At Shendy the river, owing to the height of the banks, often fails to inundate the adjacent lands; and the husbandmen are too lazy to aid nature by digging canals. I have already said that Shendy depends, for its Dhourra, principally upon importations from the south; but during the famine last year, part of the supply was drawn from Taka. The rains generally begin about the middle of June; their season, however, seems to be less settled than in the western countries of Soudan. In the last days of April, some slight showers fell at Shendy, and in the evening much lightning was seen to the east. So early as the 10th of May, we were informed that the bed of the Mogren was filled with water, and that its stream, then several feet deep, emptied itself into the Nile; it was therefore evident that heavy rains must have fallen either towards the Bisharye mountains, where the Mogren rises, or towards the source of the Atbara, in Abyssinia; the latter is the more probable, as we afterwards found no traces of rains in the Bisharye desert. They do not appear to be very abundant, never continuing for weeks together without intermission, as is said to be the case in Kordofan, but falling at intervals, though in heavy torrents. In the northern desert, between Berber and Egypt, but more particularly in the mountainous country north of the well of Shigre, there appears to be no fixed rainy season: all the Egyptians and Ababdes whom I questioned on the subject, agreed in stating that rain falls in those mountains both in winter and summer, but never in great quantity. The caravans are always under some apprehensions of having their bales spoiled in crossing the desert, by an occasional shower of rain, whatever may be the time of year. The same information as to the nature of the rains was given to me during my journey up the Nile towards Dóngola. In the chain of mountains extending from Assouan to Kosseir, between the river and the Red Sea, the rain falls in like manner at all seasons, while to the north of the Kosseir route, and from thence to Suez, in the mountains of the Arabs Maazy, it is much more confined to the winter season. It is well known that showers rarely fall in the valley of the Nile, but the Delta has its months when the rain falls occasionally. Upper Egypt is almost entirely deprived of rain near the river, and thus exhibits the singular spectacle of continual dryness of atmosphere in the fertile valley, while the barren mountains, at a few hours distance, have their regular falls of rain. During my stay at Esne, in Upper Egypt, there occurred in the month of September a most violent shower, which lasted for two hours; the inhabitants did not remember having ever experienced any thing like it.
The inhabitants of Shendy, in common with the Egyptians, distinguish the time of the Khamsein (خمسين), or hot wind. The word is derived from Khamsyn (fifty), because the winds are computed to last fifty days, from the 29th or 30th of April, to the 18th or 19th of June, which is the period of the Nokhta, or dew, when the river first begins to rise in Egypt. During my stay at Esne the Khamsein began on the 1st of May, with a suffocating hot wind. I passed the early part of the same period at Shendy, where we had several days of hot winds, but whether it was in consequence of my temperate habits, which (I have reason to believe) tend greatly to weaken the effect of immoderate heat, as well as cold, or whether it was owing to the climate itself, the heat appeared much less oppressive than during the Khamsein in Upper Egypt, although at Shendy I was, day and night, exposed to the open air, without ever entering a cool room, and having seldom any thing but a shed to shelter me from the mid-day heat. It must be recollected, however, that Shendy is upon a level considerably higher than that of Upper Egypt.
The people of the countries on the Nile from Dóngola to Sennaar, and all the other true Arab tribes, as far as Bornou, speak no other language than the Arabic; and they look with disdain upon their western and eastern neighbours, whom they designate by the same epithet of Adjem,i[50] which the Koran bestows upon all nations who are strangers to the Arabic language. There exist, however, among them as many dialects, and as much difference in pronunciation and phraseology, as are found among the Arabian Bedouins. The eastern nations on the Atbara, towards Taka and the Red Sea, speak the Bisharye language, of which I have given a short vocabulary,i[51] and to the west the nearest foreign language is that of Kordofan, a dialect differing in pronunciation only from that of Four. The Arabic is well spoken in these countries, and the black Arabs appeared to me to possess a greater command of it, and to be more eloquent than their Egyptian brethren. The pronunciation is similar to that of Upper Egypt, which differs considerably from the pronunciation of Cairo and the Delta. The inhabitants of Upper Egypt, to the south of Siout, are in fact ancient Bedouin tribes, and their idiom appears to me the purest, next to that of Arabia proper. The pronunciation indeed is Egyptian, but the terms and phraseology are, for the most part, borrowed from the language of the Hedjaz, and Yemen, as I fully convinced myself afterwards, during my stay at Djidda and Mekka. The southern Arabs use many expressions foreign to the language, and which have been introduced perhaps by their intimate connexion with the Negroes. They have a great number of technical terms, which seem to be derived from the Abyssinian, and others from the Bisharye and Negroe languages.
