BOOK VIII. (continued 4)

The drum beat a little after six o'clock in the evening. We then had a very comfortable dinner sent us, camels flesh stewed with an herb of a viscous slimy substance, called Bammia. After having dined, and finished the journal of the day, I fell to unpacking my instruments, the barometer and thermometer first, and, after having hung them up, was conversing with Adelan's servant when I should pay my visit to his master. About eight o'clock came a servant from the palace, telling me now was the time to bring the present to the king. I sorted the separate articles with all the speed I could, and we went directly to the palace. The king was then sitting in a large apartment, as far as I could guess, at some distance from the former. He was naked, but had several clothes lying upon his knee, and about him, and a servant was rubbing him over with very stinking butter or grease, with which his hair was dropping as if wet with water. Large as the room was, it could be smelled through the whole of it. The king asked me, If ever I greased myself as he did? I said, Very seldom, but fancied it would be very expensive. He then told me, That it was elephants grease, which made people strong, and preserved the skin very smooth. I said, I thought it very proper, but could not bear the smell of it, though my skin should turn as rough as an elephant's for the want of it. He said, "If I had used it, my hair would not have turned so red as it was, and that it would all become white presently when that redness came off. You may see the Arabs driven in here by the Daveina, and all their cattle taken from them, because they have no longer any grease for their hair. The sun first turns it red and then perfectly white; and you'll know them in the street by their hair being the colour of yours. As for the smell, you will see that cured presently."

After having rubbed him abundantly with grease, they brought a pretty large horn, and in it something scented, about as liquid as honey. It was plain that civet was a great part of the composition. The king went out at the door, I suppose into another room, and there two men deluged him over with pitchers of cold water, whilst, as I imagine, he was stark-naked. He then returned, and a slave anointed him with this sweet ointment; after which he sat down, as completely dressed, being just going to his women's apartment where he was to sup. I told him I wondered why he did not use rose-water as in Abyssinia, Arabia, and Cairo. He said, he had it often from Cairo, when the merchants arrived; but as it was now long since any came, his people could not make more, for the rose would not grow in his country, though the women made something like it of lemon-flower.

His toilet being finished, I then produced my present which I told him the king of Abyssinia had sent to him, hoping that, according to the faith and custom of nations, he would not only protect me while here, but send me safely and speedily out of his dominions into Egypt. He answered, There was a time when he could have done all this, and more, but those times were changed. Sennaar was in ruin, and was not like what it once was. He then ordered some perfumed sorbet to be brought for me to drink in his presence, which is a pledge that your person is in safety. I thereupon withdrew, and he went to his ladies.

It was not till the eighth of May I had my audience of Shekh Adelan at Aira, which is three miles and a half from Sennaar; we walked out early in the morning, for the greatest part of the way along the side of the Nile, which had no beauty, being totally divested of trees, the bottom foul and muddy, and the edges of the water white with small concretions of calcarious earth, which, with the bright sun upon them, dazzled and affected our eyes very much.

We then struck across a large sandy plain without trees or bushes, and came to Adelan's habitation; two or three, very considerable houses of one storey occupied the middle of a large square, each of whose sides was at least half of an English mile. Instead of a wall to inclose this square, was a high fence or impalement of strong reeds, canes, or stalks of dora, (I do not know which) in fascines strongly joined together by stakes and cords. On the outside of the gate, on each hand, were six houses of a slighter construction than the rest; close upon the fence were sheds where the soldiers lay, the horses picqueted before them with their heads turned towards the sheds, and their food laid before them on the ground; above each soldier's sleeping-place, covered only on the top and open in the sides, were hung a lance, a small oval shield, and a large broad-sword. These, I understood, were chiefly quarters for couriers, who being Arabs, were not taken into the court or square, but shut out at night.

Within the gate was a number of horses, with the soldiers barracks behind them; they were all picqueted in ranks, their faces to their masters barracks. It was one of the finest sights I ever saw of the kind. They were all above sixteen hands high, of the breed of the old Saracen horses, all finely made, and as strong as our coach-horses, but exceedingly nimble in their motion; rather thick and short in the forehand, but with the most beautiful eyes, ears, and heads in the world; they were mostly black, some of them black and white, some of them milk-white foaled, so not white by age, with white eyes and white hoofs, not perhaps a great recommendation.

