DONGOLA

. . . South of Hannek, the immense plains of Dongola commence: I was credibly informed that there are no rocks in this district, which, during the period of the inundation, presents a watery surface of from twelve to fifteen miles in breadth. Commerce is not so flourishing in Dongola as it is in the states to the south of it; merchants being exposed to many vexations from the kings, as well as from the village chiefs, who seem to be almost independent of the former. A man's property is valued, as in Nubia, by the number of water-wheels he possesses, and the revenue is collected from them. The Arabs Sheygya, since they have been in possession of a share of the revenue, take from the ground irrigated by each wheel, four Mhourys of Dhourra, <the Mhoury is a measure corresponding with twelve Mouds of Cairo, or about eight bushels> two or three sheep, and a linen gown worth two dollars. The native kings take the same. Dongola is noted for its breed of horses, great numbers of which are imported by the people of Mahass; they are chiefly stallions, the natives seldom riding mares. The breed is originally from Arabia, and is one of the finest I have seen, possessing all the superior beauty of the horses of that country, with greater size and more bone. All those which I have seen had the four legs white, as high as the knee, and I was told that there are very few of them without this distinctive mark. Prime stallions bear a high price, from five to ten slaves being paid for one. These horses do not thrive in northern climates, not even at Cairo, though Mohammed Aly has lately sent one as a present to the Grand Signior, for which he gave 750 Spanish dollars. The greater part of them are fed for ten months in the year merely on straw, and in the spring, upon the green crops of barley. The Mamelouks, since their irruption into Dongola, are all mounted upon these horses.

There are no elephants in Dongola; but the hippopotamus is very common in the river. Its Arabic name is Barnik, or Farass-el-Bahr, the Nubians call it Ird. It is a dreadful plague on account of its voracity, and the want of means in the inhabitants to destroy it. It often descends the Nile as far as Sukkot: the peasants, as I passed, told me that there were three of them in the river between Mahass and Sukkot. Last year several of them passed the Batn el Hadjar, and made their appearance at Wady Halfa and Derr, an occurrence unknown to the oldest inhabitant. One was killed by an Arab, by a shot over its right eye; the peasants ate the flesh, and the skin and teeth were sold to a merchant of Siout. Another continued its course northward, and was seen beyond the cataract at Assouan, at Derau, one day's march north of that place.

. . . The valley of the Nile throughout the country of the Sheygya is nowhere more than three miles in breadth; in several parts of the river are small cataracts, where the mountains on each side nearly join. There are few crocodiles in this part of the river, and the hippopotamus is not met with. The tree most frequently seen on the banks of the stream is the Sant, or acacia; date trees are scarce. Dhourra, and the grain called Dhoken, are the most common productions of the fields, which are irrigated in the summer by means of water-wheels. The country is as well inhabited as the most populous parts of Egypt.

The Sheygya, of whom I have seen only one individual at Mahass, are certainly a very interesting people, and form the most powerful state to the north of Sennaar. They have a tradition that their forefather was a man of the name of Shayg whose four sons gave origin to their principal tribes. ... These different people are continually at war with each other, and their youth make plundering excursions as far as Darfour, to the west, and Wady Halfa, to the north. They all fight on horseback, in coats of mail which are sold to them by the merchants of Suakin and Sennaar. Fire-arins are not common among them, their only weapons being a lance, target, and sabre; they throw the lance to a great distance with much dexterity, and always carry four or five lances in the left hand, when charging an enemy. They are all mounted on Dongola stallions, and are as famous for their horsemanship as the Mamelouks were in Egypt; they train their horses to make violent springs with their hind legs when galloping: their saddles resemble the drawings I have seen of those of Abyssinia, and, like the Abyssinian horsemen, they place the great toe only in the stirrup. It is from the Sheygya that the people of Mahass are supplied with saddles.

The Sheygya are a perfectly independent people, and possess great wealth in corn and cattle; like the Bedouins of Arabia, they pay no kind of tribute to their chiefs, whose power is by no means so great as that of the chiefs of Dongola. They are renowned for their hospitality; and the person of their guest, or companion, is sacred. If the traveller possesses a friend among them, and has been plundered on the road, his property will be recovered, even if it has been taken by the king. They all speak Arabic exclusively, and many of them write and read it. Their learned men are held in great respect by them; they have schools, wherein all the sciences are taught which form the course of Mohammedan study, mathematics and astronomy excepted. I have seen books, copied at Merawe, written in as fine a hand as that of the scribes of Cairo. Whenever young men are sent to them from the adjacent countries for instruction, the chief of the Olema distributes them amongst his acquaintances, in whose houses they are lodged and fed for as many years as they choose to remain.

Such of the Sheygya as are soldiers, and not learned men, indulge in the frequent use of wine and spirits made from dates. The manners of their women are said to be very depraved. The merchants among them travel to Darfour, Sennaar, and Suakin; and, in years of dearth in Arabia, they export wheat and Dhourra to the Djidda market, by the way of Suakin. A caravan of pilgrims departs annually to these two places. Suakin is twelve days journies distant from the borders of the country of the Sheygya. ...

EL MEHARRAKA

. . . There are large mounds of rubbish, and fragments of pottery, in this place. <This being the ruins of El Meharraka, situated on the banks of the Nile.> 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 surprising; 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, because the walls formed of them are lighter, more quickly built, and have a much 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.

GENERAL REMARKS ON NUBIA

. . . The mode of estimating the revenue in Nubia is not from a certain extent of ground, like the Syrian and Egyptian Fedhan, but from every Sakie, or water-wheel employed by the natives, after the inundation, and during the summer, for the purposes of irrigation; the same mode prevails on the banks of the Nile as far as Sennaar. In poor villages one Sakie is the common property of six or eight peasants; but the wealthier inhabitants have several. The number of water-wheels between Assouan and Wady Halfa, or between the first and second cataract, is from six to seven hundred. The ground watered by one Sakie, which requires the alternate labour of eight or ten cows, comprises from three to five Egyptian Fedhans. In fruitful years, the winter wheat and barley irrigated by one wheel yields from eighty to one hundred Erdebs (twelve to fifteen hundred bushels); the proportions sown of these grains are generally one fourth wheat and three fourths barley. The rate of taxation is different in different places; thus at Wady Halfa, each Sakie pays annually six fat sheep, and six Egyptian Mouds, or measures of Dhourra. In Mahass, the Melek, or king, takes from every wheel six sheep, two Erdebs (twenty-six bushels) of Dhourra, and a linen shirt. The governors also take from every date tree two clusters of fruit, whatever may be the quantity produced, and levy a duty upon all vessels that load dates at Derr. But the whole system of taxation is extremely arbitrary and irregular, and poor villages are soon ruined by it, from their inability to resist the exactions made upon them, while the richer ones pay much less in proportion, because the governors are afraid of driving the inhabitants to acts of open resistance. The Kashefs derive also a considerable income from their office of judges; the administration of justice being a mere article of merchandize.

If one Nubian happen to kill another, he is obliged to pay the debt of blood to the family of the deceased, and a fine to the governors of six camels, a cow, and seven sheep; or they are taken from his relations. Every wound inflicted has its stated fine, consisting of sheep and Dhourra, but varying in quantity, according to the parts of the body wounded. This is an ancient Bedouin custom, and prevails also among the people of Ibrini, with this difference, that the mulct is given to the sufferer himself, and not to the Aga. If one of the governor's tribe, or an El Ghoz, a name given in Egypt and Nubia to the Mamelouks), or any of the people of Ibrim is slain by a Nubian, no debt of blood is paid to the family of the deceased, he being considered a soldier, and not an Arab; but the governor still exacts his fine. Much animosity exists between the Kenotis, and their southern neighbours the Noubas; the latter upbraiding the former with avarice, and bad faith, while the Kenous call the Noubas filthy slaves, living like the people of Soudan. Disputes and sanguinary quarrels often take place, in consequence, between the inhabitants of neighbouring villages; if death ensues, the family of the deceased has the option of taking the fine stipulated on such occasions, or of retaliating upon the family of the slayer. The people of Ibrim generally claim the right of retaliation; but it is not considered as sufficient to retaliate upon any person within the fifth degree of consanguinity, as among the Bedouins of Arabia; the brother, son, or first cousin only can supply the place of the murderer, and such being the case, the whole family often flies.

Although the governors of Nubia extort large sums by the various means above-mentioned, yet their tyranny is exercised only upon the property of their subjects, who are never beaten or put to death, except when in a state of open rebellion, which happens not unfrequently. If a Nubian, from whom money is to be extorted, flies, his wife, or his young children, are imprisoned till he returns. This practice is much complained of by the people, and is unknown even among the tyrannical Pashas of Syria and Egypt, who respect the persons of the wives and children of their greatest enemies. The following is a curious method which the governors of Nubia have devised, of extorting money from their subjects. When any wealthy individual has a daughter of a suitable age, they demand her in marriage; the father seldom dares to refuse, and sometimes feels flattered by the honour; but he is soon ruined by his powerful son-in-law, who extorts from him every article of his property under the name of presents to his own daughter. All the governors are thus married to females in almost every considerable village; Hosseyn Kashef has above forty sons of whom twenty are married in the same manner.

The inhabitants of the banks of the Nile, from the first Cataract to the frontiers of Dongola, do not plough their fields, after the inundation has subsided, as is done in Egypt; the waters above the Cataract never rising sufficiently high to overflow the shore. In a few places, where the cultivable soil is broader than usual, as at Kostamne, Gyrshe, Wady Halfa, &c., there are canals which convey the water towards the fields on the side of the mountain, but the water in them is not sufficiently high, as in Upper Egypt, to irrigate the low grounds near the hills. Irrigation in Nubia, therefore, is carried on entirely by means of the Sakies, or water-wheels. Immediately after the river has subsided, the fields are watered by them, and the first Dhourra seed is sown, the crop from which is reaped in December and January; the ground is then again irrigated, and barley sown; and after the barley harvest, the ground is sometimes sown a third time for the summer crop. The barley is either sold in water in them is not sufficiently high, as in Upper Egypt, to irrigate the low grounds near the hills. Irrigation in Nubia, therefore, is carried on entirely by means of the Sakies, or water-wlieels. Immediately after the river has subsided, the fields are watered by them, and the first Dhourra seed is sown, the crop from which is reaped in December and January; the ground is then again irrigated, and barley sown; and after the barley harvest, the ground is sometimes sown a third time for the summer crop. The barley is either sold in exchange for Dliourra, or eaten green in soups. The harvest suffers greatly from the ravages of immense flocks of sparrows, which the united efforts of all the children in the villages cannot always keep at a distance; and whole fields of Dhourra and barley are often destroyed by a species of small worm, which ascends the stalks of the plant. Tobacco is every where cultivated; it retains, when dried, its green colour, and exactly resembles that of the mountains on the east side of the Dead Sea. Tobacco forms the chief luxury of all classes, who either smoke it, or mixing it with nitre suck it, by placing it between the lower gums and the lip.

The habitations of the Nubians are built either of mud or of loose stones; those of stone, as I have already observed, stand generally on the declivity of the hills, and consist of two separate round buildings, one of which is occupied by the males, and the other by the females of the family. The mud dwellings are generally so low, that one can hardly stand upright in them: the roof is covered with Dhourra stalks, which last till they are eaten up by the cattle, when palm leaves are laid across. The houses at Derr, and those of the wealthy inhabitants of the larger villages, are well built, having a large area in the centre with apartments all round, and a separation between those of the men and of the women. The utensils of a Nubian's house consist of about half a dozen coarse earthen jars, from one to two feet in diameter, and about five feet in height, in which all the provisions of the family are kept; a few earthen plates; a hand-mill; a hatchet; and a few round sticks, over which the loom is laid.

To the north of Derr, the dress is usually a linen shirt only, which the wealthier classes wear of a blue colour; or the woollen cloak of the peasants of Upper Egypt; the head-dress is a small white linen cap, with sometimes a few rags twisted round it in the shape of a turban. Young boys and girls go naked; the women wrap themselves up in linen rags, or black woollen gowns; they wear ear-rings, and glass bracelets; and those who cannot afford to buy the latter, form them of straw. Their hair falls In ringlets upon the neck, and on the back part of the head they wear short tassels of glass or stones, both as an ornament and an amulet. The richer class wear copper or silver rings round their ankles. South of Derr, and principally at Sukkot and in Mahass, grown up people go quite naked, with the exception of the sexual parts, which the men conceal in a small sack. This sack resembles exactly what is seen in the figures of the Egyptian Priapus upon the walls of the temples. The hair of the people of Mahass is very thick, but not woolly. All the young men wear one ear-ring, either of silver or copper, in the right ear only, and men of all classes usually carry a rosary suspended round the neck, which they never remove; they also tie round one arm, above the elbow, a number of amulets covered with leather about three, or four inches broad, consisting of mystical writings and prayers, which are sold to them by the Fokara.

The Nubians seldom go unarmed: as soon as a boy grows up, his first endeavour is to purchase a short, crooked knife, which the men wear tied over the left elbow, under their shirt, and which they draw upon each other on the slightest quarrel. When a Nubian goes from one village to another, he either carries a long heavy stick covered with iron at one of its extremities, or his lance and target. The lance is about five feet in length, including the iron point; the targets are of various sizes ; some are round, with a boss in the centre; others resemble the ancient Macedonian shield, being of an oblong form, four feet in length, and with curved edges, covering almost the whole body. These targets, which are sold by the Sheygya Arabs, are made of the skin of the hippopotamus, and are proof against the thrust of a lance, or the blow of a sabre. Those who can afford it, possess also a sword, resembling in shape the swords worn by the knights of the middle ages, a long straight blade, about two inches in breadth, with a handle in the form of a cross; the scabbard, for fashion sake, is broader near the point than at the top. These swords are of German manufacture, and are sold to the Nubians by the merchants of Egypt, at from four to eight dollars apiece. Fire-arms are not common; the richer classes possess matchlocks. Hassan Kashef himself had no pistols. Ammunition is very scarce and highly valued ; travellers therefore will do well to carry with them a few dozen cartridges, which are very acceptable presents. When 1 left the camp of Mohammed Kashef at Tinarch, his nephew ran after me for at least two miles, to obtain a single cartridge from me, telling me that he had shot off the only one he had, during the rejoicings of the preceding day.

I have already mentioned the usual dishes of the Nubians. The Dhourra bread is extremely coarse, and is made without salt. <The people who live in the vicinity of ancient habitations, or mounds of rubbish, procure, by digging, a substance called Mabouk, which they put into their bread as a substitute for salt.> It is prepared upon the Sadj, or thin iron plate in use among the Bedouin Arabs; but as the whole operation of grinding, kneading, and baking does not occupy more than ten minutes, it may easily be supposed that it is never thoroughly baked. The Dhourra for the day's use is ground early every morning by the women, for the Nubians never keep meal in store. In Sukkot and Mahass, the bread is made in very thin round cakes, which are placed upon each other when served up at meals. Animal food is rarely tasted by the Nubians; the governors even do not eat it every day. In the larger villages palm-wine is common ; it is not unpleasant to the taste, though too sweet and thick, to be drank in any considerable quantity. It is obtained by the following process : as soon as the dates have come to maturity they are thrown into large earthen boilers, with water, and the whole is boiled for two days, without intermission; the liquid is then strained, and the clear juice is poured into earthen jars, which, after being well closed, are buried under ground; here they are allowed to remain for ten or twelve days, during which the liquor ferments ; the jars are then taken up, and their contents are fit to drink; but the wine will not keep longer than a year, or beyond the next date-harvest; if kept longer it turns sour. The Nubians also make a liquor called Bouza, much resembling beer; it is extracted from Dhourra or barley, but the best is furnished by the latter. It is of a pale muddy colour, and very nutricious. At Cairo, and in all the towns and larger villages of Upper Egypt, there are shops for the sale of Bouza, which are kept exclusively by Nubians. Great quantities both of the wine, and of the spirit distilled from dates, are drank at Derr, where they are sold in shops kept for the purpose, and where the upper classes are intoxicated with them every evening. From Siout, southward, through the whole of Upper Egypt, date spirits are made and publicly sold; and the Pasha levies a tax upon the venders. A kind of jelly or honey is also extracted from the date, which serves the rich as a sweetmeat. Except date-trees, and a few grape vines which 1 saw at Derr, there are no fruit-trees in Nubia.

The climate of Nubia, though intensely hot in summer, particularly in the narrow rocky parts of the country, is very healthy, owing perhaps to the extreme aridity of the atmosphere. I do not recollect having seen a single person labouring under any disease, during the five weeks I was in the country. Occasionally, the smallpox, as 1 have already observed, makes dreadful ravages in every part except the Wady Kenotis; inoculation being unknown, or at least unpractised, both here and in Upper Egypt; and the several attempts that have been made to introduce the vaccine into the latter country, or rather to establish it there, having entirely failed. Some travellers have supposed that the plague is communicated to Egypt from the south; but this is a very erroneous supposition, as it never prevails in Nubia so high as the second Cataract, and is unknown in Dongola, and along the whole route to Sennaar.

The men in Nubia are generally well made, strong, and muscular, with fine features; in stature they are somewhat below the Egyptians; they have no mustachios, and but little beard, wearing it under the chin only, like the figures of the fugitives in the battlepieces, sculptured upon the walls of the Egyptian temples. In passing along the Wadys of Nubia, it often occurred to me to remark that the size and figure of the inhabitants was generally proportioned to the breadth of their cultivable soil; wherever the plain is broad, and the peasants from being enabled to carry on agriculture to a tolerable extent, are in comparatively easy circumstances, they are taller and more muscular and healthy; but in the rocky districts, where the plain is not more than twenty or thirty yards in breadth, they are poor meagre figures; in some places appearing almost like walking skeletons.

The women are all well made, and though not handsome, have generally sweet countenances, and very pleasing manners; I have even seen beauties among them. Denon has certainly not done justice to them; but they are worn down, from their earliest years, by continual labour; the whole business of the house being left to them, while the men are occupied exclusively in the culture of the soil. Of all the women of the East, those of Nubia are the most virtuous; and this is the more praiseworthy, as their vicinity to Upper Egypt, where licentiousness knows no bounds, might be expected to have some influence upon theni. During my stay at Esne, girls came every morning to my lodging to offer milk for sale; the Egyptians boldly entered the court-yard and uncovered their faces, a behaviour equivalent to an offer of their persons: but the Nubians (of whom many families are settled at Esne) stood modestly before the threshold, over which nothing could induce them to step, and there they received the money for their milk without removing their veils.

The Nubians purchase their wives from the parents: the price usually paid by the Ketious is twelve Mahboubs, or thirty-six piastres. They frequently intermarry with the Arabs Ababde, some of whom cultivate the soil like themselves; an Ababde girl is worth six camels; these are paid to her father, who gives back three to his daughter, to be the common property of her and her husband; if a divorce takes place, half the value of the three camels goes to the latter. In Upper, Egypt, when a wife insists upon being divorced, her husband has the right to take all her wearing apparel from her, and to shave her head; nobody will then marry her till her hair be grown again. The Nubian is extremely jealous of his wife's honour; and -on the slightest suspicion of infidelity towards him, would carry her in the night to. the side of the river, lay open her breast by a cut with his knife, and throw her into the water, " to be food for the crocodiles," as they term it. A case of this kind lately happened at Assouan.

Public women, who are met with in thousands in every part of Egypt, are not tolerated in Nubia, except at Derr, and these are not natives, but emanciated female slaves, who being left destitute, betake themselves to this vile profession, to gain a subsistence. The execrable propensities which the Mamelouks have rendered so common in Egypt, even amongst the lowest peasants, are held in abhorrence in Nubia, except by the Kashefs and their relations, who endeavour to imitate the Mamelouks in every thing, even in their most detestable vices.

Small looms are frequently seen in the houses of the Nubians; with these the women weave very coarse woollen mantles, and cotton cloth, which they make into shirts. From the leaves of the date-tree they also form mats, small drinking bowls, and large plates on which the bread is served at table; and though these articles are formed entirely by the hand, they are made in so very neat a manner, as to have every appearance of being wrought by instruments. The above are the only manufactures in Nubia; every thing else is imported from Egypt.

The only musical instrument I saw in Nubia was a kind of Egyptian tamboura, with five strings, and covered with the skin of a gazell . . . The girls are fond of singing; and the Nubian airs are very melodious.

The game of chess is common at Derr; and that called Beyadh is also frequently played. I have described the latter in my journal through Arabia Petraea, when speaking of the Arabs of Kerek.

I found the Nubians, generally, to be of a kind disposition, and without that propensity to theft so characteristic of the Egyptians, at least of those to the north of Siout. Pilfering indeed is almost unknown amongst them, and any person convicted of such a crime would be expelled from his village by the unanimous voice of its inhabitants; I did not lose the most trifling article during my journey through the country, although I always slept in the open air in front of the house where I took up my quarters for the night. They are in general hospitable towards strangers, but the Kenous and the people of Sukkot are less so than the other inhabitants. Curiosity seems to be the most prominent feature in their character, and they generally ask their guest a thousand questions about the place he comes from, and the business which brings him into Nubia.

If the government were not so extremely despotic, the Nubians might become dangerous neighbours to Egypt; for they are of a much bolder and more independent spirit than the Egyptians, and ardently attached to their native soil. Great numbers of them go yearly to Cairo, where they generally act as porters, and are preferred to the Egyptians, on account of their honesty. After staying there six or eight years, they return to their native Wady, with the little property they have realized, although well knowing that the only luxuries they can there expect, in exchange for those of Cairo, are Dhourra bread and a linen shirt. Such of them as do not travel into Egypt, hardly ever go beyond the precincts of their village, for, generally, the Nubians have no inclination towards commercial speculations. At Ibrim I met with two old men, who assured me that they had never visited Derr, though it is only five hours distant. Those Nubians who have resided in Egypt, and can speak Arabic, are for the most part good Mussulmen, and repeat their prayers daily : but in general the only prayer known to the others is the exclamation of Allahu Akbar. A few make the pilgrimage to Mekka, by the way of Suakin.

I estimate the whole population of Nubia, from Assouan to the southern limits of Mahass, an extent of country about five hundred miles long, with an average breadth of half a mile, at one hundred thousand souls.

I shall subjoin to this account of Nubia some notices upon the Bedouins who inhabit the mountains lying between that country and the Red sea. They consist of two principal tribes, the Ababde and Bisharye. The Ababde occupy the country south of Kosseir, nearly as far as the latitude of Derr. The Bisharye inhabit the mountains from thence southwards, as far as Suakin, where they find pasture for their camels and cattle in the wild herbage which grows in the beds of the winter torrents. Many of the Ababde have settled in Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile from Kenne to Assouan, and from thence to Derr; but the greater part of thein still live like Bedouins. They act as guides to the Sennaar caravans which depart from Daraou and were formerly conductors likewise of the trade from Kosseir to Kenne; but their enemies, the Arabs Maazyu and Ataony who live to the north of Kosseir, have succeeded in depriving them of the profits arising from this employment, which the latter now farm from the Pasha of Egypt. The Ababde are possessed of considerable property, but have a bad character, being described by all those who deal with them as a faithless people, who betray their companions, thus rendering themselves unworthy of that origin from the Arabian Bedouins, of which they boast. No oath binds an Ababde; but I was informed that they dread breaking their word, if they give it with the expression, "by the hope I entertain of remaining in good health." They are known in Upper Egypt for their excellent breed of camels, particularly dromedaries, and they trade largely in Senna-Mekke, and in charcoal of acacia wood, both of which are produced from the trees, growing abundantly in their mountains; the fuel is exported as far as Cairo. The Ababde have few horses; when at war with. other Arab tribes they fight upon camels, armed with a target, lance, and sword. Their principal tribes are, El Fokara, El Ashabat, and El Meleykab. The Ashabat seldom descend from the mountains to the banks of the Nile, but many individuals of the tribe have settled on its banks near Mograt and Demar, on the route to Sennaar, where the have intermarried with the native inhabitants. Such of them as encamp with the Bisliarye speak the language of the latter.