The Djaalein particularly value themselves upon speaking their language well. I have heard Arabs of the tribe of Beni Hassan, who pasture their flocks in the Bahr el Ghazal, speaking much the same dialect as the Djaalein, and, as I particularly observed, without any tincture of the Moggrebyn. This circumstance makes it very probable, that they are of eastern, and not western origin. In the same manner there are numerous tribes of Arabs in Darfour and Kordofan, who still retain the language of their forefathers, although they speak also the idiom of the country. Few persons among the Arab tribes know how to write and read, but all express themselves with great neatness, and often very eloquently; and poets are not rare among them. Like the eastern Arabs, they celebrate the praises of their warriors in the Kaszyde (قصيده);i[52] these are not written down, but are transmitted orally from one to another; and although they may often fail in grammatical accuracy, the measure of the verse is always scrupulously attended to. The melodies of their songs appear not to be national, for the songs of the Arabs (I do not mean the Bedouins), whether in Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia or Egypt, retain amidst their varieties a common character, whereas the melodies of the Moggrebyns as well as of the Negroe Arabs are quite different. Those of the latter seem to originate with the Bisharye Bedouins, whose national airs approach much nearer to them than those of the Egyptians. The Ababde Bedouins have borrowed the melodies of their songs entirely from the Bisharein, and they sing in Upper Egypt the same airs, which I heard again at Shendy from the Sennaar merchants, over their Bouza. There is however, one species of song common to all these nations; I mean the Hedou (حدو), or song with which they animate their camels on the march, especially during the night; it is the favourite air of all the Bedouins in the Arabian deserts, and I have heard it on the banks of the Euphrates as well as on those of the Atbara. Among the peculiarities of all these people, is a very common practice of smacking with the tongue, when denying, or refusing any thing, and the same, but in a sharper or higher tone, as a sign of affirmation or approbation. In Turkey and Arabia this is considered as an affront, or at least as a most vulgar habit; they also snap the fingers at the person of whom they demand any thing, as equivalent to saying “Give me.”
The people of Shendy know little of musical instruments, however fond they may be of songs. The lyre (Tamboura) and a kind of fife with a dismal sound, made of the hollow Dhourra stalk, are the only instruments I saw, except the kettle-drum. This appears to be all over Soudan an appendage of royalty; and when the natives wish to designate a man of power, they often say the Nogára (نُقاره) beats before his house. At Shendy the Mek’s kettle-drums were beaten regularly every afternoon before his house. A favourite pastime of the Negroe Arabs, and which is also known among the Arabs of Upper Egypt, is the Syredje (سيرجه), a kind of draughts; it is played upon sandy ground, on which they trace with the finger chequers of forty-nine squares; the pieces, on one side, are round balls of camel’s dung, picked up in the street, and on the other those of goats. It is an intricate game, and requires great attention; the object is to take all the antagonist’s pieces, but the rules are very different from those of Polish draughts. The people are uncommonly fond of the game, two persons seldom sitting down together without immediately beginning to draw squares in the sand. The Mek himself will play with the lowest slave, if the latter is reputed a good player. If a bye-stander assists one of the parties with his advice, it gives no offence to the other; sometimes they play for a gourd of Bouza, but not usually. Chess is not quite unknown here, but I never met with any one who played it.
Nothing unpleasant occurred to me during my stay at Shendy. The Ababdes with whom I lodged, although they did not shew me great kindness, yet forbore to treat me with rudeness; this was all I demanded. Their society served as a protection, for my person soon became conspicuous throughout the town, and I took care to let every one know that I belonged to the respected party of Ababde guides. Our house and court-yard were soon filled with slaves and camels: we separated into different messes, and every one delivered a daily ration of Dhourra to the female slaves, who cooked for the mess; we defrayed all our common expenses with Dhourra. Every evening some of my companions had a Bouza party; the day was spent in commercial pursuits. Soon after our arrival, in order to conciliate the Ababdes, I bought a young sheep, and had it killed for their entertainment, and I always kept my tobacco pouch well supplied for their use. I attended the market regularly, and courted the acquaintance of some Fakys, whose protection I thought might prove useful to me against the ill-will which my former companions from Daraou never failed to manifest towards me whenever we met. The son of my old friend of Daraou, to whom I had been most particularly recommended by his father, went so far as once to spit in my face in the public market-place, because I pressed him for the payment of a small sum which I had lent him, and which he denied with a solemn oath having ever received from me; indeed I never met any of these Egyptians in the streets without receiving some insulting language from them, of which, had I taken notice, they would, no doubt, have carried me before the Mek, where their superior influence might have been attended with the worst consequences to me. It was to them, as I afterwards learnt, that I was indebted for the loss of my gun; and I do not know what they might have attempted further, had I not fallen upon an expedient which was attended with the happiest effects. They had always thought that I intended to proceed straight to Sennaar, for I had never informed any one that I was bound direct to the Red Sea. They became anxious, in consequence of their own behaviour to me, that I should never return to Egypt, where I might be able to call them to an account, and where, though they certainly