[38]Wherever I use the word Turks, I mean the Osmanli, or Mohammedans of Europe and Asia Minor.
[39]I met with a Djeheyne Arab at Cairo, who told me that the tribe consisted of both Bedouins and cultivators.
[40]In the country of Sennaar the slave is not called Abd but Raghig.
[41]During the wars of the Sherif of Mekka with Saoud, the chief of the Wahabi, the Arab tribe of Kahtan was particularly obnoxious to the Sherif, as being zealous proselytes of the Wahabi faith. He once took forty of them prisoners, and telling them that he had already killed individuals enough of their tribe, he ordered the whole to be mutilated and sent to their homes. As they were all grown up men, two only survived the operation; these rejoined their families, and became afterwards most desperate enemies of the Sherif Ghaleb; one of them killed the cousin of Ghaleb with his own hand, in battle; the other was killed in endeavouring, on another occasion, to pierce through the ranks of Ghaleb’s cavalry, in order to revenge himself personally upon the Sherif. The Sherif was much blamed for his cruelty, such an action being very contrary to the generally compassionate dispositions of the Arabs; I mention it to shew that the ancient practice of treating prisoners in this manner, as represented in the paintings on several of the temples of Upper Egypt, particularly at Medinet Habou, is not quite forgotten: but the above is the only instance of the kind I ever heard of.
[42]Mihi contigit nigram quandam puellam, qui hanc operationem subierat, inspicere. Labia pudendi acu et filo consuta mihi plane detecta fuere, foramine angusto in meatum urinæ relicto. Apud Esne, Siout, et Cairo, tonsores sunt, qui obstructionem novaculâ amovent, sed vulnus haud raro lethale evenit.
[43]W. G. Browne’s Travels to Africa, &c. p. 347. The same custom, as well as that mentioned in the next page, has also been described by M. Frank in the Mémoires sur l’Egypte, tome 4, p. 125.
[44]Excisio clitoridis. The custom is very ancient. Strabo (p. 284) says—και τοῦτο δὲ τῶν ζηλουμένων μάλιστα παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς (τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις) τὸ πάντα τρέφειν τὰ γεννωμένα παιδία, καὶ τὸ περιτέμνειν, καὶ τὰ θήλεα ἐκτέμνειν. ὅπερ καὶ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις νόμιμον καὶ οὗτοι δὲ εἰσὶν Αἰγύπτιοι.
Its effect in rendering them Mukhaeyt has not been noticed by the ancients. Cicatrix, post excisionem clitoridis, parietes ipsos vaginæ, foramine parvo relicto, inter se glutinat. Cum tempus nuptiarum adveniat, membranam, a quâ vagina clauditur, coram pluribus pronubis inciditur, sponso ipso adjuvante. Interdum evenit ut operationem efficere nequeant sine ope mulieris aliquæ expertæ, quæ scalpello partes in vaginâ profundius rescindit. Maritus crastinâ die cum uxore plerumque habitat: unde illa Araborum sentenzia, “Leilat ed-dokhlé messel leilat el fatouh” (ليلة الدُخله مشل ليلة الفتوح) i. e. post diem aperturæ, dies initus. Ex hoc consuetudine fit ut sponsus nunquam decipiatur, et ex hoc fit ut in Ægypto Superiori innuptæ repulsare lascivias hominum parum student, dicentes, “Tabousny wala’ takhergany” (تبوسني ولا تخرقني). Sed quantum eis sit invita hæc continentia, post matrimonium demonstrant, libidini quam maxime indulgentes.
[45]Rif is the name given to Egypt throughout those countries; it means properly a low ground abounding in water.
[46]A curious proof of this happened while I was in Upper Egypt; a great man who had bought two girls at Siout from the Darfour caravan, soon afterwards made a party with some friends to spend an afternoon in the cool caves in the mountain behind Siout, and ordered the two girls to attend him. When they entered the caves they immediately conceived it to be the place destined for their immolation; and when the knives were produced to cut the meat that had been brought for dinner, one of them ran off, and endeavoured to escape, while the other threw herself on the ground, imploring the company to spare her. It required a considerable time to convince them that their fears were ill-founded.