The Bisharye, who rarely descend from their mountains, are a very savage people, and their character is worse even than that of the Ababde. Their only cattle are camels and sheep, and they live entirely upon flesh and milk, eating much of the former raw; according to the relation of several Nubians, they are very fond of the hot blood of slaughtered sheep; but their greatest luxury is said to be the raw marrow of camels. A few of these Arabs occasionally visit Derr or Assouan, with Senna, sheep, and ostrich feathers, the ostrich being common in their mountains; and theii. Senna is of the best kind. In exchange for these commodities they take linen shirts and Dhourra, the grains of which they swallow raw, as a dainty, and never make it into bread. These traders do not remain long on the banks of the Nile; as the dread of the small-pox soon drives them back to their tents. The Bisharye are much addicted to theft, and will even rob the house of the person who receives them as guests. Their youth make plundering excursions as far as Dongola, and along the route to Sennaar, mounted upon camels, of a breed superior to any other, that exists between the shores of the Mediterranean and Abyssinia. Few of the Bisharye speak Arabic. They fear none but the Ababde, who know their pasturing-places in the mountains, and often surprise their encampments. When the two tribes are at peace, which happens to be the case at present, the mountains inhabited by the Bisharye may be crossed in the company of an Ababdi; but the latter is not to be trusted, unless one of his nearest relations is left behind as a hostage. Great numbers of the dispersed Mamelouks fell victims to the treachery of these Arabs, and the others escaped only by keeping together in considerable bodies.

Encampments of the Bisharye are found on the northern frontier of Abyssinia; and the sea-coast from Suakin to Massuah is peopled by their tribes, the most noted of which are, Hainmedab, Batra, Alyab, Amerab, Kanihetab, Hamdora, Eryab, Hazz, Modourab, Kameylab, el Amarer, all of whom live in separate encampments, and are often at war with each other. They have no fire-arms; towards the frontiers of Abyssinia some of the tribes use the bow and arrow, and, as I was informed, speak the Abyssinian language, or rather understand the Abyssinians, who are said to have greater difficulty in comprehending the Bisharye. The two languages are probably derived from the same source, like many others of the numerous dialects which prevail towards the northern frontiers of Abyssinia.

The Bisharye are kind, hospitable, and honest towards each other; their women, who are said to be as handsome as those of Abyssinia, mix in company with strangers, and are reported to be of very depraved habits. After long and fruitless inquiries for a Bisharye Arab, I at last met with a youth who had come to Esne to sell leather thongs, for the manufacture of which these Bedouins are famous. I enticed him to my dwelling by bargaining for his goods, and made him breakfast with me; but when I began to question him about his language he would stay no longer, although I offered him a shirt as a present. He imagined that I dealt in spells, which I meant to put in practice to the injury of his nation; he forced his way out of the courtyard of my house, and I could never afterwards prevail upon him to return.

DESCRIPTION OF A JOURNEY

FROM

UPPER EGYPT THROUGH THE DESERTS OF NUBIA

TO

BERBER AND SUAKIN, AND FROM THENCE TO DJIDDA

IN ARABIA.

PERFORMED IN THE YEAR 1814.

After my return from a journey along the banks of the Nile towards Dongola, in the spring of the year 1813, I remained in Upper Egypt, waiting for an opportunity to start with a caravan of' slave-traders, towards the interior parts of Nubia, in a more easterly direction. A numerous caravan had set out from the neighbourhood of Assouan, only a few days before my return there from Mahass; and it was the last which performed that journey in the year 1813.

About this time, a robber named Naym, Shikh of the Arabs Rebatat, who inhabit the country of Mograt, on the banks of the Nile, three days N. W. from Goz, had begun to infest the caravan route; several parties of traders had already been plundered by him, and the above-mentioned caravan shared the same fate on its return to Egypt in October 1813. Naym was killed in December by a numerous armed caravan from Sennaar and the roads then became safe. The traders, however, still delayed their departure. They were apprized that the southern countries on the borders of the Nile were severely suffering from famine; the crops of Dhourra had failed from a scanty inundation, and such was said to be the effect of famine, that the poor Negroes had killed each other, for a few measures of Dhourra. The merchants foresaw that the expense to be incurred in feeding their slaves would eat up all their profits, and therefore determined to wait till the next harvest.

During this time I had established my principal quarters at Esne, which is three days journey from Daraou, the place from whence the caravan takes its departure. Not wishing to be much known, I kept as little company as possible, dressed myself in the poorest dress of an inhabitant of Egypt, and spent as little money as I possibly could, the daily expense, of myself, servant, dromedary, and ass, being about one shilling and six-pence; my horse cost me sixteen-pence per month. Yet, with all this I could not help creating some suspicion of my being a rich man, or of my having had the good luck to find a treasure. I was fearful of engaging in any traffic because it would have obliged me to mix with the merchants, and my person would then have become generally known. But in Egypt, there is no such condition as that of a man who lives upon his income without employment. Every body is either a cultivator or a merchant, or in some public service; and to be able to live, without begging, and without belonging to any of those classes appears very strange, and exposes the individual to the suspicion of having chests full of dollars.

I had been several times at Daraou to look after the caravan, and to become acquainted with the leading people. About the middle of February my correspondent at that place sent a messenger to Esne, to acquaint me that every thing was ready for departure. I went there, but the traders still delayed; and it was not until a fortnight afterwards that the signal of departure from Daraou was given.

Daraou is a considerable village, about ten hours north of Assouan, on the east bank of the Nile. Its inhabitants are partly Fellahs of Egypt, and partly Arabs Ababde, many of whom have become settlers in the villages south of Goft, as far as Assouan ; but who still keep a part of their families in the mountains; living there like Bedouins, during the season, when their agricultural pursuits do not require their attendance on the banks of the Nile, and during the remainder of the year inhabiting villages like the peasants of Egypt.

The two principal chiefs have their settlements, one at Kolett about four hours north of Daraou, on the east bank of the river, and the other at the latter place.

From time immemorial the Ababde have been the guides of the caravans through the Nubian desert; many of them are great speculators in the slave trade, and their chiefs exact a tribute upon every slave, and upon every loaded camel passing through the desert, which does not belong to one of their own tribes.

The other part of the inhabitants of Daraou, are Fellahs, intermarried with Ababde women, who, for the greater part, likewise engage in the same trade. These I have found, from sad experience, to be a worthless set of vagabonds; notwithstanding the profits arising from that traffic, they are all poor; spending their gains in drunkenness and debauchery.

I had equipped myself at Esne for my journey: but soon found, on my arrival at Daraou, the necessity of making some alteration in my plans. I had brought with me a camel and an ass; the former I had intended to load with baggage, provisions, and water: the latter to mount myself, according to the custom of the Nubian traders; who generally perform their travels towards the Negro countries on these animals, which they sell there and return on their camels. I had no servant. The Fellah who had faithfully served me during my whole stay in Upper Egypt I had sent, on my departure from Esne, with a packet of letters to Cairo; for I was determined to try my luck in this country alone, unaccompanied by any servant. Experience had taught me that in difficult and dangerous travels, those who have no other motive in performing them, but that of gaining their monthly pay, are averse to incur any perils, and stagger at the smallest difficulties ; thus they become more troublesome than serviceable to their master: whom moreover their imprudence or treachery may expose to danger. I was in full health, and therefore not afraid of undertaking the additional fatigue, which otherwise would have been borne by my servant. Arrived at Daraou, I had an opportunity of seeing the preparations of my fellow travellers, and of observing that mine were not regulated by that strict economy which served as a rule to the others. My baggage and provisions weighed about two hundred weight. The camel however was capable of carrying six hundred weight. The water for my use on the road was to be contained in two small skins slung across the saddle of the ass. My camel therefore could carry four hundred weight more, the freight of which at five dollars per hundred weight, was worth twenty dollars. Had I slighted such a sum, I might have exposed myself to the animadversions of my companions, who would probably have thought me possessed of great wealth. I soon had an offer of a freight of four hundred weight, to convey across the desert as far as Goz, at the above price: but I considered that the loading and unloading of the camel would occasion me a great deal of trouble: I therefore thought it best to sell him, and soon found a purchaser at twenty-five dollars in ready money, camels being at that time very scarce in Upper Egypt; it was part of the bargain, that the purchaser should carry my baggage across the Desert.

I appeared at Daraou in the garb of a poor trader, the only character in which I believe I could possibly have succeeded. It may not be superfluous that I should inform the reader in detail of the contents of my baggage, and of my provisions: at least it had always been, with me, a great desideratum in reading books of travels, to collect such information for my own use.

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 carried in the pocket of my Tliabout, a small journalbook, 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 those 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 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 manufactory for a night covering, a small parcel of medicines, and three spare water-skins.

I had also a small pocket Coran, bought at Damascus, which I lost afterwards on the day of the pilgrimage, 10th of November, 1814, among the crowds of Mount Arafat, a spare journal-book and an inkstand, together with some loose sheets of paper, for writing amulets for the Negroes. My watch had been broken in Upper Egypt, where I had no means of getting another. The hours of march noted down in the journal are therefore merely by computation, and by observing the course of the sun.

The little merchandise I took with me consisted of twenty pounds of sugar, fifteen of soap, two of nutmegs, twelve razors, twelve steels, two red caps, and several dozen of wooden beads, which are an excellent substitute for coin in the southern countries. I had a gun, with three dozen of cartridges and some small shot, a pistol, and a large stick, called nabbout, strengthened with iron at either end, and serving either as a weapon, or to pound the coffee beans, and which, according to the custom of the, country, was my constant companion. My purse, worn in a girdle under the Thabout, contained fifty Spanish dollars, including the twenty-five, the price of my camel, and I had besides sewed a couple of sequins in a small leathern amulet, tied round my elbow, thinking this to be the safest place for secreting them. Had my departure from Egypt not been too long delayed, I should have carried a larger sum of money with me; although I much doubt, after the experience I have since had, whether I should have been the better for it. I had originally destined two hundred dollars for this purpose, which I had carried with me from Siout to Esne, in September, 1813, expecting to be able to start immediately with the caravan : I was afterwards obliged to encroach upon that sum, to defray my daily expenses, to purchase my camel, &c. &c. ; and a fresh supply of money which I had written for, had not arrived when the caravan started.

Having already waited so long, I was unwilling to give up so eligible an opportunity, merely on account of the low state of m funds: and the information I had collected on the state of the Negro countries made me think it probable that if I did not make a prolonged stay there, I might succeed in my journey, even with the trifling sum then at my command. Besides I was ready to supply the want of money by an increase of bodily privations and exertions, to elude which is the principal motive for spending money in travels of this sort.

All my baggage and provisions were packed up in five leather bags or djerab, much in use among the slave-traders ; those articles of which I stood in daily need, I put up in a small saddle-bag on my ass.

The most substantial merchants of our caravan were fitted out in the same style as to provisions for the journey: the only dainties which some of them carried were dried flesh, honey, and cheese; the latter, although certainly agreeable in travelling, is not a proper article of food in the desert: where the traveller should abstain from whatever excites thirst. Several of our people had among their camels she-camels in full milk, which gave them a daily supply of this agreeable beverage.

On the 1st of March, all the traders had assembled at Daraott, and early in the morning of the 2nd the different goods, for loading the camels, were carried to a public place, in front of the village called Barzet el Gellabe.

At noon, the camels were watered, <The traders are in the habit of giving to their camels several days before they start, each day three times the usual quantity of Dhourra; which they force down their throats. The camels chew this supply of food for several days after, during the march.> and knelt down by the side of their respective loads. Just before the lading commenced, the Ababde women appeared with earthen vessels in their hands, filled with burning coals. They set them before the several loads, and threw salt upon them. At the rising of the bluish flame, produced by the burning of the salt, they exclaimed, " May you be blessed in going and in coming." The devil and every evil genius are thus, they say, removed.

We were accompanied for about half an hour beyond the village by all the women and children. My principal friend at Daraou, Hadji Hosseyn el Alouan, at whose house I had lived, and who had obtained from me a variety of presents, in making me believe that he intended to undertake the journey in person, in which case he might have proved to me a most useful companion on the road, had declared the day before, that he should remain at Daraou ; but his brother and his son Aly joined the caravan, and their party formed the largest and most wealthy party of the Fellali traders among us. The old man followed us with his women to a distance from the village, and at parting, recommended me to his relations; "He is your brother," he said to his son, "and there," opening his son's waistcoat, and putting his hand upon his bosom, "there let him be placed:" a way of recommendation much in use in the Arabian desert likewise, where it has some meaning, but among these miserable Egyptians it has become a mere form of speech. We then proceeded upon a sandy plain, in great disorder, as it always happens upon the first setting out of a journey. Many loads were badly laid on, several were thrown off by the camels who had for some time been unused to them, and we were obliged to encamp for the night in a small valley, with shrubs in it, about two hours and a half to the E. S. E. of Daraou, where we feasted upon the dainties which had been prepared by the ladies of Daraou; large fires were lighted, and the whole night was passed in singing and noise.

3d March. We departed early from our resting-place, and entered Wady Om Rokbe, a broad valley with good pasture, which we followed for upwards of two hours; we then ascended a steep hill, and after several ascents and descents, encamped in a valley near the source of water called Abou Kebeyr, having proceeded to-day about six hours, very slow march. There are a few trees in this valley; and water is found every where by digging pits in the sand. The source of Abou Kebeyr, which yields a very scanty supply, had attracted some Ababde Bedouins, from whom we bought some sheep. The mountains we had traversed to-day were all composed of flint.

4th March. Our route this morning lay through sandy valleys, until we arrived, after about four hours march, at a steep ascent, or Akaba, where the sand and flint hills terminate. After crossing over the Akaba, which is composed of granite schistus, we arrived, at the end of six hours, at a fine natural reservoir of rain water, among the granite rocks, called Abou Adjajy ; our route was in a S. S. W. direction. From hence to Assouan, the distance is six hours just beyond the basin of rain water, begins a narrow pass among the rocks, where loaded camels proceed with difficulty. In here turning round a corner of the mountain, we found our advanced men, loudly quarrelling with a strong party of armed Bedouins, and before I could inform myself of the particulars, the Ababde belonging to our caravan had armed themselves, and proceeded to attack the enemy. The latter were likewise Ababde, but of a different tribe. Having been informed of our departure from Daraou, they had left their homes at Khattar a village near Assouan, to way-lay us in this narrow pass, and to levy a contribution upon us as passage-money. They were about thirty, and our Ababdes as many. The individuals of both parties were naked, for it is a rule among them never to fight with any incumbrance upon their bodies, and merely to wrap a rag or napkin round their waists. <The Nubians fight naked in the same manner.> They were armed with long two-edged swords, and short lances and targets, which latter were particularly useful to them in warding off the shower of stones with which the attack commenced. When I saw them thus attack each other, and then under the most horrible clamour come to close action with swords, believing that we were attacked by robbers, I was about to join our people, and had already levelled my musquet at the principal man of the assailants, when one of our Ababdes cried out to me, for God's sake not to fire, as he hoped there should be no blood between them. By the advice of our guides, the Egyptian merchants, who were armed with swords, (for nobody had a gun but myself, and few had pistols) willingly took charge of the defence of our baggage in the rear, for the Ababde were anxious to fight out the quarrel amongst themselves. After about twenty minutes' rather shy fighting, the battle ceased by the interference of the chiefs on both sides, and both parties claimed the victory. The whole damage amounted to three men slightly wounded and one shield cleft in two. Our people however gained their point, for we passed without paying any tribute, and I was somewhat gratified in seeing how far our Arabs might be depended upon in any future attack in the course of the journey. As for the Egyptians they had given evident proofs of the most cowardly disposition, notwithstanding their boasting language . . .

. . . Shikhs of the Ababde have a right to claim a tribute from the caravan. Others set up unfounded pretensions of the same kind, and it is the duty of the guides to protect the caravan from such extortions. No caravan can cross the desert in safety without being accompanied by some of the Ababde, and although many of the Fellah merchants perfectly know the road, they never venture to perform it alone.

Our assailants retreated after a long parley, which succeeded the fight; and although we had at first intended to remain at Abou Adjadji for the night, our guides now thought it advisable to push farther on, because the were afraid that the opposite party might send during the night for a reinforcement of men from their village. We therefore rode three hours farther over a rocky ground until we arrived in a wide valley called Wady Houd, where we halted. During the whole of this afternoon's march we had observed among the barren granite rocks, great quantities of locusts.

March 5th. Wady Houd is a broad valley full of shrubs and pasturage, bordered on both sides by rocks of fine granite . . . This evening we lighted our fires with the dried dung of the camels that had rested here before; indeed we seldom halted in the evening without finding fuel of this kind, for the traders rarely go out of the accustomed tract, nor can they choose their resting-places at random, being fixed to those spots where there is some pasturage of herbs and shrubs, or at least some acacia trees, upon the leaves and branches of which their camels may feed for a few hours in the evening. I found much less order at the encamping of this caravan, than I had observed among other caravans in the Eastern Desert. Our party consisted of thirty-nine loaded camels, thirty-five asses, and about eighty men, and it was divided into a dozen different families or messes, each of which on the halting ground formed a separate bivouac. We had two men from Assouan, the others were from Daraou, Klit, and Esne, and a few from Gous, and Farshiout. People from Siout seldom travel this road. Although the chief of the Ababde was the acknowledged head of the caravan, yet the Fellah merchants generally followed their own humour in moving and halting ; and there was every evening some quarrelling about the place of halting. None of the traders had any tent; we all slept in the open air, but none ever shut his eyes without placing, his baggage in such a manner as to render it difficult for thieves to attempt it without awaking him. We were not afraid of robbers from without, but it was too well known that many of our own people were of a pilfering disposition, and notwithstanding every precaution, they repeatedly indulged themselves in it in the course of the journey.

6th March. . . . About four hours distant from Damhit, in a S. W. direction, is a spring of good water called El Moeleh; it is resorted to by the caravans, which set out from Assouan. We remained here the whole day, for it is a general rule among caravans in the cast, to make slow marches during the three or four first days of a long journey, in order to accustom the cattle, which are generally allowed several months of rest before the journey, to fatigue by degrees; and this is particularly the case when the ground affords good pasturage. Loss of time is seldom taken into consideration by eastern merchants, and least of all by Arabs, and thus I have heard it related at Damascus that the caravans from thence to Bagdad are, in the spring, sometimes three months in crossing the desert. We again met great numbers of locusts. These rapacious insects had spread sometimes in such quantities over the mountain as to eat up every green vegetable: the cattle of the Bedouins are sometimes reduced by these animals to the greatest distress.

7th March. After two hours we issued from the Wadv and met several Bisharein Arabs. These Bedouins, whom I have already mentioned in my journey towards Dongola, remain in winter time in the mountains near the Red Sea, where the rains produce plenty of pasture; but there being very few wells and springs in that quarter, they are obliged to approach in summer nearer to the Nile, where wells are more numerous. We were now upon an open sandy plain, without any vegetation, bordered on the cast by high mountains, and towards the west, at a shorter distance, by lower hills. The whole valley of Om el Hebal is of granite, but here in the plain I again found sandstone with quartz. We were about five hours in crossing this plain, which bears the name of Birket Zokhan, and then after seven hours slow march, we stopped at the entrance of a chain of low mountains, where we found very luxuriant pasture. The herb called Towyle grows here in abundance, and is an excellent food for the camels. From my first setting out from Daraou, I had been involved in continual disputes with the man, to whom I had sold my camel, and who carried my baggage. He had undertaken to take more baggage than the camel was able to bear, and in order to lighten it, he was constantly endeavouring to transfer my baggage, for the carriage of which I paid him, to my ass. This evening the camel broke down, when he accused me of having cheated him, in selling him an unsound animal, insisting at the same time upon having his money returned, a demand which was however soon over-ruled. According to justice, and to the customs even of the traders themselves, he would have been obliged to pay the further freight of my baggage out of his own pocket; but he was so loud in his oaths and lamentations, exclaiming that he was a ruined man, and besmearing his face with dirt and dust, in sign of excessive grief, that he brought the chiefs of the caravan all over to his side, and I was obliged to contract a second time for the freight of my goods and provisions, with one of the Bedouins Ababde. As we had already been six days on our journey, our provisions were considerably diminished, and the camel's load became every day lighter. Upon this the traders always reckon, never taking any spare camels from Egypt with them, as other desert caravans usually do, and if camels break down, their loads are distributed among the others, and the carriage is paid for according to a fair calculation. No man can ever refuse to charge his camel with part of such load, if necessity demands it, and his own camel is strong enough. We again set out after sunset, and marched about three hours farther, through several values, until we came to the low mountains, called Om Hereyzel, where we stopped.

8th March. The mountain of Om Hereyzel is of a dark grey granite. . . . The road was strewn with carcasses and bones of camels. Few caravans perform the journey without losing some of their beasts, and this happens more frequently in rocky districts, of difficult passage, or in the neighbourhood of wells, where the already weakened camels surfeit themselves with water, which has the effect of rendering them incapable of resisting fatigue, and the weight of their loads. We passed many low insulated granite hillocks, and granite blocks in the midst of the sands. We halted about mid-day at the entrance of a chain of mountains, running S. E. and N. W., called Djebel Meyzorba . It is a custom with caravans always to rest during the mid-day hours, when they dine, and sleep afterwards for a couple of hours. At the return from the black countries, when camels are always plentiful, and every body is mounted, the caravan travels in forced marches; but two-thirds of our people were at present on foot. Towards two o'clock we usually set out again, and alighted just before sunset. In the afternoon of this day we passed Hcyzorba, and continuing in the same direction as before, halted near some rocks called Beiban a day's march of about nine hours. I had seen neither trees nor verdure during the whole day. The rocks where we rested were of granite mixed with large masses of feldspath.

9th March. Being in want of water, we set out soon after midnight, and reached, after five hours march, the Wady Nakeyb with wells of the same name. The Wad is full of Sant trees, and has near its extremity two deep wells of tolerable water.

From the first day of our departure from Daraou, my companions had treated me with neglect, and even contempt; they certainly had no idea of my being a Frank, but they took me to be of Turkish origin, either from European Turkey or Asia Minor, an opinion sufficient of itself to excite the ill-treatment of Arabs, who all bear the most inveterate hatred to the Osmanlis. I had with me a Firman of Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mohammed Aly Pasha, and governor of Upper Egypt, together with a letter of recommendation from him, addressed to all the black kings on the Sennaar route, and wherein I was called Hadji, or Shikh Ibrahim el Shamy, or the Syrian. For obvious reasons I had never let this be known amongst my companions, and all that I gave them to understand was, that I was by birth an Aleppine; they knew that I was much befriended by Hassan Beg, the Governor of Esne, under whose jurisdiction Daraou is included, as well as by the great commercial house El Habater of Esne, who had recommended me to their correspondent at Daraou. Seeing that I had brought a very small quantity of goods with me, they thought I had been forced to leave Egypt on account of debts; but I gave out that I was in search of a lost cousin, who several years ago had departed from Siout to Darfour, and Sennaar, upon a mercantile expedition, in which my whole property had been engaged. This was a pretext for my undertaking, quite suited to the notions of these people. The smallness of my adventure in goods would hardly have justified any man in his senses in attempting such a journey with mere commercial views; for, after paying all the passage duties in the road, the most sanguine person could not hope for any greater success, than that of returning with the full capital. I was obliged therefore to allege some reasons for undertaking the journey. I often repeated my hopes of finding my lost cousin, and at all events of conducting my expenses in such a manner as not to be a loser on my return. My companions were not disinclined to believe my story, and thought it not at all improbable, that I might also be avoiding my creditors; but I could easily perceive at the same time that they could not divest themselves of some commercial jealousy, thinking, perhaps, that I might find the means of attempting a second expedition into these countries with a large capital, in case I should return from the present with a conviction of the profitable nature of the trade. It was probably for this reason that they thought it necessary to ill-treat me, in order to prevent my making any further attempt. Several Turks from Asia Minor or from European Turkey had within the last ten years endeavoured to engage in the trade, but the Daraou people had always found means to disgust them so much, as to make them abandon any second enterprise. When 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 Esne, observing that now we were in the desert, they cared little for 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 contemptuous 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 myself; I was soon, however, driven away from them, and obliged to remain 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. When we arrived at the well of Nakeyb, and the camels and asses went to be watered, and the water-skins were carried to be filled, some people of the caravan descended according to custom into the wells to fill the Delou or leather bucket, while others drew up the water. Having no friend to go down for me, I was obliged to wait near the well the whole afternoon, until near sunset, to the great amusement of my companions, and I should have remained unsupplied had not one of the guides at last assisted in drawing up the water from above, while I descended into the well to fill the Delou.

