To the imports of Sennaar belong likewise the Shields made of the skins of the rhinoceros and giraffa; they are made by the Bedouin Arabs, who sell them at Sennaar, and they are used all along the Nile, and across the mountains, as far as Kosseir and Kenne, in Upper Egypt.
The fruit of the Nebek, the fleshy part of which is separated from the stone, and dried in the sun; it is put up in small leathern bags and carried as far as Souakin; it affords a very agreeable provision during a journey.
The most important articles of the Sennaar trade at Shendy are camels and Dhourra, without the continual importation of which Shendy would soon be in danger of famine. The Dhourra caravans usually perform the journey by themselves, the merchants seldom joining them, but forming caravans of their own. They are more wealthy people than the Egyptian traders; and it is not rare to see a man possessing ten camel loads of Dammour, and a whole party of slaves. I was told the name of a Sennaar merchant who bought at Shendy the entire loads of an Egyptian caravan, consisting of thirty camels.
Honey, in considerable quantity, is also imported from Sennaar. As far as I could understand, the Arabs about Sennaar collect wild honey in great quantity, but do not trouble themselves with keeping beehives near their own houses.
I did not learn that any passage duties, or customs, are exacted at Sennaar; the only obstacle thrown in the way of trade is that the king always forces his own merchandize upon the buyer, before the private adventurers can enter into any bargains. The Sennaar merchants take in return from the Egyptian traders Sembil and Mehleb, in large quantities, sugar, soap, and almost every article of the Egyptian and Souakin markets. Since the interruption of the direct communication between Sennaar and Kordofan, the inhabitants of the former place have been known to buy at Shendy Negro slaves brought from Kordofan, which they can obtain here at lower prices than their own Nouba slaves at Sennaar. During my residence at Shendy, the route along the Nile to Sennaar was rendered dangerous, from the disputes that had arisen between the Meks of Halfaya and Herbadjy; the caravans therefore preferred taking the desert route, which lies parallel with the river, at about one day’s journey inland, as far as Abou Heraze, where they again join the river; a single well is met with in this route, at about three days from Shendy, and this even is sometimes not taken into the road, on account of the visits of the Bedouins Shukorye, of whom the Sennaar people entertain great fears.
The arrival of the Kordofan caravans at Shendy is quite uncertain, and depends upon the caprice of the governor of Kordofan, who often prevents the departure of merchants, in order to increase his own commercial profits. Three months sometimes elapse without any arrival, after which they come in rapid succession. The road from Obeydh (اُبيّض) (not Ibeit, as Browne writes it), the capital of Kordofan, to Shendy, is quite safe; it is performed in about fourteen days, of which the five last are through a desert without water. With the Kordofan caravans arrive also merchants from Darfour; and the intercourse between Kobé, the capital of Darfour, and Obeydh, is said to be at present very brisk, and quite safe. Kordofan has no other slaves than those brought from Darfour; its own people, it seems, do not traffic with the southern Negro countries; but since the arrival of the Mamelouks in Dóngola, a direct trade has been opened between that country and Kordofan, the northern limits of which are said to be only six days distance from the frontiers of Dóngola.
The arrival of every Kordofan caravan at Shendy fills the market with slaves, who constitute the principal import from thence. The Kordofan merchants bring likewise gum arabic, of the best quality known in the Negro countries;i[36] Erdeyb, or Tamarinds; the gum Leban; Natron from Darfour; Sheshme, the seed used in Egypt for diseases of the eye; Shooshe, a small pea of Kordofan and Darfour growth; the latter are of a fine pink colour, with a small black spot at one end, and are worn in strings as necklaces. They sell also ropes of leather. The inhabitants of the countries on the Nile make their ropes and cords of the fibrous inner bark of the palm date-tree, called Lif (ليف), or of reeds which grow on the banks of river; but all the western nations, where no date-trees grow, use for their packages twisted leathern thongs, which are of great solidity and strength, a very important advantage in travelling through the deserts with heavily loaded camels. These ropes are sold to the Egyptian and Souakin merchants, as are likewise large leathern sacks made of very thick ox-leather in Kordofan and Darfour. These sacks are used for the transport of Dhourra meal through the desert for the food of the slaves. Large water-skins (Rey رَيّ) made of ox-hides, in which traders who have many slaves transport water through the desert: two of these Reys make a camel’s load; they keep the water much better than the smaller goats skins, and the thickness of the leather prevents it from evaporating so readily. Reys are a considerable article of commerce between Darfour and Egypt; they are used in all the towns of Egypt, and particularly at Cairo, to transport the water from the river to the town, for the daily use of the inhabitants. The Kordofan merchants bring likewise water-skins made of sheep-skins, in the manufacture of which great skill is shown, because the skins are preserved entire. The animals are killed by cutting off the head; and those who slaughter them possess an art, unknown to the Arabian Bedouins, of taking off the skin without cutting it, by introducing the hand at the aperture in the throat, armed with a small knife, and thus separating it entirely from the carcase. A Kordofan water-skin has thus no seams but where the legs are cut off, while the common ones are sewed up on three sides. Another import from Kordofan are large wooden dishes, or bowls, carved, as it is said, out of the root of some tree; they are rubbed with butter, and then held over the fire, to give them a black colour. These bowls often supply the place of the China ware, vessels, dishes, cups, &c. which in the more polite parts of the East are placed upon shelves along the walls of the sitting-room, as ornaments. Some of these bowls are large enough to contain sufficient food for twelve persons; they are very nicely worked; not the smallest trace of the instruments with which they are formed can be observed.
