BOOK VIII. (continued 3)

Fidele was sitting in a spacious room, in an alcove, on a large broad sofa like a bed, with India curtains gathered on each side into festoons. Upon seeing the boy, in a very surly tone he called for a pipe; and, in much the same voice, said to me, "What! alone?" I said, "Yes, what were his commands with me?" I saw he either was, or affected to be, drunk, and which ever was the case, I knew it would lead to mischief; I therefore repented heartily of having come into the house alone.

After he had taken two whiffs of his pipe, and the slave had left the room, "Are you prepared? says he; have you brought the needful along with you?" I wished to have occasion to join Soliman, and answered, "My servants are at the outer door, and have the vomit you wanted." "D—n you and the vomit too, says he with great passion, I want money, and not poison. Where are your piastres?" "I am a bad person, said I, Fidele, to furnish you with either. I have neither money nor poison; but I advise you to drink a little warm water to clear your stomach, cool your head, and then lie down and compose yourself, I will see you to-morrow morning." I was going out. "Hakim, says he, infidel, or devil, or whatever is your name, hearken to what I say. Consider where you are; this is the room where Mek Baady, a king, was slain by the hand of my father: look at his blood, where it has stained the floor, which never could be washed out. I am informed you have 20,000 piasters in gold with you; either give me 2000 before you go out of this chamber, or you shall die; I will put you to death with my own hand." Upon this he took up his sword, that was lying at the head of his sofa, and, drawing it with a bravado, threw the scabbard into the middle of the room; and, tucking the sleeve of his shirt above his elbow like a butcher, said, "I wait your answer."

I now stept one pace backwards, and dropt the burnoose behind me, holding the little blunderbuss in my hand, without taking it off the belt. I said, in a firm tone of voice, "This is my answer: I am not a man, as I have told you before, to die like a beast by the hand of a drunkard; on your life, I charge you, stir not from your sofa." I had no need to give this injunction; he heard the noise which the closing the joint in the stock of the blunderbuss made, and thought I had cocked it, and was instantly to fire. He let his sword drop, and threw himself on his back on the sofa, crying, "For God's sake, Hakim, I was but jesting." At the same time, with all his might, he cried, Brahim! Mahomet! El coom! El coom[27]!"—"If one of your servants approach me, said I, that instant I blow you to pieces; not one of them shall enter this room till they bring in my servants with them; I have a number of them armed at your gate, who will break in the instant they hear me fire."

The women had come to the door. My servants were admitted, each having a blunderbuss in his hand and pistols at his girdle. We were now greatly an overmatch for the Shekh, who sat far back on the sofa, and pretended that all he had done was in joke, in which his servants joined, and a very confused, desultory discourse followed, till the Turk, sherriffe Ismael, happened to observe the Shekh's scabbard of his sword thrown upon the floor, on which he fell into a violent fit of laughter. He spoke very bad Arabic, mixed with Turkish, as I have often observed. He endeavoured to make the Shekh understand, that drunkards and cowards had more need of the scabbard than the sword; that he, Fidele, and the other drunkard that came to our house two or three nights before, who said he was Shekh of the Jehaina, were just possessed of the same portion of courage and insolence.

As no good could be expected from this expostulation, I stopt it, and took my leave, desiring the Shekh to go to bed and compose himself, and not try any more of these experiments, which would certainly end in his shame, if not in his punishment. He made no answer, only wished us good night.

CHAP. VI. Transactions at Teawa continued—A Moullah and Sherriffe arrive from Beyla—News from Ras el Feel and Sennaar—An Eclipse of the Moon—Leave Teawa.

We went to the door, through the several apartments, very much upon our guard, for there was no person to light us out, and we were afraid of some treachery or ambush in the anti-chamber and dark passages; but we met nobody; and were, even at the outer gate, obliged to open the door ourselves. Without the gate there were about twenty people gathered together, but none of them with arms; and, by the half words and expressions they made use of, we could judge they were not the Shekh's friends. They followed us for a little, but dispersed before we arrived at our house. Soliman, my servant, told me by the way, that the Moullah was arrived, and that the Shekh of Beyla's servant, who had come with him, had been at my house ever since I went to Fidele's. Accordingly we found him still there, and explained to him what had happened, and the great distress we had been in from the Moullah's not arriving sooner, as also from receiving no message either from Sennaar or Ras el Feel. He told us, the reason of our servants not joining us was the false information his master the Shekh of Beyla had received from Fidele; that we were coming by the Dender, and not by Teawa, as already mentioned. He now advised us to come up, and shew ourselves in the morning to the Moullah, who would be sitting with Shekh Fidele, administering justice; but to take no particular notice of him, and only observe to what his discourse pointed, and he would bring us word if any thing more was necessary.

I recommended to this servant of the Shekh of Beyla that he should tell the Moullah that he was not to expect I was to open my baggage here, but that I was a man who understood perfectly the value of a favour done me, and should not be in his debt longer than arriving at Beyla, which I wished to reach as soon as possible; nothing can be quicker than these people are on the smallest hint given; we separated, fully satisfied that we were now a sufficient match for the Shekh, even at his own weapons.

Ever since the adventure of the Shekh of the Jehaina, one of us had kept guard, the door being open every night for fear of fire, and it was my turn that night, a post that I never declined, for the sake of good example; but my spirits were so exhausted this day, that I gave the old Turk plenty of coffee and tobacco, to undertake, as he did with great willingness, the office of that night for me. I went to bed, and fell presently into a profound sleep, from which I was awakened, a little before midnight, by a message from the ladies, my patients, in the Shekh's house, sent by the black slave that had spoken in the Abyssinian language to me while I was attending her mistress. They advised me to be upon my guard, for the Shekh was absolutely resolved to take a severe revenge upon us all: That after we had left him that evening, an express arrived from the lower part of Atbara, giving him an account that Shekh Ibrahim, a great man at Sennaar, and favourite of Adelan the prime minister, while he was employed in gathering the taxes from the Arabs, had fought with the tribe called Shukorea, somewhere east of Sennaar; that he had been completely beaten, and many of his people killed; as also, that Shekh Ibrahim and his two sons were wounded; that Shekh Fidele had immediately sent back word, that he had then with him a surgeon and physician, meaning me, who could, upon occasion, even bring a dead man to life, but that I would never consent to come to him unless I was forced; therefore, if he would dispatch a sufficient number of armed men, to help him to surprise me in the night, he would conduct the execution of that scheme, and would send me to him in irons. He said I was an infidel, a white man from Abyssinia, and had several stout people with me expert in fire-arms, (of which I had a number,) who would be of great use to him in subduing the Arabs. They assured me, however, of their friendship, and begged me to consider what I had to do in time, for many wild men would be poured in upon me, who would not fail to kill me if I resisted.

I returned my most humble thanks to my kind informants; with a small gratification of civet to the two elder ladies, and a separate portion to the beautiful Aiscach, assuring them I should not fail to profit by any advice they should give me. After this I again fell into a sound sleep, which continued till morning; and, though my affairs had not the most prosperous appearance, I felt a calmness of mind to which I had been utterly a stranger ever since I had left Ras el Feel. My servants awakened me in the morning of the 11th; I drank coffee, and dressed, and took along with me Soliman and Ismael, without arms in our hands, but having knives and pistols in our girdles, to shew that we had lived in fear.

The Moullah's name was Welled Mestah, or the son of interpretation, or explanation. He was reputed to have attained such a degree of holiness as to work miracles, and, more than once in his life, to have been honoured with the conversation of angels and spirits, and, at times, to have called the devil into his presence, and reproved him. He was a man below the middle size, of a very dark complexion, and thin beard, seemingly past sixty, hollow-eyed, and very much emaciated. If holy, we could not say he was the beauty of holiness. I understood, afterwards, he was much addicted to the use of opium, to the effects of which he probably was indebted for his conversation with spirits. He had brought with him another saint, much younger and robuster than himself, who had been several times at Mecca, and had seen Metical Aga, but did not know him. He had seen likewise the English ships at Jidda, and knew the name of the nation, but nothing more. He was a sherriffe, (that is, a descendant of Mahomet) a degree of nobility much respected among the Arabs, distinguished by wearing a green turban. The Daveina, when they burnt all the country between Teawa and Beyla, saved this man's house, effects, and crop, in veneration of his sanctity. These two were sitting on each side of Shekh Fidele, and before him stood two black slaves holding each a monstrous long broad-sword. I approached these powers, ecclesiastical and civil, with great composure, as if nothing had happened; but Ismael, the Turk, had almost spoiled my gravity, for, seeing the swords in the men's hands before Fidele, he said, in his barbarous language, loud enough to be heard, "O, ho, they have got their scabbards upon their swords to-day."