We were joined at Nakeyb by a small party of traders, who being in great haste to depart, had left Daraou three days before us, but afterwards thinking it imprudent to venture alone through the desert, had been waiting here. for us, for several days.

10th March. After a march of three hours, over a rocky and mountainous country, along a road thickly covered with loose stones,, we arrived at El Haimar, a collection of wells of great repute in this desert. Just before we reached it we passed by the tomb of a distinguished person belonging to the Mamelouks, who died on this spot. His companions having inclosed the naked corpse within low walls of loose stones, had covered it over with a large block. The dryness of the air had preserved the corpse in the most perfect state. Looking at it through the interstices of the stones which enveloped it, it appeared to me a more perfect mummy than any I had seen in Egypt. The mouth was wide open, and our guide related that the man had died for want of water, although so near the wells. When the remnant of the Mamelouks under the command of Ibrahim Beg el Kebir, and Osman Beg Hassan, left the shores of the Nile, near Ibrim, in the year 1810, to escape from the eager pursuit of the Pasha's troops, they retired to these mountains, and claimed the hospitality of the Ababde Bedouins, who received them in their encampments, but left no means untried of getting possession of all the property they had brought with them. Provisions severe sold to them at enormous prices, and as one well or source could not afford water to so large a party for any length of time, the Mamelouks were obliged to trust to their Ababde guides to carry them from one watering-place to another. During these wanderings the Ababde often carried their guests through circuitous routes in order to create a momentary distress for water, and sell their skins of water (which they secretly filled at some neighbouring spring), at the most exorbitant prices. It was a want of water, caused by these contrivances, that proved fatal to the above-mentioned Mamelouk and to others, who lie buried in the neighbourhood. Their whole corps remained several weeks at Haimar, and it was from thence that they ordered all their unnecessary servants and followers to depart: among these were several dashing Egyptian dancing-girls, the price of whose charms had increased in the mountains, in the same proportion as other commodities, and who had thus been enabled to acquire large sums of money in a very short time. The dismissed followers of the Mamelouk camp formed a caravan, which was proceeding towards Assouan under the guidance of several Ababde, when, the night before they expected to reach the Nile, their guides absconded, and the next morning they found themselves attacked by a farce body of Ababde, by whom they were robbed and stripped naked, and in this condition permitted to pursue their journey towards Egypt. The Ababde, as an excuse for their abominable treachery upon this and other occasions when many of the Mamelouk stragglers were robbed and killed by them, allege that the Mamelouks were the first to prove themselves unworthy of good faith and the rites of hospitality, by slaughtering the cattle of the Bedouins, and taking liberties with their women. Some such instances may have happened, but they were certainly not sufficient to exculpate the Ababde, whose treacherous character is too well known. . . .

11th March. Our road lay over stony hills and rocky passages, for three hours, to the well called el Morra, meaning "the bitter," a name which it justly bears when compared to the sweet waters of the Nile; but the eastern Arabs, who are more accustomed to bad water than Nubians and Egyptians, would hardly perceive its disagreeable taste. It is a very large well, upwards of forty feet in depth, and I was told that it never dries up. Wady Morra extends for two or three hours, in an eastern direction. Having here taken in a small provision of water, we immediately continued our road, for five hours, to Wady Olaky, a fine valley extending from east to west, and having its extremities (as I was told) on one side near the Red Sea, and on the other near the Nile. In time of rain considerable torrents collect in the Wady, and empty themselves into the Nile. There is excellent pasturage and many trees in the valley, for which rare advantages it is held by the Bedouins in great veneration. Our guides in approaching the Wady saluted it with great solemnity, and thanked heaven for having permitted them to arrive so far in safety. In crossing the valley, which is about one hundred and fifty yards across, each person took a handful of Dhourra and threw it on the ground, a kind of pious offering to the good genius who is supposed to preside over the Wady. At the end of six hours we entered Wady Om-gat. It has a reservoir of rain-water, which renders it a resting-place for caravans; but we found it dry. No valley we had hitherto passed was so thickly overgrown with acacia trees. Swarms of locusts were feeding upon the young leaves. The ground was covered with the coloquintida, a plant very common in every part of this desert. The people of the caravan amused themselves with throwing these round gourds at each other, and warding them off with their targets, in which they showed great dexterity. Unfortunately I had no target, and my Daraou friends so often aimed at my head, that I was at last obliged to apply seriously to the chief of the caravan for protection, a measure which saved me from a bloody nose, but procured for me the title of a "cowardly boy," which lasted for several days, until it was exchanged for an appellation still more insulting. Our direction was this day S. by W. The ground of the Wady Omgat is all sandy; the hills lose their wild, grotesque shape, and are disposed in more regular chains. Most of the trees were entirely dried up, there having been no rain for nearly three years. I was surprised not to see the footsteps of any wild animals in the sand, and no birds, except a few crows. We met several Bisharein, accompanying camels loaded with Senna-mekke, which they were carrying to Derr for sale, or to barter for Dhourra. We continued the whole evening in the Wady, and halted after about nine hours' march.

12th March . . . Some Sellam trees grow in the barren sands of this Wady: this tree is a species of acacia; the Arabs value the wood for its great hardness; they use it for the shafts of their lances, and cut the thin branches into sticks of about the thickness of the thumb, and three feet in length, the top of which they bend in the fire, while the wood is yet green, and rubbing, it frequently with grease, it acquires greater weight and strength. Every man carries in his hand such a stick, which is called Sellame. <Sellames are common all over Nubia, as well as in Taka and Suakin. A man when he has no lance in his hand is seldom without a Sellame.> There is another tree of the same species, called by the Bisharein El Dodda, which is preferred to the Sellam, for making these sticks. It grows nearer to the Red Sea. In the Wady Abou Borshe we met with some gazelles, the first we had seen since leaving Daraou; where water is only found in deep wells, it cannot be supposed that game much abounds.

13th March. We set out before sunrise, and reached, after three hours, Wady el Berd, a fine wide valley overgrown with trees. Large flocks of white birds, of the size of geese, passed over our heads, on their way northwards. The Arabs have given this valley the name of Berd (cold), because they find that even in summer, a cold breeze always reigns here; it is open to the Nile, from whence the winds at that time generally blow. We found it at the early hour of the morning in which we passed it so extremely cold, that during a short halt we set fire to several dead trees, of which there are many in the Wady. Having continued our way along it for about two hours, and then crossed a chain of hills, we halted again during the mid-day hours, in another valley. The halting at noon always gave rise to disputes. Whenever it was known beforehand that the chiefs intended to stop in a certain valley, the young men of the caravan pushed eagerly forwards, in order to select at the halting-place the largest tree, or some spot under an impending rock, where they secured shelter from the sun for themselves and their mess. Every day some dispute arose as to. who arrived the first, under some particular tree: as for myself, I was often driven from the coolest and most comfortable birth into the burning sun, and generally passed the mid-day hours in great distress: for besides the exposure to heat, I had to cook my dinner, a service which I could never prevail upon any of my companions, even the poorest servants, to perform for me, though I offered to let them share in my homely fare. In the evening the same labour occurred again, when fatigued by the day's journey, during which I always walked for four or five hours, in order to spare my ass, and when I was in the utmost need of repose. Hunger, however, always prevailed over fatigue, and I was obliged to fetch and cut wood to light a fire, to cook, to feed the ass, and finally to make coffee, a cup of which, presented to my Daraou companions, who were extremely eager to obtain it, was the only means I possessed of keeping them in tolerable good humour. A good night's rest, however, always repaired my strength, and I was never in better health and spirits than during this journey, although its fatigues were certainly very great, and much beyond my expectation. The common dish of all the travellers at noon was Fetyre which is flour mixed up with water into a liquid paste, and then baked upon the sadj, or iron plate; butter is then poured over it, or honey, or sometimes a sauce is made of butter and dried Bamye. In the evening some lentils are boiled, or some bread is baked with salt, either upon the sand or in ashes, and a sauce of Bamye, or onion, poured over lentils, or upon the bread, after it has been crumbled into small pieces. Early in the morning every one eats a piece of dry biscuit with some raw onion or dates. In the afternoon we again crossed a mountainous country, and then a sandy plain, terminated by a valley, where some Doum trees afford a delightful prospect to the traveller. After a day's march of about nine hours, we halted in that valley, near the wells called el Nabeh. While we were crossing the before-mentioned plain, we met a small caravan of eight Ababdes; coming from Berber, and bound for Daraou. They had about thirty slaves and several loaded camels with them, which they intended to sell in Upper Egypt. The intelligence they gave us was extremely discouraging. Two wells which lay before us, on our road to Berber, they had found almost dried up. In one, that of Shigre, they said, we might still find some water, but in the farther one at "Nedjeym" we must reckon upon very little or no supply. Some of our people, alarmed at this intelligence, thought of returning with the Ababde caravan, but they were dissuaded by the others. The Daraou people bought a strong camel from the other caravan, for the purpose of loading it with water, and we passed the whole night in consulting what was to be done. In Wady el Nabell there are five or six wells, close together, three of which are brackish, and two drinkable, but the latter contain very little water, and this little was immediately consumed in filling the water-skins. On the next morning disputes arose about the water that had flowed out of the wells during the night, each party wishing to appropriate it for its own use.

14th March. The fine shade afforded by the numerous Doum trees, and the copious wells, render the Wady el Nabeh next to Haimar, and Shigre, the most important position upon this route. Small caravans generally stop here a few days, in going to Berber, in order to give their camels a little time to repair their strength. It is supposed, that the water of the Nabeh is peculiarly refreshing to them. It certainly has strong purgative qualities. Large caravans, however, find it impossible to remain here for more than one night, because the drinkable water is but scanty. Our chiefs were the whole morning consulting what to do; we had a two days march to Shigre, and from thence five days to the Nile at Berber. It was impossible to load the animals with a quantity of water, sufficient for the whole journey, yet we had no water to expect south of Shigre, and very little at Shigre. There is another source called Nawarik in the mountains to the S. E., four days and a half journey from El Nabeli, and as many from Berber, which would have been an eligible route to take. But none of our party were acquainted with the road, excepting a Bisharye Arab, and the others were not willing to trust themselves to his guidance. A third route was pointed out to me from Nabeli, leading in a S. S. W. direction, to the Nile in three long days and a half, but that part of the Nile is inhabited by the Arabs of Mograt, who were enemies of our caravan. and whose chief, Nayin, had lately been killed by a Shikh of the Ababde. Upon such occasions as these, every man gives his opinion, and mine was, that we should kill our thirty-five asses, which required a daily supply of, at least, fifteen water-skins, that we should load the camels to the utmost of their strength with water and strike out a straight way through the desert towards Berber, without touching at Shigre; in this manner we might perform the journey in five forced marches. But the Arabs can seldom be brought to take manly resolutions upon such occasions, generally consoling themselves with the hope of Allali Kerim, or God's bounty; so that the result of our deliberation was, that we should follow the usual track. We repaired our water-skins and our sandals, refreshed ourselves with bathing in the cool wells, and then set out. It was not without great apprehension that I departed from this place. Our camels and asses carried water for three or four days only, and I saw no possibility of escaping from the dreadful effects of a want of water. In order to keep my ass in good spirits, I took off the two small water-skins with which I had hitherto loaded him, and paid one of the Ababdes four dollars to carry four small water-skins as far as Berber; for I thought that if the ass could carry me, I might bear thirst for two days at least, but that if he should break down. I should certainly not be able to walk one whole day without water in this hot season of the year. This evening, for about one hour, we passed along the valley, and then for two hours across a stony country (direction S. by E.), when we stopped for the night in a narrow valley. I was overcome by fatigue, my eyes had for several days been sore, and my reflections on our melancholy situation kept me long awake. A camel overloaded with water fell down this evening and broke its leg, by which accident several water-skins were burst. The camel was killed in the legal way, by turning its head towards Mekka, and cutting its throat. Some of our people remained behind, and overtook us at night with some choice morsels of flesh, which they had cut from the carcass.

15^th March . . . In general, I found the dreaded Nubian deserts, as far as Shigre at least, of much less dreary appearance than the great Syrian desert, and still less so than the desert of Suez and Tyh. We seldom passed a day without meeting, with trees and water, as far at least as Shigre; they are much more frequent than on the caravan route from Aleppo to Bagdad, or from Damascus to Medina. The flatness of the Syrian desert may appear less horrid than the barren shaggy rocks of the Nubian desert; but the latter has at least the advantage of variety. As we arrived very early at our halting-place in the Wady Tarfawy, the camels were sent to a side valley, at the distance of more than one hour and a half, to get some water from a pool, the slight brackish taste of which makes it probable that, besides the rain-water collected in it, there is a spring at the bottom. They returned soon after mid-day. Another camel, which was pronounced unable to continue the journey, was killed to-day, and many of the eagles, called Quakham, quickly assembled to have their share of the meat. Our Ababde guides had a quarrel to-day with the men from Daraou, from whom they endeavoured to extort some additional payment. I was not sorry to see this dispute, hoping that it might lead to a greater cordiality between me and the Ababde, who might perhaps join their interests with mine against the common adversary. The caravan set out again about four P. M. At the moment of departure, the Arab who carried my water, brought me the largest of the four skins, and told me that his camel was unable to carry it any farther. Before I had arranged two smaller skins, had filled them with the water of the large one, had tied ropes to them, and had loaded them upon my ass, the caravan had gained a great distance ahead, so that following their footsteps in the sand, I could not rejoin them till late after sunset. It is in such cases that the want of a servant or companion is chiefly felt; for slave-traders show no sort of compassion for the embarrassments of their fellow-creatures . . .

17^th March . . . The well of Shigre is famous throughout the desert. The Bisharein frequently encamp in the neighbouring Wadys, and one of their principal Sheikhs or Saints is buried near the well. Travellers often make pious offerings at the tomb, and if any Bedouins happen to be encamped in the neighbourhood, some sheep are purchased from them, and killed in honour of the Saint. One of our party found behind a rock, near the tomb, an empty chest, of Egyptian workmanship, quite new, which had probably been deposited there by some trader, whose camel could not carry it farther, and who expected to take it up again on his return. The Ababde guides claimed it of the person who found it, alleging that they are the masters of the desert, and that all treasures found in it belong to them. We encamped at about half a mile from the well, and our first care was to fill our water-skins. The Ababde kindly permitted the Fellah traders to fill their skins first, but the latter abused the permission, by watering likewise their earners ; so that after they had retired from the well, very little water was left in it. The Ababde then declared that they should be obliged to stop here until the well should fill again. We remained therefore the whole night, the Ababde sleeping at the mouth of the cavern, to prevent any body from stealing water during the night.

On the morning of the 18th March, about twenty skins were filled, but the Ababde were not yet satisfied, and the merchants, rather than protract their stay, and see their store of water diminished by the hourly waste, preferred ceding some of their skins to the guides, upon the condition of departing immediately. After much patience and labour, I had succeeded in filling two large skins, and having still some water left, I should thus have been at least as well provided as any other individual in the caravan, but I was not to be so fortunate. Having taken one of the skins upon my shoulder to the camp, I had left the other near the well, with the intention of coming back with the ass to take it away. When I returned, I found it empty. My Daraou friends had poured its contents into one of their own skins; and although they excused themselves by saying it was done by mistake, I could not by any means prevail upon them to refill it; indeed the water now left in the well was rendered so muddy by the bluish clay which covers the bottom, that it was quite unserviceable. It was in vain that I offered two dollars for a full skin. My companions only laughed at me, saying that the price was indeed enormous, but that no one would part with his provision of water, and that they had never been in the habit of doing so. I was thus obliged to retreat from the well with the melancholy reflection that my stock of water was at the utmost sufficient for myself and ass for two days. It may here be remarked that it is of little use in travelling through deserts, to have a very large stock. of water; for if the other travellers are in want of water they will take it by force; the rule being that water and bread are common to all, that is to say, that the stronger takes it from the weaker. The eastern Arabs allow the poor traveller to partake of their stock of water even when it is scarce, but the Africans are not so liberal, and all that an individual can do among them, is to lay in such a stock of water as will last as long as that of the great merchants; for he will find no supply from others, while he must give up all he can spare, and, sometimes, even his whole stock, to meet the necessities of his more powerful companions. I searched about the well for some traces of ancient works, in the supposition that the place was as well known and frequented in the time when the trade of Meroe flourished as it is at present. But I could find nothing, although the situation is well suited to the construction of a fortress. The road leading up to the cavern which contains the well is almost blocked up by large masses of stones. And near it is another source, which has lately been entirely choked up by the falling down of a projection of the mountain.

The Ababde chief of the caravan being acquainted with my misfortunes, sent for me just as we were on the point of departure, and having made some severe reflections upon the cruelty of the Egyptians towards me, made me a present of a sufficient quantity of water to fill one of the smaller skins. I was of course very sincere in my protestations of thanks and of gratitude, although I well saw that his anxiety for my welfare was not so great as his wish to mortify the Egyptians . . .

19^th March . . . We had already sent some men to the wells early in the morning, to clear them of the sand, for notwithstanding the report of the caravan travellers which we received at Nabeli, our people still believed that some water might be procured here. But we found them sitting with melancholy countenances near the well, where they had been digging for several hours, without finding any thing but wet sand. Even the Bedouins now became alarmed, and nothing was left for us but to endeavour to reach the Nile by forced marches; each of us had some water left, though not more than sufficient for a single day. Nedjeym is a collection of three or four wells, where the water oozes from the ground, and collects in sand-pits of twenty or thirty feet in depth. The winds often choke these pits with sand, and almost every caravan that passes must be at the trouble of digging, them out. We found only one accessible, the others being filled with sand to the brim. In times of dryness, such as occurred this year, the wells are exhausted, but when the rains are not deficient they produce excellent water, in sufficient quantity to supply a caravan of middling size . . .

20th March. Some of our people continued at work at the well the whole night, and at length by great assiduity filled the waterskins. We left the place soon after midnight. . . . We drank only twice to-day, and our asses were put upon half allowance. At eleven hours we halted in a Wady. I had a quarrel to-day with a man of Daraou, who accused me of having opened his water-skin in the night, in order to give my ass some water; he called me by the most insulting names, pelted me with stones, and seemed to have succeeded in persuading the whole caravan that I was guilty.

21st March. We set out after midnight, and marched over a sandy ground. At three hours passed Wady Amour. It was a chilly night, and the heat of the preceding day had rendered us still more sensible to the cold. Wady Amour is full of Sellani trees and acacias, many of which were quite dried up: our people, to warm themselves, set several of them on fire in passing along, and the flames spreading over the valley, beautifully illuminated the travellers and their frightened beasts. Issuing from the Wady we again met with a gravelly plain, and some low grounds. In seven hours passed a Wady of Sant trees. The heat was very great, and the wind southerly; half a dozen asses had already broken down, and their riders were obliged to walk over the burning plain. I had not drank the whole day, but still gave my ass every now and then a little water to keep up his spirits. At nine hours (direction S. S. W.), reached Wady Abou Sellani, which abounds with Sellam trees. Here we stopped; for the beasts were much fatigued, and there were many stragglers behind, whom we might have lost in proceeding farther. In order to spare my stock of water, I had lived since quitting Shigre entirely upon biscuits, and had never cooked any victuals; I now made another dinner of the same kind, after which I allayed my thirst by a copious draught of water, having in my skins as much as would serve me for another draught on the morrow. We were all in the greatest dejection, foreseeing that all the asses must die the ensuing day if not properly watered, and none of the traders had more than a few draughts for himself. After a long deliberation they at last came to the only determination that could save us, and which the Ababde chief had been for several days recommending. Ten or twelve of the strongest camels being selected, were mounted by as many men, who hastened forward to fetch a supply of water from the nearest part of the Nile. We were only five or six hours distant from it, but its banks being here inhabited by Arabs inimical to the traders, the whole caravan could not venture to take that road. The camels set out at about four P. M., and would reach the river at night. They were ordered to choose an uninhabited spot for filling the skins, and forthwith to return. We passed the evening meanwhile in the greatest anxiety, for if the camels should not return, we had little hopes of escape either from thirst or from the sword of our enemies, who, if they had once got sight of the camels, would have followed their footsteps through the desert, and would certainly have discovered us. After sunset several stragglers arrived, but two still remained behind, of whom one joined us early next morning, but the other was not heard of any more. He was servant to a Daraou trader, who showed not the least concern about his fate. Many of my companions came in the course of the evening to beg some water of me, but I had well hidden my treasure, and answered them by showing my empty skins. We remained the greater part of the night in sullen and silent expectation of the result of our desperate mission. At length, about three o'clock in the morning, we heard the distant hallooings of our watermen, and soon after refreshed ourselves with copious draughts of the delicious water of the Nile. The caravan passed suddenly from demonstrations of the deepest distress, to those of unbounded joy and mirth. A plentiful supper was dressed, and the Arabs kept up their songs till daybreak without bestowing a thought on the fate of the unhappy man who had remained behind. It rarely happens that persons perish by thirst on this road, and if the Nedjeym has water, it is almost impossible that such an accident should happen. Last year, however, an instance occurred, the particulars of which were related to me by a man who had himself suffered all the pangs of death. In the month of August, a small caravan prepared to set out from Berber to Daraou. They consisted of five merchants, and about thirty slaves, with a proportionate number of camels. Afraid of the robber Nayin, who at that time was in the habit of waylaying travellers about the well of Nedjeym, and who had constant intelligence of the departure of every caravan from Berber, they determined to take a more eastern road, by the well Owareyk. They had hired an Ababde guide, who conducted them in safety to that place, but who lost his way from thence northward, the route being very unfrequented. After five days march in the mountains, their stock of water was exhausted, nor did they know where they were. They resolved therefore 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 Adabde, 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 weakness, 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 afterwards. 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 direction of the spring, which, as it afterwards appeared, was at half an hour's distance. The man, well understanding the camel's action, endeavoured 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.

In 1813 a large caravan arrived at Siout from Darfour. As they had undertaken their journey in the latter end of the hot season, many of their camels perished on the road, and they found themselves under the necessity of leaving a considerable part of their goods, together with many young slaves who could not march on foot, at the well of Sheb, with all the provisions that could be spared. Having hired several hundred camels, they returned to Sheb; but in the meanwhile, the thoughtless slaves had been too prodigal of their provisions, and several had died from hunger.

THE SEMOUM WIND.

