ART, VHII-Travels in Nubia; by the late John Lewis Burck-
hardt. Published by the Association for promoting the Disco-
very of the interior Parts of Africa. 1819.
HE friends of John Lewis Burckhardt, now alas! no more,
will receive this memorial of a part of his labours with mixed
emotions of satisfaction and regret. In every page they will be re-
minded of that ardour of research, that patience of investigation,
that passionate pursuit after truth, for which he was eminently dis-
tinguished. His simple and unstudied narrative will recall that easy,
cheerful and unruffled mind, that evenness and serenity of temper
which he displayed in social life, and which neither the fatigues nor
the privations nor the insults to which he was so frequently exposed
in his long and arduous journies, could for a moment unsettle or
disturb. Those who have yet to learn his character will learn, from
the record now before us, ‘what manner of man he was, and will
join in deploring the untimely fate of one whose place, we fear,
must long remain unfilled. They will discover that he was a tra-
Weller of no common description:-that no food was too coarse for
him—no clothing too mean—no condition too humble—no treat-
ment too degrading, when the object was knowledge, and the ac-
quirement of it considered, as it always appeared to be considered,
a duty to his employers. In the Deserts of Syria, Arabia or Nubia,
and in the hospitable mansion of the venerable president of the
Royal Society, Burckhardt was always the same cheerful and con-
tented being. -
A gentleman by birth and a scholar by education, he added to
the ordinary acquirements of a traveller, accomplishments which
fitted him for any society. He had also the happy faculty of adapt-
ing himself to all circumstances. With Greeks, Syrians, Arabs,
Turks, Nubians, Negroes, he completely identified himself, and
put on and threw off their language and manners with the same
ease as he did his garment. His descriptions of the countries through
which he travels, his narratives of incidents, his transactions with
the natives, are all placed before us with equal clearness and sim-
plicity. “Although, says his editor, ‘Mr. Burckhardt was gifted by
nature with sagacity and memory for making accurate observations,
and with taste and imagination to give a lively description of them,
it must not be forgotten, that he wrote in a language which was
not his native tongue, which he did not learn until he was twenty-
five years of age, and in the writing of which he had little exercise,
until he had arrived in those countries, where he very seldom heard
it spoken, and where he had still more rarely any opportunities of
referring to English models of composition.”
Mr. Burckhardt was not unacquainted with the systematic no-
E E 3 menclature
                      
                  
                  
                  4.38 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
menclature of objects of natural history, but he deemed it more
useful to insert the native names than to encumber his journal with
technical terms, or to load it with scientific descriptions or philoso-
phical discussions, which, if thought necessary, might at any time
be added. In this respect no two travellers, each excellent in his
own way, could differ more widely than Humboldt and Burckhardt.
Of the former, science and philosophy were the leading objects;
while the chief concern of the latter was men and manners, the
state of society, the modes and conditions of life, languages and
opinions; next to these, the geography of countries, and their natural
productions; the affiliation of various nations and tribes; and the
means resorted to for supplying their wants or increasing their com-
forts through the instrumentality of commerce:–and on all these
points his inquiries were so ably conducted, and the result of them
so clearly and distinctly recorded, as to leave little to be gleaned by
future travellers. But a short review of his life and his labours, of
which indeed we gave a hasty sketch in our XXXVIth Number,
will furnish the best panegyric on the character and merits of this
extraordinary man.
John Lewis Burckhardt, descended from an ancient family of
Basle, was born at Lausanne. He was the eighth child of John
Rodolph Burckhardt of Kirshgarten, whose prospects in life were
blighted by the French revolution; in the early part of which
he was falsely accused, tried, proved innocent, and acquitted. In-
nocence and acquittal, however, are feeble safeguards among revo-
lutionary demagogues. Young Burckhardt, who daily witnessed the
misery inflicted on his country by the republican French, imbibed
at a very early age a detestation of their principles, and a determi-
nation never to submit to their yoke. In 1800, being then sixteen
years of age, he entered the University of Leipzig, whence, after a
stay of nearly four years, he was removed to Göttingen. In both
places, his exemplary conduct and high feelings of honour, his dis-
tinguished talents and ardent zeal for knowledge, ensured him uni-
versal esteem and respect; while a remarkable frankness, cheerful-
ness, kindness, and evenness of temper made him particularly
beloved by his more intimate acquaintance. On leaving Göttingen
in 1805, he returned to his mother at Basle, where an offer was
made to him by one of the Royal Courts of Germany of some em-
ployment in the diplomatic line; but as the whole continent was
either subject to the French, or in alliance with them, he resolved to
try his fortune in England. He arrived in London in July, 1806,
bringing with him many letters of introduction, and among others,
one to Sir Joseph Banks, from Professor Blumenbach of Göttin-
en.
At the house of the President of the Royal Society he soon be-
Canne
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 439
g
came acquainted with the wishes of the African Association to
make a new attempt at discovery in the interior of Africa from
the north. To a mind equally characterized by courage, a love of
science, and a spirit of enterprize, such an undertaking offered pe-
culiar attractions; and accordingly Burckhardt hastened to make a
tender of his services to Sir Joseph Banks and the Rev. Dr. Hamil-
ton, the Secretary of the Association. He was gladly accepted;
and, in January 1809, received his final instructions, having dili-
gently employed the interval in London and Cambridge in the study
of the Arabic language, and in attending lectures on chemistry,
astronomy, mineralogy, medicine and surgery. He allowed his
beard to grow, assumed the oriental dress, and exercised himself by
longjourneys on foot, bareheaded, in the heat of the sun, in sleeping
upon the ground, and living upon vegetables and water.
As an intimate knowledge of Arabic was of the utmost import-
ance, his instructions directed him in the first instance to proceed to
Syria, where, while studying that language in one of the purest
schools, he might acquire the oriental manners, at a distance from
the intended theatre of his researches, and without the risk of
being afterwards recognized. After a stay of two years in Syria,
he was to proceed to Cairo, thence by the Fezzan caravan to
Mourzook by the route traversed by Horneman; and subsequently,
to avail himself of such opportunities as might offer for the coun-
tries farther in the interior.
On the 2d March, 1809, Burckhardt sailed from Cowes, and
reached Malta about the middle of April; from thence he pro-
ceeded for Aleppo, in the character of an Indian Mohammedan
merchant, and as the supposed bearer of dispatches from the East
Indian Company, to Mr Barker, the British Consul, and the Com-
pany's Agent in that city. His fellow-passengers were three Tripo-
lines, and two Negro slaves. In the course of the voyage nu-
merous questions were put to him by these people relative to India,
its inhabitants and its language, “which I answered,’ says Burck-
hardt, “ as well as I could; whenever I was asked for a specimen
ºf the Hindoo language, I answered in the worst dialect of the
Swiss German, almost unintelligible even to a German, and which,
in its guttural sounds, may fairly rival the harshest utterance of
rabic. He was at all times willing to lend a helping hand to the
merchants and seamen, to divert their attention from his person and
affairs.
At Suedieh, where he first went on shore, he joined a caravan,
which was on the point of setting out for Aleppo. Here, after a
short stay at Antakia, during which he associated chiefly with the
muleteers, he arrived in safety, and took up his residence with Mr.
Barker the British Consul, as an Indian Mussulman, but still wear-
E E 4 ing
w
                      
                  
                  
                  440 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
ing his Turkish dress, and continuing the name he had assumed of
Ibrahim, that he might pass unnoticed in the streets and bazars. His
first object was to provide a master to instruct him in the literal
and vulgar Arabic, preparatory to a projected visit to the Bedouin
Arabs in the Desert, among whom it was his intention to dwell for
some months. Though his progress was so rapid, that in the course
of one year he was able, with little assistance, to turn Robinson
Crusoe into an Arabian tale, adapted to Eastern taste and manners,
under the title of Dur El Bahur, “The Pearl of the Seas;’ yet such
are the niceties and difficulties of a language, which to express wine
(for example) employs no less than one hundred and fifty different
terms, that he thought it expedient to remain two years and a
half in Syria, in order to lay in a sufficient stock of literature,
and to familiarize himself with the character, manners, and customs
of Mahommedans.
He was not, however, entirely sedentary during this period; he
made, in 1810, a six months' tour to Damascus and through the
Haouran and Mount Libanus, the journal of which is in the pos-
session of the African Association: and in 1811, he set out for the
Euphrates, in the neighbourhood of which, he spent seven or eight
weeks: all traces of this journey are lost, his epistolary corre-
spondence not having reached the Association. The tribes of Arabs
which he was anxious to visit were of the most savage kind, and his
means of protection insufficient. ‘The consequence was,’ says Mr.
Barker, “that poor Burckhardt was stripped to the skin; and he
returned to Sukhne, his body blistered with the rays of the sun, and
without having accomplished any one of the objects of his journey.
It was on this excursion to the desert that he had so hard a struggle
with an Arab lady, who took a fancy to the only garment which
the delicacy or the compassion of the men had left him.’ He had
previously been robbed of his watch and compass.”
In May, 1812, we find him at Damascus, on the eve of making
a journey along the borders of the Dead Sea, into Arabia Petraea
on his way to Cairo. In this, which lasted from the middle of June
to the end of September, he states himself to have been ‘considerably
worn by the fatigues of the road and the intense heat of the sea-
son.’ By the treachery of a Sheik, and the villainy of a Bedouin
* It is prudent in travelling among the Arabs to wink at their impositions rather than
quarrel with them. Last year a party of English officers got into a dispute with their
Arab guides, on their way to Palmyra, when one of the former (Captain Butler of the
dragoons) was wounded ; their camels were taken from them, and they were obliged
to tread back their steps on foot. Unfortunately they lodged a complaint before the
Pasha of Damascus, who sent out his troops that very evening, and they brought in the
heads often Arabs. The consequence will be, that sooner or later ten travellers on that
road must be sacrificed, as the retribution of blood is never abandoned by the Bedouin
Arabs.
whom.
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 441
º, whom he had recommended, Burckhardt encountered many dif-
In ficulties, and was obliged to walk from one encampment to ano-
# ther, until he found another Bedouin, who engaged to carry him to
tº Egypt. His account of the Valley of Ghor, or Araba, contained
* in a letter to the Secretary of the Association, is too interesting to
# be passed over.
* “The valley of Ghor is continued to the south of the Dead Sea; at
tº about sixteen hours distance from the extremity of the Dead Sea, its
§ name is changed into that of Araba, and it runs in almost a straight
ſº line, declining somewhat to the west, as far as Akaba, at the
iſ extremity of the eastern branch of the Red Sea. The existence
as of this valley appears to have been unknown to ancient as well as
2 modern geographers, although it is a very remarkable feature in the
º geography of Syria, and Arabia Petraea, and is still more interesting for
its productions. In this valley the manna is still found; it drops from
the sprigs of several trees, but principally from the Gharrab ; it is col-
lected by the Arabs, who make cakes of it, and who eat it with butter;
* they call it Assal Beyrouk, or the honey of Beyrouk. Indigo, gum
nº arabic, the silk tree called Asheyr, whose fruiten closes a white silky
ºf substance, of which the Arabs twist their matches, grow in this valley.
It is inhabited near the Dead Sea in summer-time by a few Bedouin
peasants only, but during the winter months it becomes the meeting
place of upwards of a dozen powerful Arab tribes. It is probable that
the trade between Jerusalem and the Red Sea was carried on through
this valley. The caravan, loaded at Eziongeber with the treasures of
Ophir, might, after a march of six or seven days, deposit its loads in
the warehouses of Solomon. This valley deserves to be thoroughly
* known; its examination will lead to many interesting discoveries and
Bº would be one of the most important objects of a Palestine traveller.
* At the distance of a two long days journey north-east from Akaba, is a
iſ rivulet and valley in the Djebel Shera, on the east side of the Araba,
called Wady Mousa. This place is very interesting for its antiquities
and the remains of an ancient city, which I conjecture to be Petra, the
is capital of Arabia Petraea, a place which, as far as I know, no European
º traveller has ever visited. In the red sand stone of which the valley is
º composed, are upwards of two hundred and fifty sepulchres entirely cut
* ºut of the rock, the greater part of them with Grecian ornaments.
... There is a mausoleum in the shape of a temple, of colossal dimensions,
likewise cut out of the rock, with all its apartments, its vestibule, pe-
.# ristyle, &c. It is a most beautiful specimen of Grecian architecture,
and in perfect preservation. There are other mausolea with obelisks,
... apparently in the Egyptian style, a whole amphitheatre cut out of the
rock with the remains of a palace and of several temples. Upon the
a summit of the mountain which closes the narrow valley on its western
** side, is the tomb of Haroun (Aaron, brother of Moses). It is held in
* great veneration by the Arabs. (If I recollect right, there is a passage
in Eusebius, in which he says that the tomb of Aaron was situated
near Petra). The information of Pliny and Strabo upon the site of
º Petra,
º
                      
                  
                  