Fidele seemed to have a very serene countenance, till we approached nearer, when, seeing the pistols in our girdles, he appeared rather discomposed, and probably he thought the blunderbuss was not far off; I made him, however, a bow, and shook him by the hand; I likewise made another bow to their two holinesses. As people of that sanctity seldom chuse to have, even their cloaths, touched by unbelievers in public, I made no further advance towards them. The sherriffe no sooner saw Ismael's turban, than he got up, took him in his arms, and, as he was an older man than himself, though all in rags, kissed his forehead with great respect. This was returned by Hagi Ismael, first kissing his forehead and then his hand; after which the Moullah did the same, as I thought with rather less ceremony. Ismael gave a very slight salutation of Salama to the Shekh, and we all sat down.

"Brother, says the sherriffe to Ismael, you seem a stranger in this country." "I am a Turk, answered Ismael, born in Anatolia, a janizary of Ali Bey at Cairo." "He came, says Shekh Fidele, to Habesh, with their Kafr, the Abuna or great priest, and is returning to Cairo with that white man, who is physician to Ali Bey." "Kafr there, or Kafr here, continued Ismael (who did but half underhand what was said) the greatest of all Kafrs (that is Infidel) is, I believe, in Teawa. I do not think there is one Mussulman in this cursed place." "Is this the Frank, says the Moullah, whose servant brought letters to the Shekh of Beyla some weeks ago, and was forwarded to Sennaar?" "No, says Fidele, he does not know the Shekh of Beyla." "I am sure, says the Moullah, that, such a day, when I was at Sennaar, there was a talk of a man of this kind, whose servant was at Aira with Shekh Adelan, and had orders to come hither with a servant of his, and one from the king; and I am sure, upon reflection, continued the Moullah, this must be the man." "Shekh, says he, turning to me, (who sat silent, overjoyed at the train I saw the affair taking) did you come from Habesh? have you letters for Sennaar?" "I came from Habesh, replied I, with letters to the king of Sennaar; likewise letters to him from the sherriffe of Mecca, and from Ali Bey of Cairo, (you are welcome to see them all,) yet, contrary to faith, observed even in Pagan nations, I am here detained by Shekh Fidele, who last night attempted to murder me in his own house, because I would not pay him 2000 piastres." Shekh Fidele's face turned pale; he could scarcely utter, "That is not true." "As that book is the word of God, says Ismael, (pointing to the Koran, lying in the sherriffe's lap) it is every word true. Look upon my turban, (says he to Fidele) do you call me a liar?" Fid. "I did not call you a liar, only that Christian lied." Ism. "I say, that every word he spoke is truth, or I am no true believer. Was not your sword drawn, and your scabbard lying on the floor, when I entered the room? Was there any one present but him and you? Whom did you draw your sword upon?" "Pure merriment for a little amusement, says Fidele, turning to the Moullah, I was diverting myself with the Christian, who came to give me medicines." "The diversion, I fancy, was over on your part, says Soliman, my servant, when you threw away your sword, after drawing it, and called upon all your servants for assistance. Were not your women at the door upon my entering it?" Fid. "Would you have had me shot in my own house by an infidel? Did he not present a pistol at me?" Ism. "Lord! Lord! he was only diverting himself, too? Did not you see that? You should have gone on with your merriment:—What stopt you?" "Look you, Shekh, said I, your inward thoughts are seen by me. Did not you send two messengers to Shekh Ibrahim in Atbara that very night, within these twelve hours, desiring him to take me by force, while asleep, to heal his wounded men? Was this amusement, too? Beware in time, for every thought in your heart is known to me as soon as it is formed."

The sherriffe muttered to himself, "Hakim y'Eref—he is a learned man; he knows these things." "Shekh Ibrahim is returned to Sennaar, says the Moullah, that is the reason why he should make haste, and all this that has passed is very improper. If a man diverts himself with drawn swords, is he not likely, when angry, to kill? this ought not to be; send the man away; you can get camels from the Jehaina. Men like him have no money. There are many of them, at all times and places, wandering over the face of the earth, and will be so till Hagiuge Magiuge[28] come; they are Dervishes, study the herbs and the water, and cure diseases." "God bless the truth! said I; there it is. I am a Dervish, a poor, but an innocent man." The Moullah seemed to take credit to himself for all this learning. "I saw, says the Sherriffe, a number of his countrymen in large ships from the Indies, when I was at Jidda; they are called Inglese." "They are brave men, says Ismael, and came first from Turkey. Their country is called Caz Dangli to this day. I have seen it, and am sure no man would hurt Yagoube that knew him." Fid. "So, Yagoube is his name; the first time I knew it." Moul. "Yagoube el Hakim; now I remember it perfectly. Ali Tchelebi, Mahomet Abou Calec's factor, is ill of an enchantment from an enemy; his bowels are out of order; he it was that asked me if such a man was yet come to Beyla. They surely expect that you should forward him to Sennaar. True, Yagoube el Hakim, that was his name." Fid. "He shall go next week, since it is so, if I can but get camels." Upon this we rose, seeing other people coming in. When I took hold of the Shekh's hand at going away, he asked me, in apparent good humour, "Well, Yagoube, are we friends now?" I answered him, in the most complacent tone of voice possible, "Sir, I never was your enemy; so far otherwise, that my only anxiety now is, lest your behaviour may bring upon you powerful adversaries, before whom you are not able to stand. The ill-usage I have met with will not be easily passed over either in Abyssinia or at Sennaar. I am neither servant nor merchant; and it has been your ill-luck to try your wicked experiments upon a man like me, who never in his life carried much money about him, because he never valued it." Moul. "You must forget all, and I will be your friend with the Shekh, since you come from the Sherriffe of Mecca." "And I, too, says the other, for the kindness you have shewed our brother Ismael there, in carrying him home from among the Kafrs of Habesh; and if Fidele cannot procure camels, we will try and help him; so go in peace, and get ready."

We had scarce got rid of this real danger, when the apprehension of an imaginary one struck us violently. The water at Teawa is stagnant in pools, and exceedingly bad. Either that, or the bouza, a kind of new beer which they sent us with our meat, had given all of us, at the same time, a violent diarrhœa, and I was tormented with a perpetual thirst ever since we had been overtaken by the simoom; and the bouza being acid, was not only more agreeable, but, I thought, relieved me more than bad water; in this, therefore, I certainly had exceeded. When we found we were all taken ill at the same time, it came into our wise heads that Shekh Fidele had given us poison in our dinner, and we were very much perplexed what we should do the next day. None of us, therefore, tasted the meat sent us; when at night, our friend, the black slave came, and to her we frankly told our doubts. The poor creature fell into such violent fits of laughing, which followed so close the one upon the other, and lasted so long, that I feared she would have expired upon the spot. "It is the water, says she; it does so to all strangers;" and then she fell into another great fit of laughter. "Child, answered I, you know the Shekh is not our friend, and there is no easier way to get rid of us than by poison, as we eat everything that comes from you without fear."—"And so you may, says she; the Shekh could do no such thing without our knowledge, and we would rather all be burnt alive than be guilty of so vile an action. Besides, says she, this is not like Habesh, where both meat and drink, brought to you, are tasted by the bearer before you use them. There is no such thing as poison in Atbara; the lance and the knife in the field, that is the manner in which they kill one another here."

We then shewed her our dinner uneaten, and she again fell into a violent fit of laughter, and took the meat away that she might warm it, and we heard her laughing all the way as she went by herself. She was not long in returning with provisions in plenty, and told us, that her mistresses never were so diverted in their lives, and that she left them still laughing. The black slave then called me to the door, and gave me an India green handkerchief, which she said Aiscach had pulled from her head, and sent with her to me, with orders to inquire, "Do the women of your country do such things, Yagoube, which, for all the fathers and gold in the world, Aiscach would not be guilty of? My father is indeed a Funge[29], but my mother is a Jehaina[30]."

Neither the Shekh nor Moullah expected me out on Sunday, which I told them was my festival. I employed that day in mounting and rectifying my quadrant, and that same evening had a clear and distinct observation of Procyon, and several other of the fixed stars, the largest and fittest for my purpose. The next day also, having a good observation of the sun in the meridian, all equations adopted from a mean, I found the latitude of Teawa, the capital of Atbara, to be 14° 2´ 4´´ north. With regard to longitude, Hor-Cacamoot is about six miles east of Teawa, which is nearly under the same meridian with Ras el Feel, so there was no occasion for any observation on that subject.