March 22d . . . I again inquired, as I had often done before, whether my companions had often experienced the Semoum (which we translate by the poisonous blast of the desert, but which is nothing more than a violent south-east wind). They answered in the affirmative, but none had ever known an instance of its having proved fatal. Its worst effect is that it dries up the water in the skins, and so far it endangers the traveller's safety. In these southern countries, however, water-skins are made of very thick cowleather, which are almost impenetrable to the Semoum. In Arabia and Egypt, on the contrary, the skins of sheep or goats are used for this purpose, and I witnessed the effect of a Semoum upon them, in going from Tor to Suez over-land in June 1815, when in one morning a third of the contents of a full water-skin was evaporated. I have repeatedly been exposed to the hot wind, in the Syrian and Arabian deserts, in Upper Egypt and Nubia. The hottest and most violent I ever experienced was at Suakin, yet even there I felt no particular inconvenience from it, although exposed to all its fury in the open plain. For my own part, I am perfectly convinced that all the stories which travellers or the inhabitants of the towns of Egypt and Syria relate of the Semoum 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 fact is, that the Bedouins when questioned on the subject, often frighten the townspeople with tales of men, and even of whole caravans having perished by the effects of the wind, when, upon closer inquiry made by some person, whom they find not ignorant of the desert, they will state the plain truth. I never observed that the Semoum blows close to the ground, as commonly supposed, but always observed the whole atmosphere appear as if in a state of combustion; the dust and sand are carried high into the air, which assumes a reddish, or bluish, or yellowish tint, according to the nature and colour of the ground from which the dust arises. The yellow however always, more or less, predominates. In looking through a glass of a light yellow colour, one may form a pretty correct idea of the appearance of the air, as I observed it during a stormy Semoum at Esne. in Upper Egypt, in May, 1813. The Semoum is not always accompanied by whirlwinds; in its less violent degree it will blow for hours with little force, although with oppressive heat; when the whirlwind raises the dust it then increases several degrees in heat. In the Semoum at Esne the thermometer mounted to 121' in the shade, but the air seldom remains longer than a quarter of an hour in that state, or longer than the whirlwind lasts. The most disagreeable effect of the Semoum on man is, that it stops perspiration, dries up the palate, and produces great restlessness. I never saw any person lie down flat upon his face to escape its pernicious blast, as Bruce describes himself to have done in crossing the desert; but during the whirlwinds the Arabs often hide their faces with their cloaks, and kneel down near their earners, to prevent the sand or dust from hurting their eyes. Camels are always much distressed, not by the heat but by the dust blowing into their large, prominent eyes. They turn round and endeavour to screen themselves by holding down their heads, but this I never saw them do except in case of a whirlwind, however intense the heat of the atmosphere might be. In June 1813, going from Esne to Siout, a violent Semoum overtook me upon the plain between Farshiout and Berdys. I was quite alone, mounted upon a light-footed Hedjin. When the whirlwind arose, neither house nor tree was in sight, and while I was endeavouring to cover my face with my handkerchief, the beast was made unruly, by the quantity of dust blown into its eyes, and the terrible noise of the wind, and set off. at a furious gallop; I lost the reins and received a heavy fall, and not being able to see ten yards before me, I remained wrapped up in my cloak on the spot where I fell, until the wind abated, when pursuing my dromedary, I found it at a great distance, quietly standing near a low shrub, the branches of which afforded some shelter to its eyes.

Bruce has mentioned the moving pillars of sand in this desert, but although none such occurred during my passage, I do not presume to question his veracity on this head. The Arabs told me that there are often whirlwinds of sand, and I have repeatedly passed through districts of moving sands, which the slightest wind can raise; I remember to have seen columns of sands moving about like water. spouts in the desert on the banks of the Euphrates, and have seen at Jaka terrible effects from a sudden wind; I therefore very easily credit their occasional appearance in the Nubian desert, although I doubt of their endangering the safety of travellers.

March 23d. We continued to traverse in a S. by W. direction, the same level country, where no mountains are in sight. The plain is covered with black stones, Egyptian pebbles, and quartz. I have not observed any specimens of jasper during the whole route from Daraou. We passed several Wadys, and saw some hares. At four hours we halted in Wady Belem, perhaps <meaning> full of trees. The Ababde guides obliged the caravan traders to pay them here one half of what was due to them, and several people started for Berber to carry the news of our arrival. We set out again late in the afternoon. The plain was sandy, with a slight slope towards the Nile. In approaching the river we met with large flocks of the Katta (a bird of the Dartridee kind). We felt the approach of the river at more than two hours distance from it, by a greater moisture in the air. The Arabs exclaimed "God be praised we smell again the Nile." At the end of nine hours we reached about ten o'clock at night the village of Ankheyre the principal place in the district of Berber. The caravans always make it a rule to arrive here in the night, in order that their loads may be less exposed to public examination, and that they may be able to secrete some trifles from the vigilance of the custom officers.

The road which we had travelled is the only one that leads from Berber to Egypt, and is the general route of the Shendy and Sennaar caravans. There is a more western route from Berber to Seboua, a village on the Nile in the Berbera country, not far from Derr, the inhabitants of which actively engage in the slave-trade. On that road the traveller finds only a single well, which is situated midway, four long days distant from Berber, and as many from Seboua. It is called cl Morrat and is very copious, but the water is ill-tasted. A great inconvenience on that road is that neither trees nor shrubs are any where found, whence the camels are much distressed for food, and passengers are obliged to carry wood with them to dress their meals, and to warm themselves in winter. The journey from Daraou to Berber had taken us twenty-two days. But it is to be observed that until we reached Haimar, and even as far as Nabeh, we made very short journies. The mountains to the east of Assouan and Haimar, three days journies towards the Red Sea, are said to be much higher than any we have seen. They are called the mountains of Otaby which appellation is extended sometimes to the whole chain as far as Kosseir, meaning always those mountains distant from the Nile and not far from the sea. The Djebel Otaby is the exclusive patrimony of the Ababde, and is most peopled in summer time, when the Ababde settlers of Upper Egypt send there their cattle. There is much intercourse between the Ababdes of Otaby and the Bisharein of Olba. Haimar is reckoned five days from Daraou, and we were nine days on the road. The distance from Daraou to Berber is generally computed by the traders at sixteen or seventeen days. In returning from Berber, the journey is performed more rapidly, because they are abundantly furnished with camels, are all mounted themselves, and the camels are relieved every day of their loads. They then sleep three or four hours during the day, and travel the greater part of the night, thus often performing the journey in twelve days. Messengers on dromedaries have often gone in eight days from Daraou to Berber. When the rains fall abundantly and the water collects every where on the road, in ponds or low grounds producing pasturage in the valleys, the caravans generally remain a month on their passage. We had reckoned upon eighteen days only, and had taken provisions accordingly, which was the reason why we were in so much distress for provisions and water towards the end of the journey, particularly for the beasts; my own ass fed for two days upon nothing but lentils. The traders give their camels every two or three days about twelve pounds of Dhourra; but to the most heavy loaded camel, which bears from six to seven hundred-weight, they give a daily allowance. All our animals were very much fatigued; the greater part of the camels had their backs horribly wounded, <This kind of wound is very dangerous, and is called Dabr. It takes place on the fore shoulders and the fore ribs of the camels, and is occasioned by bad saddles. Wounds in other parts of the body are soon healed, when the camels have enjoyed some days of repose.> in consequence of the pressure of the loads, and of the avarice and negligence of the owners, who, in order to save a few piastres for a good and well stuffed saddle, exposed the poor beasts to the greatest sufferings. Many camels however are able to perform this journey three times, backwards and forwards, in the year.

On our arrival at Ankheyre, each merchant repaired to the house of his friend, for there are no public Khans here, and traders always lodge at private houses . . .

BERBER.

. . . The four villages of Berber are all at about half an hour's walk from the river, situated in the sandy desert, on the borders of the arable soil. Each village is composed of about a dozen quarters, Nezle, standing separate from one another, at short distances. The houses are generally divided from each other by large courtyards, thus forming no where any regular streets. They are tolerably well built, either of mud, or of sun-baked bricks, and their appearance is at least as good as those of Upper Egypt. Each habitation consists of a large yard divided into an inner and outer court. Round this yard are the rooms for the family, which are all on the ground floor; I have never seen in any of these countries, a second story, or staircase. To form the roof, beams are laid across the walls; these are covered with mats, upon which reeds are placed, and a layer of mud is spread over the whole. The roof has a slope to let the rain-water run off, which in most houses is conducted by a canal to the court-yard, thus rendering the latter in time of rain a dirty pond. Two of the apartments are generally inhabited by the family, a third serves as a store-room, a fourth for the reception of strangers, and a fifth is often occupied by public women. The rooms have seldom more than one very small window, so that to have them well lighted, the door must be kept open. The doors are of wood, and have the same wooden locks and keys which are used in Syria and Egypt, but of still coarser workmanship. I have seldom seen any furniture in the rooms, excepting a sofa or bedstead, which is an oblong wooden frame, with four legs, having a seat made either of reeds, and then called Serir, or of thin stripes of ox-leather drawn across each other, and then called Angareyg (a Bishary word). The best of the latter kind are brought from Sennaar; many of them are exported to Upper Egypt and Arabia, and they are used all over the black countries. The honoured stranger always has an Angareyg brought to him upon his arrival, which serves as a bed for the night, and a sofa in the day, and it is said that the peculiar smell of the leather keeps it free from vermin. Mats made of reeds are spread in the inner part of the rooms where the women sleep, as well as in other rooms, where the men take a nap during the mid-day hours, a luxury never dispensed with in these countries. When they sleep, they generally spread a carpet made of pieces of leather sewn together, stretching themselves out upon this, and preferring, according to the general custom of the Arabs, to sleep without any pillow, and with the head lying upon the same level with the rest of the body. In the store-room Dhourra is kept, either in heaps upon the floor, or in large receptacles formed of mud, to preserve it from rats and mice. Swarms of these animals nevertheless abound, and they run about the court-yards in such quantities that the boys exercise themselves in throwing lances at them, and kill them every day by dozens. Besides the Dhourra, the storerooms generally contain a few sheep-skins full of butter, some jars of honey, some water-skins for travellers, and if the proprietor be a man in easy circumstances, some dried flesh. The inner court is generally destined for the cattle, camels. cows, and sheep, and it has a subdivision, where are preserved the dry Dhourra stalks, which become the usual food of the cattle, when the summer heats have dried up all the verdure which the inundation had produced. The outer court, in the generality of houses, contains a well of brackish water, fit only for cattle; here the male inhabitants of the house and strangers sleep, during the hot season, either upon mud benches adjoining the rooms, or upon Angareygs, or upon the ground; here the master's favourite horse is fed, and here all business is transacted in the open air. I have already mentioned a room of public women, often met with in these habitations. Indeed there are very few houses of people called here respectable, where such women are not lodged, either in the court-yard itself, or in a small room adjoining the yard, but without its gate; in the house where I lodged, 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 masters, 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. Female slaves are often permitted to make a traffic of their charms before they are set at liberty, in order that they may acquire a sufficient sum of money to purchase it. When at liberty their former owners take care to make them pay house-rent; some masters are said to participate in their gains, and generally afford them protection in the quarrels which frequently happen.

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 Angareygs 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 Angareygs, 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. During the whole of our stay at Berber, we, had these damsels almost every evening at our quarters, and the same was the case in the other houses occupied by travellers. The rooms of the women were scarcely for a moment free from visitors. 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 surrounded by a great number of acquaintance, it is generally thought preferable to go to the women's apartment, where there is no intrusion. 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 handsome, and many of them might even pass for beauties in any country.

The women of Berber, even those of the highest rank, always go unveiled, and young girls are often seen without any covering whatever, except a girdle of short leathern tassels about their waists. Many, both men and women, blacken their eyelids with Kohel or antimony, but the custom is not so general as in Egypt. The women of the higher classes, and the most elegant of the public women, throw over their shirts, white cloaks with red linings of Egyptian manufacture, made at Mchalla el Kebir, in the Delta. Both sexes are in the almost daily habit of rubbing their skins with fresh butter. They pretend that it is refreshing, prevents cutaneous complaints, and renders the surface of the skin smoother; the men, in reference to their frequent quarrels, add, that it renders the skin tougher and firmer, and more difficult to be cut through with a knife. I can say from my own experience that I have found great relief during the mid-day heats, from rubbing my breast, arms, and legs with butter, or my feet, if I was fatigued with walking. The cutaneous eruption called the prickly heat, which is so common in Egypt, is never seen here, and 1 had often occasion to admire the smooth and delicate, appearance of the skin, even in men who were very much exposed to the sun. It is by the nature of their skin that these Arabs distinguish themselves from the Negroes; though very dark coloured, their skin is as fine as that of a white person, while. that of the Negroes is much thicker and coarser. The hands of the latter are as hard as a board, while the touch of the Arabs, who are not of the labouring class, is as soft as that of the northern nations. The perfumed grease, which is made use of only upon extraordinary occasions, is a preparation of sheep's fat mixed with soap, musk, pulverized sandal-wood, senbal, and mableb. It has an agreeable odour, and the men pretend that it is a powerful stimulant; but the truth seems to be, that they generally use it before they visit their mistresses.

The people of Berber are a very handsome race. The native colour seems to be a dark red-brown, which, if the mother is a slave from Abyssinia, becomes a light brown in the children, and if from the Negro countries, extremely dark. The men are somewhat taller than the Egyptians, and are much stronger and larger limbed. Their features are not at all those of the Negro, the face being oval, the Dose often perfectly Grecian, and the cheek bones not prominent. The upper lip however is generally somewhat thicker than is considered beautiful among northern nations, though it is still far from the Negro lip. Their legs and feet are well formed, which is seldom the case with the Negroes. They have a short beard below the chin, but seldom any hair upon their cheeks. Their mustacios are thin, and they keep them cut very short. Their hair is bushy and strong, but not woolly; it lies in close curls, when short, and when permitted to grow, forms itself into broad high tufts. "We are Arabs, not Negroes," they often say; and indeed they can only be classed among the latter by persons who judge from colour alone.

The Meyrefab, like the other Arab tribes of these parts of Africa, are careful in maintaining the purity of their race. A free born Meyrefab never marries a slave, whether Abyssinian or black, but always an Arab girl of his own or some neighbouring tribe, and if he has any children from his slave concubines, they are looked upon only as fit matches for slaves or their descendants. This custom they have in common with all the eastern Bedouins, while, on the contrary, the inhabitants of the towns of Arabia and Egypt are in the daily habit of taking in wedlock Abyssinian as well as Negro slaves.

In marrying, the bride's father receives, according to the Mussulman custom, a certain sum of money from the bridegroom, for his daughter, and this sum is higher than is customary in other parts inhabited by Arabs. The daughters of the Mek are paid as much as three or four hundred dollars, which the father keeps for them as a dowry. Few men have more than one wife, but every one who can afford it keeps a slave or mistress either in his own or in a separate house. The mistresses are called companions and are more numerous than in the politest capitals of Europe. Few traders pass through Berber without taking a mistress, if it be only for a fortnight. Drunkenness is the constant companion of this debauchery, and it would seem as if the men in these countries had no other objects in life. The intoxicating liquor which they drink is called Bouza. Strongly leavened bread made from Dhourra is broken into crumbs, and mixed with water, and the mixture is kept for several hours over a slow fire. Being then removed, water is poured over it, and it is left for two nights to ferment. This liquor, according to its greater or smaller degree of fermentation, takes the name of Merin, Bouza, or Om Belbel, the mother of nightingales, so called because it makes the drunkard sing. Unlike the other two, which, being fermented together with the crumbs of bread, are never free from them, the Om Belbel is drained through a cloth, and is consequently pure and liquid. I have tasted of all three. The Om Belbel has a pleasant prickly taste, something like Champagne turned sour. They are served up in large roundish gourds open at the top, upon which are engraved with a knife a great variety of ornaments. A gourd or Bourma contains about four pints, and whenever a party meet over the gourd, it is reckoned that each person will drink at least one Bourma. The gourd being placed on the ground, a smaller gourd cut in half, and of the size of a tea-cup. is placed near it, and in this the liquor is served round, to each in turn, an interval of six or eight minutes being left between each revolution of the little gourd. At the beginning of the sitting, some roasted meat, strongly peppered, is generally circulated, but the Bouza itself (they say) is sufficiently nourishing, and, indeed, the common sort looks more like soup or porridge, than a liquor to be taken at a draught. The Fakirs, or religious men, are the only per sons who do not indulge (publicly at least) in this luxury; the women are as fond of it, and as much in the habit of drinking it, as the men. A Bourma of Bouza is given for one measure of Dhourra, three-fourths of the measure of Dhourra being required to make the Bourma, and the remainder paying for the labour.

In other respects the people of Berber are abstemious, and they often fast the whole day, for the sake of being able to revel in the evening. 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 flour. 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 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 requires 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 sourish 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 to the traders upon occasions, 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 seldom wanting to make it palatable. Sometimes the crumbs are soaked in water, and when the water has acquired a sourish taste it is drank off; this is called by the traders, "The caravan beverage Sharbet el Jellabe."

Meat is often brought upon the table boiled or roasted, and milk is a principal food of the people. Dates are a great dainty; they are imported by the Dongola merchants from Mahass, and are used only upon extraordinary occasions. They are often boiled together with bread, meat, and milk. Coffee is drank only by the merchants and the very first people, and even by them it is not in daily use. The coffee is not the Arabian or Mokha coffee, but that which grows wild in the southwestern mountains of Abyssinia, from whence it is imported by the Sennaar merchants. It is sold thirty per cent. cheaper than the Mokha coffee in Egypt, but its shape and taste appear to be the same.

The effects which the universal practice of drunkenness and debauchery has on the morals of the people may easily be conceived. Indeed 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 professions, especially when they come to Egypt: where they represent their own country as a land inhabited by a race of superior virtue, and excellence. 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 law 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 counterbalances 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. Nobody 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 Berber. He killed many people with his own hands upon the slightest provocation, 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 public woman, and slain while he was drunk.

He once stript a whole caravan, coming from Daraou, and appropriated the plunder to his women. In such a country, it is of course looked 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 character of these people. The house was generally filled with young men who took a pride in. confessing the perpetration of every kind. of infamy. 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 family; the affair is then settled by large presents, in which all those concerned 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 Berher 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.

Upon our first arrival, the people appeared to me very hospitable. Every morning and evening large dishes of bread and meat, and milk, often much more than we could eat, were sent to us from different quarters. This lasted for five or six days, when those who had sent the dishes came to ask for presents, as tokens of friendship ; this was well understood to be a demand of repayment: and we found ourselves obliged to give ten times the value of what we had eaten.

In general foreign merchants are considered as "good rnorsels" as the Arabs say), of which every body bites off as much as he can; we were the whole day beset by people who came to ask for presents, but our companions were old traders; they well knew to whom it would have been imprudent to deny a favour, but never made the smallest present, except when necessary. I have had people running after me the whole day, praying to have a piece of soap to wash their shirt. Had I listened to them I should have had ten demands of the same kind the next day. It may be taken as a general rule in these countries never to make any presents unasked, or to give more than half of what is requested, for a traveller will find it more useful to his purposes to have the reputation of parsimony, than that of generosity. The same advice would not be suitable in Syria or Egypt, and it may here be remarked, that of all the duties which belong to the traveller, that of knowing the proper seasons for making or withholding presents is the most troublesome and difficult, not only in the Negro countries, but in every part of the East known to me.

Among the plagues that await the traveller in Berber, the insolence of the slaves is the most intolerable. Being considered as members of the family in which they reside, they assume airs of importance superior even to those of their masters. The latter are afraid to punish, or even seriously to reprimand them for their offences, as they can easily find opportunities of running away, and by going to the Bedouins or the Sheygya, they are safe from any further pursuit. One of the slaves of Edris, to whom I had already made some little presents, tore my shirt into pieces because I refused to give it him, and when I applied to Edris for redress, he recommended patience to me, for that no insult was meant. The grown-up slaves are always armed; they hold themselves upon a par with the best Arabs, and feel humbled only by the conviction that they cannot marry the Arab girls. The insolence of the slaves, as well as of the people in general, is in nothing more displayed than their behaviour with regard to smoking; if they see a stranger with a pipe in his mouth, they often take it from him without saying a word, and are unwilling to return it before they have smoked it out. To a smoker, as all the orientals are, nothing can be more disagreeable. The people of Berber are themselves immoderately fond of tobacco, but they smoke only at home when they expect no visitors, and scarcely ever carry their pipes abroad, because tobacco is a very dear commodity, and they fear lest the best whiff should fall to the lot of others. I have often seen the Egyptian traders, men who would rather give up their dinner than their pipe, reduced to desperation by the impudence of their Berber visitors.

. . . The people of Berber appear to be a healthy race. There seemed to be few invalids, and the place being situated on the skirts of the desert, the air is certainly wholesome. I was told of a fever called warde from woid (rose), which seems to be epidemic, and often proves mortal; the people of Dongola are very subject to it; it exists during the time of high water, but does not make its appearance every year. The plague is unknown, and from what I heard during my former journey in Nubia, I have reason to believe, that it never passes the cataract of Assouan. The small-pox is very destructive whenever it gains ground. Last year it was added to famine, and deaths were very numerous. It had been brought to Berber by the people of Taka, who had received it from the Souakin traders; it spread over all the country up the Nile. Grown people were attacked as well as children; it was observed even, that the latter suffered less and that more of them escaped. About one-third of those who were attacked recovered, but they bore the marks on their skin, especially on the arms and face, which were covered with innumerable spots and scars; very few instances happen where the disease is of a mild kind, or where it leaves but few marks. Inoculation, Dak-el-Jedri, is known, but not much practised; little benefit being supposed to arise from it. The incision is usually made in the leg. Of the large family of Temsah (our landlord's), fifty-two persons died within a few months, and while I am writing this (at Cairo, December, 1815), I hear from some traders, that the same disease has again broken out, and that almost the whole family, including Edris, have perished. Their only cure for the small-pox is to rub the whole body with butter three or four times a-day, and to keep themselves closely shut up: The disease generally visits them every eight or ten years. They are infinitely more afraid of it than tile Levantines are of the plague: and great numbers of the inhabitants emigrate to the mountains, to fly from the infection. I have heard it said in Egypt, that the smallpox is rendered more dangerous in the Negro countries than elsewhere, by the thickness of the Negro skin, the fever being increased by the 'resistance of such a skin to the efforts of the poison to break through it. This may be true with respect to the Negro slaves, but is not probable at Berber, where the people's skin is quite as soft as ours. I saw few instances of ophthalmia. Venereal complaints are said to be common, but if it be so, their consequences appear to be less fatal than in Egypt, for I never saw any of those ulcered faces, or mangled noses, which are so common in the northern valley of the Nile.

The Meyrefab are partly shepherds, and partly cultivators. After the inundation, they sow all the ground which has been inundated with Dhourra, and a little barley. Just before they sow, they turn up the ground with a spade. The plough is not in use among them; last year an Egyptian employed one for the first time. They have very few water-wheels, not more than four or five in the districts of Ankbeyre and Hassa. They sow only once a year, and as the banks of the Nile are very high, higher in general than in Upper Egypt, many spots of arable soil remain without being inundated. The deficiency is not often supplied, as in Upper Egypt, by artificial irrigation, for the purpose of procuring several crops from the same land, so that it may easily be conceived, that famine often visits them. Thus it happened the year before my arrival, when one mould of Dhourra was sold for half a Spanish dollar. The country, however, appears, at no very remote period, to have enjoyed a more flourishing state of culture than it does at present; for I observed in the fields vestiges of deep canals, which are at present entirely neglected, although by their help, even part of the adjoining desert plain might be rendered cultivable. Dhourra is the principal produce of the ground, and the chief food both of man and beast. Wheat is not sown at Berber, and very little is found in any of the adjoining countries. The Dhourra is of the same species as that of Upper Egypt, but the stalks are much higher and stronger, rising often to the height of sixteen or twenty feet. No vegetables are grown except onions, kidney beans (Loubieh), the esculent mallow, or Bahmieh, and the Melukhych, all of which are common in Egypt. No fruits whatever are cultivated, and if I am rightly informed, the lotus nebek, which grows wild, is the only one known.

The Berberys rear a large quantity of cattle, of the best kind, which in winter and spring time, after the rains, is pastured in the mountains of the Bisharein, where the keepers live like Bedouins, in huts and tents. During the latter part of the spring, the cattle feed upon the wild herbs, which grow among the Dhourra stubble as thickly as grass in a meadow. In summer time, when the herbs are dried up, and there is scarcely any pasture upon the mountains, they are fed at home with the dry stalks, and leaves of the Dhourra. The principal riches of the shepherds consist in their cows and camels. They have sheep and goats, but the greater part having been consumed during the last famine, they are at present not numerous. The cows are of a middling size, and not strongly built: they have small horns, and upon the back, near the fore shoulder, there is a hump of fat. This breed is unknown in Egypt; it begins in Dongola, and all along the Nile, as far as Sennaar, no others are seen. The cows represented in the battle-pieces on the walls of several ancient temples in Upper Egypt, have the same excrescence. I saw the same species in the Hedjaz. Cows are kept for their milk, but principally for their meat, and there are a few for the purpose of turning the water-wheels.