                  442 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
Petra, agree with the position of Wady Mousa. I regretted most
sensibly that I was not in circumstances that admitted of my observing
these antiquities in all their details, but it was necessary for my safety
not to inspire the Arabs with suspicions that might probably have im-
peded the progress of my journey, for I was an unprotected stranger,
known to be a townsman, and thus an object of constant curiosity to
the Bedouins, who watched all my steps in order to know why I had
preferred that road to Egypt, to the shorter one along the Mediterra-
nean coast.”—p. xlv. -
Of this journey the Association are in possession of a detailed
and very interesting account. ".
A caravan of Twatees, who dwell on the great road between
Fezzan and Tombuctoo, was setting out on their return, when he
arrived at Cairo; but having no funds to equip himself, and too
little acquaintance with the Egyptian and African character to take
such measures as would secure his real character from being dis-
covered, he determined on a voyage as far as Dongola, as a pre-
paratory step to the knowledge of the Negro nations, and of those
who traffic for slaves; and thus to facilitate his future travels in
the interior of Africa. In January 1813 he left Cairo on his
first journey through Nubia, (the journal of which forms part of
the present volume,) and returned to Assuan on the 30th of March,
thirty five-days after setting out from this place, during which he
only allowed himself a single half-day's rest at Derr.
No opportunity offering of proceeding into western Africa, he
projected a second journey to the banks of the Atbara, or As-
taboras, and from thence to Djidda or Moka, and to return by land
along the eastern shore of the Red Sea to Cairo. The detailed ac-
count of this expedition, as far as Djidda on the Arabian coast
of the Red Sea, forms the subject of the greater part of the volume
now before us; and we may here remark, that the extraordinary
economical manner in which he travelled, and the conscientious
feeling with which he expended the funds of the Association, are
among the prominent characteristics of Mr. Burckhardt. In a letter
to Sir Joseph Banks, from Djidda, he says, “When I left Egypt,
I had only sixty dollars, and an ass to carry me; twenty-five dollars
were spent on the way to Shendy. I was thus much straitened, and
I had scarcely enough to buy a slave, a camel, and the necessary
provisions for my journey to the Red Sea.’. In this journey he
crossed that desert to the westward of Dongola by which Bruce re-
turned from Abyssinia, and which has been described in such fright-
ful terms by this enterprizing traveller; but the dangers and the suf-
ferings of Burckhardt were occasioned neither by the privations
of the Desert, nor its poisonous winds, nor its moving pillars ;
- - - f sand;
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 443
lºgº
tº Iſis
Tºlºs
|Nº|| ||
ºwn
gº.
inji
tº
Rlſº
|R1
thſº
ſing
ight
|s, ºf
|| ||
# (nº
| imſ
iſ
digº
Ir,
Stëſ) |
Alſº
º
Tº
Aºi
tºjº
e tº
º
sº
sand; but by his apparent poverty, which exposed him to every
kind of insult from the wretches with whom he travelled.
At this place,(Djidda,) he was fortunate enough to obtain a sup-
ply of money by the means of Yahya Effendi, the physician of
Tousoun Pasha, a man educated in Europe, who had known him
at Cairo. A whole year nearly had elapsed after his departure from
Djidda before the Association received any further advices from
their traveller, his first letter being dated from Cairo, after his re-
turn from Arabia; but we are told by the Editor, that, “in the fol-
lowing year, he transmitted to the Association the most accurate and '
complete account of the Hedjaz, including the cities of Mekka and
Medina, which has ever been received in Europe;’ that “he resided
at Mekka during the whole time of the pilgrimage, and passed
through the various ceremonies of the occasion, without the
smallest suspicion having arisen as to his real character;' and that
‘the Pasha of Egypt having thought proper to put his qualifications
as a Mussulman to the test, by directing the two most learned pro-
fessors of the law, then in Arabia, to examine him on his know-
ledge of the Koran, and of the practical as well as doctrinal pre-
cepts of their faith, the result was a complete conviction upon the
minds of his hearers, or at least of his two examiners, of his being
not only a true, but a very learned Mussulman.’ -
Important as were the experience and information acquired by
this journey into Arabia, it would appear that they were but
too dearly purchased, as his constitution never recovered from the
effects of that fatal climate, which seldom fails to exert its perni-
cious influence on all strangers who visit it. In June 1815, in a letter
to Sir Joseph Banks, from Cairo, he says, the “approbation of my
employers has been to me the source of most heartfeltjoy, and the
encouragement which I have derived from it has entirely banished
from my mind that despondency which my bodily sufferings had
caused.’ After telling him that he had passed three months at Mec-
ca, he adds: “I performed on the 25th of November, in the com-
Pany of more than eighty thousand pilgrims, the Hadj to Mount
Arafat.' In January he set out from Mecca to Medina, a journey
often or eleven days, mostly through deserts. Six days after his ar-
ill at the latter place, he was attacked by a fever, which, he says,
kept him chained to his carpet until April.” From Medina he de-
ºënded to the sea-coast at Yembo. Here the plague, a calamity
*herto unknown to Arabia, had lately made its appearance, and
"rayages were so great that the inhabitants had fled, and the town
*found almost deserted. After a stay of fifteen days,he embarked
** country ship, landed on the promontory of Ras Mohammed, in
ſ * Peninsula of Mount Sinai, whence he reached Tor, where he
*red a relapse of his fever, which detained him a fortnight; he
- then
                      
                  
                  
                  444 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
then took the road of Suez, and arrived at Cairo on the 19th of J une,
1815, after an absence of nearly two years and a half.
In the course of the succeeding nine months spent in Egypt, in
anxious expectation of a caravan setting out for western Africa,
he had several relapses of his fever: on the appearance of the
plague in Cairo, in April 1816, unwilling to shut himself up, and
more so to expose himself to infection, he conceived that he could
not do better than retire, while it lasted, to the Bedouins, who
enjoy a total exemption from it. Accordingly, he set out for
the peninsula of Mount Sinai on the 20th of April, and returned
to Cairo on the 18th of June. t -
His account of this journey, together with his history of the Be-
douins, whom he pronounces infinitely superior in all respects to
the Turks, will prove exceedingly interesting; as it is from a perfect
knowledge of their manners, laws and institutions, that we are able
duly to appreciate the truth of the early history of mankind; and it
is satisfactory to find in so able an observer as Burckhardt, “ the
vindicator of the authenticity of the sacred historian of Beni Israel."
He now felt himself quite confident of bringing his African expe-
dition to a happy issue: “If,’ says he, “I fail, it must cost my suc-
cessor many years of apprenticeship to be able to enter the gates of
Lybia with as much confidence as I shall now be able to do.’
Among the pilgrims collected at Mecca, in the Hadj of the year 1817,
he had encountered a party of Moggrebyns, or western Africans,
who were expected to return home, as usual, by the way of Cairo
and Fezzan. With this caravan he intended to set off for Fezzan,
with hopes not more sanguine than reasonable of being able to
penetrate from thence to the countries bordering on the Niger; and
by tracing its course, to reap the reward of his long perseverance
in acquiring authentic information respecting the unknown regions
of Africa, traversed by this celebrated but mysterious stream. Pro-
vidence ordained otherwise. Early in October, he was attacked by
a return of dysentery, which in the course of ten days carried him
off-the afflicting account of his death will be found in No.
XXXVI. of this journal. To that we must refer our readers; and
conclude the brief introductory sketch of this highly gifted man in
the words of his editor.
‘As a traveller, he possessed talents and acquirements, which were
rendered doubly useful, by his qualities as a man. To the fortitude
and ardour of mind, which had stimulated him to devote his life to
the advancement of science, in the paths of geographical discovery,
he joined a temper and prudence, well calculated to ensure his triumph
over every difficulty. His liberality and high principles of honour, his
admiration of those generous qualities in others, his detestation of in-
- justice
g
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 445
justice and fraud, his disinterestedness and keen sense of gratitude"
were no less remarkable, than his warmth of heart and active benevo-
lence, which he often exercised towards persons in distress, to the
great prejudice of his limited means. No stronger example can easily
be given of sensibility united with greatness of mind, than the feelings
which he evinced on his death-bed, when his mother's name, and the
failure of the great object of his travels, were the only subjects upon
which he could not speak without hesitation. By the African Asso-
ciation his loss is severely felt, nor can they easily hope to supply the
place of one whom birth, education, genius and industry, conspired
to render well adapted to whatever great enterprize his fortitude and
honourable ambition might have prompted him to undertake. The
strongest testimony of their approbation of his zealous services is due
from his employers, to their late regretted traveller; but it is from the
public and from posterity, that his memory will receive its due reward
of fame; for it cannot be doubted, that his name will be held in ho-
nourable remembrance, a slong as any credit is given to those who have
fallen in the cause of science.’—p. lxxxix.
In the review which we are about to take of the two Nubian jour-
neys contained in this volume, we must necessarily confine ourselves
to a very limited and imperfect outline, in which, however, we shall
be careful to use the traveller's own words, wherever we can do
so ; for although they are those of a foreigner, and, as he tells us,
but once transcribed from the collection of daily notes, written in
the corner of an open court, by the side of his camels, under the
influence of the burning winds of the desert, and the sufferings of a
painful ophthalmia, they are penned in all the simplicity of truth,
and we feel that no alteration of ours would tend to their improve-
ment.f. - -
Mr. Burckhardt left Assouan, “the most romantic spot in Egypt,
but little deserving the lofty praises which some travellers have
bestowed on it for its antiquities,’ on the 24th of February, 1813,
.** His present to the University of Cambridge, of the choicest collection of Arabic
manuscripts in Europe, was intended as a mark of his gratitude, for the literary bene-
fits, and the kind attention which he received at Cambridge, when preparing himself
for his travels. Of his disregard of pecuniary matters, and his generous feeling towards
those who were dear to him, a single example will be sufficient. His father having
bequeathed at his death about ten thousand pounds, to be divided into five equal parts,
one to his widow, and one to each of his children, Lewis Burckhardt immediately
gave up his portion, to increase that of his mother. If, he said, I perish in my present
undertaking, the money will be where it ought to be; if I return to England, my em-
ployers will undoubtedly find me some means of subsistence.”
f In the number of the barefaced impositions of the knight of the press in Bridge-
street, (published among his Monthly trash,) is a something under the name of
• Burckhardt's Travels in Egypt and Nubia.’ It consists merely of a few letters
of a Mr. Buckingham, who happened to fall in with Mr. Burckhardt at Esné, and
again at Djidda on his return from Mecca; and collected a few particulars from
him in the course of conversation. These letters the knight has ‘conveyed' out of the Cal-
cutta Journal : the lying ‘Introduction' is all his own.
with
                      
                  
                  
                  446 * Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
; :
i - - -
with two dromedaries and an Arab guide. This man was a na-
tive of Nubia, for whose services he bargained as far as Derr, a
journey of 140 miles, and for which one Spanish dollar was con-
sidered as ample payment. The Nubians of Assouan were, at the
time of his departure, at war with their southern neighbours, on ac-
count of the latter having intercepted a vessel laden with dates be-
longing to a merchant of the former. In the scuffle a woman in
a state of pregnancy had been killed by a stone. The southern party,
to whom the deceased belonged, were now demanding from their
enemies “the debt of blood,' not only for the woman, but for the
child also which she bore in her womb; and this dispute had not
been adjusted on our traveller's return.
Immediately beyond Assouan the mountains approach so near
to the Nile as to leave scarcely the width of a hundred yards of
cultivable ground. , Our traveller passed the first might with
the Shikh of Wady Debot: (it may here be observed, once
for all, that though the term wady generally means a river, it
is used, along the borders of the Nile as far as Sennaar, for
a valley, or ravine in the mountains.) “Here, says Mr. Burck-
hardt, “I first tasted the country dish—which, during a journey
of five weeks, became my constant food—thin, unleavened, and
slightly baked cakes of Dhourra, (Holcus Arundinaceus,) served
up with sweet or sour milk.” As the mention of this universal
dish is perpetually occurring, we shall here give our author’s de-
scription of it. It seems to be nearly allied to the teff cakes of
the Abyssinians, and not very different from our English crumpets.
“The chief article of food is dhourra bread. As they have no mills,
not even hand-mills, they grind the dhourra by strewing it upon a
smooth stone, about two feet in length and one foot in breadth, which
is placed in a sloping position before the person employed to grind.
At the lower extremity of the stone, a hole is made in the ground to
contain a broken earthen jar, wooden bowl, or some such vessel,
which receives the dhourra flower. The grinding is effected by means
of a small stone flat at the bottom; this is held in both hands and moved
backwards and forwards on the sloping stone by the grinder, who kneels
to perform the operation. If the bread is to be of superior quality,
the dhourra is well washed, and then dried in the sun; but generally
they put it under the grinding stone, without taking the trouble of
washing it. In grinding, the grain is kept continually wet by sprinkling
some water upon it from a bason placed near, and thus the meal which
falls into the pot, resembles a liquid paste of the coarsest kind, mixed
with chaff and dirt. With this paste an earthen jar is filled, containing
as much as is necessary for the day's consumption. It is left there from
twenty-four to thirty-six hours, during which time it slightly ferments
and acquires a sourish taste. No leaven is used; the sour liquid is
poured in small quantities upon an iron plate placed over the fire, or
+ when
                      
                  
                  
                  t Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. } 447
º
*
º
º
t
when no iron is at hand, upon a thin well smoothed stone: and if the
Iron or stone is thoroughly heated, the cake is baked in three or four
minutes. As each cake is small, and must be baked separately, it re-
quires a long time to prepare a sufficient quantity; for it is the custom
to bring several dozen to table while hot, in a large wooden bowl :
some onion sauce, or broth, or milk, is then poured upon them; the
sauce is called Mallah. The bread is never salted, but salt is mixed
with the sauce. This dish is the common and daily food both at dinner
and supper. Although very coarse it is not disagreeable, and the sour-
ish taste renders it peculiarly palatable during the heat of the mid-day
hours. It is of easy digestion, and I always found it agree with me;
but if left to stand for a day it becomes ill tasted, for which reason it
is made immediately before dinner or supper. Cakes of this kind, but
still thinner, and formed of a paste left for two or three days to turn
quite sour, are made for travelling provision. After being well toasted
over the fire, they are left to dry thoroughly in the sun, they are then
Crumbled into small pieces and put into leather bags, called Abra.
They thus keep for many months, and serve the traders upon occa-
ions, when it is impossible to prepare a supper with fire. Some melted
butter is poured over a few handfuls of this food, and appetite is sel-
dom wanting to make it palatable. Sometimes the crumbs are soaked
in water, and when the water has acquired a sourish taste it is drunk
ºff; this is called by the traders “the caravan beverage, Sharbet el
Jellabe.” ’—p. 219. -
. The whole of the road to Derr, on the east bank of the river,
perfectly safe, provided the traveller be accompanied by a native.
he people were every where curious and inquisitive. From
Assouan to Dehymt the granite chain of mountains had been un-
terrupted; from the latter place to the second cataract at Wady
alſa, the mountain next the river was sand-stone, with the ex-
ºption of some granite rocks above Tafa, extending as far as
Kalabshé. At Gyrshé, two days journey from Assouan, the plain
between the river and the mountains is about a mile in width; it
** poor village, and two-thirds of the cottages were abandoned
''' consequence of the oppressions of the Mamelouks in their
flight from the T urks, and the arrival of the latter. The Mame-
** were driven to Dongola, where they still remain. After
"ºir, expulsion from Nubia “a terrible famine broke out, in
which one-third of the population perished through absolute
Yºut; the remainder retired into Egypt, and settled in the val-
** below Assouan and Esmé, where numbers of them were
!"ied off by the small-pox.’ A part of the inhabitants who
*d survived this dreadful malady had but just returned.
On the arrival of the Mamelouks at Argo, one of the principal
Phºes belonging to the king of Dongola, they were only able to
"ter about 300 effective men, and as many armed slaves, the
wretcle
                      
