[28]The Sembil is the Valeriana Celtica, or Spiga Celtica of the Italians. It is chiefly grown in the southern provinces of the Austrian dominions, and is exported from Venice and Trieste. The Mehleb is brought from Armenia and Persia, and is exported from Smyrna and other ports of Asia Minor. It appears to be the fruit of a species of Tilia.
[29]The most fashionable among the women of the town at Shendy have fixed the price of their favours at a loaf of sugar.
[30]The expenses of the outward journey are three times as much as those attending the transport back from Berber to Daraou, on account of the cheapness of camels at Berber.
[31]Upon every slave imported into Upper Egypt, Government exacts at present a duty of sixty piastres. The most important articles of the trade, as slaves, Erdeyb, ostrich feathers, natron (from Darfour), are besides exclusively bought up by the Pasha, who fixes a maximum to the Soudan merchants, and resells them at pleasure, with a great profit.
[32]The Pasha of Djidda takes the title of Governor of Djidda, Souakin, and the Habbesh, or Abyssinia (والي جده و سواكن و الحبش), although he possesses nothing in the latter country, except the customs of Massouah, and the nominal jurisdiction of that place. Since the Wahabi have reduced the Hedjaz, and, in conjunction with Ghaleb, Sherif of Mekka, have dispossessed the Turks of Djidda, Ghaleb has taken Massouah into his own hands.
[33]The eastern fashion is to give, as a present, a suit of clothes (Kessoua كسّوه), and a sum for pocket-money (Massrouf, مصروف).
[34]Such is the pronunciation given to this word by the Arabs, and not Amhara, as Bruce writes it. The Abyssinians are not called Habbeshy, but Nekkaty, by which appellation the whole country is more frequently known than by that of Habbesh.
[35]It is well known how little discrimination the Arabs shew in judging of quantities; the terms long or short, great or small, high or low, deep or shallow, &c. &c. are seldom accurately applied by them, and in their descriptions they generally magnify or diminish the object beyond what it naturally is.
[36]Formerly the Sennaar caravans brought as much as 2000 cwt. of gum arabic, annually, to Egypt; at present they do not bring more than 100 cwt. The gum arabic which is collected from the acacias, in the deserts of the Hedjaz, is known at Cairo under the name of Samegh Embawy or rather Yembawy, from Yembo, (صَمغ يمباعوي). The gum arabic collected in the deserts of Suez, Tyh, and in Mount Sinai, is called Gomma Torica (Samegh Tori, صَمغ طوري), from the Arabs of Tor; this is exported to no part of Europe but France. The Kordofan gum is of the best quality, small grained, and of the clearest white. The Sennaar gum is less esteemed.
[37]Since the Mamelouks have established themselves in Dóngola, they are under the necessity of procuring their Egyptian articles by the way of Shendy. The shortest road, which is across the mountains from Korti, in the southern limits of Dóngola, is five days journey, but it is not quite safe.