The camels are of the best breed, much stronger, and more endured to fatigue even than the celebrated breeds of Upper Egypt: their dromedaries surpass all that I saw in the Syrian and Arabian deserts. The camels have very short hair, and have no tufts on any part of their body. The Hedjin or dromedary, is not of a different species from the camel of burthen, but they are very careful of the breed, and an Arab will undertake a journey of several days to have his dromedary covered by a celebrated male. At present there is a great demand for camels for the Egyptian market; they are bought up by the Pasha to be sent to Arabia, for the transport of army provisions, and every month three or four hundred are marched off through the desert; yet a camel is worth here only from eight to twelve dollars, though sold at Daraou for thirty or forty, and at Cairo for fifty or sixty dollars.

The sheep of these southern countries have no wool, but are covered with a thin short hair, resembling that of goats; hence the inhabitants set little value upon them, and rear them for the table only. Almost every family keeps two asses; they are of a strong breed and are employed chiefly to bring home the produce of the fields, and transport the nitrous earth called Sabakha which is procured in the mountain: the inhabitants cover their fields with this earth, previously to sowing their seed, but whether as manure, or as a corrective to the fatness of the soil, I could not learn. Egyptian asses are much in demand, because they run faster than the native; they are rode by the great people, and are eagerly purchased on the arrival of every caravan. Horses are numerous; every family of respectability keeping at least one, and many two or three. The Arabs in the Nubian countries ride stallions only. In their wars with their neighbours, the Meyrefab bring into the field a considerable number of horsemen, who generally decide the battle. The horses are of the Dongola breed, which, as I have already stated in my journey towards that country, is one of the finest races in the world. They are fed upon Dhourra, and its dried leaves serve instead of straw or hay: for several weeks in the spring they are pastured in the green barley. A horse costs from fifteen to forty dollars. They are not called Hoszan, as in Egypt, but Hafer. The saddles. which are of the same form as those used in Dongola, Sennaar, and Abyssinia, somewhat resemble those of the European cavalry, having a high pommel in front, bending forward on the horse's neck. When entering on a campaign, the back, sides, neck, and breast of the horses are covered with pieces of woollen stuff, thickly quilted with cotton, which are said to be impenetrable by the lance and sword; they are called Lebs, the name given to a similar covering used by the Eastern Bedouins, but which the Meyrefab work in a neater manner, and lighter, though stronger.

Almost all the people at Berber, who are cultivators, employ the time not required by their fields, in commercial transactions; the place has thus become a principal mart for the southern trade, and the more so, as all the caravans from Sennaar and Shendy to Egypt necessarily pass here. Berber itself carries on trade with Egypt, and many small caravans load and depart from hence, without waiting for supplies from the southern markets. Almost every article of the Negro trade, including slaves, may be purchased at Berber, from fifteen to twenty per cent. dearer than at Shendy. Berber has a public market; but the late famine, and the great mortality caused by the small-pox, had occasioned a momentary suspension, which had not been removed at the period of our arrival.

The common currency of the country at Berber, and all the way from thence to Sennaar, is Dhourra, and Spanish dollars; every thing of minor value has its price fixed in Dhourra, which is measured by Selgas, or handfuls. Eighteen Selgas make one Moud, or measure: one Selga is as much as can heaped upon the flat extended hand of a full-grown man. It may easily be conceived that disputes frequently arise between buyers and sellers, from the unequal size of their hands; in such a case a third person is usually called in to measure the Dhourra: ten Mouds are now given for one dollar. If a considerable quantity of Dhourra is to be measured out, the contents of a wooden bowl, or other vessel, is previously ascertained in handfuls, and this vessel is then used. They have, it is true, Mouds, or measures of wood, but nobody trusts to them, the hand-measure being always preferred. Besides the Dhourra, another substitute for currency is the Dammour a coarse cotton cloth, which is fabricated in the neighbourhood of Sennaar, and principally used by the people of this country for their shirts: one piece of Dammour is exactly sufficient to make one shirt for a full grown man; this is called Tob. . . .

In Cordofan, besides Dhourra and Doklien, the usual currency is small pieces of iron, which are wrought into lances, knives, axes, &c. ; besides these pieces of iron, cows are used as a representative of money in large bargains, and are thus continually transferred from one person to another.

I shall enter more into detail on the different articles of Negro trade, when I come to speak of the Shendy market; both places deal in the same commodities; there is much less trade, however, at Berber, than at Shendy, from its having no direct intercourse with any southern state, except Shendy, while the latter is visited by slave caravans from all quarters, and is at present the first commercial town, perhaps, of Africa, south of Egypt, and east of Darfour. All the slaves, and every other article for sale in the Berber market, come from Shendy; yet the Egyptian merchants often prefer this market to the more southern ones, notwithstanding the increased charges; because they can finish their business more quickly, and profit by the first opportunity to return through the desert. During my stay at Berber, a caravan set out for Daraou, consisting of about two hundred and fifty camels, and twenty slaves ; several of my companions having disposed of their merchandise, returned with it. Still, however, the Berber market contains but a small quantity of goods, and is fit only for the Egyptian traders with small capitals.

. . . The success of a traveller, in this part of the world, depends greatly, I may say wholly, upon his guides and fellow-travellers, and their being well disposed towards him. If he is not thoroughly acquainted with the language of the country it will be very difficult for him to select proper persons for his guides or companions, or to elude the snares laid for him by villainy or treachery; it is in vain to suppose that fortune will throw in his way honest or friendly people, who are too scarce ever to be calculated upon, in preparing for a journey through these countries. The traveller must consider himself as surrounded by some of the most worthless of the human race, among whom he must think himself fortunate, if he can discover any less depraved than the rest, whom he can place some degree of confidence in, and make subservient to his views; and which can only be done by identifying their interest with his own safety. Above all, he must never be seen taking notes. I am fully convinced, that if I had ever been detected by my companions with my journal in my hand, it would have given rise to the most injurious reports, and blasted all my hopes of success. While travelling through the desert I took my notes with much more case than during my stay at Berber. Being mounted on a good ass, I used to push on ahead of the caravan, and then alight under some tree, or rock, where I remained, unobserved, apparently occupied only in smoking my pipe, until the caravan came up; but at Berber, and at Shendy also, I was often at a great loss how to withdraw from the persons who surrounded me in the house where we lodged; and it was unsafe to walk so far from the village into the fields, as not to be observed. The having persons thus continually hanging about me, was the most disagreeable circumstance attending my stay in these countries. I might have escaped it in some measure, perhaps, by taking a lodging for myself which I could have readily procured, but then I should have been entirely unprotected in the house of a stranger, who might have proved worse even than my companions; I should also have been unmercifully annoyed the whole day by visitors begging presents, and the little baggage I had would have been much less secure. On the contrary, by continuing to live with my old companions from Daraou, my person was far less noticed than if I had resided alone, my expenses were not so great, I acquired a good deal of information as to the mode of carrying on the trade, and found myself in some degree secure, by the respectability of my companions, however little disposed they might be to protect or favour me.

JOURNEY FROM BERBER TO SHENDY:

After having settled all our accounts at Berber, our caravan, reduced to about two-thirds of its original number, set out again on the afternoon of the 7^th of April. Several of the merchants had returned to Egypt, others remained at Berber to sell their goods, as did also many Ababdes, who had their families there, and who intended to remain till the return of the caravan from Shendy. I was not sorry to leave Berber; for the character of the inhabitants is such, that a stranger can never consider himself safe for a moment amongst them. Several of the first people of the town advised me strongly to remain, and wait for the opportunity of proceeding with a Taka caravan; but alone, I should have been entirely at the mercy of the Meyrefab, who, no doubt, intended to plunder me; I therefore resolved to proceed as far as Shendy, where I thought I should be more likely to meet with a safe conveyance towards the Red Sea.

. . . <At Ras el Wady> The Daraou traders, supposing that they might, perhaps, on my account, experience some ill treatment from this chief, and convinced, at all events, that my society could no longer be of any advantage to them, as they saw that I fought for every handful of Dhourra, determined to abandon me entirely. We had halted for some minutes in the plain, near a pond of water, before the village. On starting again, they ordered me, in a contemptuous manner, to keep off, and not to come near their party any more. The boys accompanied these orders with a shouting similar to that which is made in driving dogs away, and then beating my ass with the but-end of their lances, they drove him into the desert.

I had always endeavoured to keep on good terms with our Ababde companions, who, bad as they were, were still better than the Daraou people; I now asked them whether they intended to leave me to the mercy of the Meyrefab robbers, or would permit me to make one of their party. They immediately consented to my joining them, and my situation became thus materially bettered. During the whole of our stay at Berber, no dirty villainous trick or joke was left untried by my companions from Daraou to hurt my feelings, and render me contemptible; at last, well assured that my bodily strength was superior to that of any of their party, (for I had several times thrown the strongest of them in wrestling,) the boys attempted to tire my patience by an incessant teazing, which I could not easily resent upon them, and which I thought it necessary to put up with, because I was afraid, that if I should leave the party abruptly I might expose myself to some more deliberate mischief, which I could not estimate, and had not the means of preventing.

The Mek Hamze gave us a very cold reception. We remained from morning, till late in the evening, before he sent us any food; and my companions said, that if he should hear of any of us having eaten in the meanwhile of our own provisions, he would consider it as a great affront, because we were now his guests. Two of our merchants went up to the Mek, to negociate with him, about the sum to be paid, while the rest were all busily engaged in defending the baggage from the rapacity of the inhabitants, who had at first collected round it in great numbers, and inquiring, with apparent friendly concern, about our welfare, had soon after placed themselves in the midst of it. There was no open quarrel, but many things were found missing, and amongst the rest I lost my pipe. Late at night we were informed that the Mek would not be satisfied with less than ten dollars for each camel's load, and four dollars from each trader; I was comprised among the latter, and the sum was paid down, partly in cash, and partly in goods. The Ababdes paid nothing, and for some presents given to them, they even secured several Egyptian camel loads from taxation, by claiming them as their own. I had reason to be afraid that the Mek would take my gun, for I had heard that he is in the habit of seizing upon all the fire-arms he can; in the preceding night, therefore, I made a pretended bargain for it with the Ababde chief, in the presence of the caravan, well knowing that my companions themselves would otherwise have betrayed me. The Ababde chief now declared to the Mek's people that the gun was his, which nobody could deny. It was thus saved, but the Ababde took a dollar for his trouble.

. . . At Damer, from 10th to 15th April. Damer is a large village or town containing about five hundred houses. It is clean, and much neater than Berber, having many new buildings, and no ruins. The houses are built with solve uniformity, in regular streets, and shady trees are met with in several places. It is inhabited by the Arab tribe of Medja-ydin, who trace their origin from Ai-abia; the greater part of theni are Fokara, or religious men. They have no Shikh, but a high pontiff, called El Faky el Kebir (the great Faky), who is their real chief, and decides all matters in dispute. The family of Medjdoule, in whom this office is established, has the reputation of producing necromancers, or persons endowed with supernatural powers, from whom nothing remains hidden, and whose spells nothing can withstand. Innumerable stories are related of their magic powers, of which the following is a specimen: Abdallah, the father of the present Faky, caused a lamb to bleat in the stomach of the thief who had stolen, and afterwards eaten it. The Faky is resorted to in all cases where property is stolen, and as every body entertains the greatest terror of his supposed omniscience, it is generally an easy task with him to perform wonders.

. . . Here are the salt-works which supply the whole country, as far as Sennaar, with salt. The earth, which for several miles round is strongly impregnated with salt, is collected by the Arabs in heaps upon the side of the road. The salt is separated from the earth by boiling in large earthen vessels, and the saline part is then boiled a second time in smaller vessels. The salt is afterwards formed into small round cakes about a foot in diameter, and three inches in thickness; it is perfectly white, and has much the appearance of rock salt. About a dozen cakes are packed together in a basket; four baskets make a camel's load. The salt constitutes a considerable branch of the Shendy trade. The Sennaar merchants buy it in great quantities for the Abyssinian markets, and exchange it in the mountains about Ras el Fil, for slaves and gold. The works are the property of the Mek of Shendy: there were about twenty boilers on the fire when I passed.

SHENDY

. . . The dress, habits, and manners of the inhabitants of Shendy are the same as those of the places last described, and appear to prevail as far as Darfour, and Sennaar. I observed more well-dressed people at Shendy than at Berber, and clean linen was much oftener seen. Gold being a very current article in the Shendy market, the women have more frequently golden rings at their noses and ears than those of Berber; the people also possess more wealth. It is not uncommon to see a family possessed of a dozen slaves, acting as servants in the house, and labourers in the field.

The people of Shendy, like those of Berber, are shepherds, traders, and husbandmen. Agriculture, however, seems to be little thought of by the inhabitants themselves, being chiefly left to the Arab peasants of the vicinity ; the cultivable soil in the neighbourhood of the city is narrow ; but to the north and south of it are some fine arable plains. Water-wheels are common; they are erected generally on those parts of the high banks, which the most copious inundations of the river cannot overflow; by means of them the cultivators raise one winter-crop ; but they are too lazy to bestow the labour necessary for watering the soil a second or third time, as is done in the most elevated parts of Upper Egypt, where also the river very seldom rises high enough to overflow the banks. Dhourra is the chief produce; Dokhen and wheat are sown in small quantities, the former for the consumption of the western traders who visit Shendy, the latter almost exclusively for the families of the great. Large quantities of onions, some red pepper (brought from Kordofan,) Bamyes, chick-peas, Meloukhye, and Tormos <In Egypt, the meal of the Tormos is used as a substitute for soap in washing the head and body.> are always found in the market either green or dried. During the inundation some water-melons and cucumbers are sown, but for the use only of the Harem of the Mek.

The cattle is very fine; and the inhabitants say that their size and quality continue to increase, in proportion as you ascend the river. I saw no domestic animals that are not common in Egypt. Elephants are first met with at Abou Heraze, two or three days to the north of Sennaar; and they have never been known to pass to the northward of that district, which is bounded by a chain of mountains six or eight hours in breadth, reaching close to the river. I was told that tigers are frequently seen in the Wadys east of Shendy. In the mountains of Dender, a district towards the Atbara, and six or eight journies south-east of Shendy, the giraffa is found (Arabic, Zerafa, i.e. the elegant.) It is hunted by the Arabs Shukorein and Kowahel, and is highly prized for its skin, of which the strongest bucklers are made. I frequently saw mountain-goats of the largest size brought to the market of Shendy; they have long horns bending to the middle of the back; their flesh is esteemed a great dainty. They call them Areal, a name given in Syria to the red deer. In Upper Egypt they are called Teytal and in Syria Beden

They are caught by the Djaalein Bedouins in nooses, in the same manner as they catch ostriches, which are also very common in this neighbourhood. The ostrich-feathers however are inferior to those of the western deserts. Those most esteemed in Egypt are from Kordofan and Darfour, which the caravans from the latter place bring to Siout. The Djaalein peasants bring the feathers to the market in bundles, good and bad together, and exchange them for Dhourra. Their price, when I was at Shendy, was about one-tenth of what they would bring at Cairo, where the best kinds, in 1812, sold at two hundred and eighty piastres per pound. The Pasha of Egypt has lately included them among, the articles monopolized by him.

<The trade in ostrich-feathers is one of the most complicated in the markets of Africa: at Cairo the feathers are assorted into several different qualities, and parcels are made up by the Jews, (who alone understand the trade well) containing portions of every kind. Each parcel of ten pounds weight must contain one pound of the finest and whitest sort, one pound of the second quality, also white, but of a smaller size, and eight pounds of the sorts called Jemina, Bajoca, Coda, and Spadone, the last of which is black, and of little value. The market-price of white sorted feathers is at present (1816) two hundred and eighty piastres per rotolo, or pound, or two thousand eight hundred piastres, each parcel of ten pounds.>

The hippopotamus (in Arabic Farass el Bahhr, or Barnick), is not common at Shendy, though it occasionally makes its appearance there; during my stay there was one in the river in the vicinity of Boeydha, which made great ravages in the fields. It never rose above water in the day-time, but came on shore in the night, and destroyed as much by the treading of its enormous feet, as it did by its voracity; the people have no means of killing them. At Sennaar, where hippopotami are numerous, they are caught in trenches, slightly covered with reeds into which they fall during their nightly excursions. It is generally said that no musketball can bring them to the ground, unless they are bit in the vulnerable spot, which is over the ear. The whips called Korbadj which are formed of their skins, are made at Sennaar, and on the Nile, above that place; the skin, immediately after being taken off, is cut into narrow strips, about five or six feet in length, gradually tapering to a point: each strip is then rolled up, so that the edges unite, and form a pipe, in which state it is tied fast and left to dry in the sun. In order to render these whips pliable, they must he rubbed with butter or grease. At Shendy they are sold at the rate of twelve or sixteen for a Spanish dollar; in Egypt, where they are in general use, and the dread of every servant and peasant, they are worth from half a dollar, to a dollar each. In colder climates, even in Syria, they become brittle, crack, and lose their elasticity.

Crocodiles are very numerous about Shendy. I have generally remarked that these animals inhabit particular parts of the Nile, from whence they seldom appear to move; thus, in Lower Egypt, they have entirely disappeared, although no reasonable cause can be assigned for their not descending the river. In Upper Egypt, the neighbourhood of Aklimim, Dendera, Orment, and Edfou, are at present the favourite haunts of the crocodile, while few are ever seen in the intermediate parts of the river. The same is the case in different parts of Nubia towards Dongola. At Berber nobody is afraid of encountering crocodiles in the river, and we bathed there very often, swimming out into the midst of the stream. At Shendy, on the contrary, they are greatly dreaded; the Arabs and the slaves and females, who repair to the shore of the river near the town every morning and evening to wash their linen, and fill their waterskins for the supply of the town, are obliged to be continually on the alert, and such as bathe take care not to proceed to any great distance into the-river. I was several times present when a crocodile made its appearance, and witnessed the terror it inspired; the crowd all quickly retiring up the beach. During my stay at Shendy, a man who had been advised to bathe in the river, after having escaped the small-pox, was seized and killed by one of these animals. At Sennaar crocodiles are often brought to market, and their flesh is publicly sold there. I once tasted some of the meat at Esne, in Upper Egypt; it is of a dirty white colour, not unlike young veal, with a slight fishy smell ; the animal had been caught by some fishermen in a strong net, and was about twelve feet in length. The Governor of Esne ordered it to be brought into his court-yard, where more than an hundred balls were fired against it without effect, till it was thrown upon its back, and the contents of a small swivel discharged at its belly, the skin of which is much softer than that of the back. Fish are very seldom caught by the Arabs at Shendy. Nets appear to be unknown, but children often amuse themselves in angling with hooked nails.

The produce of the fields of Shendy and its neighbourhood is not sufficient for the supply of the population, the wants of which are, much increased by the continual arrival of caravans. Dhourra is imported principally from Abou I-Ieraze, in the route to Sennaar. A caravan of more than three hundred camels arrived from thence with Dhourra during my stay at Shendy, and the price, which, on our arrival, was at the rate of one dollar for twelve measures, fell to twenty measures per dollar. The price of grain varies almost daily, the market being affected by the arrival of every caravan of traders, who always buy up a considerable quantity for the food of the slaves and camels. The Mek also monopolizes the corn-trade as much as he can. At Abou Heraze and Sennaar, Dhourra is said to be in great plenty: forty measures being sold for a dollar. This grain is of the same shape and size as that of Shendy and Upper Egypt; but it is of an ash gray colour; it is said to be less nourishing, and of course is less esteemed than the other.

Horses are more numerous here than at Berber. The Mck, it is said, can raise within Shendy itself from two to three hundred horsemen. According to the custom of the Eastern Arabs, the Djaalein Bedouins ride mares in preference to stallions; but the latter are preferred by the inhabitants of the town. The Mek-'s brother, Ras Saad ed Dyn, had a horse for which he had given in the southern districts thirteen slaves; it surpassed in beauty any other horse 1 ever remember to have seen. At a public festival on the occasion of the circumcision of one of Mek Nimi's sons, all the horsemen of Shendy met, and accompanied the family of the chief through the town, their horses prancing about. They appeared to me but very indifferent horsemen, none attempted any of the manoeuvres for which the Mamelouks are so famous; they contented themselves with galloping backwards and forwards; nor did I see one bold rider amongst them. It is in this cavalry, however, that the Mek places his chief strength, and it decides the fate of all the battles he is obliged to fight with his enemies. The saddles, and bridles, as well as the stirrups, in which they place the great toe only, are the same as those used at Berber and by the Arabs Sheygya, who appear to be as celebrated for their horsemanship in this country as the Mamelouks once were in Turkey . . .

Shendy has a daily, and one large weekly market, which is frequented by all the surrounding Arabs. The common currency is the same as that at Berber, viz. Dhourra and Dammour. Slaves and camels are generally bought with dollars, or whole parties of slaves are bartered for Egyptian and Souakin merchandize. Of dollars those only are current that are coined in Spain. They are called Abou Medfaa, from having the supposed figure of a gun on the reverse, or Abou Amoud from the columns: none pass current but those with the inscription Carolus II., which they term Reyal Abou Areya and these numerals, or lines, must be visible upon the dollar to make it pass at its full value.

They say that the dollars with Carolus III. must be of less value, because they have only three lines, whence they are estimated at one-sixth below the real value. Those coined under the Ferdinands lose one third. Austrian dollars are not taken at all. During my stay at Shendy, I found a blacksmith secretly employed in adding an I to the dollars of Charles III., for which he received two measures of Dhourra per dollar. This distinction of the numerals, it is said, was first made by the Bedouins; as it is now known amongst the merchants, little inconvenience arises from it. Gold coins have no currency; but pure gold, in small pieces, or lumps, or ear-rings, can always be procured from the Sennaar merchants at the market price. I never saw any gold dust in the possession of the traders during the whole of my journeys. The Mamelouks had sent one of their servants to Shendy with Venetian zeechins, and Turkish gold coins, in order to exchange them for dollars; the Egyptians bought them up at half their value, but they afterwards repented of it, when they recollected that they might have employed their dollars in other purchases, which would have returned them more than fifty per cent. profit in Egypt.

The market of Shendy is held upon a wide open space between the two principal quarters of the town. Three rows of small shops built of mud, one behind the other, in the shape of niches, about six feet in length by four feet in depth, and covered by mats, are occupied by the more opulent tradesmen, who carry their goods to their respective shops every morning, and back to their houses in the evening, as these shops have no door by which they can be secured. The other merchants sit upon the ground, under a kind of shed, or awning of mats, supported by three long poles, which can be turned in all directions, to keep off the sun, so as to afford sufficient shade to the seller and his customers, at all times of the day. Similar awnings are in common use in the Hedjaz. The articles usually offered for sale in the daily market are the following:

Butcher's Meat. Cows and camels are slaughtered daily for this supply, but sheep very seldom. I did not hear that they were in the habit of emasculating the animals destined for the shambles. Tile tallow is sold by particular merchants, who wash and cleanse it, in order to make it fit for anointing the hair and skin. Close by the butchers' shops are sold pieces of roasted fat, upon which, and a little Bouza, the Bedouins of the desert usually dine, when they come to the town. The flesh is not weighed, but sold in lots of about two or three pounds weight. Weights, in general, are only met with in the merchants' own houses; in the market they use for this purpose stones, by means of which the sellers have often an opportunity of cheating. The pound, or rotolo, is equal to that of Cairo.