                  
                  
                  448 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
wretched remains of upwards of 4000, against whom Moham-
med Aly commenced the contest for the possession of Egypt. The
fate of the twelve hundred, who, with their chief, Shahin Beg, were
treacherously slaughtered in the castle of Cairo, has more than
once been described; but a similar massacre at Esmé is but little
known, and, as Mr. Burckhardt observes, the circumstances attend-
ing it furnish another proof of the infatuation which has always
presided over the councils of the Mamelouks.
“These fierce horsemen had sought refuge in the mountains inhabited
by the Ababde and Bisharye Arabs, where all their horses died from want
of food, and where even the richest Begs had been obliged to expend
their last farthing, in order to feed their troops, provisions being sold to
them by the Arabs at the most exorbitant prices. Thus cut off from all
the comforts and luxuries of Egypt, to which they had been accus-
tomed from their infancy, Ibrahim Beg thought it a propitious mo-
ment to ensnare them, as his father had done their brethren at Cairo.
With this design, he sent them the most solemn promises of safe con-
duct, if they would descend from the mountain, and pledged himself
that they should be all placed in situations under the government of
Mohammed Aly, corresponding with the rank which each individual
then held among themselves. It will hardly be believed that, well ac-
quainted as they were with the massacre at Cairo in the preceding
year, more than four hundred Mamelouks, headed by several Begs,
accepted the delusive offer, and descended in small parties from the
mountains. They were stripped in the way by faithless guides, so that,
with the exception of about thirty, the whole reached the camp of
Ibrahim Beg, then near Esné, in a state of nakedness. After the differ-
ent parties had all joined, and it was ascertained that no others were
ready to follow them, the signal of carnage was given, and the whole
of them, with about two hundred black slaves, were unmercifully
slaughtered in one night. Two French Mamelouks only were saved,
through the interest of the physician of Ibrahim Beg. Similar instances
of perfidy daily occur among the Turks; and it is matter of astonish-
ment, that men should still be found stupid enough to allow themselves
to be thus ensnared by them.”—p. 13.
... At Korosko the shore widens, and a grove of date trees enlivens
the banks of the Nile the whole way from hence to Ibrim. Groups
of houses occur at every hundred yards; and as far as Derr,
the fields are as carefully cultivated as in any part of Egypt. At
Derr Mr. Burckhardt alighted, as all travellers do, at the house
of Hassan Kashef, who inquired the object of his journey. Encou-
raged by the success of Messrs. Legh and Smelt, he replied that he
had merely come on a tour of pleasure through Nubia, like the two
gentlemen who had been at Derr before him; but his Turkish dress
and manners and his perfect knowledge of Arabic created a suspi-
- cloil
/
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 449
* *
* don in the bystanders that he was practising deception. His pre-
* sent to the Kashef, though handsome under ordinary circum-
stances, when contrasted with that which he had just received from
** Mr. Legh, to the value of about 1,000 piastres, appeared very insig-
* nificant and “un-English.”—“Besides,’ said Hassan, “this gentle-
* man proceeded only as far as Ibrim; whereas you give me a few
* ifles, and wish to go even to the second cataract!’—Thus it is,
that Englishmen in every part of the world spoil the market by their
tº extravagant generosity. The Kashef, however, had a caravan just
proceeding with merchandize to Egypt; and Burckhardt hinted,
that if he sent him back to Esnê, and the Beg was there informed
of the little attention paid to his letter of recommendation, (which
Burckhardt had presented to him,) he might be induced to levy a
* contribution on his merchandize. This became a matter of serious
... reflexion with the Kashef, who shortly after thus addressed our tra-
... Weller: “Whoever you may be, whether an Englishman, like the
two other persons who passed here, or an agent of the pasha, I shall
a not send you back unsatisfied; you may proceed; but farther than
ºr Sukkot the road is not safe for you; and from thence therefore you
tº will return.' Thus sanctioned, he proceeded to the southward, ac-
ºr companied by a Bedouin guide. -
* * . As far as Derr, the eastern bank of the Nile is better adapted
** for cultivation than the western, being covered with the rich
* deposit of the river; whereas on the western side, the sands of the
º desert are impetuously swept to the very brink of the river by
*... the north-west winds which prevail during the winter and spring
º seasons; and it is in those places only, where the sandy torrent is
... arrested by the mountains, that the narrow plain admits of culti-
lººtion: the eastern shore is in consequence much more populous
is than the western; though it is not a little singular that all the chief
tº emains of antiquity are on the latter—“perhaps,’ says Mr. Burck-
nº hardt, “the ancient Egyptians worshipped their bounteous deities
more particularly in those places, where they had most to dread
, ſº from the inimical deity Typhon, or the personified desert, who
... lands continually opposed to the beneficent Osiris, or the wa-
ºters of the Nile.’ • * -
if: Not far from Derr our traveller noticed a temple of the most
remote antiquity. It was hewn entirely out of the sand-stone rock
º iWith its pronaos, sekos or cella, and adyton; ‘the gods of Egypt
º ſhe observes) seem to have been worshipped here long before
...they were lodged in the gigantic temples of Karnac and Gorne;
which are, to all appearance, the most ancient temples in Egypt.
jº The Bedouin who accompanied our traveller was of that branch
"ºf the Ababde, who pasture their cattle on the banks of the river
and its islands from Derr to Dongola: they are very poor; mats
WOL. XXII. N (). XLIV. F F of
i;
hy
                      
                  
                  
                  450 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
of the leaves of palm-trees form their tents: they do not permit
their women to intermarry with the Nubians; and they have through
ages preserved the purity of their race. ‘They pride themselves,
and justly,' (says our traveller,) “in the beauty of their girls’
They are an honest and hospitable people, and of a more kindly
disposition than any of the other tribes of Nubia. The inhabitants
of a small island near the village Ketta are thus described.
“These people, who all speak Arabic as well as the Nouba language,
are quite black, but have nothing of the Negro features. The men
generally go naked, except a rag twisted round their middle; the wo-
men have a coarse shirt thrown about them. Both sexes suffer the
hair of the head to grow; they cut it above the neck, and twist it all
over in thin ringlets, in a way similar to that of the Arab of Souakin,
whose portrait is given by Mr. Salt in Lord Valentia's Travels. Their
hair is very thick, but not woolly; the men never comb it, but the
women sometimes do; the latter wear on the back part of the head,
ringlets, or a small ornament, made of mother of pearl and Venetian
glass beads. Both men and women grease their head and neck with
butter whenever they can afford it; this custom answers two purposes;
it refreshes the skin heated by the sun, and keeps off vermin.”—p. 31.
The castle of Ibrim and the inhabitants of its territory have
an Aga who is independent of the governors of Nubia, with whom
they are often at war. They are of white complexion as com-
pared with the Nubians, and still retain the features of their an-
cestors, the Bosnian soldiers who were sent to garrison Ibrim by
Sultan Selym. “In no part of the eastern world,’ says Mr.
Burckhardt, “have I ever found property in such perfect security
as in Ibrim. The inhabitants leave the dhourra in heaps on the
field without a watch during the night; their cattle feed on the
banks of the river without any one to tend them; and the best
parts of their household furniture are left all night under the palm-
trees around the dwelling.’—But he adds ‘that the Nubians in
general are free from the vice of pilfering;' and, what is more im-
portant, that ‘ travellers in Nubia have little to fear from the ill will
of the peasants: it is the rapacious spirit of the governors that is
to be dreaded.’
Near Wady Halfa is the second cataract of the Nile, whose noise
was heard in the night at a considerable distance." This part of
the river is described as very romantic: the banks, overgrown
with large tamarisks, have a picturesque appearance amidst the
black and green rocks, which, forming pools and lakes, expand the
width of the river to more than two miles. Between this place
and Sukkot the navigation is interrupted for about 100 miles by
rapids, similar to that at Assouan : in some places, however, the
river is tolerably free from rocks and islands; in these its bed is
narrow,
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 451
il
|
narrow, and its banks are high; near Mershed, Mr. Burckhardt
says, ‘ I could throw a stone over to the opposite side.”
At Wady Seras our traveller, put up for the night, at a hut of
Kerrarish Arabs, who were watching the produce of a few cotton
fields, and bean plantations. They had not tasted bread for the last
two months. Burckhardt made them a present of some dhourra,
on condition of their letting the women (who are seldom permitted
to enjoy this luxury) partake of it with them; the latter immediately
set to work to grind it between two granite stones; “and the girls
sat up eating and singing the whole night.”
The rock, which as far as Wady Halfa had every where been
sand-stone, changed at the second cataract into grunstein and
grauwacke. The mountain crossed by our traveller to the south-
ward of Seras was of granite and quartz. The Arabs, who act
as guides in these desolate mountains, have devised a singular
mode of extorting presents from the traveller. They first beg a
present; if refused, they collect a heap of sand, and placing a
stone at each extremity of it, they apprize the traveller that his
tomb is made. Before he got out of this mountainous district, Mr.
Burckhardt had a practical proof of this custom ; having refused to
give any thing to one of these grave-diggers, the man set about
making his sand-heap; upon this our traveller alighted and began
another, observing, that ‘ as they were brethren, it was but just that
they should be buried together.” The fellow laughed; and they
mutually agreed to destroy each other's labours: on Burckhardt's
remounting his horse, the disappointed Arab exclaimed from the
Coran, “No mortal knows the spot upon earth where his grave
shall be digged.”
At Wady Okame, the dominions of the governor of Sukkot be-
f and the country opens out on each side of the river. Having a
etter of recommendation from Hassan Kashef to the governor of
Sukkot, who resides at Kolbe, an island in the Nile, Mr. Burck-
hardt crossed over in a kind of ferry-boat called a ramous. It
consists of the trunks of date-trees loosely tied together, and worked
by a paddle about four feet in length, forked at the upper extremity,
and lashed to the raft by ropes of straw. Its close resemblance to
those represented on the walls of the Egyptian temples, shews that
man, here at least, has not been an improving animal. “This is
not a country,” said the Governor, (who received him very coldly,)
‘ for people like you to travel in, without being accompanied
by caravans.’ He gave him, however, a letter to his son, then
at Ferke. Here the whole neighbourhood was assembled to partake
of a cow slaughtered in honour of a deceased relation of the chief.
A present of a piece of soap procured his permission to proceed.
The district of Say begins at Aamara, on the plain of which
F F 2 are
                      
                  
                  
                  452 . Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
are the ruins of a fine Egyptian temple. The shafts of six large
columns of calcareous stone remain, being the only specimen to
met with of that material, those of Egypt being all of sand-
stone. Mr. Hamilton has observed, that “the ancient Egyp-
tians do not appear to have employed granite in any of their build-
ings in Upper Egypt, except in the obelisks and some few of their
propyla.’ The castle of Say is built of alternate layers of stone
and brick, on an island of the Nile, and, like Ibrim and Assouan,
has its own Aga, independent of the governors of Nubia; like these,
too, its territories are inhabited by the descendants of Bosnian
soldiers. Beyond Say, thick groves of date trees and numerous
habitations crowded both banks of the river. ‘The dates of Sukkot
and Say are preferred to those of Ibrim, and are considered superior
to all that grow on the banks of the Nile, from Sennaar down
to Alexandria; they are of the largest kind, generally three inches
in length.” -
On the 13th March, Mr. Burckhardt reached the territory of
Mahass, and passed several villages, the houses of which were con-
structed only of mats of palm-leaves. The castle of Tinareh had
been seized by a rebel cousin of the king of Mahass, but having
been besieged for several weeks by the two brothers Hosseyn and
Mohammed Kashefs, it had capitulated the evening preceding his
arrival. He visited the camp of the latter, the son, on the mother's
side, of a Darfour slave, but without any of that mildness which
generally characterizes the negro countenance.—‘ He rolled his
eyes at me,’ says our traveller, “like a madman, and having drank
copiously of palm-wine at the castle, he was so intoxicated that he
could hardly keep on his legs.’ Goat-skins of palm-wine were
brought in, and in the course of half an hour, the whole camp was
as drunk as their chief. Muskets succeeded; and a feu-de-joie was
fired with ball in the hut where all were sitting. ‘ I must confess,'
says Burckhardt, that at this moment I repented of having come to
the camp.” At length, however, the whole party dropped asleep,
and a few hours brought the kashef to his senses, so that he could
talk rationally. Burckhardt's situation, however, was not much im-
proved. He was suspected of being an agent of the Pasha of Egypt;
—“But,' said the kashef's, Arabic secretary, “at Mahass we spit
at Mohammed Aly's beard, and cut off the heads of those who
are enemies to the Mamelouks’—a fate with which he was
frequently threatened during the night; and which, had it not been
for the arrival of the governor of Sukkot’s nephew who confirmed
his account of himself, would in all probability have been carried
into execution.
“I was now,” says our traveller, without a friend or protector,
in a country only two days and a half distant from the northern
- limits
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. . 453
limits of Dongola, the newly conquered kingdom of the Mame-
louks, against whose interests I was suspected to be acting, while
the governors of Mahass supported them.” Under these circum-
stances, he prudently determined to return; but the kashef abruptly
ordered him to stay till next day. Burckhardt however expressed
his anxiety to reach Derr as speedily as possible, and was dismissed
with the usual mixture of insult and contempt. His intention was
to cross over to the western side of the Nile, but there was no con-
veyance of any kind. This the more mortified him, as opposite to
Soleb there was a fine village and the ruins of a temple, which ap-
peared to have been of the size of the largest found in Egypt; be-
sides, he had reason to believe it to be the most southern specimen
of Egyptian architecture.
At the village of Kolbe, our traveller obtained a ramous for the
baggage, and he and his guide swam the river at the tails of their
camels, each beast having an inflated goat-skin tied to its neck. He
now availed himself of the opportunity of examining, in his way
down, the hitherto undiscovered temple of Ebsambul, whose front,
sculptured and fashioned out of the living rock, and rising imme-
diately from the bank of the river, is still in a state of complete
preservation. In this front stand six colossal figures, representing
juvenile persons; they are placed in narrow recesses, three on each
side of the entrance; their height from the ground to the knee is about
six feet and a half. The spaces of the smooth rock between the
niches are covered with hieroglyphics, as are also the walls of the
apartments. This temple Mr. Burckhardt thinks to have been the
model of that at Derr, but much anterior to it in point of time, the
style in which the sculptures are executed denoting a high antiquity.
On the side of the mountain facing the north, against which there
was a vast accumulation of sand, and at a distance of about 200
yards from the temple, the upper parts were discovered of four im-
mense colossal statues cut out of the living rock, all the other parts
being buried beneath the sands, which are drifted here in torrents
from the desert. The head of one of these statues was yet above
the surface; “and,’ says our author, “it has a most expressive
youthful countenance, approaching nearer to the Grecian model of
beauty than that of any ancient Egyptian figure I have seen; in-
deed, were it not for a thin oblong beard, it might well pass for a
head of Pallas.”—“This statue,” he adds, “measures seven yards
across the shoulders, and cannot therefore, if in an upright posture,
be less than sixty-five or seventy feet in height! the ear is one yard
and four inches in length.” Mr. Burckhardt conjectured, that if the
sand could be cleared away, an immense temple would be dis-
covered, to the entrance of which the four colossal figures served as
ornaments, in the same manner as the six belonging to the neigh-
F F 3 bouring,
                      