On the 13th of April arrived a naked Arab of the Jehaina, with intelligence that a caravan belonging to Atbara, which had come to Nara in Abyssinia for salt, had been all seized by Ammonios, Ayto Confu's governor of Nara, their asses and salt taken from them, and the men put in close prison. The Shekh of the Jehaina, an old man of very comely presence, with ten or twelve of his clan on camels, came over to Shekh Fidele that morning before I went out, and they found the Moullah sitting with him. The news struck all of them with a panic, but none more so than our Shekh of Atbara. The Shekh of the Jehaina said he had not heard the cause of it, but so violent a procedure had not happened even when Yasous II. invaded Sennaar, for the people of the two frontiers had all that time been friends. He begged, however, Shekh Fidele immediately to interfere, and send some person to Ras el Feel, to his friend Yasine. When they had settled thus far, a message came for me to attend the Shekh. I immediately went, leaving my servants to put up my quadrant. I had, indeed, an inclination to observe the approaching eclipse; but as I knew perfectly the situation of Teawa with regard to Ras el Feel, I thought I might spare myself this unnecessary trouble, and only make use of the eclipse to frighten Fidele as part of the punishment he so amply deserved.

There was a prodigious number of people assembled at the Shekh's door. The Jehaina had all come upon camels; two or three of the principal ones were sitting with him and the Moullah. One of these, whom I did not know, but who had seen me at Ras el Feel, upon my approaching the Shekh, got up, took me by the hand, and made a very respectful salutation. As he was a friend of Yasine, and Shekh el Nile, I never doubted from that minute that this was a contrivance of theirs in my favour.

The Moullah had alledged, that probably I had dispatched some intelligence to Yasine of my being detained, which had caused him to make this reprisal; but Shekh Fidele assured them that he knew it to be impossible, and that this seizure of the caravan must have been occasioned by some ill-usage to the people belonging to Tchelga and Nara, the frontier villages to the westward. In this the Shekh of Jehaina agreed; for he had heard Ammonios mentioned, but nothing of Yasine. The Moullah was unconvinced, but asked me, "Hakim, have you never sent a complaint to Yasine since you came to Teawa? tell me truly; no harm shall befal you from it." "If I were not to tell you truly said I, Shekh, I would not answer you at all. I am under no obligation to do it, nor am I under any fear. You are but at the beginning of this affair, and many will suffer before I do." "Truly, says the Moullah, but have you sent intelligence to Ras el Feel?" "No, no, says Fidele, he had it not in his power; nor is there a man in Teawa, that durst go on such an errand, it is some disturbance about Tchelga."

I easily perceived that the Moullah wanted me to confess, which I likewise saw the use of myself. "I sent, said I, messengers from Teawa two several times. The first, when Fidele pretended Yasine was to murder me in the desert; the second, when he said he had no camels; and I also mentioned the piastres, and his intention to murder me." "Ammonios, says black Soliman, and Yasine, Nara, and Ras el Feel, all belong to Ayto Confu, and were given to Yagoube by him, for his maintenance all the time he was at Gondar. Ayto Confu and he are brothers; they were together in the camp, slept together in the same house; they are brothers and more than brothers, for they swore to each other, when we passed Tcherkin, upon the heart of the elephant[31]. I swear by our holy faith, that Confu will be down here himself; what does he care for a journey of two days?"

All now with one voice condemned Fidele, who had not a word to say, only, that if he knew the person who carried that message, he would cut off his head, if he was his brother. "But it is impossible, says the Shekh; should I not have known of the messenger being absent? impossible!" Then turning to his servant, said, "Is Kutcho el Hybari here? I have not seen him lately."—"Sir, says he, you know you sent Kutcho to Mendera long before the Hakim arrived."—"True, says Fidele, then it is impossible." "Your messengers and mine, said I, Shekh, are not of the same sort, nor shall I ask your leave when I am to send to Ras el Feel or Sennaar, nor shall you ever cut off the head from any one of them. But why are you alarmed at these asses being taken? Should you not be afraid of something similar happening at Mecca? Am not I under the protection of the sherriffe? When Metical Aga hears this, will he not resent it? Will Yousef Kabil, the Christian, the sherriffe's vizir at Jidda, through whose hands your people pass, will he be gentler to them upon this account?"—"A curse upon him! says the sherriffe; he gentle! he is a shark." "Meloun Ibn Sheitan, says the Turk Ismael, i. e. accursed wretch, child of the devil!"—"Well then, said I, the difficulty is only to know if he is informed of this at Mecca. Friday the 17th is your festival. If the afternoon of that shall pass like those of common days, I am a worthless man and an impostor; but if on that day, before el'asser[32], a sign be seen in the heavens that shall be thought by all of you unusual and extraordinary, then am I an innocent man, and Fidele's designs against me are known to the world, at Sennaar and at Mecca, at Cairo and at Gondar, and everywhere else, and will not be pleasing either to God or man." Yarif el Hakim[33], says the sherriffe; Hakim[34]! says the Shekh of the Jehaina; Ullah Akbar[35]! says the Moullah, lifting his eyes up to heaven, and counting his beads very devoutly.

The foretelling the sign seemed not at all to please the Shekh, who appeared very much disconcerted with the supposed invisibility of messengers. I got up, having pushed my design just far enough. I then shook hands with the Shekh, saying, "I am glad to see you don't want camels, alluding to the number I saw come with the Jehaina; get your bouza made, and your provisions ready, you'll have strangers with you soon." He said only, "(Ullah Kerim!") i. e. God is merciful; which was echoed by every mouth in the room. I saluted particularly the Shekh of the Jehaina, who had seen me at Ras el Feel, and I then went out of the room, leaving them all there, and going home very chearful, began to prepare for leaving Teawa, which we were satisfied was now near at hand.

On the 14th, in the morning, the Moullah and sherriffe, with the Shekh of Beyla's servant, and the old Kaiya Soliman, came to see our clocks and watches. They sat upon benches at the door and drank coffee, not caring to enter the house, I suppose, for fear of being defiled. As the old Kaiya was there, it was almost impossible to speak concerning our affairs, all was about our religion, and the manner in which a Dervish lived. All at once, a servant behind cried out, "News from Sennaar!" and, presently after, we saw three men; one of whom was my servant, whom I sent to Sennaar with the Daveina, who delivered to me a letter from Hagi Belal, informing me, that Mahomet Abou Calec, and Shekh Adelan, were both at a distance from Sennaar, at the head of armies, and the king in the capital almost alone, under great apprehensions; but as no mischief had yet happened, and the king had no force, it was hoped things might be made up. He added, that he thought it better to wait a little, to get a servant of Adelan to accompany the king's, than to trust to that one alone. Having communicated the contents of my letter to Shekh Fidele, and received his congratulations, they all left me, and went to the Shekh to hear what further news were brought to him. What I told him was confirmed; and the Shekh having no longer any option, declared his resolution to obey without further delay, and desired us to get ready for our journey.

It was told us, however, soon after, that the king's servant who had arrived, whose name was Mahomet, was a great friend of Shekh Fidele, and the usual one sent to him at Teawa; and that he was a great drunkard, and reprobate. On the contrary, Adelan's servant, though young, was a very gentle, sober person, a slave that had been given to Adelan by the Shekh of Beyla; and he was very urgent for us to depart. We soon saw the consequence of this difference of manners; and that Shekh Fidele had not relinquished his view to the piastres. For having tutored the king's servant all night, and gained him to his interest, he had, early in the morning of the 15th, declared that he was not to stir from Teawa for a fortnight, and he was ordered to get the camels from some distance in Atbara, the place I do not remember. This displeased Adelan's servant much, who declared before the assembly, that he was determined to set out the next day, that he knew not the orders the king had given, but he knew his master's orders; and that if the Shekh did not furnish him with camels, or opposed our setting out, he would take him with him to Adelan at Aira, or, upon his refusal to go, denounce him a rebel, and his master's enemy, and leave him to what would be the consequence. Upon this bold speech, every body left the Shekh, and went away, whispering, two and two together. The king's servant joined his companion, who told me to be ready, and fear nothing, for he would see me to-morrow night at Beyla.

About half an hour after my return home I was again called to the Shekh, who had only the Moullah and the old Kaiya sitting by him, with two short letters in his hand from Yasine, full of reproaches for his behaviour to me, and declaring with most solemn oaths, that if those letters found me at Teawa, or if I was not gone from thence in peace, he would, before a fortnight was elapsed, be down as an enemy upon Teawa; and unless the Daveina did engage to burn every stalk of corn between that and Beyla as soon as it was in the ear, he would shut Abyssinia against them, and that they should neither eat bread nor drink water in it as long as he was alive and governor of Ras el Feel. These letters mentioned a complaint likewise that had been sent to Shekh Adelan at Sennaar, but by whom they did not say, probably from Ayto Confu, complaining of Fidele's usage to me. Yasine's men, that brought the letters from Ras el Feel to Teawa, were said to be three in number, mounted on camels, or dromedaries, and armed with coats of mail and head-pieces. They refused to come into Teawa, to eat of Shekh Fidele's bread[36], or drink of his water, looking upon him as a declared enemy of Yasine, their master. Fidele with some difficulty at last allowed black Soliman to go to meet them, to persuade them to enter the town; but all to no purpose, for the only favour he could obtain was, that they should stay with the Jehaina at Jibbel Isriff till they heard I was fairly set out on my journey.