Milk. In the morning both fresh and sour milk is brought in by Bedouin girls, and exchanged for Dhourra; they carry with them small wooden bowls, one of which the buyer fills with the grain, and receives in return three measures of milk; these girls also sell boiled chick-pease and boiled Tormous, both of which are a favourite breakfast, and called Belileli. Bread is never sold in the market; but there are many women living in poor huts in different parts of the town, who, for a trifling recompense, immediately grind the Dhourra, and make it into bread. It is an established custom not to eat in the market-place, nor any where in public; it is even considered very indecorous for a person to be seen chewing any food beyond the threshold of his own house: the reason of this is a superstitious notion that a hungry man may observe the eater and may envy the morsels he puts into his mouth ; for there is no blessing, they say, or nutriment in food upon which another has cast an envious eye. It is for the same reason that in the Levant, the meanest peasant never eats his dinner of bread and onions without exclaiming Besmilla, and inviting every one who passes by to partake with him; and he considers it a great favour if a small portion of his loaf is accepted, and as great an insult if his offer is silently refused; he expects, according to the custom of the country, that the person invited should answer him at least with the word Hannyan, if he does not choose to eat with him. In Turkey, this custom is not observed and people may often be seen eating in the market places, and before their own houses. I often bought milk early in the morning in the market at Shendy, and then retired into a neighbouring hut to drink it; but I was obliged to give the woman of the hut a handful of Dhourra for permission to do so.

Tobacco. Retail dealers in tobacco are met with in every corner of the market; the people are immoderately addicted to the use of it, and esteem it a luxury ; they have not, however, the insolent custom of taking the pipes of others, like the people of Berber. The Fokara never smoke. The best tobacco comes from Sennaar, and is called Taba; when dry, it is of a dark green colour, and has much the same taste and appearance as that cultivated in the mountains of Arabia Petruea. Pipes, and pipe-heads of clay, are also imported from Sennaar. Many persons mix natron with the tobacco before they chew it. Snuff is much in use; it is made by reducing the tobacco to a fine powder, and mixing about one third of natron to given quantities of it. They use for snuff-boxes small cocoa-nut shells, brought from Sennaar, or very small gourds; like the inhabitants of the Hedjaz, they lay the snuff upon the thumb-nail, and never take it between the finger and thumb. The Souakin merchants take off several camel loads of the tobacco, for the D.iedda and Yemen markets. Unlike the Arabs and Turks the people of these countries spit at every whiff; and they say that he who does not, will never be a hardy Bouza drinker. They squirt the spittle through the fore-teeth, a custom I should not have thought worth noticing here, had it not been a habit so totally different from that of all the Mussulinan smokers I ever saw.

The dealers in tobacco also sell natron, which is brought from Kordofan, whither it is imported from Darfour; and salt, from the salt mines of Boyedha; but this salt is dear, and the poor use as a substitute for it a brine, which they procure by dissolving in hot water, lumps of a reddish coloured saline earth, of a bitterish, disagreeable taste, which they purchase from the Bedouins of the eastern desert; it seems to contain ochre and alum. Some of the poorer merchants sell dried Bamyes, red pepper, onions, and Meloukhye.

The grocers and druggists shops are the most frequented of any; there are always half a dozen of thein opened, in which are sold cloves, pepper, cardamoms, and tamarinds, called here Erdeyb which are brought from Kordofan in small cakes. The tamarinds are prepared by exposing the pulse together with the beans to the sun, until they approach putrefaction, in which state they are kneaded into cakes. The best sort grows to the N. W. and W. of Darfour, between that country and Dar Saleht; but they abound also in the neighbourhood of Kordofan. The people of Shendy dissolve the cakes in hot water, which they drink as a refreshing beverage. Many camel loads of this excellent fruit are carried to Egypt; it is called Tainerhindy, the date of India, at Cairo, where it is in part imported from the East Indies. I have seen considerable quantities of it in the hands of the Indian merchants, at Djidda, where it is called Homar; but this sort is much cheaper than the other, being loose, not made into cakes, and of an inferior quality. The Tamerhindy tree grows at Mekka: and in different parts of the Hedjaz.

Sandal wood is imported from India, in considerable quantities; it forms one of the ingredients of the perfumed paste, with which they rub the skin; and in cases of sickness, the patient's room is perfumed with it by strewing chips of the wood upon burning charcoal. It is sold in pieces about six inches in length. Much of it is carried to Sennaar.

Fenugreek (Helbeh,) is brought from Egypt, and used by the medical practitioners in this part of the country as a tonic.

The Liban is a species of gum, collected by the Bedouin Arabs, who inhabit the deserts between Kordofan and-Shilluk, on the road to Sennaar. It is said to exude from the stem of a tree in the same manner as gum arabic. It is sold in small thin cakes, is of a dull grey colour, very brittle, and has a strong smell. The country people use it as a perfume, but it is dear. It is much in demand for the inhabitants of Taka, and all the tribes between the Nile and the Red Sea. It is exported to Souakin; the Cairo merchants receive it from Djidda. At Cairo it is considered as the frankincense, and is called Incenso. There are two sorts, one of which is much coarser than the other. It is also imported into Djidda from Souahel, on the eastern coast of Africa, beyond Cape Gardafui; and from Abyssinia, by the way of Massouah; but this last is of an inferior quality.

Gum arabic is sold in small quantities in the markets of Shendy; but loads of it may always be had of the Sennaar or Kordofan merchants; that of which the fine white colour causes it to be most esteemed comes from Kordofan, from the districts inhabited by the Bedouins Fadhel. The trade in gum arabic by this route has of late been of little consequence, as the profits arising from it are much less than those on slaves and camels; but the Darfour caravan continues to import it. It is now, however, become scarce and dear in Egypt, and will, therefore, probably, be again imported in large quantities.

Shishm a small grain of the size and shape of the smallest lentils, of a deep black shining colour, is imported from Darfour. It is pulverised and rubbed into the eyelids for complaints of the eyes. The Darfour caravans carry large quantities of this grain to Egypt, where it is much more in request than in the southern countries; there it is in general use amongst all classes, rather as a preserver of the eyes, than as a remedy for ophthalmia. It certainly communicates a refreshing coolness to the eye. I did not understand that any of it was exported from Egypt.

Antimony is sold in large quantities to people from all parts, and of all descriptions, to bracken the eyelids. In the open country, small pieces of antimony (Kohhel) often answer the purpose of a currency, as the peasants' wives will always readily barter for it any thing that their house can afford.

A drug called Kerfe , i.e. bark, is imported by the western merchants; it is a yellow-coloured bark, of considerable thickness, of a fibrous texture, and apparently belonging to a shrub, or the smaller branches of a tree, being about an inch in diameter. A decoction of it is used as an astringent in fever and dysentery; it has a very bitter taste. I was told that the tree or shrub from which this bark is procured, grows also in the mountains towards Abyssinia, in the country of the Shukorye.

I had collected small specimens of the articles above enumerated; but I unfortunately lost them through the negligence of my companions during the voyage from Souakin to Djidda. Amongst them was some of the fruit Allobe, brought from Sennaar and Kordofan. In its dry state it is of the size of a pigeon's egg, of a brownish yellow colour, with a large kernel, inveloped in a thin fleshy substance, which has a sub-acid, and rather agreeable taste. It is eaten as a dainty; and is believed to be a remedy for flatulency, of which many people here complain. It is likewise called Tamr el berr or the date of Soudan. The Allobe is said to grow on a large tree. The people of Kordofan are extremely fond of it. I have seen at Cairo a specimen of a fruit called Zakkoum, from the plains of Ramle, in Palestine, which appeared to me to be the same as the Allobe.

On the great market days, which are every Friday and Saturday, several thousands of people resort to Shendy from the distance of three or four days; the greater part of whom bring cattle for sale.

Judging from the individuals I saw in the market, all these Arabs appear to be entirely of the same race, excepting only that the true Djaalein Bedouins who come from the eastern desert are much fairer-skinned than the inhabitants of the banks of the Nile, which arises probably from their taking greater care not to mix in concubinage with the Negro race. I was much struck with the physiognomy of many of these Djaaleins, who had exactly the countenance and expression of features of the Bedouins of eastern Arabia; their beards are even shorter, and thinner. Some individuals of a tribe of Djaalein who border, to the south, upon the Shukorye, appeared at the market with hats on their heads, made of reeds; they were high and pointed, with broad brims, and were tied under the chin with a leather thong. They are worn both by men and women.

About four or five hundred camels, as many cows, a hundred asses, and twenty or thirty horses, were on sale on the great market-days. Every merchant then takes his stand in one of the open shops, or in the open market, and exposes part of his merchandize for even the richest traders are not ashamed of trafficking in the minutest detail. The Egyptian, Souakin, Sennaar, and Kordofan merchants form separate corps, in the midst of which is a great circle of slaves, thus exposed for sale. The country people bring to market mats, baskets, ox hides, and other skins, coarse pottery, camel saddles, wooden dishes, and other articles of their own manufacture, &c. About a dozen shoemakers, or rather sandalmakers, from the country, work for these two days in the market, and will make a pair of sandals at an hour's notice. The works in leather are very prettily done. The leather is tanned with the Garadh or pulse of the acacia; the Bedouins about Sennaar are said to be the most skilful in its preparation. Leather sacks (Djerab) are likewise sold here; they serve for the transport of every kind of baggage and merchandize, excepting Dhourra, gum arabic, and salt, which are carried in baskets. Many blacksmiths repair to Shendy from the country; they make and sell the small knives generally worn among these people. These knives are about eight inches long, and are worn in a leathern scabbard tied over the left elbow: they are two-edged, like those worn by the Berhbera, and are of the shape here represented.

The market is so crowded, and the dust and heat are so great, during the mid-day hours, which is the favourite time for transacting business, that I was unable to remain in the market-place many hours together, and always left one of my companions in charge of the little I had to sell. In different parts of the place are stationed peasants with jars of water, which they sell to the thirsty, at the rate of a handful of Dhourra for as much water as two persons, can drink. Several of the Fakys have water-cisterns in the courtyards of their houses, which are always kept full, and at which every one may drink gratis. Many of them have likewise small chapels annexed to their dwellings. There is no mosque in the whole place.

The only artizans I saw at Shendy were blacksmiths, silversmiths, who work very coarse ornaments for the women, tanners, potters, and carpenters. If a house is to be built, the owner, his relatives, and slaves, with a few labourers, execute the masonry, and the carpenter is only called in to lay the roof and make the doors. Like the Bedouins of the desert, these Arabs are their own artizans upon all ordinary occasions.

There are no weavers at Shendy, but all the women and grown up children, and many of the men, are seen with a distaff constantly in their hands, spinning cotton yarn, which they sell to the people of Berber. The distaff, Mugzil, resembles that used in Egypt and Syria. Cotton is cultivated in this neighbourhood, and is a general produce of all the countries on the banks of the Nile, although nowhere in any great quantity, except at Damer and about Sennaar.

The wholesale trade at Shendy is principally conducted through the agency of brokers. Most of these are Dongolhwy, who seem, in general, to be the most acute and intelligent traders of this part of the country. A caravan no sooner arrives, than every merchant's house is crowded with brokers; but the avidity and parsimony of all parties are too great to allow them to bring their transactions to a speedy conclusion. Even after the bargain is made, each party endeavours to cheat the other before the goods are delivered and the money paid. In addition to this, every attempt to enter into an engagement of any importance becomes known all over the place, and the jealousy of the traders often prevents its taking place. No merchandise has its fixed price; there is no such thing as a price current; every one sells according to the prospect he has of cheating the buyer and bribing the broker. The purchase money, or, in cases of barter, its equivalent in merchandise, is almost always immediately paid down; the longest credit I have witnessed is a couple of days; and it is evident, on the termination of every commercial transaction, that the buyer and seller reciprocally entertain suspicions of each other's honesty. To oblige a debtor to settle his accounts, recourse is generally had to the slaves of the Mek, who act as police officers; but a man who is unprotected, and without friends, is sure to lose the greater part of his goods, if he allows them to go out of his hands without immediate payment.

I shall now briefly mention the different article, of the trade of Shendy with Egypt, Kordofau, Sennaar and Souakin; premising, however, that I remained too short a time to collect the fullest and most correct information on that subject.

The principal articles imported from Egypt are the Sembil and Mehleb, <The Sembil is the Valeriana Celtica, or Spiga Celtica of the Italians. It is chiefly grown in the southern provinces of the Austrian dominions, and is exported from Venice and Trieste. The Mehleb is brought from Armenia and Persia, and is exported from Smyrna and other ports of Asia Minor. It appears to be the fruit of a species of Tilia.> both of which are in great request in Soudan; the former as a perfume and medicine, the latter as a condiment, and occasionally as a medicine also. The traders usually sell them together, in the proportion of about three parts of Sembil to one of Melileb. Thus, in general, the camel load contains about 350 pounds of the former, and 120 pounds of the latter; but sometimes it consists of equal quantities of each. The loads of these articles are termed exclusively Zamele i.e. the full, or great load. Every respectable merchant coming from Egypt brings with him two Zameles. In the caravan with which I came there were eight, distributed amongst thirty-nine camels, the whole number of the beasts of transport. The Zamele is easily disposed of, in wholesale, to the Sennaar merchants, who give, in exchange, dollars, Dammour, and slaves.

There is much less demand for these drugs in the west than in the south of Africa. In the countries to the north of Abyssinia, in those south of Sennaar, and in Abyssinia itself, they are in constant use, and besides what passes by land, considerable quantities are shipped from Djidda to Massouah, for the Abyssinian market. They are here at least 250 per cent. dearer than at Cairo. The Egyptians sometimes push on as far as Sennaar, if they cannot find a ready sale for their Zamele at Shendy.

Soap. The soap which supplies all Egypt and Arabia is manufactured at Gaze, Yaffa, Hebron, and Jerusalerry. No good soap has hitherto been made in Egypt itself; there are several manufactories of it at Siout, but it is of a very inferior kind, the oil which they employ being made from the lettuce, instead of the olive. The Pasha of Egypt, however, has lately established, under the direction of an able Italian, a soap manufactory in the Delta. The oil is brought from the Archipelago, and the natron lakes furnish the alkali. Soap is a very profitable article, and in great demand in all parts of the southern countries, but it exposes the merchant to the importunities of numerous beggars of all classes, whose commonest intreaty is for a piece of soap to wash their shirt, and whom it is not always advisable to send away unsatisfied. Soap is sold at Shendy by the piece, without examining into its greater or smaller size. This is likewise the case with sugar. The loaf, weighing about four pounds, and the prime cost of which in the sugar-works of Upper Egypt, is one-sixth of a dollar, is sold for a dollar at Shendy. Its dearness is owing to the great risks incurred in transporting it, as a sudden fall of rain on the road might ruin a whole cargo.

Sugar is much in demand in all parts, for presents to the great people, and to the women. <The most fashionable among the women of the town at Shendy have fixed the price of their favours at a loaf of sugar.> It is always eaten by itself, never entering into any dish of sweetmeats, or cookery.

The other chief imports of Egyptian manufacture are Takas, a sort of coarse cambric, died blue, with which the women, especially the Bedouin women, line their best cloaks. It is sold in small pieces, one of which, when I was at Shendy, was worth a dollar; it is the most current article of merchandise in small bargains, and is principally bought up by the Kordofan merchants. It is every where very acceptable, as it serves to pay the local authorities, when dollars are not at hand. White cotton stuffs, with red borders, made at Mchalla, in the Delta: they are worn by the great people, especially at Sennaar. Melayes, a blue striped cotton cloth, in which the women of distinction wrap themselves up when they sleep. The Darfour caravans also take from Egypt, as presents to kings and other great persons, scarlet cloth, and some velvet, satin, and goldembroidered stuffs, of the lighter kind, from Lyons and Florence, together with a variety of English calicoes and cambrics. Linen, made at Siout and Manfaloot, is in great request for shirts, but is too dear to be commonly worn. Egyptian Sheep-skins, dressed with the wool on, form also a considerable article of importation. They are used as saddle-cloths for the. horses, dromedaries, and asses, of the natives, and as carpets to sit upon in their women's apartments.

They are often died blue or red, and find their way to the farthest parts of the west and south. No chief of a tribe, or head of a village, is without one of these skins. The sheep of the southern countries bear no wool.

Beads. I have already mentioned the use, of beads in these countries, as a kind of currency. The most common are small wooden beads, made by the turners of Upper Egypt, which are bought up chiefly by the Bedouin and other peasants. Others, of which the chief manufactory is at Dondera in Upper Egypt, are made of the kernels of the Doum, and are worn by all those who wish to distinguish themselves by an appearance of sanctity. A variety of beads, of a red and black colour, are imported from Jerusalem. There is hardly a man, woman, or child, without a string or two of beads round the neck, or arm, or in their hands. Glass beads (Kherraz) have not the same currency here as they have in Abyssinia and Darfour, though they are constantly seen in the market. The better sort are of Venetian manufacture, but the greater part are made at El Khalil (or Hebron, near Jerusalem), which furnishes the whole of southern Syria, and the greatest part of Egypt, and of Arabia, with glass-ware. The white glass-beads of Bohemia, called by the Italians Contaria d'Olanda, go to Darfour. Of Venetian glass-beads, from four to five hundred chests, of ten cwt. each, are sold annually at Cairo, at from fifty to one hundred patacks per cwt., or from 4 l. to 8 l. I had an opportunity, while at Djidda, of seeing the beads destined for the Abyssinian market, of which I counted at least a dozen varieties, each known by its name, as Ow Shaber (the renowned), Serdj el Melouk (the king's saddle), Ayn el Kahba (the whore's eye), Alowan (the many-coloured), Khams djenous (the five sorts), Hassan Beg, Othman Beg, all different species. Every district there has its particular glass-bead,, which is not in fashion in the neighbouring districts. The Souakin merchants import into Shendy a species of beads called Reysh which are bought up exclusively by the Kordofan merchants, and which form the principal article of exchange for slaves, in their own country: they are likewise in demand at Darfour, Dar Saleh, and Bergho, to the west of Darfour. The Reysh come from the East Indies, principally from Surat; they are perforated balls of coloured agate, of the size of a small cherry, much resembling the marbles with which the children in Europe play. One thousand of these Reysh were worth, at Djidda, fifteen Spanish dollars. At Shendy they are sold at three Wokyes, or forty-eight dollars; and I was told that at Kordofan one thousand of them would purchase six female slaves, who, on beino, carried to Shendy, are there worth one hundred and twenty dollars. The Reysh are worn as necklaces by the women. The trade in this article is considered as one of the most profitable, because the beads are easily transported, and may escape the notice of the chiefs of the country.

Coral (Merdjan) of a bad kind is brought in small quantities; the tribes of the chiefs adorn their necks with it, and also with amber. False coral (Merdjan kudab) comes from Venice, and goes principally to the western countries. Of amber the transparent kind only is in request.

Paper (Papier de trois limes, from Genoa and Leghorn) is rather a heavy article here; it is more in demand in the western countries, to which it is carried by the Darfour caravans: it is, however, always found in the warehouses of the Egyptians. Pewter (Gasdir) in thin bars, in small quantity. Old copper, principally large boilers, and pots, which are bought up by the slavetraders, for their own use. Yellow brass wire (Selk Asfar) for which there is a great demand throughout all these countries, for ornamenting the lances, by twisting it round different parts of the shaft.

Of hardware, the most current articles are razors, of that quality, which, in Germany, from whence they come, may be worth three pence each; at Cairo, they are sold wholesale for twelve paras a-piece. Files, almost all of which are transformed into knives, in order to obtain a good steel blade. Thimbles, scissars, needles, all of the coarsest kind, of Nuremberg manufacture; Nails, steels, to strike fire; Sword-blades, of the kind, which I have already described, and which are in common use all over the Black countries to the east of the Fezzan trade. They come from Sohlingen in Germany; about three thousand of them are annually sold at Cairo to the southern traders. Antimony, in small lumps. Tar (Gitran), with which water-skins are rubbed, to make them water-tight, and the backs of camels, to preserve them from the scab, or to cure them of that disease. Silver trinkets for female ornaments, as bracelets, car-rings, &c.; of these, the Darfour caravans take off considerable quantities from Egypt. Very small bells (sonaglii), with which they. ornament, in Sennaar and Darfour, the camel's bridle and halter. Marcasite (Roh toutiya) goes likewise to Sennaar and Darfour. Looking-glasses of Venetian and Trieste manufacture, with gilt covers, constitute a distinguished article of the Egyptian trade; the most common kinds are about four inches square; others are round, of about the same size, with a long handle, made at Cairo. No woman marries here without decorating her room with such a looking-glass.

Since the Mamelouks have established themselves in Dongola., every Egyptian caravan brings to Shendy some articles of Mamelouk dress, as cloths, shoes, &c., which are purchased by the Dongola merchants. Until lately, the direct trade between Upper Egypt and Dongola was prohibited by the Pasha of Egypt, and the merchants preferred this circuitous route to the danger of having their goods confiscated. During the warfare between the Mamelouks and the Sheygya, the former sent the greater part of their women to Shendy, as a place less exposed to the casualties of desultory warfare; they afterwards recalled them, but some were still there when I arrived, making themselves ridiculous by their arrogance and pretensions.

The Egyptian trade is, in general, carried on with very small capitals. I do not believe that there is a single merchant, the whole amount of whose stock exceeds fifteen hundred Spanish dollars. The family of the Alowein, with whom I came from Daraou, and who formed of themselves a party of about a dozen people, had no more than a thousand dollars embarked in their adventure. The common class of merchants have from two to three hundred dollars; even this money is seldom their own property; in general, it is either borrowed by them in Upper Egypt, at high interest, or their merchandise is bought at Esne, Kenne, or even at Cairo, upon credit: the reason is, that no truly respectable merchant of Egypt ever engages in such enterprises. A journey to Soudan is looked upon, even in Egypt, as a desperate ,undertaking, in which those only embark who have little or nothing to lose; and in general, the traffic in slaves, or, as it is often called in Egypt, the trade in human flesh, is by no means thought creditable. The. people of Daraou, however, find credit, and might easily accumulate riches, if they were not so incorrigibly vicious and dissipated, spending the best part of their profits in drinking and debauchery. The money which they borrow in Upper Egypt, and for which they generally pledge their houses or landed property, as security, is lent to them at an interest of fifty per cent. for the journey, whatever length of time they may remain absent; and the goods which are bought upon credit in Egypt, on condition of payment upon their return, are sold to them at a price raised in the same proportion. The Daraou merchants train their children, at a very early age, to this commerce. Several boys, hardly ten years of age, followed their fathers in the caravan with which I travelled from Daraou; and when once embarked in this traffic, they perform at least two journeys annually until their latest years. I have seen people at Daraou, who boasted that their great, great grandfathers had been Sennaar merchants.

THE SLAVE TRADE (AND OTHER COMMERCE)

. . . Caravans from Sennaar arrive at Shendy every six weeks, or two months. Whenever they bring Dhourra, the number of their loaded camels amounts to five or six hundred; but if they have only goods and slaves, they seldom have one hundred camels with them. The principal import from Sennaar is the Dammour, or cotton stuff, which is in use not only along the banks of the Nile, as far as Dongola, but in Kordofan, in a great part of Darfour, and Abyssinia, and throughout the whole of Nubia cast of the Nile, as far as the Red Sea. This article is always in great demand, and is therefore taken in exchange for almost every article of trade. The cotton manufactories of Sennaar, and those of Bagerme, to the west of Darfour, furnish the greater part of north-eastern Africa with articles of dress.

Gold is the second article in the Sennaar trade. It is purchased by the merchants of Sennaar from the Abyssinian traders; but I have not been able exactly to ascertain in what province of western Abyssinia it is found. The principal market for gold appears to be Ras el Fil, a station in the caravan route from Sennaar to Gondar, four days journeys from the former. This route is at present much frequented by Sennaar traders, as well as by that class of Abyssinian merchants called Djebert who appear to be the chief slave and gold traders of that country. I have never heard of a single Egyptian merchant who ever pushed on as far as Ras el Fil; for although the road is not unsafe, yet every body seems to be afraid in these countries of undertaking distant journeys unaccompanied by a large party of his own countrymen. The jealousy of all classes of merchants is very great, and their known treachery prevents single adventurers from trusting themselves to their mercy, or good faith.

The Djebert above-mentioned often repair to Sennaar, chiefly in search of Negro slaves; and I have reason to believe that the route from Sennaar through Ras el Fil to Gondar, and from thence to the coast, may be safely travelled in time of internal peace. The gold imported from Sennaar is principally bought up by the Souakin traders, who carry it to Djldda, where it is given in payment for India goods. It is seldom purchased by the Egyptian merchants, as it is not very profitable. At Sennaar the ounce of pure gold is worth twelve dollars; at Shendy, sixteen; at Souakin, twenty; at Djidda, twenty-two. Although the Souakin merchants might purchase at Shendy many articles more profitable than gold, they often prefer it on account of its easy transport, and the facility with which they can secrete it, and avoid paving any duty on the road.