                  
                  
                  454 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
bouring temple of Isis; and he concluded, from a hawk-headed
figure surmounted by a globe, in the centre of the four statues, that
this buried temple had been dedicated to Osiris. It was this con-
jecture that induced Belzoni to undertake the bold enterprize of un-
covering it as far down as the doorway, which he effected, with the
able assistance and personal exertions of Captains Mangles and
Irby, of the royal navy, whose names were unintentionally omitted
in our former account. Mr. Burckhardt does not hesitate to pro-
nounce the works of Ebsambul to belong to the finest period of
Egyptian sculpture. -
The account given by Belzoni and his associates of these extra-
ordinary excavated temples, sculptured out of a whole mountain, in-
duced Mr. Bankes, whose name we have frequently had occasion to
mention, to make a second visit, in company with Mr. Salt, to ex-
plore the sacred recesses more minutely. For the fatigue and
expense of this enterprize, and the exertions of a month in re-
moving the sand, and excavating the rubbish, &c. they were amply
rewarded by many new and brilliant discoveries; among the first
of which must be reckoned that of a Greek inscription on the leg
of one of the colossal statues which guards the entrance, record-
ing the visit of Psammeticus (spelt 'PAMMATIXO1, in the da-
tive, and written in very ancient letters) which, from appearances,
it was judged must have been engraved when the temple was al-
ready encumbered with sand. This is probably the most ancient in-
scription that exists in any intelligible language, as Psammeticus
died more than 600 years before Christ—more than 100 years be-
fore the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses the Persian—and nearly
200 years before the visit of Herodotus to that country. It is va-
luable as an additional corroboration of the truth and accuracy of
the Father of Profane History, from whom we learn that this
Psammeticus was one of the twelve princes who ruled Egypt; that
by the assistance of some Ionians and Carians—“men of brass'—
he subdued his eleven associates, and became sole sovereign of the
country; that in return for this service they had lands assigned to
them, and that they taught the Greek language to the Egyptian
youth; a circumstance which affords a satisfactory explanation of
the existence of a Greek inscription at that early period. It is for
those, if there be such, who affect to doubt or to deny the existence
of Greek letters at this time, to prove the contrary; but without
the knowledge of letters, it would be difficult to understand on
what ground Herodotus could affirm, that “we certainly know all
things that passed in Egypt since the reign of Psammeticus to our
time; or how Pisistratus in less than a century afterwards could
have collected at Athens a large library.
This inscription is valuable in another point of view, as it may
assist,
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 455
lift.
ſº
lish
tº:
tiºn
in Mº
tiºn
tº:
: is:
5 is
lºng
hijº
\|\!
# is
amº
lsº
º
iſiºn
ºntriſt!
|X):
Omº
tº
mºſt
as 'sº
in ſº
al-ºl
|||ſ,
alſº
lºſſ!
ldſ:
mid,
sº
alſº
t) º
wº
º
º
n: |
Yº
tº
assist, with the corresponding hieroglyphics, to decypher those
mysterious characters: and it is peculiarly valuable as an undoubted
specimen of the advanced state of the arts among the ancient
Egyptians; for the temple of Ebsambul” is said to contain the finest
examples of sculpture, of painting, and of design, now existing .
either in Nubia or in Egypt. By a new and ingenious contri-
vance for giving light within the temple, Mr. Bankes has made
out the complete historical design on the wall of one of the cham-
bers, in which, besides the usual delineations of fortresses, war-
chariots, &c. he observed three horsemen mounted without saddles,
but with regular bridles. .
But Mr. Bankes's discoveries are not confined to Ebsambul. He
has examined, and re-examined, every ruin between it and Thebes;
and the result of his discoveries and those of Mr. Salt has fully
established the value and importance of the Greek and Latin in-
scriptions, (as suggested and exemplified in Mr. Hamilton's excel-
lent work on Egypt,) in ascertaining the dates of many of the tem-
ples, and in discriminating those built by the Greeks and Romans
from those of the ancient Egyptians. Thus at Philae, besides the
discovery of three new chambers in the great temple, an inscription
of the time of Ptolemy and Arsinoe, on an altar which has been
built into the lower part of the wall of the long colonnade next the
river, as a part of the materials, proves unquestionably the whole
building to be posterior to that reign, and probably to the Ptolemean
dynasty. In the same temple were discovered, under the painted
plaster, several Greek inscriptions relating to Ptolemy Philopater;
and one of them, that had been hid by the plaster, to the Caesars;
thus affording undoubted proofs that the paintings, the colours
of which were as vivid as those in the Egyptian chambers, are
of a later date than the building of the temple. The sculpture on
the first propylon of the great temple was of a more ancient date,
but our travellers had sufficient proof that the engraving on the
wings or side moles was subsequent to the time of Tiberius. From
the other inscriptions copied by Mr. Hamilton, it is obvious that
the Greeks had added much to the ancient Egyptian temple of
Phila, and particularly a small peripteral temple, which from the
Volutes in the capitals, and the elegance and lightness of the design,
leave no doubt of its Grecian origin— For, as this gentleman ob-
serves, ‘if its date must be referred to the ages anterior to Grecian
civilization, it must be confessed that, after they had seen and
mº
ſlºſ -
Mºſt |
ſ
* Mr. Burckhardt observes, that the termination of the word Ebsambul sounds like
Greek—bul–balli—roxic. Might not the man who built so many cities in Egypt, or
those Greeks to whom he afforded his protection, have caused one bearing his own
name, Psamm-polis, to be erected near this celebrated temple?
F F 4 - studied
                      
                  
                  
                  456 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
studied it, the Greeks had little to add, in order to produce the
finest models of architecture.’
We have another proof of the labours of the Ptolemies in pre-
serving and adding to the ancient temples of Egypt. . The fol-
lowing inscription, on a plate of gold, was recently found over one
of the side columns of the gateway of the great temple at Canopus,’
carefully placed between two pieces of very curiously coloured
pottery.
BACIAEyC. TITO/\EMAIOC. TITO/\EMAIOV. KAI
APCINOHC. GEUM)N . AAE/\@UA)N . KAI . BACIAJCCA
BEPENIKH. H. AAE/\@H. KAI. TVNH. AVTOV
TO. TEMENOC. OCIPEI
* King Ptolemy (son of Ptolemy and Arsinoe, adelphic Gods)
and Queen Berenice, his Sister and Wife, [have dedicated] this
Temple to Osiris.’
The discovery of many other Greek inscriptions, with correspond-
ing ones in those mysterious characters known by the name of
hieroglyphics, may prove of infinite use to Dr. Young in his laud-
able and persevering efforts to decypher them; and it must afford
him high gratification to know that, on the temple of Dakke in
Nubia, Greek inscriptions of the Ptolemies have been discovered
over the principal entrance, on each side of which is a tablet
of identical hieroglyphics, and each nearly of the same length
as the inscription on the Greek tablet. The meaning of the
two languages was therefore considered by Mr. Salt to be iden-
tical; and on referring to Dr. Young's explanations, the two
travellers were gratified to find that the hieroglyphics of the ‘im-
mortal Ptolemy,’ in an oval, the same as that of Dr. Young, ap-
peared on each tablet, and were immediately followed by those of
Hermes on one side, and of Isis on the other, to whom all the
Greek inscriptions declare the temple to be dedicated. In several
other parts of the temple was the name of Ptolemy, inscribed over
figures in the act of making offerings, but without the epithet “im-
mortal,' besides those hieroglyphics which Dr. Young has assigned
to the names of Osiris, Isis and Horus, as well as Hermes,
each over its respective figure, and every where throughout the
numerous representations on the walls. At the little temple also
near Esnê, Mr. Bankes had satisfactory proofs that the sculpture
and hieroglyphics were executed in the reign of Antonine, and
dedicated by persons whose names were Grecian... .
These discoveries prove beyond a doubt, what Mr. Hamilton
indeed had satisfactorily shewn, that, after the conquest of the
country by Alexander, the native Egyptians and the naturalized
Greeks had no scruple to meet in the same sanctuary to perform
the
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 457
t; |
º
isºl
ſº
ſº
ſº
() ||
Aſſ.
WT)
, i.
º
Wilſº
l, ki
lſ #
idiº
l, i.
lºš
iii.
ht º'
nº
Siſt º
alſº
is in
D}\;
Wt: #!
0 Wiſ
d |
the ceremonies of their respective superstitions; and that the Greek
inscriptions by the side of hieroglyphics establish the correctness
of Diodorus Siculus and other Greek writers in asserting, that many
rich and magnificent temples were built by the Ptolemies in Egypt;
and that the number of temples before their dynasty was by no
means so great as are the ruins existing at the present day. This
union of the two languages leaves little doubt that the hiero-
glyphics continued to be used, and were understood, in the Ptole-
maic dynasty; and affords a hope that other monuments, similar
to that of the Rosetta stone, mayyet be discovered among the ruins
of the temples, to assist Dr. Young in the arduous task of unfold-
ing those mysterious characters. *
The mixture of Greek edifices with those of the ancient Egyp-
tians is no disparagement to the merit and genius of the artist who
could conceive and execute such gigantic works as Carnac, Luxor,
Dendera and Ebsambul, which are confessedly Egyptian, and
superior in every point of view, and far more sublime than any
of those which have risen out of their ruins.—We return to Mr.
Burckhardt.
Opposite to Derr our traveller fell in with Hassan Kashef, who
told him that he had no business in Mahass, and seemed surprised
that his brothers had suffered him to proceed thither. Here
he witnessed one of those wanton acts of despotism which are but
too common in the east. -,
“In walking over a large field, with about thirty attendants and
slaves, Hassan told the owner that he had done wrong in sowing the
field with barley, as water-melons would have grown better. He then
took some melon seed out of his pocket, and giving it to the man, said,
“you had better tear up the barley and sow this.” As the barley was
nearly ripe, the man of course excused himself from complying with
the Kashef's command: “Then I will sow them for you,” said the
latter; and ordered his people immediately to tear up the crop, and
lay out the field for the reception of the melon seed. The boat was then
loaded with the barley, and a family thus reduced to misery, in order
that the governor might feed his horses and camels for three days
on the barley stalks.’—p. 94.
None of the numerous temples nor of their inscriptions escaped
Mr. Burckhardt's notice, on his return by the western bank of
the Nile. Those of Dakke, Gyrshe, Dondour, Kalabshe, Tafa,
Kardassy, Debot, are all particularly described, and the compara-
tive excellence of each characterized; this, however, we must pass
over, as well as his judicious observations on those interesting re-
mains of ancient days. The natives regard them with perfect indif-
ference, and are only attracted by the prevalent idea of Europeans
examining them for no other purpose than that of discovering
hidden
                      
                  
                  
                  458 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
hidden treasures. With this view the Shikh of Gyrshe followed
our traveller, with great haste, into the temple at that place, to lay
claim to one half of the gold which he had found, or at least
to get a handful of it. He assured Mr. Burckhardt, that the two
Englishmen (Legh and Smelt) had found an immense treasure,
with which they had loaded their vessel, for one of the peasants had
actually seen the gold.
The mounds of rubbish and fragments of pottery which were
observed at El Meharraka, and which occur in various parts of
Egypt, suggest the following explanation, which we believe to be
Inew.
‘Several travellers have expressed their astonishment at the immense
heaps of rubbish consisting chiefly of pottery which are met with on
the sites of ancient Egyptian towns; and, if we are to attribute their
formation to the accumulation of the fragments of earthen vessels used
by the inhabitants for domestic purposes, they are indeed truly sur-
prising; but I ascribe their origin to another cause. In Upper Egypt,
the walls of the peasants houses are very frequently constructed in part
of jars placed one over the other, and cemented together with mud; in
walls of inclosures, or in such as require only a slight roof, the upper
part is very generally formed of the same materials; in the parapets
also of the flat-roofed houses a double or triple row of red pots, one
over the other, usually runs round the terrace, to conceal the females
of the family when walking upon it. Pots are preferred to brick, be-
cause the walls formed of them are lighter, more quickly built, and
have a neater appearance. They possess, likewise, another advantage,
which is, that they cannot be pierced at night by robbers, without
occasioning noise, by the pots falling down, and thus awakening the
inmates of the dwelling, while bricks can be removed silently, one by
one, as is often done by nightly depredators, who break into the houses
in this manner. If then we suppose that pot walls were in common
use by the ancient inhabitants, the large mounds of broken pottery
may be satisfactorily accounted for. As for stone, it seems to have
been as little used for the private habitations of the ancient Egyptians,
as it is at the present day.'—p. 102.
. On the evening of the 30th March, after a hazardous journey
of thirty-five days, in which he had rested only one day, Mr.
Burckhardt returned to Assouan, having travelled generally at the
rate of ten hours a day. What follows is not the least remark-
able feature of his enterprize; ‘I put,’ says he, “eight Spanish
dollars into my purse, in conformity with the principle I have
constantly acted upon, namely, that the less the traveller spends
while on his march, and the less money he carries with him, the
less likely are his travelling projects to miscarry; and I returned,’
he adds, “after a journey of nine hundred miles, with three dol-
lars,
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 459
f
;
lars, having spent about five dollars, including every expense,
except the present to Hassan Kashef.'
We have briefly dispatched what may be called the personal nar-
rative of this most interesting expedition, to enable us to give a
more ample summary of the observations made by our author, on
the country and its several inhabitants.
Nubia is divided into two parts, called the Wady Kenous, and
the Wady Nouba; the former extending from Assouan to Wady
Leboua, and the latter from thence to the frontier of Dongola.
The inhabitants of these two divisions are separated by lan-
guage, but in manners they appear to be nearly the same. The
Kenous Arabs derive their origin from the deserts of Nedjed, and,
according to their own tradition, settled in those regions at the
period when the great Bedouin tribes from the east spread over
Egypt. They adopted the language of the natives, which has no
Arabic sounds whatever, and which has penetrated into Upper
Egypt, as far as Edfou. “It is a fact,” says our author, “worthy of
notice, that two foreign languages should have subsisted so long to
the almost entire exclusion of the Arabic, in a country bordered
on one side by Dongola, and on the other by Egypt, in both of
which Arabic is exclusively spoken.’
Availing himself of the quarrels of the various tribes of Arabs
which settled in Nubia, Sultan Selym sent a number of Bosnian
soldiers, who built or repaired the three castles of Assouan, Ibrim,
and Say. The descendants of these soldiers continue to enjoy an
immunity from all taxes and contributions. The Nubians call
them Osmanli, (Turks.) Their skin is a light brown, while that
of the Nubians is nearly black. The chiefs in power at present.
are the three brothers Hosseyn, Hassan, and Mahommed, whom we
have had occasion to mention. Instead of the miri (or land tax),
they pay each to the pasha an annual tribute of about 120l. and
extort from their Nubian subjects and the caravans, about 3000l.
each, of which they do not spend a tenth part. Their wealth
consists in dollars and slaves. -
The revenue of Nubia is principally derived from the sakies, or
waterwheels, used for irrigation; the number of which between
Assouan and Wady Halfa (or between the first and second cata-
ract) is estimated from six to seven hundred; for each wheel, so
many fat sheep, and so many measures of dhourra are levied; and
from every date tree are taken two clusters of fruit, whatever quan-
tity it may bear. But the whole system is arbitrary and irregular;
poor villages are frequently ruined, while the richer ones are
spared, lest the inhabitants should be driven to acts of open resis-
tance. The three kashefs are also the judges; and the adminis-
tration of justice is an article of merchandize. • .
'. If
                      
