A negro bought milk of a women for five paras,[7] drank it, but forgot the payment; the woman complained to the Defturdar, who happened to be in the neighbourhood. “Well,” said he, “I will immediately investigate the affair,” and ordered the offending negro to be instantly brought before him. When he appeared, he asked him, if he had bought milk of that woman and not paid for it? The negro in fear denied it. The barbarian immediately ordered the abdomen of the negro to be cut open, to see whether his stomach contained the milk. It was, indeed, found; whereupon he quietly said to the woman: “Thou art right, take these five paras, and now go thy ways.”
In his garden the Defturdar had a den, in which he kept a lion; the animal became gradually so tame that he ran about at liberty in the grounds, and followed his master like a dog. Of this tame lion the tyrant made use to frighten the people who came before him, a species of wanton sport in which he took the greatest pleasure. If it so happened that no stranger came to visit him during the hour in which he engaged himself in his garden, he ordered his attendants to bring any person they might meet on the high roads to him. The invitation was sufficient in itself to frighten any one to death; but when an unfortunate man in the greatest trepidation entered the garden, and in absolute fear of his life creeping along the earth, approached the Defturdar, he set the lion at him, and the poor fellow, of course, fell senseless to the ground at the sight of the wild beast. This was now his greatest delight; for, although the animal did no harm, it was sufficient to frighten the most courageous man to be brought in close contact with a rampant lion.
Before this animal was quite domesticated, and whilst it was yet kept in confinement, one of the gardener’s assistants was guilty of some error, of which the superintendant complained to the Defturdar. In no case dilatory in passing judgment, he ordered the accused, without going into details, or listening even to the full explanation of the case, to be cast into the lion’s den. This order was immediately complied with; the beast, however, treated the poor condemned wretch like a second Daniel; it not only did him no harm, but, to the astonishment of all beholders, licked his hands. The gardener’s assistant was not the animal’s attendant, but had occasionally thrown some of his bread into the den in passing. The noble animal had not forgotten this kindness, and spared his benefactor’s life. The Defturdar, on hearing this, was by no means pleased; but bloodthirsty as ever, and without feeling the slightest appreciation for this act of generosity, ordered the lion to be kept fasting during the whole of the day, and the delinquent to remain in confinement, thinking in the anger of ungratified rage, to force the beast to become the executioner of its benefactor. But even hunger could not overcome the magnanimity of the royal animal, and the poor gardener remained the whole day unhurt in the den with the lion.[8] In the evening he was liberated, but the unfortunate man did not long escape the vengeance of the tyrant, who, meeting him one day in the garden, where he had brushed up a heap of leaves, accosted him with, “Dog, thou art so bad that a lion will not eat thee, but now thou hast made thine own grave.” Hereupon he commanded him to carry the dry leaves to an oven, and then to creep in himself. When this order was executed the tyrant had the leaves lighted, and the poor wretch expired under the most horrid tortures.
A Fellah (peasant) owed the government forty maamle,[9] the sheikh of his village had his last ox seized, the fellah declaring himself incapable of paying. The beast was slaughtered and divided into forty parts: the butcher received the head and skin for his trouble, and the remaining forty parts were sold at one maamle each, to the inhabitants of the village promiscuously. The meat, as may be supposed, was quickly sold at this low price. The poor peasant now appeared with a complaint before the Defturdar, assuring him that the ox was worth more than forty maamle. The Defturdar proceeded with all speed to the village, to investigate the matter on the spot. Having convinced himself of the truth, he ordered the sheikh, the butcher, and all those persons who had bought a portion of the confiscated ox, to be called together, and reproached the sheikh, in presence of all for his unlawful conduct. The butcher now received the order to slaughter the sheikh and to divide his body into forty parts. Every former purchaser was obliged to buy a part at a price of one maamle, and to carry the flesh home with him. The money was handed over to the Fellah as an indemnification for the ox which had been taken from him.
At the feast of the Baëram[10] all the servants and seyss, eighteen in number, went before the Defturdar to offer their congratulations according to custom, and begged at the same time for a pair of new shoes. “You shall have them,” said he. He now had the farrier called, and commanded him to make eighteen pairs of horse-shoes to fit the feet of his servants; these were ready on the next day, whereupon he ordered two shoes to be nailed to the soles of the feet of each of the eighteen servants without mercy. Nine of them died in a short time of mortification; he then had the survivers unshod, and consigned them to the care of a medical man.
But, enough of the atrocities perpetrated by this tiger in human shape, cruelties which are neither to be justified nor excused. Volumes might be filled with instances of tyranny of which this barbarian was guilty in the conquered country of Kordofan, in Sennaar, and Egypt. No single day passed without its tribute to his blood-thirsty cruelty. His power of invention of tortures for his unfortunate victims was extraordinary, and he was always capable of lighting upon some new mode of gratifying his revengeful disposition. His name will remain unforgotten for ages in Kordofan, Sennaar, and Egypt, and is yet an object of terror to all who hear it. Mehemed Ali, wearied of the complaints which daily reached him against this tyrant, at last had a bowl of poison presented to him. I myself saw several of the victims of his cruelty who had been fortunate enough to escape with their lives, but wandered about the country as cripples, begging their daily bread from their neighbours, deprived of their noses, ears, or tongues, or with their eyes put out.
We may now easily imagine what fate befel this ill-starred country, when it became subject to the Turks. In former days, the inhabitants lived in freedom, without care, in the consciousness of security of property, or at least of life; but, when the Turks gained possession of this province, a total change took place; from that moment, the right of property ceased to exist, and the government considered all possessions as its own. Add to this the inhuman conduct of the Defturdar, which brought the people to the verge of despair; for the slightest suspicion that any one subject had amassed a small fortune, either in goods, money, or cattle, was sufficient to bring him, under some pretext, to death, in order to be able to confiscate his property. The Defturdar was insatiable; he robbed everything, if he only knew where to find it, and had thus collected immeasurable wealth in a very short space of time.
The government is, indeed, at present, rather more lenient, and its officers have received a check in their arbitrary abuse of power; but the distance from the seat of government is too great to render the superior authorities cognizant of all abuses, too many of which, unfortunately, yet afflict this doomed province.