Slaves are also brought to Shendy by the merchants of Sennaar. Since the direct caravan route from Sennaar to Kordofan has been interrupted, principally by the robberies and the rapacity of the Arabs of Shilluk, at the passage of the Bahr cl Abyadh, this is the only route open to them. The slaves are chiefly either Abyssinians or of the race called Nouba. The former consist principally of females of the Gala nations, and of a few Amaaras.* Upon the whole, the number of Abyssinians sent to the northward by Shendy is small. The best female Abyssinians are always purchased by the chiefs for their own harems; and in Arabia and Egypt Abyssinian slaves may be had cheaper by the Djebert traders from Massouah, who sell them at Djidda. I think that not more than one hundred female Abyssinian slaves are annually exported from Sennaar either to Souakin or to Egypt. Latterly the Mamelouks have bought up many of them, the Abyssinians being remarked above all other black women for their beauty, and for the warmth and constancy of their affection to the master who has once taught them to love him.

The name of Nouba is given to all the Blacks coming from the slave countries to the south of Sennaar. The territory of Sennaar extends, as far as I could learn from the merchants of the country, ten days journey beyond the city, in a south and south-east direction, and is inhabited exclusively by free Arab tribes, who make incursions into the more southern mountains, and carry off the children of the idolaters. These Nouba slaves (among whom must also be reckoned those who are born in the neighbourhood of Sennaar, of male Negroes and female Abyssinians; and who are afterwards sold by the masters of the parents) form a middle class between the true Blacks and the Abyssinians; their colour is less dark than that of the Negro, and has a copper tinge, but it is darker than that of the free Arabs of Sennaar and Shendy. Their features, though they retain evident signs of Negro origin, have still something of what is called regular; their noses, though smaller than those of the Europeans, are less flat than those of the Negroes; their lips are less thick, and the cheek-bones not so prominent. The hair of some is woolly; but among the greater part it is similar to the hair of Europeans, but stronger, and always curled. The palm of their hands is soft, a circumstance by which they particularly distinguish themselves from the true Negro, whose hands, when touched, feel like wood.

The male Noubas in Egypt, as well as in Arabia, are preferred to all others, for labour: they bear a good character, and sell at Shendy and in Egypt twenty per cent. dearer than the Negroes. The male Abyssinians, on the contrary, are known to be little fit for bodily work, but they are esteemed for their fidelity, and make excellent house servants, and often clerks, their intellects being certainly much superior to those of the Blacks. The Noubas are said to be of a healthier constitution, and to suffer less from disease than the Abyssinians. The greatest part of them are exported to Egypt; but some are sent to Souakin.

Ivory. Elephants' teeth are bought up by the Egyptian merchants, but in small quantities. This branch of commerce seems to have been formerly much more flourishing; but at present there is little demand for ivory in Egypt, probably because Europe draws its supplies cheaper from Barbary and the East Indies. The importation of ivory, however, from Darfour into Egypt is still of some importance, though ivory often fails entirely in the market of Cairo.

The Negroes seem never to have known the art of taming the elephant; they catch him in pits, or kill him by discharging a shower of javelins from the trees under which he passes. The flesh is said to be eaten near Sennaar.

Rhinoceros horns; in Egyptian Arabic called Khartit The rhinoceros is called in the Negro countries Om Korn (or, the mother i.e. the owner) of the one horn; it is evidently from this animal that the imaginary unicorn has had its origin. The Arabs have often described to me the rhinoceros as an animal like a large cow, with thick legs, and a short tail, with one long horn <It is well known how little discrimination the Arabs show in judging of quantities.; the terms long or short, great or small, high or low, deep or shallow, &c. &c. are seldom accurately applied by thein, and in their descriptions they generally magnify or diminish the object beyond what it naturally is.> on its forehead, and having a skin like large scales, as hard as iron. Whenever I described the unicorn, and asked them whether such an animal, with a long horn existed, they never failed to point out the Om Korn, as the animal I meant. The rhinoceros inhabits the neighbourhood of Sennaar, but never the countries of the Nile to the north of that place. Its northern boundary, like that of the elephant, seems to be the mountain to the north of the village of Abou Heraze, two days journeys from Sennaar, which advances close to the river, and thus intercepts the passage along, its banks. Neither of these animals is known at Shendy, or at Halfaya, which is two days to the south of the former place. The Khartit, or horn of the-rhinoceros, is worked at Cairo into ornaments for the handles of swords and poniards, to be mounted in the Mamelouk fashion. It is dear; I have seen pieces about four inches long, and one inch thick, sold for four or five Spanish dollars each.

The Musk of the civet-cat is not sold at Shendy; but the Souakin merchants who visit Sennaar bring with them small quantities of it, which they sell again at Djidda. The principal markets for this article are Massouah, ?Lnd Mekka, during the Hadj. It is brought to Cairo by the Djidda merchants.

The Whips above-mentioned, called Korbadj, are imported from Sennaar only.

Ebony is brought in small pieces; the largest I saw were about one foot in length. The wood is said to grow to the south of Sennaar; but, I suspect, at a great distance, as it is very dear. Knife handles, neatly worked in ebony, are brought from Sennaar; the knives, which are worn tied over the elbow by the Arabs of those countries, are afterwards fitted into them. The Djellabs, or slave merchants, do not carry any ebony into Egypt, Cairo being supplied with it from Djidda; but I understand that it grows in the deserts adjoining to Darfour on the west.

Coffee-beans, in small quantity, the growth of Abyssinia and the Gala country. None of these are carried from Massouah to Djidda, as the coffee plant grows in the most western parts of Abyssinia only. Coffee is not commonly drank here; it is a luxury in which the chiefs alone indulge.

Leather. The best manufactories of leather, between Darfour and the Red Sea, are at Sennaar. The manufacturers exercise their skill chiefly in making camel saddles (Gassaat,) leathern sacks, and sandals. The first are exported to Egypt for the dromedaries, or riding-camels, and are sold there as high as twenty dollars. They are ornamented with, many pretty leathern tassels, and are of workmanship equally elegant and durable. The leathern sacks are bought up by the Souakin merchants, and sold by them to the inhabitants of Yemen, who use them for carrying provisions in travelling; they are extremely well sewed; some of them are secured with a padlock: great numbers of them were formerly sold at Mekka to the Wahabi by the Souakin people. The leather is of the best quality, much superior to that made in Egypt and Syria, and almost as good as the Russia leather. The Sennaar sandals are worn by all the well-dressed men and women throughout Nubia; a young woman had rather wear a torn shirt than ugly sandals. They are sewn with a precision and nicety little to be expected from the rude Arabs. At Shendy the best sandals cost two dollars a pair. Every place in these countries has a peculiar fashion in the form of the sandals worn by its inhabitants; so that, with a little experience, the residence of every man may be ascertained by looking at his feet. The same custom prevails in Arabia; and I remember, that when I first arrived at Djidda, wearing a pair of sandals which I had bought at Souakin, many persons, who knew nothing of me, pointed to my sandals, and asked what business I had had at Souakin.

Small waterflasks (Mattharah, or Zamzamieh,) made of leather, which are much esteemed in Egypt.

To the imports of Sennaar belong likewise the Shields made of the skins of the rhinoceros and giraffa; they are made by the Bedouin Arabs, who sell them at Sennaar, and they are used all along the Nile, and across the mountains, as far as Kosseir and Kenne, in Upper Egypt.

The fruit of the Nebek, the fleshy part of which is separated from the stone, and dried in the sun ; it is put up in small leathern bags and carried as far as Souakin; it affords a very agreeable provision during a journey.

The most important articles of the Sennaar trade at Shendy are camels and Dhourra, without the continual importation of which Shendy would soon be in danger of famine. The Dhourra caravans usually perform the journey by themselves, the merchants seldom joining them, but forming caravans of their own. They are more wealthy people than the Egyptian traders; and it is not rare to see a man possessing ten camel loads of Dammour, and a whole party of slaves. I was told the name of a Sennaar merchant who bought at Shendy the entire loads of an Egyptian caravan, consisting of thirty camels.

Honey, in considerable quantity, is also imported from Sennaar. As far as I could understand, the Arabs about Sennaar collect wild honey in great quantity, but do not trouble themselves with keeping bee-hives near their own houses.

I did not learn that any passage-duties, or customs, are exacted at Sennaar; the only obstacle thrown in the way of trade is that the king always forces his own merchandixe upon the buyer, before the private adventurers can enter into any bargains. The Sennaar merchants take in return from the Egyptian traders Sembil and Mehleb, in large quantities, sugar, soap, and almost every article of the Egyptian and Souakin markets. Since the interruption of the direct communication between Sennaar and Kordofan, the inhabitants of the former place have been known to buy at Shendy Negro slaves brought from Kordofan, which they can obtain here at lower, prices than their own Nouba slaves at Sennaar. During my residence at Shendy, the route along the Nile to Sennaar was rendered dangerous from the disputes that had arisen between the Meks of Halfaya and Herbadjy; the caravans therefore preferred taking the desert route, which lies parallel with the river, at about one day's journey inland, as far as Abou Heraze, where they again join the river; a single well is met with in this route, at about three days from Shendy, and this even is sometimes not taken into the road, on account of the visits of the Bedouins Shukorye, of whom the Sennaar people entertain great fears.

The arrival of the Kordofan caravans at Shendy is quite uncertain, and depends upon the caprice of the governor of Kordofan, who often prevents the departure of merchants, in order to increase his own commercial profits. Three months sometimes elapse without any arrival, after which they come in rapid succession. The road from Obeydh (not Ibeit, as Browne writes it,) the capital of Kordofan, to Shendy, is quite safe; it is performed in about fourteen days, of which the five last are through a desert without water. With the Kordofan caravans arrive also merchants from Darfour; and the intercourse between Kobe, the capital of Darfour, and Obeydh, is said to be at present very brisk, and quite safe. Kordofan has no other slaves than those brought from Darfour; its own people, it seems, do not traffic with the southern Negro countries; but since the arrival of the Mamelouks in Dongola, a direct trade has been opened between that country and Kordofan, the northern limits of which are said to be only six days distance from the frontiers of Dongola.

The arrival of every Kordofan caravan at Shendy fills the market with slaves, who constitute the principal import from thence. The Kordofan merchants bring likewise gum arabic, of the best quality known in the Negro countries; < Formerly the Sennaar caravans brought as much as 2000 cwt. of gum arabic, annually, to Egypt; at present they do not bring more than 100 cwt. The gum arabic which is collected from the acacias, in the deserts of the Hedjaz, is known at Cairo under the name of Samegh Embawy or rather Yembawy, from Yembo. The gum arabic collected in the deserts of Suez, Tyh, and in Mount Sinai, is called Gomma Torica (Samegb Tori), from the Arabs of Tor; this is exported to no part of Europe but France. The Kordofan gum is of the best quality, small grained, and of the clearest white. The Sennaar gum is less esteemed.> Erdeyb, or Tamarinds; the gum Leban; Natron from Darfour; Sheshme, the seed used in Egypt for diseases of the eye; Shooshe, a small pea of Kordofan and Darfour growth; the latter are of a fine pink colour, with a small black spot at one end, and are worn in strings as necklaces. They sell also ropes of leather. The inhabitants of the countries on the Nile make their ropes and cords of the fibrous inner bark of the palm date-tree, called Lif or of reeds which grow on the banks of the river; but all the western nations, where no date-trees grow, use for their packages twisted leathern thongs, which are of great solidity and strength, a very important advantage in travelling through the deserts with heavily loaded camels. These ropes are sold to the Egyptian and Souakin merchants, as are likewise large leathern sacks made of very thick ox-leather in Kordofan and Darfour. These sacks are used for the transport of Dhourra meal through the desert for the food of the slaves. Large water-skins (Rey) made of ox-hides, in which traders who have many slaves transport water through the desert: two of these Reys make a camel's load; they keep the water much better than the smaller goats' skins, and the thickness of the leather prevents it from evaporating so readily. Reys are a considerable article of commerce between Darfour and Egypt; they are used in all the towns of Egypt, and particularly at Cairo, to transport the water from the river to the town, for the daily use of the inhabitants. The Kordofan merchants bring likewise water-skins made of sheep-skins, in the manufacture of which great skill is shown, because the skins are preserved entire. The animals are killed by cutting off the head; and those who slaughter thein possess an art, unknown to the Arabian Bedouins, of taking off the skin without cutting it, by introducing the hand at the aperture in the throat, armed with a small knife, and thus separating it entirely from the carcass. A Kordofan water-skin has thus no seams but where the legs are cut off, while the common ones are sewed up on three sides. Another import from Kordofan are large wooden dishes, or bowls, carved, as it is said, out of the root of some tree, they are rubbed with butter, and then held over the fire, to give them a black colour. These bowls often supply the place of the China ware, vessels, dishes, cups, &c. which in the more polite parts of the East are placed upon shelves along the walls of the sitting-room, as ornaments. Some of these bowls are large enough to contain sufficient food for twelve persons; they are very nicely worked ; not the smallest trace of the instruments with which they are formed can be observed.

Ostrich-feathers brought by the Kordofan merchants are also in great request. These merchants are people of moderate property; the greater part of them have wives at Shendy and at Darfour, as well as at Obeydh; they buy up slaves at Darfour, remain awhile with their families at Obeydh, and then bring their slaves to Shendy. They have a better character for honesty than the people of Sennaar, but the favourable opinion entertained of them does not induce any one to trust them with goods upon credit. They take in return from Shendy, a little Sembil and Melileb, some antimony and beads, a good deal of spices, especially cloves, which are in great demand all over the western countries; a little hardware; Dammour from Sennaar; Egyptian linen; Indian cotton stuffs imported from Souakin; a few silk and cloth dresses from the Hedjaz, which are worn by the chiefs, who seem to be extremely fond of gaudy, showy dresses, as a mark of distinction; some coffee beans; but above all, Reysh, or Indian agate beads. The common currency of Kordofan, besides Dhourra, is said to be small pieces of iron, with which milk, flesh, and Dhoken bread, are bought in the market. These pieces of iron are collected and worked into axes and spear-heads. Cows are likewise taken as a medium of exchange. Slaves are often bought for so many cows; wild herbage for their food is so abundant, that nobody objects to keeping large numbers of those animals in their court-yards.

The most substantial of all the traders who at present frequent the Shendy market are the people from Souakin, or as they are more commonly called in this part of Africa, the Hadharebe, or Hadharame, that is, people of Hadrematit, in South Arabia, from whence they draw their origin. Some of these traders are always found at Shendy: during my stay there two caravans took their departure for Souakin, and one large party arrived ; and no month passes without some arrivals from that quarter. The Hadhareb also visit the Sennaar market; their caravans to that place either take the road by Shendy, or the nearer one by Goz Radjeb, on the Atbara, from whence they proceed straight across the desert to Sennaar. Some of the Hadharebe also frequent Obeydh in Kordofan, but not in sufficient numbers to form a caravan of their own, and they therefore, join the native traders. Their caravans are hailed at Shendy by the Sennaar and Kordofan people, as the promptest purchasers of their goods; but they create great jealousy among the Egyptians, whose rivals they are in various articles of import. The Souakin trade supplies Shendy principally with India goods. Different sorts of cambric (Baft, and another sort called Benoueh) from Madias and Surat; and coarse muslins from Bengal are partly wanted for the use of the Shendy and Sennaar inhabitants themselves; but the greater part is given in exchange to the Kordofan merchants for slaves. They bring also spices, especially cloves, ginger (Zandjebil) India sugar, Mokha beads, as they are called, though none are made at Mokha; sandal wood, which is an article of consequence, and finds its way from hence to the countries west of Darfour, as far as Bagerme; and all the articles of hardware imported by the Egyptians, in which, however, the latter can afford to undersell them. They also bring the Dhofer, which is taken by the Sennaar and Darfour merchants. It is the shell of an animal found in the Red Sea, cut into small pieces, and used as a perfume, emitting a pleasant odour when held over the fire. The pieces of the Dhofer, cut like beads, are much esteemed in the Hedjaz and Egypt, where the ladies wear them as necklaces; they are, of a black, or dark blue colour, with veins of a lighter hue. The people of Souakin export them likewise to Djidda.

The Hadharebe take in return gold, slaves, (Abyssinians in preference,) and all the other articles of the Negro trade, except gum arabic; though they sometimes take this article also, and sell it at Mokha, to English and American traders. Every Souakin caravan purchases at Shendy a number of horses of the Dongola breed, which they sell to great advantage in Yemen, at Hodeyda, Loheya, and as far south as Mokha. The cavalry of the Sherif Hamoud, the present chief of Yemen, are mounted almost entirely upon horses from Dongola, for the good breed of native Arab horses is very scarce in Yemen.

The Souakin caravans, that go as far as Sennaar, bring from thence a large quantity of tobacco, which they sell in the Yemen. These merchants enjoy more credit at Shendy than any others, because they are the richest and most numerous, all free Arabs themselves, not peasants, like those of Upper Egypt, or Blacks, like those of Kordofan; but composed chiefly of the best families of Souakin, and who are prompt to revenge an insult offered to any individual amongst them. They are always treated very politely by the Mek, to whom they make larger presents than any other traders. But I shall recur to this subject hereafter, under the head of Souakin, which at present is, next to Massouah and Cairo, the most important slavetrading place in north-eastern Africa, beyond the limits of Soudan.

The Dongola trade is of little consequence at Shendy. The Dongolawy bring dates, which they buy up in Mahass, and tobacco, the growth of their own country. Dates are sent to Sennaar and to Kordofan as presents to the chiefs, and are there considered, next to sugar, the most exquisite dainty they have.

The female slaves who have served an apprenticeship in the houses at Dongola are eagerly sought for by all, traders, as expert cooks, and good servants.

SOME REMARKS ON THE SLAVE TRADE

From the concurrence of all these traders, Shendy has become the first commercial town in the Black countries for the Egyptian and Arabian slave-trade. These two trades, and the Abyssinian, are closely allied to each other, and merchants of all the three countries of the word. I have a few remarks to add upon the most important branch of their commerce, the Slave-trade.

I calculate the number of slaves sold annually in the market of Shendy at about five thousand, of whom about two thousand five hundred are carried off by the Souakin merchants, and fifteen hundred by those of Egypt; the remainder go to Dongola, and to the Bedouins who live to the east of Shendy, towards the Atbara and the Red Sea. I have already made some mention of the places from whence these slaves come. Those brought from Kordofan to Darfour are, for the greater part, from the idolatrous countries of Benda, Baadja, @Fetigo, and Fertit, to the south and south-west of Darfour, from twenty to forty days from Kobbe; each of these countries speaks a separate language. The Darfour merchants trade with Fertit, which lies about twenty,days distant from Kobbe, in a southerly direction: the country is mountainous, and its inhabitants are wholly ignorant of agriculture; but they have tasted the luxury of Dhourra and Dokhen : and are said, in cases of a dearth of these grains, to sell even their own children to procure them.

Far the largest proportion of the slaves imported into Shendy are below the age. of fifteen. All of them, both male and female, are divided by the traders, with reference to age, into three classes: namely, Khomasy comprising those apparently below ten or eleven years; Sedasy those above eleven and below fourteen or fifteen; and Balegh or grown up, those of fifteen and upwards. The Sedasy are the most esteemed; when I was at Shendy a male of this class was worth fifteen or sixteen dollars, provided he bore the marks of the small-pox, without which a boy is not worth more than two-thirds of that price; a female was worth from twenty to twenty-five Spanish dollars. The price of the male Khomasy was twelve, of the female fifteen dollars. The male Balegh seldom sells for more than eight or ten dollars; and there is but a small proportion of this class, because it is thought both in Egypt and Arabia, that no great dependence can be placed upon any slave who has not been brought up in the owner's family from an early age. Hence there is a great reluctance to the purchasing of grownup slaves for domestic purposes, or even for labourers. The Baleghs are chiefly bought by the Bedouins, who employ them as shepherds. The Bisharein have many of them in all their encampments. Grown-up female slaves, although past the age of beauty, sometimes sell for as much as thirty dollars, if they are known to be skilful in working, sewing, cooking, &c. In Syria few slaves are kept; those which I have seen there are, for the greater part, imported by the caravans from Bagdad, and come from Souahel on the Mozambik coast.

Few slaves are imported into Egypt, without changing masters several times, before they are finally settled in a family; for instance, those from Fertit are first collected on the borders of that country by petty merchants who deal in Dhourra. These sell them to the traders of Kobbe, who repair to Fertit in small caravans for that purpose. At Kobbe they are bought up by the Darfour, or Kordofan traders, who transport them to Obeydh in Kordofan. Here they generally pass into the hands of other Kordofan dealers, who carry them to Shendy, for the Soudan merchants commonly limit their speculations to a single market; thus the Kordofan people who trade to Darfour are different from those who visit Shendy, while, on the other hand, the Egyptians who trade to Shendy only, are different from those who proceed forward to Sennaar; and, in like manner. the Souakin traders are divided into Shendy and Sennaar merchants. At Shendy the slave is bought by some Egyptian or Ababde. Upon his arrival in Upper Egypt he is disposed of either at Esne, Siout, or Cairo. In the two first places, entire lots of slaves are taken off by merchants, who sell them in retail at Cairo, or in the small towns of Upper Egypt, in each of which they stop for a few days, in their passage down the river. Even at Cairo they are not always finally disposed of in the first instance. The Khan of the slave-traders, called Okal-ed-djelabe, which is near the mosque El Azher, is crowded with pedlars and petty traders, who often bargain with the merchants of Upper Egypt for slaves immediately after their arrival, and content themselves with a small profit for the re-sale. Again, there are merchants from Smyrna and Constantinople residing constantly at Cairo, who deal in nothing but slaves; these persons export them from Alexandria, and it often happens that they pass through three or four hands, between Alexandria and their final destination in the northern provinces of Turkey. Such is the common lot of the unfortunate slave, but many instances happen of a still more rapid change of masters. At Shendy and Esne I have seen slaves bought and sold two or three times before they were finally removed from the market ; after which, perhaps, if the master at the end of a few days trial did not find them answer his expectations, he would again put them up for sale, or exchange them for others. In fact, slaves are considered on the same level with any other kind of merchandise, and as such are continually passing from one merchant to another.. The word Ras (head) is applied to them as to the brute species ; and a man is said to possess ten Ras Raghig or ten head of slaves, in the same manner as hewould be said to possess fifty Ras Ghanam, or head of sheep. When the buyer is desired to take the slave away, it is usual to say, Soughe, drive him out, an expression which is applied only to cattle, as Song el ghanam go damek.

I have seen among the young slaves on sale at Shendy, many children of four or five years old without their parents ; others of the same age are met with in the market, with their mothers; and the traders so far show humanity, that they seldom sell them separately; when such a thing is done, the vender is in general reproached with being guilty of an act of cruelty.

The traders, in buying slaves, are very attentive to their origin, because long experience has proved to them that there is little variety of character amongst individuals of the same nation. Thus the Noubas who come from Sennaar are said to have the best dispositions next to the Abyssinians and Gallas, and to be the most attached to their masters. Of the Abyssinians, those from the northern provinces, called Kostains, are said to be treacherous and malicious, while the Amaaras are noted for their amiable tempers. Of the western Negroes, those from Beinda are the most esteemed, and next to them those imported into Darfour from Borgho, a Mohammedan country, whose inhabitants carry off their pagan neighbours. The slaves from Fertit are said to be ferocious and vindictive, and stand the lowest on the list.

Few slaves arrive at Shendy who have not already passed a considerable time in a state of slavery. The strongest proof of this fact is, that I never saw any who could not make themselves understood in Arabic ; and the greater part of those imported from Darfour and Kordofan, besides their own native tongue, and Arabic, have some acquaintance with the idioins of those countries.