                  
                  
                  460 - Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
If a Nubian kill another of his tribe, the debt of blood must
be paid to the family of the deceased, and a fine to the kashef of
six camels, a cow, and seven sheep; but if a Nubian be killed
by one of the kashef’s tribe, no debt of blood is exacted, but
the chief demands his fine. The Kenous and the Noubas are
almost perpetually engaged in disputes and sanguinary quarrels;
and when death ensues, the family of the deceased has the option
of receiving a stipulated sum, or claiming the right of retaliation:
in the latter case, the brother, son, or first cousin only can supply
the place of the murderer, which frequently causes the whole
family to fly the country.
If a wealthy Nubian happens to have a daughter, the kashef ge-
nerally demands her in marriage; the father is afraid to refuse, but
he seldom escapes ruin by his powerful son-in-law, who extorts
from him every article of his property under the name of presents
to his own child. ‘Thus,’ says Mr. Burckhardt, “are the governors
married to females in almost every considerable village. Hosseyn
Kashef has above forty sons, of whom twenty are married in this
manner.’
The Nile, from the first cataract to the frontiers of Dongola,
never overflows its banks. The fields are therefore watered en-
tirely by the sakies. The grain chiefly sown is dhourra, after
which they have a crop of barley, of French beans, lentils, and
sometimes water-melons. Tobacco is every where cultivated; it
is the chief luxury of all classes, who either smoke it, or mix it
with nitre and suck it between the lower gums and the lip.
Animal food is scarce; even the kashefs do not indulge in eating
it every day. In the larger villages palm wine is the common
beverage; it is made from ripe dates, well boiled in water,
strained, put into earthen jars, and buried in the ground till it has
fermented; this liquor will keep sweet, when properly prepared,
a whole year. A spirit is also distilled from dates; and there is
another liquor made from dhourra, or barley, which they call
bouza, and which resembles beer—the zythum, probably, of the
ancient Egyptians. All these are sold in shops, and particularly at
Derr, where the more wealthy classes get intoxicated with them
every evening. A jelly, or kind of honey, is also extracted from
the date, which serves as a sweetmeat. Except palms and a few
vines which Burckhardt saw at Derr, no fruit-trees are to be
found in Nubia, though almost every species of fruit might be cul-
tivated there. - -
The houses of the Nubians are either of mud or loose stones;
those of stone are generally in pairs, one for the males and the other
for the females. The mud huts are covered with the stems of
dhourra, till consumed by the cattle, when they are replaced by palm
- t leaves,
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 461
leaves. The utensils of a Nubian family consist of about half a
dozen coarse earthen jars, from one to two feet in diameter, and
five feet in height, in which the provisions of the family are kept;
a few earthen plates; a hand-mill, or two separate stones; a hatchet,
and a few round sticks, over which the loom is laid. A wool-
len cloak, and a linen cap, with a few rags to give it the appear-
ance of a turban, constitute the dress of the better class; boys
and girls run about naked; the women wrap themselves up
in black woollen gowns; and let their hair fall in ringlets. South
of Derr, and particularly at Sukkot and in Mahass, grown up
people go quite naked, excepting that the men wear a belt
with a small sack before; and in the right ear a ring of silver
or copper.
The Nubians are generally well made, strong and muscular,
with fine features. Mr. Burckhardt says, that “in passing along
the Wadys of Nubia, it often occurred to him to remark, that the
size and figures of the inhabitants were generally proportioned to
the breadth of their cultivable soil.’ This is curious, and we doubt
not perfectly correct. The women of this country are not hand-
some ; but they are perfectly well made, and possess in general
sweet countenances and pleasing manners. They are, besides,
modest and reserved; and, from the highest to the lowest, strictly
observant of their conjugal duties. At home they are usually
employed in weaving coarse woollen mantles, and cotton cloth
for shirts; they also weave mats of the date leaves, small drink-
ing bowls, and plates to serve up the dhourra bread; all made
by the hand, and in the neatest manner. The girls are fond of
singing, and the Nubian airs are very melodious.
The Nubians seldom go unarmed; the first purchase a boy
makes is generally a short crooked knife, which is tied over the
left elbow, under their shirt, and drawn on the slightest quarrel.
The men usually carry a lance, and target, made by the Skeygya
Arabs of the hide of the hippopotamus, which is proof against the
thrust of a spear, or the blow of a sabre. Fire-arms are not com-
mon; some have match-locks; but ammunition is scarce and highly
valued. The nephew of Mohammed Kashef ran after Burck-
hardt two miles, to obtain a single cartridge, saying that he had
. off the only one he had, during the rejoicings of the preceding
aV.
*he climate of Nubia, though intensely hot in summer, is
remarkably healthy, probably on account of the extreme aridity
of the atmosphere. The small-pox, however, makes occasionally
dreadful havock among them, and the vaccine, though once intro-
duced, has been unfortunately lost. The plague never prevailed
in Nubia so high as the second cataract, and is entirely unknown
1n
                      
                  
                  
                  462 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
in Dongola, and along the whole route to Semnaar. Though
numbers of Nubians repair to Cairo, where they act as porters,
and are esteemed for their honesty, they always return to their
native village with the little property which they may have
realized in a servitude of six or eight years, without importing
either the diseases or the vices of the Egyptians; and well knowing
that the only luxuries they can there expect, in exchange for those
of Cairo, are dhourra bread and a linen shirt.
The sketch which we have given offers no very favourable picture
of the state of Nubian society; and we shall find it still worse inad-
vancing, with our author, on his second journey to the southward.
As no caravan for Eastern Africa set out in the year after his return,
Mr. Burckhardt remained quiet at Esmé; he kept no company,
dressed himself in the poorest garb of an inhabitant of Egypt; and,
in order to conceal his real character more effectually, spent as little
money as possible, the amount of his daily expenses, of his servant,
dromedary, and ass, being about eighteen-pence, and that of his
horse sixteen-pence a month. Yet with all these precautions he was
not free from the suspicion of possessing some hidden treasure. In
Egypt there is no such condition in life as that of a man living on
his income without employment. If he neither follows any business,
nor wanders about begging, he is sure to become an object of sus-
picion. Here, however, he remained, till the end of February, when
a caravan being on the point of starting from Daraou, (three days
journey to the northward of Esnê,) for the confines of Sennaar, he
determined to accompany it, and to try his fortune in this new
route unattended by any servant. At Daraou, therefore, he appeared
in the garb of a poor trader. It may be useful to the future travel-
ler to know the contents of his baggage and of his provisions; they
were as follows.
“I was dressed in a brown loose woollen cloak, such as is worn by
the peasants of Upper Egypt, called thabout, with a coarse white linen
shirt and trowsers, a lebde, or white woollen cap, tied round with a
common handkerchief, as a turban, and with sandals on my feet. I car-
ried in the pocket of my thabout a small journal-book, a pencil, pocket-
compass, pen-knife, tobacco-purse, and a steel for striking a light. The
provisions I took with me were as follows: forty pounds of flour, twenty
of biscuit, fifteen of dates, ten of lentils, six of butter, five of salt, three
of rice, two of coffee beans, four of tobacco, one of pepper, some
onions, and eighty pounds of dhourra for my ass. Besides these I had
a copper boiler, a copper plate, a coffee roaster, an earthen mortar to
pound the coffee beans, two coffee cups, a knife and spoon, a wooden
bowl for drinking and for filling the water-skins, an axe, ten yards of
rope, needles and thread, a large packing needle, one spare shirt, a
comb, a coarse carpet, a woollen cloth (heram) of Mogrebin manufac-
a tory
º
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 463
tory for a night covering, a small parcel of medicines, and three spare
water-skins.”—p. 167.
Thus equipped, and with a little merchandize to save appear-
ances, our traveller set out on the 2d March, 1814, with the cara-
van for the south, preceded by all the women and children of the
village, who burnt salt before them as a certain means of keeping.
away the devil from the party. He had been very kind to the
host with whom he lodged at Daraou; this man, at parting,
recommended him to his brother, som, and other relations, who
formed the largest and most wealthy portion of the caravan: “he is
your brother,’ said the old man to his son, “and there, opening his
waistcoat, and putting his hand upon his bosom, “there let him be
placed.’ ‘This ceremony,’ says Mr. Burckhardt, “ has some
meaning in the Arabian desert, but among these miscreants of
Egyptians it is mere hypocrisy;’ and so it proved, for the whole of
this party behaved to him in the most brutal manner.
Our limits will not permit us to trace the route pursued by the
caravan. It was on the eastern side of the Nile, but at a great dis-
tance from it, being the chord of that great bend of the river to the
westward in which Dongola is situated, and the extremities of
which are not far removed from Assouan on the north and Berber
on the south: it is, in fact, the precise route which was taken by
Bruce on his return from Abyssinia. It lies over a perfect desert,
except where those numerous wadys, or valleys, in the ridge of
mountains on the left, open upon the plain, and in which alone trees,
shrubs and grass are to be found for the cattle of the caravans, and
wells or rills of fresh water. The scarcity of this article is some-
times severely felt; but when calamitous accidents occur, as they
occasionally do, Mr. Burckhardt seems to think they happen either
from taking circuitous routes, or neglecting to fill an adequate
number of water-skins. The extraordinary sufferings of Mr. Bruce
in this desert he conceives to be greatly exaggerated in the rela-
tion; at the same time he adds, “I cannot but sincerely admire
the wonderful knowledge of men, firmness of character, and
promptitude of mind which furnished Bruce with the means of
making his way through these savage, and inhospitable nations, as an
European. To travel as a native has its inconveniences and diffi-
culties; but I take those which Bruce encountered to be of a nature
much more intricate and serious, and such as a mind at once
courageous, patient and fertile in expedients could alone have
surmounted.’—p. 203.
We believe the character of Bruce's journal may be summed
up in very few words: his descriptions are exaggerated; much of
his narrative, especially that of the dramatic cast, is loosely given
from memory; and his adventures are embellished for º
a WOT
                      
                  
                  
