Fruit.Melons and lemons are plentiful in the spring and autumn. People are commencing to cultivate the vine.
Trade.The import trade of the Dongola Province consists chiefly of cotton goods and such luxuries as sugar, tea, coffee, perfumery, etc., and of the export of cereals and dates. Business, however, is not brisk. The chief obstacle to the development of the import trade is the want of enterprise on the part of traders. There are excellent openings for merchants. The people are well off and willing to buy, especially such goods as cutlery, crockery, soap, agricultural implements, hardware, and such sundry merchandise, but at present (1904) there is not a single well-to-do trader in the Province.
Native cotton cloth, called “damur,” is worked throughout the Province, and forms the chief clothing of the men, who dress in shirt and drawers, with ferda (or toga) of this material.
Administrative.Crime is small in proportion to number of population. Inhabitants most peaceably inclined, and all (men, women, and children) work at their crops.
Housing.Villages are mostly composed of well-built houses straggling along the borders of cultivation. The houses are built of galus (mud and stones), with good court yards, whitewashed and clean. Very superior to those of fellahin in Egypt.
Miscellaneous insects.The “Nimetta” fly, a small midge, appears in countless myriads from November to April, both months inclusive, between Dalgo and Korti. The bite causes slight fever through irritation. At times they are absolutely unbearable, and cause temporary migrations of both white men and natives. Natives wear bunches of smouldering grass twisted round the head to keep off the fly.
White ants also are both numerous and most destructive between Dalgo and Korti.
Chief towns. Halfa.Halfa (Wadi Halfa), comprising “The Camp” and “Halfa town” is the capital of the Province of Halfa,[44] which extends along the Nile from Faras Island (N. lat. 22° 10′ approximately) to Abu Fatma. It is also the present headquarters and terminus of the main line (Sudan Government Railways) to Khartoum, as well as of the branch to Kerma. There are extensive railway workshops at the Camp. The latter includes barracks, prison, officers’ mess, native quarter, and the old fortifications. Also post and telegraph office. Population about 400, of which one-quarter are white. No garrison at present. Halfa was for years (1885-96) the headquarters of the Frontier Field Force which defended the southern frontier of Egypt against the Dervish invasion.
The civil quarter of Halfa lies 1½ miles to the north of the Camp. Here there is an excellent hotel, also railway station, post and telegraph offices, some good stores, and native bazaar. The population, which is composed chiefly of Egyptians and Sudanese, with a large sprinkling of Greeks, is about 2,900.
Berber.Berber is a long straggling mud-built town containing about 5,000 inhabitants. It was captured by the Mahdists after a certain resistance on the 26th May, 1884, and was re-occupied by the Anglo-Egyptian forces under Lord Kitchener on 6th September, 1897. It is now the capital of the Berber Province, but this will be moved to El Damer in 1905 (vide [Chapter IV]). There are at present two railway stations, Berber Camp and Town. Post and telegraph office. There are no good stores in the town, and there is little trade here at present. The present town lies 2 miles to the north of old Berber, and is the headquarters of an Egyptian battalion.