heard here. Beside the retailers and venders, the public criers must be mentioned; these people deal in old clothes and other articles, and have no permanent stand, but holding the object for sale high up in their hands, dispose of it according to the custom in other towns in Egypt, to the highest bidder. This description of auction is not carried on at a fixed place, for the auctioneer, bawling out the price last bid, presses through the crowd of human beings, and runs from place to place until an advance is made, whereupon he is obliged to return to the former bidder, and inform him that his offer has been superseded. It is very remarkable that these criers can always accurately find out the man who has made a bid for the article in question, and thus expressed a wished to become a purchaser, in the immense crowd. If no one advance on the last offer the article put up for sale is delivered after several perambulations to the highest bidder. This species of auction is the public sale in common vogue in Egypt. If an European die leaving many effects, a formal auction is advertised by his respective consul, and the chattels are publicly sold in the same manner as in Europe; inconsiderable relics are, however, disposed of by the criers above-mentioned. Market lasts at Lobeid generally from three o’clock in the afternoon until sunset; for the heat during the day being insupportable, no one leaves his house without cogent reasons, before three in the afternoon, and it would thus be useless for the merchants and dealers to congregate in the market-place at an early hour.
Provisions and articles of domestic economy produced in the country are, generally speaking, cheap; but in Lobeid, as in all other capitals, they are more expensive than in the environs, where they may be procured at a distance of eight or twelve miles from the town, at two-thirds of their cost in the market-place. A large sheep, the price of which is from fifteen to eighteen piasters in Lobeid, may be bought in the villages, at a distance of not quite twelve miles from the town, for six piasters at the utmost, and the same observation applies proportionately to all other provisions. The price of the finest camels is on an average one hundred and fifty piasters, that of ordinary animals from forty to eighty piasters (from eight to sixteen shillings). The most revolting scene on the Soock, is the sale of slaves, which takes place every day throughout the year. The unfortunate being offered for sale is led about like any other commodity by the crier, who expatiates upon the beauty, or other characteristics of the slave, and walking before him, bawls out the price. If a purchaser present himself, he enters upon an examination of his fellow creature, as we should examine a head of cattle, in Europe; he looks at his teeth, eyes, hands, and feet, and inquires into his age, place of birth, and in short, into every circumstance which might influence his price while the unfortunate wretch follows the crier like a dog, anxiously awaiting his future fate. A mother may not be separated from the infant at her breast, but children of three or four years of age may be disposed of separately; the latter are very reasonable; their price varies only from thirty to sixty piasters (eight and sixpence to seventeen shillings). Full-grown slaves fluctuate according to the supply of the market; girls and boys from ten to fifteen years of age, are in the greatest request, and cost from one hundred to three hundred piasters; if there be few for sale, and many Djelabi are about to travel to Cairo, the price, of course, rises. There are certain conditions under which a slave may be returned to the vender, e. g. if he have offensive breath, or snore in his sleep, or be troubled with incontinence of urine, for any one of these vices he may be sent back at the expiration of the third day; should a female slave be pregnant, the term is somewhat prolonged. The slave-trade is not always carried on in retail, for the Djelabi buy slaves in lots; on these occasions, however, the individuals are singly examined, and the aged and infirm are separated from the flock. The chief object is to have as many young girls and boys as possible in a lot, and to be able to transport them safely to Egypt; thus every one in purchasing a male or female slave, looks chiefly to their age, and a boy or girl, beyond the thirteenth or fifteenth year, is seldom sold in the bazaar of Cairo or Alexandria; every one, in fact, prefers bringing them up according to his own taste, and for this purpose selects the youngest. The older women and men exposed for sale in the bazaar, of the towns above named, are mostly such as are resold by their masters for some particular defect, and it is by no means, therefore, advisable to purchase them.