                  464 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
a word, he is in general substantially true, but often circumstan-
tially false. We have a striking instance of this in his description of
the terrible and fatal effects of the Simoom, ‘ that poisonous blast
of the desert,’ which, in point of fact, has nothing poisonous in it.
Mr. Burckhardt, who experienced the wind here, and still more se-
verely in the deserts of Arabia, says, “I never saw any person lie
down flat upon his face to escape its pernicious blast, as Bruce de-
scribes himself to have done in crossing this desert; but, during
the whirlwinds, the Arabs often hide their faces with their cloaks,
and kneel down near their camels to prevent the sand or dust from
hurting their eyes: “ for my own part,” he adds, “I am perfectly
convinced that all the stories which travellers or the inhabitants of
the towns of Egypt and Syria relate of the simoom of the desert,
are greatly exaggerated, and I never could hear of a single well
authenticated instance of its having proved mortal either to man
or beast.’ The simoom, in fact, is nothing more than the harmatan
of the eastern coast of Africa, (which, so far from being pernicious,
is considered to be salutary); the sirocco of Naples, the south-
easter of the Cape of Good Hope, and our own hazy easterly wind
of summer. -
The sufferings experienced by Mr. Burckhardt in crossing this
desert consisted chiefly in the fatigue of travelling, the labour of
doing every thing for himself, and the scantiness and poverty of his
fare. “From the first day of our departure from Daraou,” he says,
“my companions had treated me with neglect, and even contempt.’
They thought him a Turk, and all Arabs bear the most inveterate
hatred to the Osmanlis; and from the small quantity of his mer-
chandize they considered him as a man running away from his cre-
ditors. But he succeeded in convincing some of them that he was
travelling in search of a lost cousin, who had gone some years be-
fore on a mercantile expedition to Darfour and Sennaar, in which
his whole property had been engaged.
“When (says Burckhardt) in addition to other motives for ill-treating
me, the traders saw in me every appearance of a poor man, that I cut
wood, and cooked for myself, and filled my own water-skins, they thought
me hardly upon an equality with the servants who are hired by the
merchants, at the rate of ten dollars for the journey from Daraou to
Guz, or Shendy, and back again. I had always endeavoured to keep
upon good terms with the family of Alowein, who were the principal
Fellah merchants, and whose good offices I thought might be useful to
me in the black countries; but when they saw that I was so poor that
they could have but little hopes of obtaining much from me in presents,
they soon forgot what I had already given them before we set out, and
no longer observed the least civility in their behaviour towards me.
They began by using opprobrious language in speaking of Hassan Beg,
of Esnê, observing that, now we were in the desert, they cared little for
- all
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 465
º
;
º
tº
º:
s
|:
all the Begs and Pashas in the world; seeing that this did not seriously
affect me, they began to address me in the most vulgar and contemptu-
ous language, never calling me any thing better than Weled, “boy.”
Though they became every day more insulting, I restrained my anger,
and never proceeded to that retaliation to which they evidently wished
to provoke me, in order to have sufficient reasons for coming to blows
with me. In the beginning of the journey I had joined the party of the
Alowein in our evening encampment, although I always cooked by my-
self; I was soon, however, driven away from them, and obliged to re-
main alone, the people of Daraou giving out that several things had
been purloined from their baggage, and that they suspected me of
having taken them. Not to enter into any further details, it is sufficient
to say, that not an hour passed without my receiving some insult, even
from the meanest servants of these people, who very soon imitated and
surpassed their masters.”—pp. 179, 180.
Every day, on halting, he was driven from the cool and comfort-
able shade of the trees or rocks, into the burning sun; he had to
prepare his own dinner—not one of the poorest slaves condescend-
ing to assist him, though he offered them a share of his homely
meal. In the evening the same labour recurred; after he had walked
four or five hours in order to spare his ass—fatigued as he was, and
in the utmost need of repose, he was obliged to fetch wood, to
make a fire, to cook his victuals, and to feed his beast. Without a
friend, a companion, or even a servant, in the midst of this dreary
desert, and with a set of men into whose hearts one spark of feeling
or compassion for a fellow-creature never entered, it is not sur-
prising that a melancholy reflexion should now and then obtrude
itself on his mind: but he deals not in the language of complaint.
Twice the serab or mirage appeared to them in crossing this
desert, but somewhat different from what had been observed in
Egypt.
“Its colour was of the purest azure, and so clear that the shadows of
the mountains which bordered the horizon were reflected on it with the
greatest precision, and the delusion of its being a sheet of water was
thus rendered still more perfect. I had often seen the mirage in Syria
and Egypt, but always found it of a whitish colour, rather resembling
a morning mist, seldom lying steady on the plain, but in continual
vibration; but here it was very different, and had the most perfect re-
semblance to water. The great dryness of the air and earth in this
desert may be the cause of the difference. The appearance of water
approached also much nearer than in Syria and Egypt, being often not
more than two hundred paces from us, whereas I had never seen it
before at a distance of less than half a mile. There were at one time
about a dozen of these false lakes round us, each separated from the
other, and for the most part in the low grounds.’—p. 193.
Though the present caravan was not exposed to much inconve-
mience for want of water, yet it sometimes happens that very dis-
V O L., XXII. N.O. XLIV. G G tressing
                      
                  
                  
                  466 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
tressing accidents occur, as had been the case with a small party the
preceding year. To avoid a notorious robber, their Arab guide, in
taking them an unfrequented path, lost his way. What follows is
highly curious and interesting.
“After five days march in the mountains, their stock of water was
exhausted, nor did they know where they were. They resolved there-
fore to direct their course towards the setting sun, hoping thus to reach
the Nile. After two days thirst, fifteen slaves and one of the merchants
died. Another of them, an Ababde, who had ten camels with him,
thinking that the camels might know better than their masters where
water was to be found, desired his comrades to tie him fast upon the
saddle of his strongest camel, that he might not fall down from weak-
ness; and thus he parted from them, permitting his camels to take their
own way: but neither the man nor his camels were ever heard of after-
wards. On the eighth day after leaving Owareyk, the survivors came
in sight of the mountains of Shigre, which they immediately recognized,
but their strength was quite exhausted, and neither men nor beasts
were able to move any farther. Lying down under a rock, they sent
two of their servants with the two strongest remaining camels, in search
of water. Before these two men could reach the mountain, one of
them dropped off his camel, deprived of speech, and able only to wave
his hands to his comrade as a signal that he desired to be left to his
fate. The survivor then continued his route, but such was the effect
of thirst upon him, that his eyes grew dim and he lost the road, though
he had often travelled over it before, and had been perfectly acquainted
with it. Having wandered about for a long time, he alighted under
the shade of a tree, and tied the camel to one of its branches; the
beast however smelt the water, (as the Arabs express it,) and wearied
as it was, broke its halter, and set off galloping furiously in the direc-
tion of the spring, which, as it afterwards appeared, was at half an
hour's distance. The man, well understanding the camel's action, en-
deavoured to follow its footsteps, but could only move a few yards; he
fell exhausted on the ground, and was about to breathe his last, when
Providence led that way from a neighbouring encampment a Bisharye
Bedouin, who by throwing water upon the man's face restored him to
his senses. They then went hastily together to the water, filled the
skins, and returning to the caravan, had the good fortune to find the
sufferers still alive. The Bisharye received a slave for his trouble.
My informer, a native of Yembo in Arabia, was the man whose camel
discovered the spring, and he added the remarkable circumstance that
the youngest slaves bore the thirst better than the rest, and that while
the grown up boys all died, the children reached Egypt in safety.’—
pp. 201, 202.
On the 23d March, the caravan arrived at Berber, having taken
twenty-two days in crossing the desert from Daraou to that place.
Here the Mek first extracted three dollars from Mr. Burckhardt,
and having afterwards learned that he had a little reserve in his
girdle, obliged him to produce a fourth. “I calculate,’ says our
- traveller,
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 467
{
traveller, ‘his yearly income from the caravans, at about three or
four hundred Spanish dollars; he spends this sum in keeping a large
establishment of male and female slaves, of horses, and fine drome-
daries, and in feeding about fifty people belonging to his establish-
ment, as well as strangers.”
The Wady of Berber consists of four villages situated on the
Sandy Desert, about half an hour's walk from the Nile. Each
is composed of several quarters, independent of one another; the
houses are also separated by court-yards, so that there are no regu-
lar streets. They are built of mud, or sun-baked bricks. The
rooms all open into the court-yard; two of them are usually occu-
pied by the family, a third serves as a store-room, a fourth for the
reception of strangers, and a fifth for less laudable purposes. An
oblong frame of wood with four legs, with a seat of thin stripes of
ox-leather drawn across, is the principal article of furniture; this is
called angareyg, and answers the double purpose of a sofa by day
and a bed by night. Mats of reeds or carpets of leather, without
any pillow, are their only bedding.
It speaks not very favourably for the inhabitants of Berber, that,
in the houses of the most respectable of them, there is generally a
room (as we have just seen) set apart for public women. “In the
house where I lodged, says Mr. Burckhardt, “we had four of these
girls, one of whom was living within the precincts, the three others in
contiguous apartments. They are female slaves, whom their mas-
ters, upon marrying, or being tired of them, have set at liberty, and
who have no other livelihood but prostitution, and the preparation
of the intoxicating drink called Bouza.'
‘The night of our arrival at Berber, after we had supped, and that
the neighbours who had come to greet us had retired, three or four of
these damsels made their appearance, and were saluted with loud shouts
by my companions, who were all their old acquaintance. Some Anga-
reygs were brought into the open court-yard, which the principal:
people of our party having taken possession of the women proceeded
to give them “the welcome,” as they call it. The men having undressed
to their loins, and stretched themselves at full length upon the Anga-
feygs, were rubbed by the women with a kind of perfumed grease,
much in the same manner as is used after coming out of the bath.
This operation lasted for about half an hour, but the parties remained
together for the whole night, without being in the least annoyed by the
neighbourhood of those who were lying about in the court-yard. Du-
ring the whole of our stay at Berber we had these damsels almost every
*Yening at our quarters. They prepare, as I have already stated, the
Bouza, and as it is difficult for any person to indulge in the drinking of
this liquor in his own house, where he would be immediately sur-
Yºunded by a great number of acquaintance, it is generally thought pre-
ferable to go to the women's apartment, where there is no intrusion.
- G G 2 Many
                      
                  
                  
                  468 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
* -
Many of these women are Abyssinians by birth, but the greater part of
them are born at Berber of slave parents. They are in general hand-
some, and many of them might even pass for beauties in any country.'
—pp. 214, 215.
The following is a yet more dreadful picture of the immoral
character of the Berbers.
“The effects which the universal practice of drunkenness and de-
bauchery has on the morals of the people may easily be conceived. In-
deed every thing discreditable to humanity is found in their character,
but treachery and avidity predominate over their other bad qualities.
In the pursuit of gain they know no bounds, forgetting every divine and
human law, and breaking the most solemn ties and engagements.
Cheating, thieving, and the blackest ingratitude, are found in almost
every man's character, and I am perfectly convinced that there were
few men among them or among my fellow-travellers from Egypt who
would have given a dollar to save a man's life, or who would not have
consented to a man's death in order to gain one. Especial care must
be taken not to be misled by their polite protestations, and fine profes-
sions, especially when they come to Egypt; where they represent their
own country as a land inhabited by a race of superior virtue and excel-
lence. On the contrary, infamous as the eastern nations are in general,
I have never met with so bad a people, excepting perhaps those of
Suakin. In transactions among themselves the Meyrefab regulate
every matter in dispute by the laws of the strongest. Nothing is safe
when once out of the owner's hands, for if he happens to be the weaker
party, he is sure of losing his property. The Mek's authority is slighted
by the wealthier inhabitants; the strength of whose connections coun-
terbalances the influence of the chief. Hence it may well be supposed
that family feuds very frequently occur, and the more so, as the effects
of drunkenness are dreadful upon these people. During the fortnight
I remained at Berber, I heard of half a dozen quarrels occurring in
drinking parties, all of which finished in knife or sword wounds. No-
body goes to a Bouza hut without taking his sword with him ; and the
girls are often the first sufferers in the affray. I was told of a distant
relation of the present chief, who was for several years the dread of Ber-
ber. He killed many people with his own hands upon the slightest pro-
vocation, and his strength was such, that nobody dared to meet him in
the open field. He was at last taken by surprise in the house of a pub-
lic woman, and slain while he was drunk. He once stript a whole cara-
van, coming from Daraou, and appropriated the plunder to his women.
In such a country, it is of course locked upon as very imprudent to
walk out unarmed, after sunset; examples often happen of persons,
more particularly traders, being stripped or robbed at night in the
village itself. In every country the general topics of conversation
furnish a tolerable criterion of the state of society; and that which
passed at our house at Ankheyre gave the most hateful idea of the cha-
racter of these people. The house was generally filled with young men
who took a pride in confessing the perpetration of every kind of in-
famy.
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 469
famy. One of their favourite tricks is to bully unexperienced strangers,
by enticing them to women who are the next day owned as relations by
some Meyrefab, who vows vengeance for the dishonour offered to his fa-
mily; the affair is then settled by large presents, in which all those con-
cerned have a share. The envoy whom Ibrahim Pasha sent in 1812 to
the king of Sennaar was made to suffer from a plot of this kind. Upon
his return from Sennaar to Berber, he was introduced one evening to a
female, at whose quarters he passed the night. The Mek of Berber
himself claimed her the next morning as his distant relation. “Thou
hast corrupted my own blood,” said he to the envoy, and the frightened
Turk paid him upwards of six hundred dollars, besides giving up to him
the best articles of his arms and baggage. I had repeated invitations
to go in the evening to Bouza parties, but constantly refused. Indeed
a stranger, and especially an unprotected one, as I was, must measure
all his steps with caution, and cannot be too prudent.”—pp. 221, 222.
The Berbers live chiefly on dhourra bread and milk; dates are
imported from Mahass and are consequently accounted a luxury.
Onions and kidney-beans are their chief vegetables; they have
no fruit whatever. Their cattle, which are of a good kind, are
pastured after the rains in the Bisharein mountains between the
Nile and the Red Sea; in the dry season they are fed with the
leaves and stalks of the dhourra. The cows have the hump
between the shoulders common to those of Sennaar and Abys-
sinia. Their camels are excellent, and Mr. Burckhardt says,
‘that their dromedaries surpass all that he saw in the Syrian and
Arabian deserts.' Their asses are strong and handsome. Their
horses are of the Dongola breed, which are represented as the
finest race in the world. In the spring they are pastured on
green barley; but for the rest of the year have little else than
the stalks and leaves of the dhourra.
Part of the caravan, and with it Mr. Burckhardt, left Berber on
the 7th April, and proceeded towards Shendy. They soon reached
Ras al Wady, the principal village in the dominions of another
Mek of the name of Hanoze. This sublime personage detained them
from morning till late in the evening, without sending them any
food, and they could not venture to taste their own, as they were
now considered as his guests. The Mek himself kept out of sight,
but his son came to the caravan to beg some presents. The
great man made his appearance, however, the following day, quite
maked, with the exception of a towel round his loins, and attended
by six or eight slaves, one of whom carried his water-flask, another
his sword, and a third his shield. Seeing a fine ass, he ordered his
hopeful son to mount it; and notwithstanding the resistance of its
owner, the animal was trotted off to the Mek's stable: the caravan
was then permitted to depart.
At the end of four hours travelling, they reached the river
G G 3 Mogren,
                      
                  
                  
