The number of houses in Souakin is about six hundred, of which two-thirds are in ruins, for the madrepore with which they are built soon decays, unless constantly kept in repair. The only public buildings in the town are three mosques. In the suburb El Geyf are a few houses of stone, built rather in the Soudan than Arabian style, having large courtyards; the other dwellings are formed of mats, like those of the Nubian Bedouins. El Geyf contains one mosque.
At half an hour’s distance from El Geyf are the wells which supply Souakin, the suburbs, and the shipping, with water; they are about a dozen in number, and within fifty yards of each other; near them stand a few Nebek trees. One of the wells is lined with stone, the others are mere holes dug in the ground. The water of a few of them is tolerable, but in none of them is it good. In the town are cisterns for holding rain water; but they are in ruins, and nobody will incur the expense of repairing them.
All those concerned in the maritime trade, and about the shipping, and those connected with the government, reside upon the island, while the native Arabs and the Soudan traders live in the Geyf, where the market is kept.
The inhabitants of Souakin, like those of all the harbours in the Red Sea, are a motley race; one principal class, however, is conspicuous; the forefathers of the chief families of the Arabs of Souakin were natives of Hadramout, and principally of the town of Shahher, the harbour of that country in the Indian ocean. They came hither, according to some, about a century ago; others state that they arrived soon after the promulgation of the Islam; it is from them that the collective population of the town has obtained the name of Hadherebei[69] with foreigners; but the inhabitants themselves draw a strict line of distinction between the true Hadherebe, or descendants of the natives of Hadramout, and the other settlers, whom they term Souakiny (سواكني). To the latter belong many individuals of the Bedouin tribes of Hadendoa, Amarer, the Bisharein, and others of Arabian and of Turkish origin. The former are intimately mixed with the Hadherebe, and retain their Bedouin names even in the town. Those of Turkish origin are, for the most part, descendants of Turkish soldiers, who, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, during the reign of Selim the Great, were sent here, after that emperor had conquered Egypt, to garrison Souakin, in the same manner as those who occupied Assouan, Ibrim, and Say. Many of them assert that their forefathers were natives of Diarbekr and Mosul; but the present race have the African features and manners, and are in no respect to be distinguished from the Hadherebe. There are at Souakin also a few Turkish merchants, masters of ships, refugees, &c. &c. descended from later settlers; but these have long forgotten the Turkish language, and are now connected both by interest and consanguinity with the descendants of the people from the towns of Arabia, who are numerous here, and who wear the dress of the inhabitants of the towns in the Hedjaz, and have all the customs and manners of that country. Thus two principal races of people are conspicuous in Souakin: 1. the Bedouins, who comprise the Hadherebe, Hadendoa, &c. &c., including the descendants of the ancient Turks: 2. the towns-people, who are either Arabs of the opposite coast, or Turks of modern extraction. The Bedouins intermarry among themselves; but it is difficult for a townsman to obtain a Bedouin girl; the daughters of the principal families are given to none but Bedouins. The latter inhabit the suburbs El Geyf; the towns-people live upon the island.
The government of Souakin is in the hands of the Emir el Hadherebe, who is chosen from among the first families of the tribe; these are five in number, and are distinguished from the others by the Bisharye word Orteyga, which means Patricians. The jurisdiction of El Geyf is in the hands of the Emir, but his authority over the Bedouins is trifling, though he presides in their councils. He is nominally dependent upon the Pasha of Djidda, but his conduct is regulated by the strength or weakness of his superior. When the Sherif Ghaleb held Djidda, and was hard pressed on all sides by the Wahabi, the Emir was quite independent of the Sherif; since the conquest of the Hedjaz by Mohammed Aly, Pasha of Egypt, he has entered into terms with the Pasha. He is confirmed annually in his office by whoever happens to be governor of Djidda, and is generally invested with the power of collecting in the Geyf the customs which the Hadherebe levy upon the caravans from the interior. For several years he had paid nothing for this privilege to the Sherif; at present his fear of Aly Pasha leads him to purchase the collectorship annually at the rate of about forty ounces of gold, or eight hundred Spanish dollars.
The Emir has no insignia of royalty about him, except his yellow Turkish slippers, which, according to ancient custom, he is obliged to wear, and the small Takye, or Arabian bonnet; these form a singular contrast with his Bedouin dress; and as it is not thought decorous to wear the bushy Bedouin hair with the bonnet, he is obliged also to shave his head. He has two or three men attached to his establishment, as officers, or spies to find out the exact number of slaves and merchandize imported by every caravan. He resides in the Geyf, and is altogether different from the Shikh of the Hadherebe, who has nothing whatever to do with the Turkish government, being chosen merely for the administration of their internal affairs.