The soock, or market is the only place of diversion for the European or stranger in general, at Lobeid. Besides the pleasing spectacle afforded by the bustle of the place, the crowd, and various groups of dealers and Djelabs, all the Turkish officers, Coptic secretaries, and the few foreign merchants collect in the market-place, around the single coffee-house we have before mentioned, where each man endeavours to surpass the other in retailing news. Although deep in the interior of Africa, there is no lack of news from the most distant parts of the world; and even when at the time of the heavy rains the communication with Egypt is interrupted, intelligence may be heard every day from that quarter; sometimes it consists of a most palpable tissue of lies; yet it is greedily devoured by many a patient ear, because agreeable to the majority of the audience. The report usually circulates that Mehemed Ali is at war with the Turks in Syria, and carrying on warfare at the same time in Arabia, and is beaten everywhere; then it is generally added, that the regiment quartered at Lobeid would receive orders by the next dromedary to march to Egypt. This is, of course, most pleasing intelligence to the Turkish officers, who are ardently longing for a release, and is bruited about with innumerable variations and additions. Then they talk about England, Germany, Russia, and France, these being the only countries in Europe with which the Turks are acquainted. In one or the other of these states there is sure to be always war declared by the Grand Sultan, because the sultan of the country which happens to form the topic of conversation has failed to pay the tribute due to Constantinople; for the majority of the Turks still uphold the absurd opinion that these four countries are tributary to the Grand Sultan of Constantinople. Thus the conversation turns upon these political questions. If a sudden shower should happen to come on when least expected; for the rain, as in all tropical countries, generally falls in torrents, and, indeed, without the slightest premonitory sign, so that it is difficult even to reach a place of shelter, the confusion thus created would excite the most hypochondriacal person to laughter. The mass of human beings who stood, or sat, crowded together like a swarm of locusts, are in an instant scattered in all directions. The screams of the women, afraid of losing their goods in the crowd or of seeing them spoiled by the rain; the cries of the children who have lost their way, and are in search of their parents; the alertness of the men, who like all the rest dread the rain more than blows, and endeavour to escape as quickly as they can, all tend to render the scene of confusion so ludicrous, that the most stern spectator would be involuntarily disposed to laugh. It is not the fear of ruining their garments that induces them to scamper away so fast from the rain, for the most of them have no clothes to spoil, and the Djelabi merely wear a shirt, which the contact of a little pure water, moreover, could not harm; and the Turks and foreigners who are entirely dressed wear linen clothing, which water cannot injure; and yet they stand in as much awe of every drop of rain as if burning sparks were falling among them. They are impressed with the absurd idea that to get once a little wet is sufficient to produce a fever. Their apprehension is, strictly speaking, not so very erroneous, for the slightest cold during the rainy season is sufficient to stretch the most healthy man on a bed of sickness, from which it will be very doubtful whether he recover.
High feasts and festivals create no variation in the ordinary scene, as a general rule, and none of those fantasias[69] so common in Egypt are seen on Sundays and holidays at Lobeid; the only amusement, as I have before observed, consists in the dances and songs of the women and girls, after sunset, when every one returns to his house.
In the quarter of the town named Kongeri, which is inhabited by the men of Darfour, dwells the sheikh Sultan Tehme, a descendant of the sultans of Darfour. His present occupation is very ill-suited to his illustrious birth, for he is the mutilator of those poor boys who subsequently serve as guards in the various harems. This sheikh possesses two of the largest copper kettle-drums I ever saw in my life; they were presented to him by Mehemed Ali, as a mark of distinction. These drums are beaten all day long on every Friday and festival; but their sound is by no means very agreeable to those who are not over fond of music. This sheikh presents a very imposing appearance, for though black as the night, he has a very luxuriant beard, not very general among the negroes, which he dies with a pomatum of a bright red colour; it forms a striking contrast with his black shining face. When he rides into the country his horse is preceded by two musicians blowing during the whole march on a leathern pipe with eight holes.
When I arrived at Lobeid I only found one single European living, Dr. Iken, whom I have before mentioned, a native of Hanover, who, like most of the Europeans, after a short residence there paid his tribute to the climate. He is buried in the court of his own house, which is situated in the quarter or village of Takarir, near the residence of the sultan Abumedina of Darfûr. The government has appropriated his house to themselves, and converted it into a magazine for leather. Seven other Europeans, besides Dr. Iken, breathed their last at Lobeid, and are buried on the north side of the hospital square. I planted a tree on each grave, and had already fixed upon a place of rest near them. After I had recovered from my dangerous illness in a slight measure, and was just able to creep along with the assistance of a stick, my favourite promenade was to those graves; they were the only relics of Europeans I could find in that distant country, and I was under the influence of a peculiar feeling when arriving at those hillocks; I knew myself in the company of Europeans, although departed from this world; I fancied myself in reality in their presence, and I could have believed that they were listening with sympathy to my soft complaints, heard my longing voice for my distant fatherland, and were congratulating me on my recovery and speedy departure from this country, so fatal to Europeans. When I paid my last visit to this spot I was overpowered by that same feeling we experience when parting with our friends.