Ostrich feathers brought by the Kordofan merchants are also in great request. These merchants are people of moderate property; the greater part of them have wives at Shendy and at Darfour, as well as at Obeydh; they buy up slaves at Darfour, remain awhile with their families at Obeydh, and then bring their slaves to Shendy. They have a better character for honesty than the people of Sennaar, but the favourable opinion entertained of them does not induce any one to trust them with goods upon credit. They take in return from Shendy, a little Sembil and Mehleb, some antimony and beads, a good deal of spices, especially cloves, which are in great demand all over the western countries; a little hardware; Dammour from Sennaar; Egyptian linen; Indian cotton stuffs imported from Souakin; a few silk and cloth dresses from the Hedjaz, which are worn by the chiefs, who seem to be extremely fond of gaudy showy dresses, as a mark of distinction; some coffee-beans; but above all, Reysh, or Indian agate beads. The common currency of Kordofan, besides Dhourra, is said to be small pieces of iron, with which milk, flesh, and Dhoken bread, are bought in the market. These pieces of iron are collected and worked into axes and spear-heads. Cows are likewise taken as a medium of exchange. Slaves are often bought for so many cows; wild herbage for their food is so abundant, that nobody objects to keeping large numbers of those animals in their court-yards.
The most substantial of all the traders who at present frequent the Shendy market are the people from Souakin, or as they are more commonly called in this part of Africa, the Hadharebe, or Hadharame, that is, people of Hadremaut, in South Arabia, from whence they draw their origin. Some of these traders are always found at Shendy: during my stay there two caravans took their departure for Souakin, and one large party arrived; and no month passes without some arrivals from that quarter. The Hadhareb also visit the Sennaar market; their caravans to that place either take the road by Shendy, or the nearer one by Goz Radjeb, on the Atbara, from whence they proceed straight across the desert to Sennaar. Some of the Hadharebe also frequent Obeydh in Kordofan, but not in sufficient numbers to form a caravan of their own, and they therefore join the native traders. Their caravans are hailed at Shendy by the Sennaar and Kordofan people, as the promptest purchasers of their goods; but they create great jealousy among the Egyptians, whose rivals they are in various articles of import. The Souakin trade supplies Shendy principally with India goods. Different sorts of cambric (بفت Baft, and another sort called بنوه Benoueh) from Madras and Surat; and coarse muslins from Bengal are partly wanted for the use of the Shendy and Sennaar inhabitants themselves; but the greater part is given in exchange to the Kordofan merchants for slaves. They bring also spices, especially cloves, ginger (Zandjebil زنجبيل), India sugar, Mokha beads, as they are called, though none are made at Mokha; sandal wood, which is an article of consequence, and finds its way from hence to the countries west of Darfour, as far as Bagermé; and all the articles of hardware imported by the Egyptians, in which, however, the latter can afford to undersell them. They also bring the Dhofer, which is taken by the Sennaar and Darfour merchants. It is the shell of an animal found in the Red Sea, cut into small pieces, and used as a perfume, emitting a pleasant odour when held over the fire. The pieces of the Dhofer, cut like beads, are much esteemed in the Hedjaz and Egypt, where the ladies wear them as necklaces; they are of a black, or dark blue colour, with veins of a lighter hue. The people of Souakin export them likewise to Djidda.
The Hadharebe take in return gold, slaves (Abyssinians in preference), and all the other articles of the Negro trade, except gum arabic; though they sometimes take this article also, and sell it at Mokha, to English and American traders. Every Souakin caravan purchases at Shendy a number of horses of the Dóngola breed, which they sell to great advantage in Yemen, at Hodeyda, Loheya, and as far south as Mokha. The cavalry of the Sherif Hamoud, the present chief of Yemen, are mounted almost entirely upon horses from Dóngola, for the good breed of native Arab horses is very scarce in Yemen.