The next day, the 16th of April, I received a message from the Moullah, that the camels were all ready, that girbas for the water were wanting, but girbas should be found for me; and he would give me his word they should be found filled at the river where I directed; as also all sorts of provisions and necessaries to carry me to Beyla, to which place I should set out the moment I pleased; only that I must not go from Teawa without making peace with the Shekh, and promising to forgive him, and not make any complaint against him at Sennaar or elsewhere, provided he, on his part, gave over all further machinations against me. I answered, That however ill-used, yet, for his sake, I would do any thing he wished me to do, and that I was ready to pacify Yasine, by writing to him by the return of his messengers. All was agreed, so we packed up our baggage with the utmost diligence.

On the 17th, in the forenoon, I was appointed to meet the Shekh at his own house, and told the Moullah I expected he would have the camels ready. As we suspected, our girbas were insufficient, and indeed we had found them so when they lost our water in the wood near Imgellalib; we got three new ones from the Shekh in perfect good condition, and gave him our two in exchange, which were something larger than his. Each of these skins are valued at 12 dollars, or about three pounds sterling. There is great art and labour required in making the seams water-tight; they are all stitched most dexterously, strongly greased, and then laid over thick on the outside with warm tar, and need constant care and inspection. About nine o'clock we went to the Shekh, and entered presently upon business. I engaged to pacify Yasine, whose servants, upon my message, came to town to see me depart, and were kindly received and cloathed by the Shekh. A large breakfast was ordered; Fidele and I, with Yasine's servants, ate together of several very good dishes. The two holy men, and another stranger equally holy, ate together out of a separate plate; after which we all stood up, and said the prayer of peace, and I took my leave. We all then went out together into the market-place, and eight camels were ordered down to my house, with people to wait upon them.

The girbas, which lay filled and soaking at the river-side, were ready to be loaded upon our camels. A servant of the Kaiya held my horse, which had been taken from me by Fidele soon after my arriving at Teawa, but which was now restored me. My servant who came from Sennaar had indeed told me that no horses would live there; that those that were necessary for the troops of the government were all kept at a distance from Sennaar, and maintained at Aira, or places in the sand at a small distance, but free from the plague of the fly. The Shekh made no observation upon this. I said, The horse is a very excellent one, and I will now shew him to you. I sent for a short double-barrelled gun, threw off my burnoose, and mounting the horse, made him do every thing he was capable of, putting him to his full speed, firing to right and left on each side of him.

They were all struck with amazement, and with a kind of terror. They had never before seen a gun fired on horseback, much less a gun fired twice without charging. I did not want to explain the matter to them; and, as far as I could perceive, the Moullah especially was very glad when I sent it home. "This is the way, said I, that my countrymen ride, and the way they fight; no people on earth understand fire-arms or horsemanship like them. For my part, I am a man of peace, a Dervish, and no soldier; it is not my profession, and I do the thing aukwardly. If you saw some of our soldiers ride, it would be a sight indeed." Fidele laughed, or counterfeited a laugh, but being a soldier, it was his part to say something. "If many of your countrymen like you were here, man of peace as you are, unless they were friends to us they would get all Atbara to themselves. If they were friends, says he, I think I could do something with them; that horse seems to have the sense of a man."—"Such as he is, said I, dismounting, a prince gave him to me, and such as he is I now give him to you, as a proof that I am your friend, and that I should not grudge you a few paltry piasters, if I had not been under a vow of poverty; money is of no kind of value to me, and consequently not carried about with me." The horse was gladly received, though, as I was going to Sennaar, where no horses are kept, the compliment was a cheap one on my part.

"How could you, Fidele, says the Moullah in great surprise, have it in your heart to torment such a man as this? I told you what he was, our books speak of them: they are not Kafrs, but spend all their lives in wandering over the face of the earth in search of wisdom, and are always to do so till Hagiuge Magiuge come, and then there will be an end of the world." I made a bow of assent to the Moullah, and all the rest turned up their eyes to heaven in wonder of so much learning, repeating their usual ejaculation, "Ullah Akbar!" God is great. I now took my leave of them, and was going home, when the younger sherriffe called after me, and said, "I suppose, now you are all at peace, we shall not see the sign that you foretold us was to appear in the heavens to-day." "I should be thought a liar if it did not appear, said I; do you wish to see it?"—"I wish to see it, says he, if it will do no harm."—"Then, replied I, you shall see it, and it shall do no harm now. I hope it will bring health and happiness, and a good crop to Teawa, and all the kingdom of Sennaar. Go home, while I order my affairs. Something more than two hours after this I will come to you, and it will then appear." They all went away, and, as I thought by their looks, they would have been better satisfied that affair had been forgot, the Shekh saying peevishly to the sherriffe, "Let him mind his affairs and his journey; what is the use of these things now?"

I had rectified my watch by observation. I knew I could not be far wrong, having seen in the ephemerides the hour the eclipse was to begin. I passed a corner of the Shekh's house, and went in at the back-door. He was there with his usual friends, the Moullah, the sherriffe, the Kaiya, and one or two more. The sherriffe asked me where the sign would appear; and the Moullah, if there would be any thunder and lightning? I told them there would be nothing disagreeable at all. I went to the door, and saw it was begun. There was to be a total eclipse of the moon. I did not tell them at first, till it had advanced some way, and was apparent upon the disk. "Now! look at that, said I; in some time after this the moon shall be so totally swallowed up in darkness, that a small light shall only be seen in the edges." They were frightened at the denunciation, rather than at any thing they observed, till a little before the eclipse became total. A violent apprehension then fell upon them all; and the women from their apartments began to howl as they do on all melancholy occasions of misfortune, or death. They were in the inner square. "Now, continued I, I have kept my word; it will soon be clear again, and will do no harm to man or beast."

It was agreed among them that I should not go home till it was totally at an end. I consented to this; and only said to the Shekh, that I wished he would let me see my patients before I went away, for that one of them was really ill, and needed advice. He seemed to take it very kindly, and desired me to go in. I was met in the anti-chamber by Aiscach, and two or three black slaves, who cried out in great terror, "O! Hakim! what is this! what are you going to do!" "I am going to do, Madam, said I, one of the most disagreeable things I ever did in my life; I am going to take leave of you." I was immediately surrounded with a number of women, some of them crying, some of them with children in their arms. I went into the room where the two ladies were, whom I quieted and satisfied to the utmost of my power. We parted with reciprocal professions of friendship and regret at separation. I then begged that I might see their slave, who used to bring us meat, with a clean cloth, to wrap up something I had for them. They told me, Sennaar was but a bad place for white people; but promised to send recommendations in my favour, both to Adelan and the king's women, by Adelan's servant, who was to conduct us.

When I returned to the Shekh, the emersion was far advanced, and they all seemed to be regaining their composure, though strong marks of surprise remained in their countenances. After a little conversation, turning chiefly upon Hagiuge Magiuge, and their silly stories about them, which I shall not repeat, I took my leave, and went home, renewing my assurances that all was forgotten.

At night, the slave came and brought a clean cotton cloth. I sent a piece of thin India yellow satin, and six handsome crimson and green handkerchiefs, to the beautiful Aiscach; and, to the best of my power, discharged all our obligations to those that were our friends and had been kind to us.

In a country so desert, and exceedingly poor as Teawa, under such a government, it is not to be expected that trade of any kind should flourish; yet there is a miserable manufacture of coarse cotton cloths of the size of large towels, just enough to go round the middle, which pass current, like specie, all over Atbara: They are called Dimoor, and are used in place of small silver money. The Mahalac, a very bad copper coin, passes for smaller matters; so that the currency of Teawa stands thus:—

20 Mahalac, 1 Crush,

12 Crush, 1 Metical,

4 Metical, 1 Vakia.

The vakia of gold is worth about forty-five shillings; but the only commerce of Teawa is carried on by exchange, as salt for grain, camels for salt; the value of goods varying according to the scarcity or plenty of one sort of commodities with respect to the other.

The reader will, I believe, by this, be as desirous to get out of Teawa as I was; and if so, it is charity in time to deliver him. I took leave of the Shekh on the 18th in the morning; but before we could get all ready to depart it was five in the afternoon. The day had been immoderately hot, and we had resolved to travel all night, though we did not say so to the Shekh, who advised us to sleep at Imgededema, where there was fresh water. But we had taken a girba of water with us, or rather, in case of accident, a little in each of the three girbas; and all being ready on the river-side, except the king's servant, we set out, and he overtook us in less than two hours afterwards, pretty well refreshed with the Shekh's bouza, and strongly prejudiced against us, as we had occasion to discover afterwards.