A steel shirt of mail hung upon each man's quarters opposite to his horse, and by it an antelope's skin made soft like shamoy, with which it was covered from the dew of the night. A head-piece of copper, without crest or plumage, was suspended by a lace above the shirt of mail, and was the most picturesque part of the trophy. To these was added an enormous broad-sword in a red leather scabbard; and upon the pummel hung two thick gloves, not divided into fingers as ours, but like hedgers gloves, their fingers in one poke. They told me, that, within that inclosure at Aira, there were 400 horses, which, with the riders, and armour complete for each of them, were all the property of Shekh Adelan, every horseman being his slave, and bought with his money. There were five or six (I know not which) of these squares or inclosures, none of them half a mile from the other, which contained the king's horses, slaves, and servants. Whether they were all in as good order as Adelan's I cannot say, for I did not go further; but no body of horse could ever be more magnificently disposed under the direction of any Christian power.

Adelan was then sitting upon a piece of the trunk of a palm-tree, in the front of one of these divisions of his horses, which he seemed to be contemplating with pleasure; a number of black people, his own servants and friends, were standing around him. He had on a long drab-coloured camlet gown, lined with yellow sattin, and a camlet cap like a head piece, with two short points that covered his ears. This, it seems, was his dress when he rose early in the morning to visit his horses, which he never neglected. The Shekh was a man above six feet high, and rather corpulent, had a heavy walk, seemingly more from affectation of grandeur than want of agility. He was about sixty, of the colour and features of an Arab and not of a Negro, but had rather more beard than falls to the lot of people in this country; large piercing eyes, and a determined, tho', at the same time, a very pleasing countenance. Upon my coming near him he got up, "You that are a horseman, (says he, without any salutation) what would your king of Habesh give for these horses?"—"What king, answered I, in the same tone, would not give any price for such horses if he knew their value?"—"Well, replies he, in a lower voice, to the people about him, if we are forced to go to Habesh (as Baady was) we will carry our horses along with us." I understood by this he alluded to the issue of his approaching quarrel with the king.

We then went into a large saloon, hung round with mirrors and scarlet damask; in one of the longest sides, were two large sofas covered with crimson and yellow damask, and large cushions of cloth of gold, like to the king's. He now pulled off his camlet gown and cap, and remained in a crimson sattin coat reaching down below his knees, which lapped over at the breast, and was girt round his waist with a scarf or sash, in which he had stuck a short dagger in an ivory sheath, mounted with gold; and one of the largest and most beautiful amethysts upon his finger that ever I saw, mounted plain, without any diamonds, and a small gold ear-ring in one of his ears.

"Why have you come hither, says he to me, without arms, and on foot, and without attendants?" Yagoube. "I was told that horses were not kept at Sennaar, and brought none with me." Adelan. "You suppose you have come through great dangers, and so you have. But what do you think of me, who am day and night out in the fields, surrounded by hundreds and thousands of Arabs, all of whom would eat me alive if they dared?" I answered, "A brave man, used to command as you are, does not look to the number of his enemies, but to their abilities; a wolf does not fear ten thousand sheep more than he does one." Ad. "True; look out at the door; these are their chiefs whom I am now taxing, and I have brought them hither that they may judge from what they see whether I am ready for them or not." Yag. "You could not do more properly; but, as to my own affairs, I wait upon you from the king of Abyssinia, desiring safe conduct through your country into Egypt, with his royal promise, that he is ready to do the like for you again, or any other favour you may call upon him for." He took the letter and read it. Ad. "The king of Abyssinia may be assured I am always ready to do more for him than this. It is true, since the mad attempt upon Sennaar, and the next still madder, to replace old Baady upon the throne, we have had no formal peace, but neither are we at war. We understand one another as good neighbours ought to do; and what else is peace?" Yag. "You know I am a stranger and traveller, seeking my way home. I have nothing to do with peace or war between nations. All I beg is a safe conduct through your kingdom, and the rights of hospitality bestowed in such cases on every common stranger; and one of the favours I beg is, your acceptance of a small present. I bring it not from home; I have been long absent from thence, or it would have been better." Ad. "I'll not refuse it, but it is quite unnecessary. I have faults like other men, but to hurt, or ransom strangers, was never one of them. Mahomet Abou Kalec, my brother, is however a much better man to strangers than I am; you will be lucky if you meet him here; if not, I will do for you what I can when once the confusion of these Arabs is over."