As soon as a slave boy becomes the property of a Mussulman master he is circumcised, and has an Arabic name given to him. They are seldom honoured with a true Mussulman name; such as Hassaii, Mohammed, Selim, Mustapha, &c . . . It very rarely happens that any uncircumcised boys come from the west; and I never knew any instance of a Negro boy following the pagan worship of his father, and refusing to become Mussulman; though I have heard it related of many Abyssinian slaves, who, after having been converted from idolatry to the Christian religion, by the Abyssinian Copts, were sold by them to the Mussulinan traders. I have been told of several of these slaves, particularly females, so steadily refusing to abjure their faith, when in the harem of a Mohammedan, that their masters were finally obliged to sell them, in the dread of having children born of a Christian mother, which would have been a perpetual reproach to the father and his offspring. In Soudan, the slaves, though made Mussulmans by, the act of circumcision, are never taught to read or to pray : and even in Egypt and Arabia this instruction is seldom given to any but those for whom their masters take a particular liking. It may be observed, nevertheless, that they are greater fanatics than the proudest Olemas, and that Christians and Franks are more liable to be insulted by slaves than by any other class of Mussulmans.

I inquired at Shendy whether any of the slaves were eunuchs, but I was informed that no eunuchs were imported into that place during my stay, and that Borgho, to the west of Darfour, is the only country in eastern Soudan where slaves are thus mutilated for exportation. Their number, however, is very small; a few are carried to Egypt from Darfour,, and the remainder are sent as presents by the Negro sovereigns to the great mosques at Mekka and Medina, by the way of Souakin. The great manufactory which supplies all European, and the greater part of Asiatic Turkey with these guardians of female virtue, is at Zawyet ed-deyr a village near Siout in Upper Ea, pt, chiefly inhabited by Christians. The operators, during my stay in that part of the country, were two Coptic monks, who were said to excel all their predecessors in dexterity, and who had a house in which the victims were received. Their profession is held in contempt even by the vilest Egyptians; but they are protected by the government, to which they pay an annual tax; and the great profits which accrue to the owners of the slaves in consequence of their undergoing this cruel operation, tempts them to consent to an act which many of them in their hearts abhor. The operation itself, however extraordinary it may appear, very seldom proves fatal. I know certainly, that of sixty boys upon whom it was performed in the autumn of 1813, two only died ; and every person whom I questioned on the subject in Siout, assured me that even this was above the usual proportion, the deaths being seldom more than two in a hundred. As the greater number undergo the operation immediately after the arrival of the Darfour and Sennaar caravans from Siout, I had no opportunity of witnessing it, but it has been described to me by several persons who have often seen it performed. The boys chosen, are between the age of eight and twelve years, for at a more advanced age, there is great risk of its proving fatal.-Puer, corpore depresso, a robustis quibusdam hominibus, super mensa continetur. Tune emasculator, vinculis seiricis sapone illitis, genitalia comprimit, et cuin cultro tonsorio (dum puer pro dolore animo deficit) quam celerrime rescindit. Ad hemorhagiam sistendam plagam pulvere et arena calida adurunt, et post aliquot dies calido oleo inungunt. Dein vulnus cum emplastro aliquo, quod inter Coptos areanum est, per quadraginta spatium dierum donee glutinetur curatur. Nunquam de celotomia sub hoc coelo audivi. The operation is always performed upon the strongest and best looking boys; but it has a visible effect upon their features when they arrive at full age. The faces of the eunuchs whom I saw in the Hedjaz appeared almost destitute of flesh, the eye hollow, the cheek bones prominent, and the whole physiognomy having a skeleton-like appearance, by which the eunuch may generally be recognized at first sight.

A youth on whom this operation has been successfully performed is worth one thousand piastres at Siout ; he had probably cost his master, a few weeks before, about three hundred; and the Copt is paid from forty-five to sixty for his operation. This enormous profit stifles every sentiment of mercy which the traders might otherwise entertain. About one hundred and fifty eunuchs are made annually. Two years ago, Mohammed Aly Pasha caused two hundred young Darfour slaves to be mutilated, whom he sent as a present to the Grand. Signor. The custom of keeping eunuchs has greatly diminished in Egypt, as well as in Syria. In the former country, except in the harems of the Pasha and his sons, I do not think that more than three hundred could be found; and they are still more uncommon in Syria. In these countries there is great danger in the display of wealth; and the individual who keeps so many female slaves as to require an eunuch for their guardian, becomes a tempting object to the rapacity of the government. White eunuchs are extremely rare in the Turkish dominions. In Arabia, I have seen several Indian eunuchs of a sallow or cadaverous complexion, and I was informed that slaves are often mutilated in Hindostan. Almost all the eunuchs of Siout are sent to Constantinople and Asia Minor.

<During the wars of the Sherif of Mekka with Saoud, the chief of the Wahabi, the Arab tribe of Kahtan was particularly obnoxious to the Sherif, as being callous proselytes of the Wahabi faith. He once took forty of them prisoners, and telling them that he had already killed individuals enough of their tribe, he ordered the whole to he mutilated and sent to their homes. As they were all grown up men, two only survived the operation; these rejoined their families, and became afterwards most desperate enemies of the. Sherif Ghaleb; one of them killed the cousin of Ghaleb with his own hand, in battle; the other was killed in endeavouring, on another occasion, to pierce through the ranks of Ghaleb's cavalry in order to revenge himself personally upon the Sherif. The Sherif was much blamed for his cruelty, such an action being very contrary to the generally compassionate dispositions of the Arabs; I mention it to show that the ancient practice of treating prisoners in this manner, as represented in the paintings on several of the temples of Upper Egypt, particularly at Medinet Habou, is not quite forgotten: but the above is the only instance of the kind I ever heard of.>

Among the slave girls who arrive at Shendy and Siout, there are several who are called Mukhaeyt (consutae), from an operation which has been described by Mr. Browne. <Mihi contigit nigram quandam puellam, quoe bane operationem subierat, inspicere. Labia pudendi acu et filo consuta mihi plane detecta fuere, foramine angusto in meatum urinw relicto. Apud Esne, Siout, et Cairo, tonsores sunt, qui obstructionem novaculi amovent, sed vulnus baud raro lethale evenit.> I am unable to state whether it is performed by their parents in their native country, or by the merchants, but I have reason to believe by the latter. Girls in this state are worth more than others ; they are usually given to the favourite mistress or slave of the purchaser, and are often suffered to remain in this state during the whole of their life.

The daughters of the Arabs, Ababde and Djaafere, who are of Arabian origin, and inhabit the western bank of the Nile from Thebes, as high as the cataracts, and generally those of all the people to the south of Kenne and Esne as far as Sennaar, undergo circumcision, or rather excision, at the age of from three to six years. <Excisio clitoridis. The custom is very ancient. . . . Its effect in rendering them Mukhaeyt has not been noticed by the ancients. Cicatrix, post excisionem clitoridis, parietes ipsos vaginae, foramine parvo relicto, inter se glutinat. Cum tempus nuptiaruni adveniat, membranam, a qua vagina clauditur, coram pluribus pronubis inciditur, sponso ipso adjuvante. Interdum evenit ut operationem efficere nequeant sine ope mulieris aliquae expertae, quae scalpello partes in vagina profundius rescindit. Maritus crastina die cum uxore plerumque habitat: unde ilia Araborum sententia, "Leilat ed-dokhle messel leilat el fatouh" i. e. post diem aperturae, dies initus. Ex hac consuetudine fit ut sponsus nunquam decipiatur, et ex hoc fit ut in -Aegypto Superiori innuptae repulsare lascivias hominum parum student, dicentes, "Tabousny wala' takhergany." Sed quantum eis sit invita haec continentia, post matrimonium demonstrant, libidini quam maxime indulgentes.> Girls thus treated, are also called Mukhaeyt but their state is quite different from that of the Negro slave-girls, just mentioned.

The treatment which the slaves experience from the traders, is rather kind than otherwise. The slaves are generally taught to call their masters Abouy (my father), and to consider themselves as their children. They are seldom flogged, are well fed, are not over-worked, and are spoken to in a kind manner; all this, however, results not from humanity in the traders, but from an apprehension that, under different treatment, the slave would abscond ; and they are aware that any attempt to prevent his flight by close confinement would injure his health; for the newly imported slaves delight in the open air, and reluctantly enter houses, which they look upon as prisons. But when they are once in the desert, on the way to their final destination, this treatment is entirely changed; the traders, knowing that the slaves have no longer any means of escaping, give a loose to their savage temper. At Shendy, I often overheard my companions, who, although savage enough, were certainly not of the worst class of slave-merchants, say to each other, when a slave had behaved ill, and they were afraid of punishing him, "Let him only pass Berber, and the Korbadj will soon teach him obedience." The Souakin traders with whom I afterwards travelled, showed as little humanity, after we had passed Taka. The health of the slave, however, is always attended to; he is regularly fed, and receives his share of water on the road at the same time that his master drinks; and the youngest and most delicate of the females are permitted to ride upon calnels, while all the others perform the journey on foot, whether it be to Egypt or to Souakin, as they had done from Darfour to Shendy. The hardiness of the young slaves is very extraordinary ; after several successive days march at the rate of ten or twelve hours a day, I have seen them in the evening, after supper, playing together as if they had enjoyed a long rest. Females, with children on their backs, follow the caravan on foot; and if a camel breaks down, the owner generally loads his slaves with the packages. If a boy can only obtain in the evening a little butter with his Dhourra bread, and some grease every two or three days, to smear his body and hair, he is contented, and never complains of fatigue. Another cause which induces the merchants to treat the slaves well, is their anxiety to dissipate that horror which the Negroes all entertain of Egypt and of the white people. It is a common opinion in the black slave countries, that the Oulad er-Rif, <Rif is the name given to Egypt throughout those countries; it means properly a low ground abounding in water> or children of Rif, as the Egyptians are there called, devour the slaves, who are transferred thither for that purpose. <A curious proof of this happened while I was in Upper Egypt; a great man who had bought two girls at Siout from the Darfour caravan, soon afterwards made a party with some friends to spend an afternoon in the cool caves in the mountain behind Siout, and ordered the two girls to attend him. When they entered the caves, they immediately conceived it to he the place destined for their immolation; and when the knives were produced to cut the meat that had been brought for dinner, one of them ran off, and endeavoured to escape, while the other threw herself on the ground, imploring the company to spare her. It required a considerable time to convince them that their fears were ill-founded.> Of course, the traders do every thing in their power to destroy this belief, but notwithstanding all their endeavours, it is never eradicated from the minds of the slaves. Another terrible apprehension which they have is of a small jumping animal, which they are told will live upon their skin, suck their blood, and leave them not a moment's rest. By this description they mean fleas, which are entirely unknown in the interior parts of Soudan, and of which the most curious stories are told by the people of the country, in enumerating the superior advantages of their own country over those of Egypt. Other vermin, however, more to be dreaded than fleas, are too common among them. The fear of being mutilated on their arrival in Egypt, operates powerfully also upon the minds of the young slaves.

Slave-boys are always allowed complete liberty within the yard of the house; but the grown up males, whose characters cannot be depended upon, or whose dispositions are unknown, are kept in close confinement, well watched, and often chained. On the journey they are tied to a long pole, one end of which is fastened to a camel's saddle, and the other, which is forked, is passed on each side of the slave's neck, and tied behind with a strong cord, so as to prevent him from drawing out his head ; in addition to this, his right hand is also fastened to the pole at a short distance from the head, thus leaving only his legs and left arm at liberty; in this manner, he marches the whole day behind the camel; at night he is taken from the pole and put in irons. While on my route to Souakin, I saw several slaves carried along in this way. Their owners were afraid of their escaping, or of becoming themselves the objects of their vengeance: and in this manner they would continue to be confined until sold to a master, who, intending to keep them, would endeavour to attach them to his person. In general, the traders seem greatly to dread the effects of sudden resentment in their slaves; and if a grown up boy is only to be whipped, his master first puts him in irons.

It is not uncommon to hear of a slave-dealer selling his own children born of Negro women; and instances occur daily of their disposing of female slaves who are pregnant by them ; in such cases, the future child of course becomes the property of the purchaser. Most of the traders have old slaves who have been for many years in their service; these are placed over the young slaves bought in trade, and become very useful in travelling; but even these, too, I have seen, their masters sell, after they had become members as it were of the family, merely because a high price was offered for them. It is vain to expect in a slave-trader any trace of friendship, gratitude, or compassion.

Slave-girls are every where thirty per cent. dearer than males of the same age. They are called in these countries Kademd and not Djaryre as in Egypt. The finest of them are kept by the traders themselves, and are called Serrye ; their masters allow these girls great liberty, which they often abuse. It is falsely asserted by the caravan traders in Egypt, that it is a custom among them to respect the chastity of the handsomest female slaves; on the contrary, the traders do not observe the slightest decorum in their. intercourse with the slave-girls. During our journey to Souakin, where the caravan often encamped, on account of the apprehension of danger, in one large circle, I frequently witnessed scenes of the most shameless indecency, which the traders, who were the principal actors, only laughed at. I may venture to state (whatever may be the opinion at Cairo), that very few female slaves who have passed their tenth year, reach Egypt or Arabia ina state of virginity. The grandees, and rich people of those countries, take care never to buy grown up females from the traders, except for servants; but they often purchase very young girls whom they educate among their women.

Young slaves are bought upon trial; at Shendy, one day's trial is allowed, in Egypt three days are usually granted. Girls are often delivered in this manner for Tadjrebat leilat as, it is called, and the person may return a girl without alleging ally other reason than that he dislikes her, so little do these savages care about cherishing a sense of shame or honour in their female slaves, who, of course, whenever they remain any length of time in a trader's hands, acquire the most depraved habits. Sometimes young slaves are sold under the express condition that they shall not be returned.

There are certain defects (Aayoub), which if met with in the male slave, authorize the purchaser to return him, even so long as a fortnight after he has bought him, unless, in making the bargain, he has renounced this right. Of these defects, the principal are; 1. snoring at night, which is considered as a capital, defect; 2. si mingit dormiens; 3. grinding and rubbing the teeth upon each other during sleep; this is much disliked, from an idea that the boy who does so will never become attached to his master; 4. any disease which has, not been completely cured, or recurs while in the hands of the purchaser, as intermittent fever, itch, &C. &C. In buying a slave it is carefully observed, and inquired, whether or not he has had the small-pox; those who have not had it sell for less than the others. Traders have told me, that in Darfour and Kordofan, one-fifth, upon an average, of the young slaves, die of the small-pox.

Many of the traders engage their female slaves to turn their beauty to profit, which they afterwards share with them. In our caravan, one of my companions openly sold the favours of one of his females for two measures of Dhourra, of which he always received one. This man also, when a favourite little slave girl died during our stay at Shendy, with the utmost indifference ordered the body, after stripping it of every rag of Dammour, to be laid on an ass and carried to the Nile to be thrown in. It is true, indeed, that slaves are very seldom buried, the corpse being usually thrown into the river.

The merchants take great care to prevent any improper intercourse between the slaves themselves, always separating the boys from the girls at night; this is not so much done from jealousy, as because the pregnancy of the feniales diminishes their value. It .frequently occurs, however, notwithstanding all their vigilance; and it is generally found that every female has some favourite among her master's slaves. It is a received opinion also in all the countries where the slave-trade prevails, that a female black conceives more readily from her intercourse with a black male, than with a stranger. If a female proves pregnant under these circumstances, no means are left untried by the trader who owns her, to procure abortion. She is compelled to swallow potions which are supposed to have this effect; and I have several times even seen masters beating pregnant women in a manner, that evidently showed that it was for this purpose. It is a general observation in the East, that a female slave, when pregnant, easily acknowledges the true father; and several instances have come within my own knowledge, where such an avowal, which they might easily have avoided, has subjected them to great hardship. In Egypt, where almost every family keeps a couple of slave-servants, abortion is still more common, and is considered as being far from a criminal act. The favourite females are often admitted by their masters to the Bouza, or drinking-parties, where the great joke is to intoxicate the girls.

What I have seen and heard of the Negroes has made me conceive a very indifferent opinion of their general character; but I ought to add that I have not yet seen them in their native countries, before they fell into the hands of these vile traders, who would spoil the mildest and most amiable dispositions. I have found, however, very few instances of slaves being sincerely attached to their masters, even when well treated by them. Their general vices is an incorrigible stubbornness and haughtiness of temper, and many of them betray a deadly rancour and spirit of revenge; but in general the treacherous disposition discernible in the children even of the free Arabs of the Nile and of Nubia, is certainly not to be found among them. They are lazy and slovenly, and will not work but when forced to do so. They seem to be almost entirely devoid of every feeling but that of gratifying their appetites; and provided the slave is well fed, and receives a regular allowance of butter and meat, and of grease to besmear his body, he cares little for the stripes or curses he receives. The merchants say: "Never trust a black slave; whip him well, and feed him well, and the work will be done." I know not whether the maxim is founded in truth or not, but it is certainly that by which the merchants are guided, when they are no longer afraid of their slaves escaping. The slaves, nevertheless, whether from strength of mind, or from a brutal apathy, manifest the same propensity to mirth and frolic. In intellect, I think they are much upon a level with the Negro Arabs, and little lower than the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria; nor should I much blame their obstinacy, if it were not too often accompanied by malignity. I have already observed that different characters are assigned to different countries, and all that I observed of them has not diminished my belief, that with proper education the Black nations might be taught to approach, and, perhaps, to equal the white.

Though the slaves endure the greatest fatigue, they are not of a hardier constitution than Europeans; indeed, I have reason to believe that, upon the whole, they are more frequently attacked by diseases; when ill, they certainly endure them much less patiently. It is a saying among the traders that "A blow (i. e. illness) which scarcely makes an Arab stagger, knocks down a slave." The most common disease among them is inflammatory fever, to which the people of Shendy also are very subject. The remedies applied by them are cupping on the legs, and a drink made of infusion of tamarinds, but the disorder carries off great numbers of the slaves, and especially those who have endured a fatiguing journey, which is, perhaps, chiefly owing to their exposing themselves to currents of air while perspiring, and to their sleeping the whole night quite naked. I heard many people complain of bile, which is occasioned, perhaps, by their immoderate use of the ill-fermented Bouza. Piles (Bouassir) are very common among the country people, less among the slaves. The only remedy they know or practise for it is cauterising, by the application of a red-hot iron to the parts, I first saw here the Fertit, or genuine Guinea worm, although it is not unknown among the slaves, and Soudan merchants who come to Upper Egypt. It seems very common in Soudan, and I also saw it in Arabia. The worm does not attach itself exclusively to the leg: I have seen it issuing from the arm, the breast, and the knees, though its favourite place seems to be the calf of the leg. Persons are more rarely attacked with it in Shendy than in Kordofan and Darfour; and great numbers of the slaves and traders coming from the two latter places are affected by it. Though it occasions great pain, it does not prevent the sufferer from walking until the very approach of death. I have been shown persons who had been repeatedly attacked by it, but who had always had the good fortune to descry the worm breaking through the skin, when they were able, with patience, to draw it entirely out; for it proves mortal only when it does not issue through the skin, or when, having issued, it is afterwards broken off in the act of drawing out. Even in the latter case many persons are cured. In Kordofan and Darfour the attack of the Fertit is universally ascribed to the animal matter contained in the water which is drank after the first rains.

In Soudan it is rare that male slaves are emancipated (Maatoug), but we find many females who have obtained their liberty. It is different in Arabia and in Egypt, where a slave very seldom remains in a respectable family for a series of years without being made free; and then he is either married to a female slave of the family, or remains voluntarily as a servant, and receives wages. It is a general custom in these latter countries to emancipate every female slave who has borne a child to her master, It is then considered discreditable, especially if the child is a male, not to present the mother with the Tezkeret el Nekah, or the marriage contract, signed by the Kadhi, which is the only marriage ceremony used on those occasions. If the child dies after this marriage, it is not considered improper to divorce such a wife, but provision must in that case be made for her. As the number of wives is limited by the Mussulman law to four, it sometimes happens that the rich people keep, besides their four wives, several of these emancipated female slaves, who live with them as mistresses.

Slavery, in the East, has little dreadful in it but the name; male slaves are every where treated much like the children of the family, and always better than the free servants. It is thought a mean action to sell a slave after he has been long resident in a family. If a slave behaves ill, he is generally sent into the country to work as a labourer in the fields of his master. Female slaves who are servants in families, are not so well off as males, because they generally suffer much from the jealousy of their mistresses. It is only by the Turkish soldiers that slaves are ill-treated. They purchase, in Upper Egypt, slave boys, whom they rear in their service, and who, after they have come to a certain age, and learned the Turkish language, are clothed and armed as soldiers, and enlisted into the company or corps of which their master is the chief. He then draws the monthly pay of his slave from the governor, as he does that of every other soldier; for according to the regulations of the Turkish army, the captain, or Binbashy, receives the pay for the number of men whom he has under his command, and distributes it among them. It thus becomes a source of emolument to him to enrol slaves, to whose service the government never objects, and whose pay goes into his own pocket, as he is subject only to the obligation of feeding and clothing them. Great numbers of Black soldiers have, in this manner, been introduced into the Turkish army in Egypt; it was even thought that Mohammed Aly Pasha had formed the plan of organizing a body of Black troops, and of drilling them according to the European manner; but the great dislike to this innovation expressed by MP, principal officers, appears to have made him abandon it. At present, from six to eight hundred slaves are bought up annually by the Turkish officers in Egypt.

In the southern countries a slave brought up in the family (I do not here speak of the traders) thinks himself superior to every other person in it except the master: he is admitted to all the family councils, is allowed to trade, or to engage in any other business on his own account, and to do just as he pleases, provided he proves a bold fellow, and in case of emergency can wield a sword in his master's defence; he may then misbehave at pleasure, without the fear of punishment. If a slave kills a free man his master is obliged to pay the price of blood, otherwise his own family becomes exposed to the retaliation of the relations of the slain; for the death of a slave who commits murder is not deemed a sufficient atonement for the blood of a free man.

In Arabia and Egypt the law gives to the slaves one great advantage; if they are discontented with their master, and decidedly determined not to remain with him, they have the right of insisting upon being sent to the public slave-market, (Beaeni fi Souk el Sultaun) to be resold. The owner may at first refuse to part with his slave, but if, having overcome the fear of exposing himself to the effects of his master's rage, the slave finds an opportunity of making his demand, in presence of respectable wit, nesses, and perseveres in this conduct, he must at last effect his purpose. Some slaves are less able to take advantage of this privilege, which the law grants to all, from being shut up in the harem, where no one hears their complaints except those who are the cause of them.

According to the most moderate calculation, the number of slaves actually in Egypt is forty thousand, two-thirds of which number are males, and the rest females. There is hardly a village in which several of them are not found, and every person of property keeps at least one. During the plague in the spring of 1815, upwards of eight thousand slaves were reported to the government to have died in Cairo alone. I have reason to believe, however, that the numbers exported from Soudan to Egypt and Arabia, bears only a small proportion to those kept by the Mussulmans of the southern countries themselves, or in other words to the whole number yearly derived by purchase, or by force, from the nations in the interior of Africa. At Berber and Shendy there is scarcely a house which does not possess one or two slaves, and five or six are frequently seen in the same family, occupied in the labours of the field, tending cattle, &c. &c.; the great people and chiefs keep them by dozens. As high up the Nile as Sennaar the same system prevails, as well as westwards to Kordofan, Darfour, and thence towards Bournou. All the Bedouin tribes also who surround those countries are well stocked with slaves. If we may judge of their numbers by those kept on the borders of the Nile, (and I was assured by the traders, that slaves were more numerous in those distant countries than even at Shendy,) it is evident that the number exported towards Egypt, Arabia, and Barbary, is very greatly below what remains within the limits of Soudan. From what fell under my own observation at Berber and Shendy, I believe that the slaves of both sexes on the borders of the Nile from Berber to Sennaar, amount to not less than twelve thousand. As the population of Darfour, according to Mr. Browne, is two hundred thousand, there are probably twenty thousand slaves in that kingdom . . .

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Last updated on May 15, 2002 by Sylvia and Kevin.