The Turkish government is represented in Souakin by a custom house officer, who lives on the island, and who bears the title of Aga. He commands the town, but his influence is greatly circumscribed by the power of the Hadherebe; it is at present even insignificant, and before the conquest of Arabia by Mohammed Aly it must have been held in great contempt. The Pasha of Djidda is also Waly (والي) or governor of Souakin, and has therefore the right to send a representative here; a right which has never been disputed by the Souakinese, although they preserve the tradition that Souakin, before it was annexed to Djidda, had its own Pasha, sent from Constantinople. The Aga has no other means of maintaining the little authority he possesses, than by living on good terms with the Emir, whom he either permits, or aids to extort sums from weak individuals in the Geyf, in order that he may receive the Emir’s assistance in the collection of the customs on the island. During late years the Aga has farmed the customs of the maritime commerce of Souakin, and has paid annually into the treasury at Djidda three thousand two hundred dollars for this privilege; it is supposed that he gains two or three thousand dollars a year by it, and that this sum might be doubled if the customs were strictly paid; but very little can ever be obtained from the Hadherebe, who are the richest individuals. The customs are levied upon all merchandize imported, principally India goods and spices destined for the Soudan markets, and upon all the imports from Soudan which are shipped at Djidda for other countries, consisting chiefly of slaves, horses, and tobacco; two dollars are paid on every slave, and three on every horse. Dhourra passes duty free, as do the articles which remain in Souakin.
The Aga is either re-appointed, or a new one sent, annually. The present Aga is a man of the name of Yemak (يمك), a native of Djidda, whose father was a Hadji from Mosul, settled in the Hedjaz. In the time of the Sherif, Yemak was the buffoon of the court, and a broker in the market of Djidda. When Mohammed Aly arrived, he ingratiated himself with the Osmanlis by means of his scanty knowledge of their language, and after having served the Turks as a mediator with, and spy upon the Sherif, he was appointed to his present situation. He is a man of the meanest disposition, and has rendered himself ridiculous by affecting to adopt the Osmanli customs in such a place as Souakin; the titles of Khaznadar, Selehdar, Kahwedji Bashy, Bash Keteb, &c. which are those of a Pasha’s officers of treasurer, sword-bearer, cup-bearer, chief secretary, &c.; are bestowed by him upon his miserable servants; young slaves wait on him, in imitation of Mamelouk boys, and he talks with as much consequence as a Pasha of three tails, intermixing his broad vulgar Arabic dialect with a few Turkish expressions. The Aga has five or six soldiers of the mercenaries of Yemen, such as are found in the service of the Sherif of Mekka and of all the chiefs of Arabia; they are paid by the Aga out of his own revenues; and they form the only garrison of Souakin, whence it may easily be conceived that the Turkish authority is little respected here. These soldiers hardly dare stir out of the island, for fear of being insulted; and the Aga himself, for obvious reasons, never enters the Geyf. When any disputes happen, the Hadherebe generally interfere, and the Aga is obliged to waive his authority. The Bedouins pay only half the customs levied upon other traders; and I have often heard them plainly tell the Aga that they had no money to pay more. The soldiers who, during the night, are put into the ships anchored under the Aga’s windows to watch for smugglers, frequently get a beating or a ducking: even the Aga is insulted in his own house; yet he bears it all with complacency, and tells the people that if he were not so much their friend, he would write thundering letters to the Pasha, and draw a terrible storm upon their heads. When the Bedouin who has insulted him is gone, he curses him behind his back in Turkish, and vents his rage upon his own servants: he one day said to me, when a Bedouin, who in the heat of dispute had called him a liar (انت كذاب), had just left the room, “You see me put up with these people; but they will at last learn to know the resentment of the Turkish government, for the vengeance of the Turks when once exerted is terrible. I continue to ward off the arm of vengeance from them, because if the Pasha were to send an expedition, the whole place would be ruined, and many innocent individuals would perish.” In fact, were it not for their secret apprehensions of such an expedition from Djidda, which might with the greatest ease suddenly fall upon them and destroy both towns, this people would, no doubt, throw off all submission, and publicly assert their independence. But the smallest brig of war might compel the place to surrender. About twenty or thirty years since a Pasha of Djidda sent hither a corps of about two hundred soldiers, who plundered the Geyf; they were afterwards besieged for some time by the Bedouins, in the governor’s house, and adjoining buildings, but they contrived at last to get off with their booty. The Wahabi, after the conquest of Mekka, sent two commissioners to Souakin, to exhort the people to embrace the doctrines of their chief; but they were not permitted to proceed to Geyf, and were obliged soon to re-embark. During the power of the Wahabi the people of Souakin were allowed to trade with Djidda; but Saoud, the Wahabi chief, who had seen several of them at Mekka, with their bushy hair white with grease, obliged them to cover their heads with a handkerchief, like the Arabian Bedouins.