CHAP. VII. Arrival at Beyla—Friendly Reception there, and after, amongst the Nuba—Arrival at Sennaar.

When we got a few miles into the plain, my servant delivered me a message from the Moullah, that he would join us the next day at Beyla; that we were not to trust to the king's servant in any thing, but entirely to that of the Shekh Adelan; and if these two had any dispute together, to take no share in it, but leave them to settle it between themselves; that, upon no account whatever, we should suffer any companions to join us upon the road to Beyla, but drive them off by harsh words, beat them if they did not go away, and, if they still persisted, to shoot them, and make our way good by force; that between Teawa and Beyla was a place, the inhabitants of which had withdrawn themselves from their allegiance to the king of Sennaar, who could not there protect us; therefore we were to trust to ourselves, and admit of no parley; for if we passed, we should pass with applause, as if the king's force had conducted us; and if we miscarried, the blame would be laid upon ourselves, as having ventured, so thinly attended, through a country laid waste by rebel Arabs, expressly in defiance of government. He added, that he did not believe it was in Shekh Fidele's power, from want of time, to do us any injury upon the road; that the people in Teawa were in general well-affected to us, and afraid we should bring Yasine and the Daveina upon them, and so were the Jehaina; and as for the pack of graceless soldiers that were then about the Shekh, their belief that we had really no money with us, and the last exhibition I had shewn them on horseback, had perfectly cured them of venturing their lives for little, against people so much superior to them in the management of arms; yet he wished us to be active and vigilant like men, and trust in nothing till we had seen the Shekh of Beyla, and not to lose a moment on the road.

Our journey, for the first seven hours, was through a barren, bare, and sandy plain, without finding a vestige of any living creature, without water, and without grass, a country that seemed under the immediate curse of Heaven. At twelve o'clock at night we turned a little to the eastward of south, to enter through very broken ground into a narrow defile, between two hills of no considerable height. This pass is called Mattina. One of our camel-drivers declared that he saw two men run into the bushes before him, upon which our people took all to their slings, throwing many stones before them into the bushes, directed nearly to a man's height. At their earnest desire I ordered Ismael to fire our large ship-blunderbuss, with fifty small bullets in it, among the bushes, in the direction of the road-side; but we neither saw nor heard any thing of those people thereafter, if there really were any, nor did I, at the time, indeed, believe the camel-driver had seen any one but through the medium of his own fears; for the Arabs never attack you till near sun-set, if they are doubtful of their own superiority, or at dawn of day, if they think they have the advantage, that they may have time to pursue you.

We, however, all continued on foot, from four till the grey of the morning of the 19th of April. Indeed, so violent an inclination to sleep had fallen upon me, that I was forced to walk, for fear of breaking my neck by a fall from my camel, till eight o'clock, when we halted in a wood of ebony bushes, growing like the birch tree in many shoots from the old stems, which had been cut down for fear of harbouring the fly, and totally deprived of their leaves afterwards, by the burning of grass, from the same reason. This place is called Abou Jehaarat, and is the limit between the government of Teawa and Beyla. After such a very fatiguing journey, we rested at Abou Jehaarat till the afternoon. The sun was very hot, but fortunately some shepherds caves were dug in the bank, and to these we fled for shelter from the intense heat of the sun, where the ebony trees, though in a very thick wood, could afford us no shade, for the reasons already given.

At three o'clock in the afternoon we set out from Abou Jehaarat, in a direction west, and at eight in the evening we arrived at Beyla. There is no water between Teawa and Beyla. Once, Imgededema, and a number of villages, were supplied with water from wells and had large crops of Indian corn sown about their possessions. The curse of that country, the Arabs Daveina, have destroyed Imgededema, and all the villages about it, filled up their wells, burnt their crops, and exposed all the inhabitants to die by famine.

We found Beyla to be in lat. 13° 42´ 4´´; that is, about eleven miles west of Teawa, and thirty-one and a half miles due south. We were met by Mahomet, the Shekh, at the very entrance of the town. He said, he looked upon us as risen from the dead; that we must be good people, and particularly under the care of Providence, to have escaped the many snares the Shekh of Atbara had laid for us. Mahomet, the Shekh, had provided every sort of refreshment possible for us; and, thinking we could not live without it, he had ordered sugar for us from Sennaar. Honey for the most part hitherto had been its substitute. We had a good comfortable supper; as fine wheat-bread as ever I ate in my life, brought from Sennaar, as also rice; in a word, everything that our kind landlord could contribute to our plentiful and hospitable entertainment.

Our whole company was full of joy, to which the Shekh greatly encouraged them; and if there was an alloy to the happiness, it was the seeing that I did not partake of it. Symptoms of an aguish disorder had been hanging about me for several days, ever since the diarrhœa had left me. I found the greatest repugnance, or nausea, at the smell of warm meat; and, having a violent headach, I insisted upon going to bed supperless, after having drank a quantity of warm water by way of emetic. Being exceedingly tired, I soon fell sound asleep, having first taken some drops of a strong spirituous tincture of the bark which I had prepared at Gondar, resolving, if I found any remission, as I then did, to take several good dozes of the bark in powder on the morrow, beginning at day-break, which I accordingly did with its usual success.

On the 20th of April, a little after the dawn of day, the Shekh, in great anxiety, came to the place where I was lying, upon a tanned buffaloe's hide, on the ground. His sorrow was soon turned into joy when he found me quite recovered from my illness. I had taken the bark, and expressed a desire of eating a hearty breakfast of rice, which was immediately prepared for me.

The Shekh of Beyla was an implicit believer in medicine. Seeing me take some drops of the tincture before coffee, he insisted upon pledging me, and I believe would have willingly emptied the whole bottle. After having suffered great agony with his own complaint, he had passed some small stones, and was greatly better, as he said, for the soap-pills. I put him in a way to prepare these, as also his lime-water. It was impossible to have done any favour for him equal to this, as his agony had been so great. He told me our Moullah was arrived from Teawa, and had left Shekh Fidele still repining at our departure, without leaving him the piastres. As for the eclipse, he said he did not care a straw, nor for what they did or knew at Mecca, for he had no interest there. I understood our friend Mahomet, Shekh of Beyla, had been under great uneasiness at the eclipse, when it advanced in the immersion, and became total. Some time before this, as he said, there had been another, but not so great, on the day the Daveina burnt Imgededema, with above thirty other villages, and dispersed or destroyed about two thousand inhabitants of Atbara.

It was now the time to give the Shekh a present, and I had prepared one for him, such as he very well deserved; but no intreaty, nor any means I could use, could prevail upon him to accept of the merest trifle. On the contrary, he solemnly swore, that if I importuned him further he would get upon his horse and go into the country. All that he desired, and that too as a favour, was, that, when I had rested at Sennaar, he might come and consult me further as to his complaints, for which he promised he should bring a recompence with him. We then settled to give his present to the Moullah, with which he was very well pleased, and which he took without any of those difficulties the Shekh of Beyla had started when it was offered to him.

All being friends now, and contented, the day was given to repose and joy. The king's servant came and told me, by way of secret, that we could not do less to please the Shekh than stay with him a week at Beyla, and I believe it would not have displeased him; but after so much coming and going, so much occasion for talk relative to me, I was resolved to follow Hagi Belal's advice, and press on to Sennaar before affairs there were in a desperate situation, or some scheme of mischief should be contrived by Fidele. One thing Shekh Adelan's servant told us, that he had, by his master's orders, taken from Fidele the present I had given him, though he had already made it up into a gown, or robe, for himself. "He is a poor wretch, says the Shekh of Beyla; he has spent two years of the king's revenues from Atbara, and nobody has supported him except Shekh Adelan, whose daughter he married, but he now has given him up since he has fully known him; and, if our troubles do not follow quickly, I suppose one of these days I shall have him here in his way to Sennaar, never to return; for everybody knows now that it was in hatred to him, and for the many faithless and bad actions he was guilty of, that the Arabs have destroyed all that part of the country, though they have not burnt a straw about Beyla."

We had again a large and plentiful dinner, and a quantity of bouza; venison of several different species of the antelope or deer-kind, and Guinea-fowls, boiled with rice, the best part of our fare, for the venison smelled and tasted strongly of musk. This was the provision made by the Shekh's two sons, boys about fourteen or fifteen years old, who had got each of them a gun with a match-lock and whose favour I secured to a very high degree, by giving them some good gunpowder, and plenty of small leaden bullets.