I gave him the sherriffe's letter, which he opened, looked at, and laid by without reading, saying only, "Aye, Metical is a good man, he sometimes takes care of our people going to Mecca; for my part, I never was there, and probably never shall." I then presented my letter from Ali Bey to him. He placed it upon his knee, and gave a slap upon it with his open hand. Ad. "What! do you not know, have you not heard, Mahomet Abou Dahab, his Hasnadar, has rebelled against him, banished him out of Cairo, and now sits in his place? But don't be disconcerted at that, I know you to be a man of honour and prudence; if Mahomet, my brother, does not come, as soon as I can get leisure I will dispatch you." The servant that had conducted me to Sennaar, and was then with us, went forward close to him, and said, in a kind of whisper, "Should he go often to the king?"—"When he pleases; he may go to see the town, and take a walk, but never alone, and also to the palace, that, when he returns to his own country, he may report he saw a king at Sennaar, that neither knows how to govern, nor will suffer others to teach him; who knows not how to make war, and yet will not sit in peace." I then took my leave of him, but there was a plentiful breakfast in the other room, to which he sent us, and which went far to comfort Hagi Ismael for the misfortune of his patron Ali Bey. At going out, I took my leave by kissing his hand, which he submitted to without reluctance. "Shekh, said I, when I pass these Arabs in the square, I hope it will not disoblige you if I converse with some of them out of curiosity?" Ad. "By no means, as much as you please; but don't let them know where they can find you at Sennaar, or they will be in your house from morning till night, will eat up all your victuals, and then, in return, will cut your throat if they can meet you upon your journey."

I returned home to Sennaar, very well pleased with my reception at Aira. I had not seen, since I left Gondar, a man so open and frank in his manners, and who spoke without disguise what apparently he had in his heart; but he was exceedingly engaged in business, and it was of such extent that it seemed to me impossible to be brought to an end in a much longer time than I proposed staying at Sennaar. The distance, too, between Aira and that town was a very great discouragement to me. The whole way was covered with insolent, brutish people, so that every man we met between Sennaar and Aira produced some altercation, some demand of presents, gold, cloth, tobacco, and a variety of other disagreeable circumstances, which had always the appearance of ending in something serious.

I had a long conversation with the Arabs I met with at Aira, and from them I learned pretty nearly the situation of the different clans or tribes in Atbara. These were all in their way northward to the respective countries in the sands to the eastward of Mendera and Barbar. These sands, so barren and desolate the rest of the year, were beginning now to be crowded with multitudes of cattle and inhabitants. The fly, in the flat and fertile mold which composes all the soil to the southward of Sennaar, had forced this number of people to migrate, which they very well knew was to cost them at least one half of their substance; of such consequence is the weakest instrument in the hand of Providence. The troops of Sennaar, few in number, but well provided with every thing, stood ready to cut these people off from their access to the sands, till every chief of a tribe had given in a well-verified inventory of his whole stock, and made a composition, at passing, with Shekh Adelan.

All subterfuge was in vain. The fly, in possession of the fertile country, inexorably pursued every single camel till he took refuge in the sands, and there he was to stay till the rains ceased; and if, in the interim, it was discovered that any concealment of number or quality had been made, they were again to return in the beginning of September to their old pastures; and in this second passage, any fraud, whether real or alledged, was punished with great severity. Resistance had been often tried, and as often found ineffectual. However great their numbers, encumbered with families and baggage as they were, they had always fallen a sacrifice to those troops, well mounted and armed, that awaited them in their way within sight of their own homes. Arrived once in the sands, they were quiet during the rains, having paid their passage northward, and so they were afterwards, for the same reason, when they came again to their own station, southward, when those rains had ceased.