The Hadherebe, and the Bedouins of Souakin, have exactly the same features, language, and dress, as the Nubian Bedouins. They are clothed chiefly in the Dammour imported from Sennaar; but the better classes of both sexes wear the Nubian shirt, made of Indian cambric; they have, however, one dress, which is seldom seen in other parts of Nubia; it consists of a long piece of cambric, one end of which is wrapped round the loins, while the other, thrown across the breast and left shoulder, hangs loosely down over the back, leaving the legs, and the greater part of the upper body, entirely naked: this is the favourite negligé of the Hadherebe; and if to it be added a handsome pair of sandals, three or four large amulets hanging over the left elbow, like those worn in the countries on the Nile, a sword and Korbadj in the hands, the thick and bushy hair white with grease, and a long wooden skewer sticking in it, to scratch the head with, the whole will afford a tolerable picture of a Souakin Bedouin. In general they have handsome and expressive features, with thin and very short beards. Their colour is of the darkest brown, approaching to black, but they have nothing of the Negroe character of countenance. They are a remarkably stout and muscular race.
The inhabitants of Souakin have no other pursuit than that of commerce, either by sea, or with Soudan. They export the commodities which they receive from the African continent, to all the harbours of the Hedjaz and Yemen, down to Mokha, but chiefly to Djidda and Hodeyda. In Djidda they have a quarter of the town allotted exclusively to themselves, where they live in huts made of rushes, like those of El Geyf. Many of the Hadherebe Bedouins, after visiting Sennaar, perform the journey to the Arabian coast, but others sell their African merchandize to the traders in Souakin, by whom they are exported to Arabia. Besides the articles of trade from Shendy and Sennaar; namely, slaves, gold, tobacco, incense, and ostrich feathers, no ship leaves Souakin for any part of the Arabian coast, without having its hold filled with Dhourra from Taka; and they furnish nearly the whole of the Hedjaz with water-skins, leathern sacks, and leather in hides; the water-skins are bought up in the five principal towns of the Hedjaz, as well as in the open country; the sacks are bought by the Bedouins only, who use them to carry their provisions in. These articles form a very profitable branch of trade, for as cattle in general is very scarce in the Hedjaz, from the want of pasturage, and as great numbers of water-skins are wanted for the pilgrims to Mekka, the skin sowed up is worth as much at Djidda as the sheep is worth at Souakin. They are also exported, but in smaller quantities, to the Yemen; and I have seen them in the market of Suez; they are preferred to all other water-skins, on account of the well-tanned leather and the excellence of the sewing. The hides are tanned as in Upper Egypt, and along the Nile with the pulse of the acacia, which I have frequently had occasion to mention (الجلود مدبوغين بالقَرَض El djeloud madboughin b’el karad.) All the Bedouins in the vicinity of Souakin, sell their hides in the market there, and take Dhourra in return. The leather and cow-hides which are exported to Djidda, are used in Arabia to make sandals; but the best hides imported into the Hedjaz come from Massouah. Souakin also exports butteri[70] to Djidda. During the Hadj, both Mekka and Djidda principally depend upon Souakin and Massouah for this article; its consumption is very great in those places, where it is used by all ranks, and where the poorest man will expend half his daily income in order to have plenty of butter to his dinner, and that he may drink at least a quarter of a pound of it every morning for his breakfast. While I resided at Djidda butter rose to one half above its usual price, because two ships loaded with it from Massouah had sold their cargoes in the Yemen, instead of proceeding to Djidda. Mats made of Doum-leaves, of which every ship takes a quantity; they are in general use throughout the Hedjaz and Yemen, where Doum trees are scarce, and where few people condescend to earn a livelihood by manual labour. The floors of the mosques at Mekka and Medina are covered with these mats, which are renewed almost annually by the donations of the pilgrims; and few Hadjis quit Mekka without taking with them a very small neatly made Souakin mat, in the shape of a carpet, for the purpose of kneeling upon when they pray. The mats are manufactured by the Bedouins in the mountains near Souakin. A small shell-fish, very common on the African coast, is also exported to Djidda. It is eaten chiefly by children and poor people; it is called Sorúmbak (سُرُمباق), and is supposed, from its astringent properties, to be a remedy for the dysentery. Dhourra, water-skins, and mats are exported also to Hodeyda, in the Yemen, which is the principal market for the horses brought by the Souakin merchants from the Nile countries. I have already mentioned that the Sherif of Yemen eagerly purchases African stallions to remount his cavalry; a horse worth about twenty-five dollars at Shendy, is sold at Hodeyda at one hundred or one hundred and fifty; but the risks are great, and many of the horses die during the passage from want of proper care on board the small country ships. Dromedaries of the Bisharye race, which is the finest in existence, are put on board the larger ships, and carried to Djidda. If they arrive safe, they are sold at from sixty to eighty dollars each, or about eight times the sum paid for them at Souakin; but half at least of those embarked die on the passage; the freight for each is ten dollars.