In the afternoon we walked out to see the village, which is a very pleasant one, situated upon the bottom of a hill, covered with wood, all the rest flat before it. Through this plain there are many large timber trees, planted in rows, and joined with high hedges, as in Europe, forming inclosures for keeping cattle; but of these we saw none, as they had been moved to the Dender for fear of the flies. There is no water at Beyla but what is got from deep wells. Large plantations of Indian corn are everywhere about the town. The inhabitants are in continual apprehension from the Arabs Daveina at Sim Sim, about 40 miles south-east from them; and from another powerful race called Wed abd el Gin, i. e. Son of the slaves of the Devil, who live to the south-west of them, between the Dender and the Nile. Beyla is another frontier town of Sennaar, on the side of Sim Sim; and between Teawa and this, on the Sennaar side, and Ras el Feel, Nara, and Tchelga, upon the Abyssinian side, all is desert and waste, the Arabs only suffering the water to remain there without villages near it, that they and their flocks may come at certain seasons while the grass grows, and the pools or springs fill elsewhere.

Although I went early to bed with full determination to set out by day-break, yet I found it was impossible to put my design in execution, or get from the hands of our kind landlord. One of our girbas seemed to fail, and needed to be repaired. Nothing good, as he truly said, could come from the Shekh of Atbara. A violent dispute had arisen in the evening, after I was gone to bed, over their bouza, between the king's servant and that of Shekh Adelan. It was about dividing their fees which they had received from Shekh Fidele. This was carried a great length, and it was at last agreed that it should be determined by the Shekh of Beyla in the morning, when both of them, as might be supposed, should have cooler heads. For my part, I took no thought or concern about it, as no circumstance of its origin had been notified to me; but it took up so much of our time, that it was after dinner before we were ready.

On the 21st of April we left Beyla at three o'clock in the afternoon, our direction south-west, through a very pleasant, flat country, but without water; there had been none in our way nearer than the river Rahad. About eleven at night we alighted in a wood: The place is called Baherie, as near as we could compute, nine miles from Beyla.

On the 22d, at half past five o'clock in the morning we left Baherie, still continuing westward, and at nine we came to the banks of the Rahad. The ford is called Tchir Chaira. The river itself was now standing in pools, the water foul, stinking, and covered with a green mantle; the bottom soft and muddy, but there was no choice. The water at Beyla was so bad, that we took only as much as was absolutely necessary till we arrived at running water from the Rahad. We continued half an hour travelling along the river at N. W. and W. N. W. till three quarters past ten. At noon we again met the river Rahad, which now had turned to the westward of north, and by its sides we pitched our tents near the huts of the Arabs, called Cohala, a stationary tribe, that do not live in tents, but are tributary to the Mek, and regularly pay all the taxes and exactions the government of Sennaar lays upon them, and from these, therefore, we were not under any apprehension.

On the 23d, at six o'clock in the morning we left the Cohala, continuing along the river Rahad, which here runs a very little to the eastward of north. At three o'clock we alighted at Kumar, another station of the same Arabs of Cohala, on the river side. This river, here called Rahad, or Thunder, winds the most of any stream in Abyssinia. It begins not far from Tchelga, passes between Kuara and Sennaar, separating Abyssinia from Nubia, and making, with the river Atbara, the Astaboras or Tacazzé, and the Nile, a perfect island, whereas before it was only a peninsula. It seems to intercept all the springs that would go down to the middle of the peninsula, from the high country of Abyssinia, and is probably the reason of the great dearth of water there. While it is in Abyssinia it is called Shimfa. It falls into the Nile at Habharras, about thirty-eight miles north of Sennaar.

The quarrel between our two conductors was so little made up, that the king's servant would not travel with us, but always went half a day before, and we joined him when we encamped in the evening. We did not pay him the compliment of asking him why he did this, but allowed him to take his own way, which he seemed not to be pleased with, giving many hints at night, that he had, all his life, been averse to the having any thing to do with white people.

We set out at five in the afternoon from Kumar, and in the close of the evening met several men, on horseback and on foot, coming out from among the bushes, who endeavoured to carry off one of our camels. We indeed were somewhat alarmed, and were going to prepare for resistance. The camel they had taken away had on it the king's and Shekh Adelan's presents, and some other things for our future need. Our clothes too, books, and papers, were upon the same camel. Adelan's servant, though he was at first surprised, did not lose his presence of mind; he soon knew these Arabs could not be robbers, and guessed it to be a piece of malice of the king's servant to frighten us, and extort money from us, in order to obtain restitution of the camel. He therefore rode up to one of the villages of the Arabs, to ask them who those were that had taken away our camel.

In one of the huts he found the king's servant regaling himself; upon which he said to him, "I suppose, Mahomet, you have taken charge of that camel, and will bring it with you to Sennaar; it has your master's presents, and mine also, upon it:" and saying this, he rode off to join us, and to punish those that had taken the camel, who, we were sure after this notification, must follow us. We kept on at a very brisk pace, for it was eleven o'clock before they came up to where we were encamped for the night, bringing our camel, which they had taken, along with them, with an Arab on horseback, attended with two on foot, and with them the king's servant. I did not seem at all to have understood the affair, only that robbers had taken away our camel. But it did not sit so easy upon the Arabs, who did not know there was any with us but the king's servant, and who wanted to frighten us for not making them a present for eating their grass and drinking their water. At first, Adelan's servant refused to take the camel again upon any terms, insisting that the Cohala should carry it to Sennaar; but, after a great many words, I determined to make peace, upon condition they should furnish us with milk, wherever they had cattle, till we arrived at Sennaar. This was very readily consented to; and as this affair probably was owing to the malice of the king's servant, so it ended without further trouble.

On the 24th, we set out at half after five in the morning, and passed through several small villages of Cohala on the right and on the left, till at eleven we came to the river Dender, standing now in pools, but by the vast wideness of its banks, and the great deepness of its bed, all of white sand, it should seem that in time of rain it will contain nearly as much water as the Nile. The banks are everywhere thick overgrown with the rack and jujeb tree, especially the latter. The wood, which had continued mostly from Beyla, here failed us entirely, and reached no further towards Sennaar. These two sorts of trees, however, were in very great beauty, and of a prodigious size. Here we found the main body of Cohala, with all their cattle, living in perfect security both from Arabs and from the plague of the fly. They were as good as their word to us in supplying us plentifully with excellent milk, which we had scarcely ever tasted since we left Gondar.

At six o'clock in the evening of the 24th we set out from a shady place of repose on the banks of the Dender, through a large plain, with not a tree before us; but we presently found ourselves encompassed with a number of villages, nearly of a size, and placed at equal distances in form of a semi-circle, the roofs of the houses in shape of cones, as are all those within the rains. The plain was all of a red, soapy earth, and the corn just sown. This whole country is in perpetual cultivation, and though at this time it had a bare look, would no doubt have a magnificent one when waving with grain. At nine we halted at a village of Pagan Nuba. These are all soldiers of the Mek of Sennaar, cantoned in these villages, which, at the distance of four or five miles, surround the whole capital. They are either purchased or taken by force from Fazuclo, and the provinces to the south upon the mountains Dyre and Tegla. Having settlements and provisions given them, as also arms put in their hands, they never wish to desert, but live a very domestic and sober life. Many of them that I have conversed with seem a much gentler sort of negro than those from Bahar el Aice, that is, than those of whom the Funge, or government of Sennaar, are composed.

These have small features likewise, but are woolly-headed, and flat-nosed, like other negroes, and speak a language rather pleasant and sonorous, but radically different from many I have heard. Though the Mek, and their masters at Sennaar, pretend to be Mahometans, yet they have never attempted to convert these Nuba; on the contrary, they entertain, in every village, a certain number of Pagan priests, who have soldiers pay, and assist them in the offices of their religion. Not knowing their language perfectly, nor their customs, it is impossible to say any thing about their religion. Very few of the common sort of them speak Arabic. A false account, in these cases, is always worse than no account at all. I never found one of their priests who could speak so much Arabic as to be able to give any information about the objects of their worship in distinct and unequivocal terms; but this was from my not understanding them, and their not understanding me, not from any desire of concealment, or shyness on their part; on the contrary, they seemed always inclined to agree with me, when they did not comprehend my meaning, and there is the danger of being misinformed.

They pay adoration to the moon; and that their worship is performed with pleasure and satisfaction, is obvious every night that she shines. Coming out from the darkness of their huts, they say a few words upon seeing her brightness, and testify great joy, by motions of their feet and hands, at the first appearance of the new moon. I never saw them pay any attention to the sun, either rising or setting, advancing to or receding from the meridian; but, as far as I could learn, they worship a tree, and likewise a stone, tho' I never could find out what tree or stone it was, only that it did not exist in the country of Sennaar, but in that where they were born. Their priests seemed to have great influence over them, but through fear only, and not from affection. They are distinguished by thick copper bracelets about their wrists, as also sometimes one, and sometimes two about their ancles.