did not know it, a word from me to Ibrahim Pasha, who then governed Upper Egypt, would have been of the most serious consequences to them. They endeavoured therefore to prepare my ruin, by spreading the most injurious reports of me among the Sennaar merchants, whom they supposed that I should accompany; they represented me to be possessed of wealth, which I had fraudulently acquired in Egypt; and they urged that it would be an act of justice towards those whom I had cheated, to deprive me of my baggage. I had now been about three weeks at Shendy; my companions the Ababde having purchased a considerable number of slaves and camels, were preparing to return home; a Souakin caravan was also about to depart. Under these circumstances, I gave out that I had abandoned all idea of proceeding farther southward, as foreseeing that I should not have more than enough to defray my expenses beyond Sennaar. Accordingly, with the remainder of my funds, I bought a slave boy, and a camel, and declared that I intended to return to Egypt with my friends the Ababde, a course which they had often endeavoured to persuade me to adopt. This proceeding completely thwarted the plans of the Daraou people, and caused them suddenly to change their behaviour towards me; the principal man amongst them, he who struck me at Damer, repeatedly visited me, sent me several times a choice dish for my supper, and expressed his wishes that we might again meet, as good friends, in Egypt, for which country (he added) his party intended to set out soon after the Ababde, and to take guides for the journey across the desert from among the Ababde at Berber. In the meanwhile I made every preparation for my journey. I had secretly informed myself respecting the Souakin caravan, and on the eve of its departure, which happened to be two days previous to the time fixed by the Ababde for their return, I communicated my design to the chief of the latter, and by making him a small present, prevailed on him to accompany me to the chief of the Souakin caravan, and to recommend me to him, as his friend. Much ceremony is not necessary on such occasions; every person has his own beast of burthen, and joins at pleasure, whatever caravan he chooses. An increase of numbers is always desirable by the chief, as it both adds to the amount of his duties, and to the means of general defence.
It was not from any apprehensions of the consequences likely to result from the representations of the Egyptian traders, that I was induced to take the route to the Red Sea. Situated as I was, there seemed to be no great obstacle in my way to Sennaar, nor from thence to Gondar and Massouah; for I knew that the Abyssinian traders go constantly backwards and forwards between Gondar and Ras el Fil, where they are met by the Sennaar merchants; and once at Gondar, and in the fertile valleys of Abyssinia, I should, at all events, have been able to beg my way to the coast. But in this case I should have followed the footsteps of Poncet and Bruce; and am persuaded that it will not be long before Abyssinia, from its comparatively easy access by sea, will be thoroughly explored. On the other hand I thought that a journey through the country between Shendy and the Red Sea would add new information to our knowledge of Ethiopia, and being full of difficulty and danger, could only be undertaken by a traveller who had already served a hard apprenticeship; I preferred therefore traversing this comparatively small tract of ground, which might otherwise still remain for a long course of years unknown. The wish to be at Mekka in the month of November, at the time of the pilgrimage, was another consideration that had a strong effect upon me. It had indeed been a principal object with me during all the time that I was in Upper Egypt, and a motive in determining me to this second journey into Nubia. I was then, as I still am, fully convinced, that the title of Hadji would afford me the most powerful recommendation and protection in any future journey through the interior countries of Africa. From Suez or Kosseir I should have found it extremely difficult to carry my designs into effect; in going through Abyssinia, I might perhaps have been detained too long on the way by land or sea to reach Mekka at the above-mentioned period, and I knew that if I should reach Mekka without being present at the ceremonies of the Hadj, I could not hope to pass afterwards as a true Hadji, without exposing myself to daily detection.
I sold at Shendy the whole of my adventure of merchandize, and after paying my share of the expenses of our stay there, including a suitable present in money to our landlord, I bought a slave boy about fourteen years of age, partly for the sake of having a useful and constant companion, and partly to afford me an ostensible reason for going in the direction of the Red Sea, where I might sell him with profit. I still pretended to be in search of a relation, but added, that having experienced the difficulties of journeys by land through these countries, I intended to embark at Souakin for Massouah, and by that route to enter Abyssinia, where I affected to have every reason to believe that I should find my relation. I knew that the Souakin caravan consisted of two parties, one of which was bound direct to Souakin, while the other intended to take the route by Taka. It was with the latter that I resolved to proceed, and to take the chance of finding a favourable conveyance from Taka to Massouah.
I chose my slave, who cost me sixteen dollars, from among a great number, and he proved to be a very good and serviceable boy. I also purchased a camel, for which I gave eleven dollars; and as my safety entirely depended upon it, I took care to make choice of one of the strongest. I laid in a provision of Abré, or dried bread, Dhourra, Dhourra meal, and butter, and purchased several pieces of Dammour, which I knew was much in demand on the way to Taka. After all my accounts were settled, I had four dollars left; but the smallness of this sum occasioned me no uneasiness, for I calculated on selling my camel on the coast for as much as would defray the expenses of my voyage to Djidda, and I had a letter of credit on that place for a considerable sum, which I had procured at Cairo.