                  470 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
Mogren, (not Mareb, as Bruce calls it,) the bed of which was
nearly dry; but the banks, being covered with fresh herbage and
tamarisk bushes, afforded a delightful prospect after the passage
of a long and dreary desert. They soon reached the district of
Damer, the character of whose inhabitants is just the reverse of
that of the Berbers. The town of Damer contains about five
hundred houses, all meat and uniformly built in regular streets, and
inhabited by a tribe of Arabs, the greater part of whom are Fokera
or religious men. They have a pontiff called El Faky el Kebir,
(the great Faky,) who is their chief and judge.
Damer has acquired considerable reputation for its schools, to
which young men are sent from Darfour, Sennaar, Kordofan and
other parts of Soudan, to study the law. It has a large mosque built
on arches of brick-work, in which prayers are regularly performed.
The Faky el Kebir leads the life of a hermit, in a small room about
twelve feet square, where his food is daily brought to him by his
friends and disciples. His mornings are occupied in reading, but
about three in the afternoon he takes his seat on a stone bench,
where he is joined by the rest of the fraternity. Mr. Burckhardt
went to kiss his hand, and found him a venerable old man, wrapped
up in a white cloak. ‘The affairs of this little hierarchical state
(he says) appear to be conducted with great prudence, and all its
neighbours testify much respect for the Fakys.”—Such are the good
effects produced by a veneration of religious institutions, even of
the very worst kind.
As there was no daily market at Damer, and no metal currency
less than a dollar, our traveller was under the necessity of going
from house to house, with some strings of beads to sell in ex-
change for a few measures of dhourra. This gave him an insight
into the manners of the people.
‘One afternoon while crying my beads for sale, I was accosted by a
Faky, who asked me if I could read. On answering in the affirmative, he
desired me to follow him to a place where he said I might expect to
get a good dinner. He then led me to a house where I found a great
number of people collected to celebrate the memory of some relative
lately deceased. Several Fakys were reading the Koran in a low tone
of voice. A great Faky afterwards came in, whose arrival was the
signal for reciting the Khoran in loud songs, in the manner customary
in the east, in which I joined them. This was continued for about
half an hour, until dinner was brought in, which was very plentiful,
as a cow had been killed upon the occasion. After a hearty meal, we
recommenced our reading. One of the Shiks produced a basket full
of white pebbles, over which several prayers were read. These peb-
bles were destined to be strewed over the tomb of the deceased in the
manner which I had often observed upon tombs freshly made. Upon
my inquiries concerning this custom, which I confessed to have never
before
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 471
t
ſº
before seen practised in any Mohammedan country, the Faky an-
swered that it was a mere meritorious action, that there was no abso
lute necessity for it, but that it was thought that the soul of the
deceased, when hereafter visiting the tomb, might be glad to find
these pebbles, in order to use them as beads in addressing its prayers
to the Creator. When the reading was over, the women began to sing
and howl. I then left the room, and on taking my departure my kind
host put some bones of roasted meat in my hand to serve for my sup-
per.”—p. 269. -
The caravan remained at Damer five days, and setting out on
the 15th of April, reached Shendy on the 18th. Next to Sennaar
and Cobbé in Darfour, Shendy is the largest town in eastern Sou-
dan; it consists of several quarters, divided from each other by
public market places, and contains from 800 to 1000 houses, similar
to those of Berber. Those of the chief and his relatives have court-
yards twenty feet square, inclosed by high walls. The name of
the Mek is Nimr, or the Tiger. He holds his mekship in right of
his mother, who was of the Sennaar tribe, which explains Bruce's
account of his having found a woman (Settina, our lady) on the
throne. Three different tribes of Arabs inhabit the country of
Shendy, besides that to which the Mek's wife belongs, and their dis-
sensions amóng themselves assist materially in the preservation of
his authority. -
As merchandize pays no duty at Shendy, it has become a place
of flourishing trade. The Mek is generally satisfied with a small but
voluntary contribution from each of the caravans. Mr. Burckhardt,
however, was obliged to part with his gun, to which this chief un-
luckily took a fancy, in consideration of four Spanish dollars. He
had already about twenty rusty firelocks, and he made serious pro-
posals to our traveller to enter into his service as a gunsmith. His
court consists of half a dozen police officers, a writer, an imam, a
treasurer, and a body guard formed chiefly of slaves.
The character of the inhabitants of Shendy is much the same as
that of the Berbers: debauchery and drunkenness are even more
common here than among the latter; but the public women do not
infest the streets as at Berber. The dress, habits and manners are
also the same, and appear to prevail as far as Darfour on the one
hand, and Sennaar on the other. At Shendy, however, there were
more well dressed people than our traveller had observed elsewhere.
The women wore golden rings at their noses and ears.
At Shendy Mr. Burckhardt observed a ceremony which marks
most strongly the inveteracy of oriental customs. On the death of
a Djaaly chief, ‘I saw,’ says he, “the female relations of the deceased
walking through all the principal streets, uttering the most lament-
able howlings. Their bodies were half naked, and the little cloth-
G G 4 - ing .
                      
                  
                  
                  47% Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
ing they had on was in rags; while the head, face and breasts, being
almost entirely covered with ashes, they had altogether a most
ghastly appearance.’ So says Herodotus, and almost in the same
words.”
Shendy has a weekly market, which appears to be well supplied
with a great variety of goods. The currency is the same as that
of Berber, dhourra and dammour. The merchants sit in the mar-
ket-place in little mud shops about six feet square, covered with
mats. Among the articles exposed for sale Mr. Burckhardt emu-
merates milk, brought every morning by the Bedouin girls and ex-
changed for dhourra; butcher's meat of cows and camels, but rarely
of sheep; all kinds of groceries and spices; soap, coral, and glass
beads; tobacco, the best of which is from Sennaar; matron from
Darfour, and salt from the mines of Boyedda: antimony, sandal
wood, gum Arabic and various kinds of drugs. Four or five hundred
camels, as many cows, a hundred asses, and twenty or thirty horses
were on sale on the great market-days. The artizans whom he no-
ticed at Shendy were chiefly blacksmiths, silversmiths, tanners, pot-
ters and carpenters. The women and grown up children, and many
of the men, were generally observed with a distaff in their hands,
spinning cotton yarn for the people of Berber, who are great
WeaverS. -
Shendy is also the principal market for the purchase of slaves,
With the exception of a few Abyssinian females who are distri-
buted through Egypt and Arabia, these unhappy creatures are
chiefly negroes from the interior of Africa: there is, however,
another description of slaves distinguished by the name of Nouba,
the offspring of these Abyssinian women and their masters, by
whom they are sent to Shendy. The rest are blacks of Soudan, the
number of whom sold annually at this place Mr. Burckhardt cal-
culates at 5,000; of these he reckons 2,500 for Arabia, 1,500 for
Egypt, and 1000 for Dongola and the Bedouins of the mountains
between Shendy and the Red Sea. The greater proportion of
slaves brought to Shendy are below the age of fifteen, many of
them are children of four or five years old.
Mr, Burckhardt conceives that, on the most moderate calcula-
tion, the number of slaves in Egypt may be estimated at 40,000;
that the number exported towards Arabia and Barbary is greatly
Below the number kept by Mussulmen within the limits of Soudan:
from his own observation (he adds) there are not fewer than 12,000
along the borders of the Nile from Berber to Sennaar, and 20,000 in
* “When a man of any condition dies, all the female part of that family besmear
their heads and faces with dirt ; and leaving the body at home, march through the
streets of the city with naked breasts and girdles tied about the waist, beating then-
selves as they go.”—Euterpe. -
Darfour;
|
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 473
*
!!!
s
º
th
#
k
lſ
ſ
it.
iſ:
hº
|ſt
1'.
Darfour; and, from every account which he could collect, the
proportion does not diminish as we proceed westward into the
opulous countries of Dar Saley, Bournou, Bagermé, Aſmou and
}. He concludes therefore, that laudable as the efforts of
England have been to abolish the infamous traffic in western and
south-western Africa, “there does not appear to be the smallest
hope of the abolition of slavery in Africa itself; and concurs in the
opinion which we have more than once expressed, that “it is not
from foreign nations that the blacks can hope for deliverance: that
this great work must be effected by themselves;' and that this can
only be done ‘by the education of the sons of Africa in their own
country, and by their own countrymen.’ -
As a visit to Mecca at the time of the pilgrimage, in order to
obtain the title of Hadji, (the most powerful recommendation and
best protection in any future journey into the interior of Africa,)
had been the principal motive of our traveller's second journey into
Nubia, he set about his preparations for the journey. With
this view, he sold his little stock of merchandize at Shendy, pur-
chased a slave-boy for sixteen dollars, a camel for eleven, and, after
laying in a stock of dhourra meal, butter, and dammour, found he
had just four dollars remaining; which he calculated would suf-
fice to carry him to Djidda, on which place he had a letter of
credit from Cairo.
Thus prepared he joined the caravan for Suakin, by the route of
aka; among them was a party of black traders from Western
Africa, to which, as a poor man, he attached himself; not only in
the hope of deriving information but also assistance from them, if
he should want it. The principal among them was Hadji Aly,
*slave-dealer, from Kordofan, who had been a great traveller, and
already thrice performed the hadji.
." His travels, and the apparent sanctity of his conduct, had procured
him great reputation, and he was well received by the meks and other
‘hieſ, to whom he never failed to bring some small presents from
Djidda. Although almost constantly occupied (whether sitting under a
*mporary shed of mats, or riding upon his camel on the march) in
*ding the Koran, yet this man was a complete bon vivant, whose sole
ºbject was sensual enjoyment. The profits on his small capital, which
*** continually renewed by his travelling, were spent entirely in the
*tification of his desires. He carried with him a favourite Borgho
slave, as his concubine; she had lived with him three years, and had
* own camel, while his other slaves performed the whole journey on
*ot. His leathern sacks were filled with all the choice provisions which
the Shendy market could afford, particularly with sugar and dates,
*" his dinners were the best in the caravan. To hear him talk of
º: and religion, one might have supposed that he knew vice only
9 *me; yet Hadji Aly, who had spent half his like in devotion, sold
last
                      
                  
                  
                  474 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
last year, in the slave-market of Medinah, his own cousin, whom he had
recently married at Mekka. She had gone thither on a pilgrimage
from Bornou by the way of Cairo, when Aly unexpectedly meeting
with her, claimed her as his cousin, and married her: at Medinah, be-
ing in want of money, he sold her to some Egyptian merchants; and as
the poor woman was unable to prove her free origin, she was obliged
to submit to her fate. The circumstance was well known in the cara-
van, but the hadji nevertheless still continued to enjoy all his wonted
reputation.’—pp. 365, 366.
Having crossed the Atbara, or Astaboras, their route lay to the
south-east; and they soon entered the country of the Bisharye
Arabs, a bold and handsome race : the men go constantly armed,
and are seldom free from quarrels; the women are slender and
elegant, of a dark brown complexion, with beautiful eyes and fine
teeth. But the moral character of both sexes is very bad; they
are ‘treacherous, cruel, avaricious and revengeful, and are re-
strained in the indulgence of their passions by no laws either human
or divine.’ They are the most inhospitable of the Bedouin tribes,
and this alone, says our traveller, proves them to be a true African
race; they speak no Arabic. At Om Daoud, he went among
the huts to beg a little water or milk, when his appearance excited
an universal shriek among the women, who were terrified at the
sight of such an outcast of nature as they consider a white man
to be. Even at Shendy, on market days, the country-people were
often affrighted by his turning short upon them, and generally ex-
claimed, “God preserve us from the devil!’
The populous and fertile district of Taka, a valley among the
eastern mountains, overflowed in the rainy season, is noted for its
fine breed of cattle and excellent dhourra. It is inhabited by a tribe
of the Bisharein, who have their bouza huts, and their public
women. Wives make no difficulty in receiving strangers into their
tents; but, says Burckhardt, with great simplicity, “this never hap-
pened to me: for whenever I presented myself before a tent, the
ladies greeted me with loud screams, and waved their hands for me
to depart instantly.’ These people eat the blood of animals coagu-
lated over the fire, and the liver and kidneys raw; but the milk of
the camel and dhourra are their principal articles of food. Like
the Bishareins of Atbara, those of Taka are treacherous, revengeful,
and addicted to theft.
‘A Hadendoa seldom scruples to kill his companion on the road in
order to possess himself of the most trifling article of value, if he enter-
tains a hope of doing it with impunity; but the retaliation of blood ex-
ists in full force. Among the Hallenga, who draw their origin from
Abyssinia, a horrible custom is said to attend the revenge of blood;
when the slayer has been seized by the relatives of the deceased, a fa-
mily feast is proclaimed, at which the murderer is brought into the
midst
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 475
midst of them, bound upon an Angareyg, and while his throat is slowly
cut with a razor, the blood is caught in a bowl, and handed round
amongst the guests, every one of whom is bound to drink of it at the
moment the victim breathes his last.”—p. 396.
On leaving Taka they were joined by a number of black pil.
grims from Bagerme and Bornou as far as Timbuctoo, begging
their way to Mecca.
* The equipments of all these pilgrims are exactly alike, and consist
of a few rags tied round the waist, a white woollen bonnet, a leathern
provision sack, carried on a long stick over the shoulder, a leathern
pouch containing a book of prayers, or a copy of a few chapters of the
Koran, a wooden tablet, one foot in length, by six inches in breadth,
upon which they write charms, or prayers, for themselves or others to
learn by heart, an inkstand formed of a small gourd, a bowl to drink
out of, or to collect victuals in from the charitable, a small earthen pot
for ablution, and a long string of beads hanging in many turns round
the neck.’—p. 407.
Vast numbers perish on this long and unhealthy route; they are
looked upon, however, as martyrs, and their fate rather encourages
than deters others from following their example. One of the pre-
sent company was blind; he had come from the west of Darfour,
guided by a stick in the hands of a companion who led the way.
Mr. Burckhardt subsequently saw this man begging in the mosque
at Mecca, and again at Medina grovelling on the threshold of
the temple, and exclaiming, as he asked for charity, “I am blind,
but the light of the word of God and the love of his prophet illu-
mine my soul, and have been my guide from Soudan to this tomb!'
We have already extended our account of this interesting volume
to too great a length to allow us to dwell on the journey across the
mountains to the port of Suakin, on the Red Sea; where our
traveller was likely to fare worse than he had hitherto done, had
he not fortunately been possessed, as we before observed, of a fir-
maun from Mahommed Ali, which procured him a passage to
Djidda;-and here we must take our leave of him till the appear-
ance of another volume, which we presume will contain the ac-
count of his pilgrimage to Mecca, and to Medina.
We cannot, however, close this Article, long as it is, without re-
verting to a subject which has more than once occupied our atten-
tion—the course and termination of the Niger, one of the principal
objects of our lamented traveller's intended researches in Soudan.
In our review of Park's second journey, (No. XXV. p. 128. 137.
140.) we were induced to try the validity of the hypothesis (first thrown
out by Maxwell) which gave to the Niger a southern course, and a
termination in the Zaire or Congo; and we entered on the question
chiefly because Park had warmly adopted that hypothesis, previously
to
                      