These villages are called Dahera, which seems to me to be the same word as Dashrah, the name given to the Kabyles, or people in Barbary, who live in fixed huts on the mountains. But not having made myself master enough of the Kabyles language when in Barbary, and being totally ignorant of that of the Nuba we are now speaking of, I cannot pretend to pursue this resemblance farther. They are immoderately fond of swine's flesh, and maintain great herds of them in their possession. The hogs are of a small kind, generally marked with black and white, exceedingly prolific, and exactly resembling a species of that kind common in the north of Scotland. The Nuba are not circumcised. They very rarely turn Mahometans, but the generality of their children do. Few of them advance higher than to be soldiers and officers in their own corps. The Mek maintains about twelve thousand of these near Sennaar, to keep the Arabs in subjection. They are very quiet, and scarcely ever known to be guilty of any robberies or mutinous disorders, declaring always for the master, that is, the great one set over them. There is no running water in all that immense plain they inhabit, it is all procured from draw-wells. We saw them cleaning one, which I measured, and was nearly eight fathoms deep. In a climate so violently hot as this, there is very little need of fuel, neither have they any, there being no turf, or any thing resembling it, in the country, no wood, not even a tree, since we had passed the river Dender. However, they never eat their meat raw as in Abyssinia; but with the stalk of the dora, or millet, and the dung of camels, they make ovens under ground, in which they roast their hogs whole, in a very cleanly, and not disagreeable manner, keeping the skins on till they are perfectly baked. They had neither flint nor steel wherewith to light their fire at first, but do it in a manner still more expeditious, by taking a small piece of stick, and making a sharp point to it, which they hold perpendicular, and then make a small hole of nearly the same size in another piece of stick, which they lay horizontal; they put the one within the other, and, between their two hands, they turn the perpendicular stick, (in the same manner that we do a chocolate mill) when both these sticks take fire, and flame in a moment upon the friction; so perfectly dry and prepared is everything here upon the surface to take fire, notwithstanding they are every year subject to six months rain.

On the 25th, at four o'clock in the afternoon we set out from the villages of the Nuba, intending to arrive at Basboch, where is the ferry over the Nile; but we had scarcely advanced two miles into the plain, when we were inclosed by a violent whirlwind, or what is called at sea the water-spout. The plain was red earth, which had been plentifully moistened by a shower in the night-time. The unfortunate camel that had been taken by the Cohala seemed to be nearly in the center of its vortex. It was lifted and thrown down at a considerable distance, and several of its ribs broken. Although, as far as I could guess, I was not near the center, it whirled me off my feet, and threw me down upon my face, so as to make my nose gush out with blood. Two of the servants likewise had the same fate. It plaistered us all over with mud, almost as smoothly as could have been done with a trowel. It took away my sense and breathing for an instant, and my mouth and nose were full of mud when I recovered. I guess the sphere of its action to be about 200 feet. It demolished one half of a small hut as if it had been cut through with a knife, and dispersed the materials all over the plain, leaving the other half standing.

As soon as we recovered ourselves, we took refuge in a village, from fear only, for we saw no vestige of any other whirlwind. It involved a great quantity of rain, which the Nuba of the villages told us was very fortunate, and portended good luck to us, and a prosperous journey; for they said, that had dust and sand arisen with the whirlwind, in the same proportion it would have done had not the earth been moistened, we should all infallibly have been suffocated; and they cautioned us, by saying, that tempests were very frequent in the beginning and end of the rainy season, and whenever we should see one of them coming, to fall down upon our faces, keeping our lips close to the ground, and so let it pass; and thus it would neither have power to carry us off our feet, nor suffocate us, which was the ordinary case.

Our kind landlords, the Nuba, gave us a hearty welcome, and helped us to wash our clothes first, and then to dry them. When I was stripped naked, they saw the blood running from my nose, and said, they could not have thought that one so white as me could have been capable of bleeding. They gave us a piece of roasted hog, which we ate, (except Ismael and the Mahometans) very much to the satisfaction of the Nuba. On the other hand, as our camel was lame, we ordered one of our Mahometan servants to kill it, and take as much of it as would serve themselves that night; we also provided against wanting ourselves the next day. The rest we gave among our new-acquired acquaintance, the Nuba of the village, who did not fail to make a feast upon it for several days after; and, in recompence for our liberality, they provided us with a large jar of bouza, not very good, indeed, but better than the well-water. This I repaid by tobacco, beads, pepper, and stibium, which I saw plainly was infinitely more than they expected. Although we had been a good deal surprised at the sudden and violent effects of the whirlwind of that day, and severely felt the bruises it had occasioned, yet we passed a very social and agreeable evening; those only of the Nuba who had been any time at Sennaar speak a bad kind of Arabic, as well as their own language. I had seldom, in my life, upon a journey, passed a more comfortable night. I had a very neat, clean hut, entirely to myself, and a Greek servant that sat near me. Some of the Nuba watched for us all night, and took care of our beasts and baggage. They sung and replied to one another alternately, in notes full of pleasant melody,

till I fell fast asleep, involuntarily, and with regret, for, tho' bruised, we were not fatigued, but rather discouraged, having gone no further than two miles that day.

The landlord of the hut where I was asleep having prepared for our safety and that of our baggage, thought himself bound in duty to go and give immediate information to the prime minister of the unexpected guests that then occupied his house. He found Adelan at supper, but was immediately admitted, and a variety of questions asked him, which he answered fully. He described our colour, our number, the unusual size and number of our fire-arms, the poorness of our attire, and, above all, our great chearfulness, quietness, and affability, our being contented with eating any thing, and in particular mentioned the hogs flesh. One man then present, testifying abhorrence to this, Adelan said of me to our landlord, "Why, he is a soldier and a Kafr like yourself. A soldier and a Kafr, when travelling in a strange country, should eat every thing, and so does every other man that is wise; has he not a servant of mine with him?" He answered, "Yes, and a servant of the king too; but he had left them, and was gone forward to Sennaar." "Go you with them, says he, and stay with them at Basboch till I have time to send for them to town." He had returned from Aira long before we arose, and told us the conversation, which was great comfort to us all, for we were not much pleased with the king's servant going before, as we had every reason to think he was disaffected towards us.

On the 26th, at six o'clock in the morning, we set out from this village of Nuba, keeping something to the westward of S. W. our way being still across this immense plain. All the morning there were terrible storms of thunder and lightning, some rain, and one shower of so large drops that it wet us to the skin in an instant. It was quite calm, and every drop fell perpendicularly upon us. I think I never in my life felt so cold a rain, yet it was not disagreeable; for the day was close and hot, and we should have wished every now and then to have had so moderate a refrigeration; this, however, was rather too abundant. The villages of the Nuba were, on all sides, throughout this plain. At nine o'clock we arrived at Basboch, which is a large collection of huts of these people, and has the appearance of a town.

The governor, a venerable old man of about seventy, who was so feeble that he could scarcely walk, received us with great complacency, only saying, when I took him by the hand, "O Christian! what dost thou, at such a time, in such a country?" I was surprised at the politeness of his speech, when he called me Nazarani, the civil term for Christian in the east; whereas Infidel is the general term among these brutish people; but it seems he had been several times at Cairo. I had here a very clean and comfortable hut to lodge in, though we were sparingly supplied with provisions all the time we were there, but never were suffered to fast a whole day together.

Basboch is on the eastern bank of the Nile, not a quarter of a mile from the ford below. The river here runs north and south; towards the sides it is shallow, but deep in the middle of the current, and in this part it is much infested with crocodiles. Sennaar is two miles and a half S. S. W. of it. We heard the evening drum very distinctly, and not without anxiety, when we reflected to what a brutish people, according to all accounts, we were about to trust ourselves. The village of Aira, where the vizir Adelan had then his quarters, was three miles south and by west.

Next morning, the 27th, Shekh Adelan's servant left us to the charge of the Nuba, to give his master an account of his journey, and our safe arrival. He found Mahomet, the king's servant, our other guide, before him there, and Adelan well informed of all that had passed relating to Fidele, though not from Mahomet; for as soon as he began to mention that he had found us at Teawa, Adelan said in a very angry stile, "Will no one save me the disgrace of hanging that wretch?" Adelan sent back his servant to inform us, that, two days afterwards, we should be admitted. Mahomet, the king's servant, too, came back with him, and staid till the evening; then he returned to Sennaar; but he did not give us the satisfaction to tell us one word of what the king had said to him about us, or how we were likely to be received, leaving us altogether in suspence.

On the 29th, leave was sent us to enter Sennaar. It was not without some difficulty that we got our quadrant and heavy baggage safely carried down the hill, for the banks are very steep to the edge of the water. The intention of our assistants was to slide the quadrant down the hill, in its case, which would have utterly destroyed it; and as our boat was but a very indifferent embarkation, it was obliged to make several turns to and fro before we got all our several packages landed on the western side. This assemblage, and the passage of our camels, seemed to have excited the appetite, or the curiosity, of the crocodiles. One, in particular, swam several times backwards and forwards along the side of the boat, without, however, making any attack upon any of us; but, being exceedingly tired of such company, upon his second or third venture over, I fired at him with a rifle-gun, and shot him directly under his fore shoulder in the belly. The wound was undoubtedly mortal, and very few animals could have lived a moment after receiving it. He, however, dived to the bottom, leaving the water deeply tinged with his blood. Nor did we see him again at that time; but the people at the ferry brought him to me the day after, having found him perfectly dead. He was about twelve feet long; and the boatmen told me that these are by much the most dangerous, being more fierce and active than the large ones. The people of Sennaar eat the crocodile, especially the Nuba. I never tasted it myself, but it looks very much like Congor eel.

CHAP. VIII. Conversation with the King—With Shekh Adelan—Interview with the King's Ladies, &c. &c.

We were conducted by Adelan's servant to a very spacious good house belonging to the Shekh himself, having two storeys, a long quarter of a mile from the king's palace. He left a message for us to repose ourselves, and in a day or two to wait upon the king, and that he should send to tell us when we were to come to him. This we resolved to have complied with most exactly; but the very next morning, the 30th of April, there came a servant from the palace to summon us to wait upon the king, which we immediately obeyed. I took with me three servants, black Soliman, Ismael the Turk, and my Greek servant Michael. The palace covers a prodigious deal of ground. It is all of one storey, built of clay, and the floors of earth. The chambers through which we passed were all unfurnished, and seemed as if a great many of them had formerly been destined as barracks for soldiers, of whom I did not see above fifty on guard. The king was in a small room, not twenty feet square, to which we ascended by two short flights of narrow steps. The floor of the room was covered with broad square tiles; over it was laid a Persian carpet, and the walls hung with tapestry of the same country; the whole very well kept, and in good order.

The king was sitting upon a matress, laid on the ground, which was likewise covered with a Persian carpet, and round him was a number of cushions of Venetian cloth of gold. His dress did not correspond with this magnificence, for it was nothing but a large, loose shirt of Surat blue cotton cloth, which seemed not to differ from the same worn by his servants, except that, all round the edges of it, the seams were double-stitched with white silk, and likewise round the neck. His head was uncovered; he wore his own short black hair, and was as white in colour as an Arab. He seemed to be a man about thirty-four, his feet were bare, but covered by his shirt. He had a very plebeian countenance, on which was stamped no decided character; I should rather guess him to be a soft, timid, irresolute man. At my coming forward and kissing his hand, he looked at me for a minute as if undetermined what to say. He then asked for an Abyssinian interpreter, as there are many of these about the palace. I said to him in Arabic, "That I apprehended I understood as much of that language as would enable me to answer any question he had to put to me." Upon which he turned to the people that were with him, "Downright Arabic, indeed! You did not learn that language in Habesh?" said he to me. I answered, "No; I have been in Egypt, Turkey, and Arabia, where I learned it; but I have likewise often spoken it in Abyssinia, where Greek, Turkish, and several other languages, were used." He said, "Impossible! he did not think they knew any thing of languages, excepting their own, in Abyssinia."

There were sitting in the side of the room, opposite to him, four men dressed in white cotton shirts, with a white shaul covering their heads and part of their face, by which it was known they were religious men, or men of learning, or of the law. One of these answered the king's doubt of the Abyssinians knowledge in languages. "They have languages enough; and you know that Habesh is called the paradise of asses." During this conversation, I took the sherriffe of Mecca's letter, also one from the king of Abyssinia; I gave him the king's first, and then the sherriffe's. He took them both as I gave them, but laid aside the king's upon a cushion, till he had read the sherriffe's. After this he read the king's, and called immediately again for an Abyssinian interpreter; upon which I said nothing, supposing, perhaps, he might chuse to make him deliver some message to me in private, which he would not have his people hear. But it was pure confusion and absence of mind, for he never spoke a word to him when he came. "You are a physician and a soldier," says the king. "Both, in time of need," said I. "But the sherriffe's letter tells me also, that you are a nobleman in the service of a great king that they call Englise-man, who is master of all the Indies, and who has Mahometan as well as Christian subjects, and allows them all to be governed by their own laws."—"Though I never said so to the sherriffe, replied I, yet it is true; I am as noble as any individual in my nation, and am also servant to the greatest king now reigning upon earth, of whose dominions, it is likewise truly said, these Indies are but a small part."—"The greatest king! says he that spoke about the asses, you should not say that: You forgot the grand signior; there are four, Otman, Fersee, Bornow, and Habesh."—"I neither forgot the grand signior, nor do him wrong, replied I. What I have said, I have said."—"Kafrs and slaves! all of them, says Ismael; there is the Turk, the king of England, and the king of France; what kings are Bornow and the rest?—Kafrs."—"How comes it, says the king, you that are so noble and learned, that you know all things, all languages, and so brave that you fear no danger, but pass, with two or three old men, into such countries as this and Habesh, where Baady my father perished with an army? how comes it that you do not stay at home and enjoy yourself, eat, drink, take pleasure and rest, and not wander like a poor man, a prey to every danger?"—"You, Sir, I replied, may know some of this sort of men; certainly you do know them; for there are in your religion, as well as mine, men of learning, and those too of great rank and nobility, who, on account of sins they have committed, or vows they have made, renounce the world, its riches and pleasures: They lay down their nobility, and become humble and poor, so as often to be insulted by wicked and low men, not having the fear of God before their eyes."—"True, these are Dervish," said the other three men. "I am then one of these Dervish, said I, content with the bread that is given me, and bound for some years to travel in hardships and danger, doing all the good I can to poor and rich, serving every man, and hurting none." "Tybe! that is well," says the king. "And how long have you been travelling about?" adds one of the others. "Near twenty years," said I.—"You must be very young, says the king, to have committed so many sins, and so early; they must all have been with women?"—"Part of them, I suppose, were, replied I; but I did not say that I was one of those who travelled on account of their sins, but that there were some Dervishes that did so on account of their vows, and some to learn wisdom." He now made a sign, and a slave brought a cushion, which I would have refused, but he forced me to sit down upon it.

I found afterwards who the three men were who had joined in our conversation; the first was Ali Mogrebi, a native of Morocco, who was Cadi, or chief judge at Sennaar, and was then fallen into disgrace with the two brothers, Mahomet Abou Kalec, governor of Kordofan, and Shekh Adelan, prime minister at Sennaar, then encamped at Aira at the head of the horse and Nuba, levying the tax upon the Arabs as they went down, out of the limits of the rains, into the sandy countries below Atbara to protect their cattle from the fly. Another of these three was Cadi of Kordofan, in the interest of Mahomet Abou Kalec, and spy upon the king. The third was a saint in the neighbourhood, conservator of a large extent of ground, where great crops of dora not only grow, but when threshed out are likewise kept in large excavations called Matamores; the place they call Shaddly. This man was esteemed another Joseph among the Funge, who accumulated grain in years of plenty, that he might distribute it at small prices among the poor when scarcity came. He was held in very great reverence in the neighbourhood of Sennaar.

The cadi then asked me, "If I knew when Hagiuge Magiuge was to come?" Remembering my old learned friend at Teawa, I scarce could forbear laughing. "I have no wish to know any thing about him, said I; I hope those days are far off, and will not happen in my time." "What do your books say concerning him? (says he, affecting a great look of wisdom) Do they agree with ours?" "I don't know that, said I, till I hear what is written in your books." "Hagiuge Magiuge, says he, are little people, not so big as bees, or like the zimb, or fly of Sennaar, that come in great swarms out of the earth, aye, in multitudes that cannot be counted; two of their chiefs are to ride upon an ass, and every hair of that ass is to be a pipe, and every pipe is to play a different kind of music, and all that hear and follow them are carried to hell." "I know them not, said I, and, in the name of the Lord, I fear them not, were they twice as little as you say they are, and twice as numerous. I trust in God I shall never be so fond of music as to go to hell after an ass for all the tunes that he or they can play." The king laughed violently. I rose to go away, for I was heartily tired of the conversation. I whispered the Abyssinian servant in Amharic, to ask when I should bring a trifle I had to offer the king. He said, Not that night, as I should be tired, but desired that I should now go home, and he would send me notice when to come. I accordingly went away, and found a number of people in the street, all having some taunt or affronting matter to say. I passed through the great square before the palace, and could not help shuddering, upon reflection, at what had happened in that spot to the unfortunate M. du Roule and his companions, though under a protection which should have secured them from all danger, every part of which I was then unprovided with.