                  
                  
                  476 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
to his leaving England, and in the truth of which he afterwards be-
came more strongly confirmed the farther he proceeded down the
stream. We felt that the opinion of the man who had first, in mo-
dern times, ascertained its eastern course, was not to be rejected on
slight grounds; and we are willing to persuade ourselves that we
succeeded, at least, in shewing that the arguments against the possi-
bility of the truth of the hypothesis were not well founded; leav-
ing to others the choice of probabilities between the Congo and the
swamps of Wangara. The unfortunate expedition of Captain
Tuckey made no alteration in the state of the question, excepting
that the information procured on that voyage went far to establish
the fact of the Zaire having its origin to the northward of the
equator. -
But Mr. Burckhardt has revived a question of older date than
either of the above-mentioned speculations, by the assurances which
he received—and which every Arab merchant and black pilgrim
has repeated in every quarter of northern and western Africa,
that the Niger of Soudan and the Nile of Egypt are one and the
same river. This general testimony to a physical fact can be shaken
only by direct proof to the contrary, or by demonstration of its
physical impossibility. That it had been so shaken by the argu-
ments of Major Rennell we never conceived a doubt, until the pe-
rusal of Mr. §. narrative induced us to look more closely
into the statements of Bruce, on which the impossibility of iden-
tity was chiefly grounded; when we perceived them to be so
vague and inconsistent, that we determined to try the question
On 16S Own merlts.
If it be true that the Niger actually unites with the Nile, it can
only do so through the channel of the Bahr el Abiad or White river,
which joins the Bahr el Azrek near Halfaia, about the 16th parallel
of northern latitude, on the extensive plain of Sennaar; and the
concurrent testimony of all travellers goes to this point. “All the
Burnuans and Haussans (says Hornemann) that I questioned about
the distant regions of this river, (the Niger) agreed in telling me that
it ran through the land of the Heathens by Sennaar: others affirmed
that it passes through Darfour in its course eastward and flows to
Cairo, being one stream with the Egyptian Nile.” He was further
informed by a native of Egypt who had several times travelled to
Darfour and to the southward of it, to collect slaves, ‘that the
communication of the Niger with the Nile was not to be doubted;
but that this communication, before the rainy season, was very little
in those parts, the Niger being at the dry period reposing, or, non
fluens,’ and ‘that the river called Bahr el Abiad is this river,” (the
Niger). In the suite of the Morocco princes taken on board the
Tagus frigate at Alexandria, was a hadji who had frequently visited
Timbuctoo.
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 477
:
tà
ſº
!!
Timbuctoo. This man assured Captain Dundas, that there was but
one opinion in that city, of the identity of the Niger and the Nile;
that the former discharged itself into the Bahr Soudan, and the lat-
ter had its rise out of that sea:-but it is needless to multiply con-
curring testimonies. If we examine the character of the Abiad,
we shall find it to be that of a river which has traversed a long
course of level country, rather than a collected body of mountain-
streams. Bruce says that where it joins the Azrek at Wed Hojila, it
is “larger than the Nile,'—‘deep in all its course,'—“twice as
broad as the Nile, and can scarcely be seen to flow;’—‘that it
runs dead and with little inclination, and ‘preserves its stream
always undiminished.” Bruce saw it at the height of the rainy
season, and yet it ran ‘dead'—in fact, the whole description which
he gives of this western branch of the Nile, points it out as an
immense canal or drain, quietly carrying off the collected waters
of some great lake or inland sea—such as the lakes of Ghana and
Wangara are described to be, or that sea of Soudan of which all
the Arab travellers speak.
Two objections, however, have been stated to this termination of
the Niger, and such as would be insuperable if implicit confidence
could every where be placed in the accuracy of Bruce. The first
is, the great elevation of the plain of Sennaar, which would require
the bed of the Abiad, and consequently that of the Niger, to
be at least 5000 feet above the level of the sea, an elevation
greater, probably, than even the source of the Niger;-the second
is the want of correspondence in the periodical inundations of the
Nile of Egypt and the Nile of Soudan.
Now, although Mr. Bruce seems to have kept a weatherjournal
in Abyssinia, we find only two observations for elevation made by
the barometer, one of which is unintelligible,” at least to us, and the
other not such as to entitle it to notice. This latter one was taken
at the source of the Nile, and is thus stated: “I had procured,' he
says, “from the English ships while at Jidda, some quicksilver, per-
fectly pure, and heavier than the common sort; warming therefore
the tube gently at the fire, I filled it with this quicksilver, and, to
my great surprize, found that it stood at the height of twenty-two
English inches: suspecting that some air might have insinuated itself
into the tube, I laid it by in a warm part of the tent, covered, till
morning, and returning to bed, slept there profoundly till six, when,
satisfied the whole was in perfect order, I found it to stand at
* By the mean of forty-one observations taken at Massuah, on the Red Sea, the
height of the barometer is said to be 25° 6' 2", and at Dixan, 21° 1' 2", the difference
of which, he says, gives a difference of elevation of the two places equal to 4664 feet.
What sort of barometer he could have used to indicate 25° 6' 2" on a level with the sea,
is not explained, nor do we pretend to understand.—Vol. v. p. 440. Third edition.
twenty-
                      
                  
                  
                  478 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
twenty-two English inches, and thence I inferred that, at the sources
of the Nile, I was then more than two miles above the level of the
sea.” This inference would not have been authorized, even had
his instrument been as perfect as it was evidently otherwise: for
admitting that the mercury stood at Massuah on the Red Sea, at
thirty inches, (instead of twenty-five,) and disregarding the cor-
rections for difference of temperature, &c. (which he had no
means of knowing,) the descent of the mercury to twenty-two inches
would give an elevation of barely 8000 feet, instead of more than
10,560 feet. But the proof of his inaccuracy will be obvious when
it is considered that by his account, the mountain of Geesh must be
15,000 feet above the level of the sea, while we are told that snow
never falls in any part of Abyssinia. -
Yet this loose estimate of the elevation of the springs of the
Nile is the only groundwork for deducing that of Sennaar; for here
he took no observation whatever, but states loosely that the plain of
Sennaar ‘is more than a mile lower than the high country of
Abyssinia'—that is, about 5,200 feet above the level of the sea.
We shall find, however, by examining another part of his work,
that such an elevation is altogether, inconsistent with a former
statement. In noticing the strange assertion of the Jesuits, that
the Alps and Pyrenees are inconsiderable eminences to the moun-
tain Guza, he says, “though really the base of Lamalmon, it
is not a quarter of a mile high.’t . If he means above the sea, being
to the southward of Sennaar, or higher up the river, and on more
elevated ground, the latter plain must of course be lower than a
quarter of a mile, or 1320 feet; a height which agrees better with
the “easy descent’ the Nile has from hence to the sea, than his ele-
vation of more than 5200 feet; but on this point we mean not to
insist further, as we may have misunderstood Bruce.
Every account given by modern travellers through Nubia agrees
with the “easy ascent of the Valley of the Nile.” In the whole dis-
tance of one thousand miles, from the Abiad to the Mediterranean,
there are but two cataracts, which are not falls, but mere rapids,
occasioned by contractions of the bed of the river by rocks, neither
of which present an interruption to navigation. Lord Belmore na-
vigated the Nile against the stream without any difficulty to the
second cataract, as did Captains Irby and Mangles; and Bruce
says he sailed against the stream at the rate of eight miles an hour.
Mr. Burckhardt, in crossing the mountains from Shendy, through
Taka, to the shore of the Red Sea, evidently found the de-
scent to that sea little more than the ascent from the Nile. The
current of the Nile is at no time so rapid as that of the Ganges; in
* Vol. v. p. 311. t Vol. iv. p. 371.
the
                      
                  
                  
                  Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. 479
º
the dry season it is much less so; yet we have the testimony of
Major Rennell, (and better we could not desire,) given too on actual
experiment, that the slope of the bed of the Ganges is only four
inches in a mile, and that of the land, in a straight line along its
winding banks, nine inches in a mile. The slope of the bed of the
Amazons is stated by Condamine to be likewise four inches, and
that of the plain through which it flows six inches and three-quar-
ters. The Nile is less tortuous than either of these rivers, and the
slope of the continued plane or valley through which it flows may,
perhaps, be taken at six inches, which would give to that part of the
plain of Sennaar where the Abiad joins the Azrek, an elevation of
500 feet, instead of more than 5000; yet it is on the latter suppo-
sition, and on that alone, that the junction of the Niger with the
Nile has been declared impossible. We are persuaded, however,
that it would not be impossible, were we to give to the Nile the full
slope of the Ganges, and to consider the elevation of the point of
confluence of the two rivers (Abiad and Azrek) above the Mediter-
ranean to be 750 or even 800 feet; and we arrive at this conclusion
on the following grounds. -
The course of the Niger for the first 2000 British miles is within
two degrees on either side of the 15th parallel of latitude, ending,
as it is supposed, at the eastern extremity of Wangara in about the
14th parallel. But the hypothesis does not admit of its ceasing in
the sea of Wangara; and if it proceeds, it must necessarily decline
and pass to the southward of Darfour, as far probably as the lati-
tude 10° N., where it may join the Abiad. Supposing this to be the
case, the length of its course from Wangara to the confluence of
the Abiad and the Azrek would be about 1000 English miles. If
then we allow the full inclination of the Ganges (nine inches in the
mile) for the first 2000 miles, and that of the Amazons for the latter
1000 miles, (being in all probability a succession of seas or lakes,
till it joins the dead-running canal of the Abiad,) and 800 feet, as
above mentioned, for the whole inclination from the Abiad to the
sea, we shall have 2800 feet as the elevation which would be required
for the source of the Niger, to carry it through Soudan and Egypt
into the Mediterranean, with a current equal to that of the Ganges
or the Amazons—an elevation which will perhaps not be deemed too
great for the real truth, when it is considered that the same elevated
region from which it issues gives rise to two other great rivers, the
Senegal and the Gambia. But as we may confidently assert that
neither the current of the Niger nor of the Nile is of equal strength
with that of the Ganges or the Amazons, even this elevation would
not be required to carry the waters to the Mediterranean.
The other objection to the identity of the Niger and the Nile is
grounded on the incongruity of their periodical inundations; that is
to
                      
                  
                  
                  480 - Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia.
to say, on the rise and fall of the former river not corresponding
with those of the latter. The contrary, however, we apprehend
to be the fact. The sea of Soudan, or, if the expression be more
correct, the lakes and swamps of Wangara, are stated to be full
and overflowing about the middle of August. Supposing the out-
let to flow into the Abiad, at the rate of two miles an hour, the
waters would reach the Azrek in three weeks—at three miles an
hour, in a fortnight; in either case early in September. Now
though the Nile is sometimes at its height about the end of Au-
gust, it frequently continues to rise to the middle of September and
to fall but little, with occasional risings, during the whole month
of October; circumstances which could hardly happen if its sup-
ply was derived solely from the mountain-streams of Abyssinia,
and those of the Bahr-el-Abiad, if the latter had no other sources
than those in the Jebel-Kumri or Mountains of the Moon. A
mountain-torrent is soon exhausted, and ceases almost with the dis-
continuance of the periodical rains; and if the Nile had no other
supply its fall would be sudden, which is contrary to the fact.
“All the waters in Abyssinia,' says Bruce, ‘collected into the
Nile would not be sufficient to pass its scanty stream through the
burning deserts of Nubia, without the Abiad which joins it at
Halfaia;' and in another place he says, “the Nile would be dry
for eight months in the year but for the Abiad:’—and, we may
add, the Abiad would not greatly assist in prolonging the flooding
of the Nile, after the cessation of the rains, if it had no other supply
than those derived from the mountain-streams of the Jebel-Kumri.
We ventured to assertin a former Number, (XXXVI. p. 348.)
that all lakes or inland seas, having no outlets, must, from the
very nature of things, be salt; we quoted several well-known in-
stances in proof of this: hence we concluded that, as those of
Wangara, according to Arabian authorities, were fresh, they must
necessarily have their outlets. We have since received an account
of two large seas, or sheets of water, being discovered in the inte-
rior of New Holland, supplied chiefly by two rivers of very con-
siderable size, whose sources are on the western side of the Blue
Mountains. The first, which is to the southwest of Port Jack-
son, was ascertained to have no outlet; but of the second, the ex-
ploring party could not discern the boundary. We know not whether
Lieutenant Oxley forgot (like Sir Alexander Mackenzie) to dip
his finger into the water to taste it; but he has at least supplied
unequivocal testimony that the waters of the first were salt, as all
the plants, collected on the shores and islands and swampy places
of this lake or morass, prove to be saline plants, and of the same
species as those which grow on the sea-shore of that country.—
On this ground we may safely pronounce it an inland lake, without
any
                      
                  
                  
                  , Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia. - 481
any outlet. , Were this the case with regard to Wangara, the waters
would be, from the nature of the soil through which the Niger and
other rivers flow, remarkably salt, from the successive evaporation
of the water and the consequent accumulation of saline particles for
thousands of years, perhaps from the creation of the world; where-
as, by having an outlet, these particles, being dissolved by the an-
nual inundations, are carried off, and the remaining waters thus
preserve their freshness.. - x
We give no credit whatever to the report received by Mr. Jack-
son, of a person having performed a voyage by water from Timbuc-
too to Cairo. Large seas in the rainy season, and chains of lakes in
the dry, are not inviting navigations to native Africans, whose i.
and travels are almost universally conducted by caravans whic
Burckhardt assures us is not only more suited to the taste of the
people, but cheaper. To expose themselves to the risk of perishing
by famine, of being devoured by crocodiles, or pººl by th
long succession of petty chiefs on the borders of rivers, are evils
more terrible than any which they meet with in crossing the largest
deserts. Even on the Nile, from Sennaar to the second cataract,
there is no floating craft, and the only mode of passing the river
by a rude raft of the stems of the palm-tree or an inflated sheep-
skin. - - - -
We leave our readers to draw their own conclusion as to the vali-
dity of the general testimony which we have stated to prevaili
favour of the identity of the Nile of Soudan and the Nile of
Egypt: for ourselves, though we are by no means wedded to a
particular theory, we have no hesitation in declaring, that this tes-
timony has not yet been contradicted by any direct proof or know
physical impossibility. . - - -