It may be asked reasonably, What does the government of Sennaar do with that immense number of camels which they receive from all those tribes of Arabs in their passage by Sennaar? To this I answer, That all this tribute is not paid in kind. The different tribes possessing so many camels, or so many other cattle, have a quantum laid upon them at an average value. This is paid in gold, or in slaves, the rest in kind; so many for the maintenance of the king and government; for there is no flesh commonly used at Sennaar in the markets but that of camels. The residue is bought by the merchants of Dongola, and sent into Egypt, where they supply that great consumption of these animals made every year by the caravans going to Mecca.

One thing had made a very strong impression on me, which was the contemptuous manner in which Adelan expressed himself as to his sovereign. I was satisfied that, with some address, I could keep myself in favour with either of them; but in the terms they then were, or were very soon to be, I could not but fear I was likely to fall into trouble between the two.

The next morning, after I came home from Aira, I was agreeably surprised by a visit from Hagi Belal, to whom I had been recommended by Metical Aga, and to whom Ibrahim Seraff, the English broker at Jidda, had addressed me for any money I should need at Sennaar. He welcomed me with great kindness, and repeated testimonies of joy and wonder at my safe arrival. He had been down in Atbara at Gerri, or some villages near it, with merchandize, and had not yet seen the king since he came home, but gave me the very worst description possible of the country, insomuch that there seemed to be not a spot, but the one I then stood on, in which I was not in imminent danger of destruction, from a variety of independent causes, which it seemed not possibly in my power to avoid. He sent me in the evening some refreshments, which I had long been unaccustomed to; some tea, excellent coffee, some honey and brown sugar, several bottles of rack, likewise nutmegs, cinnamon, ginger, and some very good dates of the dry kind which he had brought from Atbara.

Hagi Belal was a native of Morocco. He had been at Cairo, and also at Jidda and Mocha. He knew the English well, and professed himself both obliged and attached to them. It was some days before I ventured to speak to him upon money business, or upon any probability of finding assistance here at Sennaar. He gave me little hopes of the latter, repeating to me what I very well knew about the disagreement of the king and Adelan. He seemed to place all his expectations, and those were but faint ones, in the coming of Shekh Abou Kalec from Kordofan. He said, nothing could be expected from Shekh Adelan without going to Aira, for that he would never trust himself in Sennaar, in this king's lifetime, but that the minister was absolute the moment he assembled his troops without the town.

One morning he came to me, after having been with the king, when I was myself preparing to go to the palace. He said, he had been sent for upon my account, and had been questioned very narrowly what sort of a man I was. Having answered very favourably, both of me and my nation, he was asked for Metical Aga's letters, or any other letters he had received concerning me from Jidda; he said, that he had only shewn Metical's letter, wrote in the name of the sherriffe, as also one from himself; that there were several great officers of government present; and the Cadi (whom I had seen the first time I had been with the king) had read the letters aloud to them all: That one of them had asked, How it came that such a man as I ventured to pass these deserts, with four or five old servants, and what it was I came to see; that he answered, he apprehended my chief object at Sennaar was to be forwarded to my own country. It was also asked, Why I had not some Englishmen with me, as none of my servants were of that nation, but poor beggarly Kopts, Arabs, and Turks, who were none of them of my religion? Belal answered, That travellers through these countries must take up with such people as they can find going the same way; however, he believed some English servants had died in Abyssinia, which country I had left the first opportunity that had offered, being wearied by the perpetual war which prevailed. Upon which the king said, "He has chosen well, when he came into this country for peace. You know, Hagi Belal, I can do nothing for him; there is nothing in my hands. I could easier get him back into Abyssinia than forward him into Egypt. Who is it now that can pass into Egypt?" The Cadi then said, "Hagi Belal can get him to Suakem, and so to Jidda to his countrymen." To which Belal replied, "The king will find some way when he thinks farther of it."

A few days after this I had a message from the palace. I found the king sitting alone, apparently much chagrined, and in ill-humour. He asked me, in a very peevish manner, "If I was not yet gone?" To which I answered, "Your Majesty knows that it is impossible for me to go a step from Sennaar without assistance from you." He again asked me, in the same tone as before, "How I could think of coming that way?" I said, "nobody imagined in Abyssinia but that he was able to give a stranger safe conduct through his own dominions." He made no reply, but nodded a sign for me to depart, which I immediately did, and so finished this short, but disagreeable interview.

About four o'clock that same afternoon I was again sent for to the palace, when the king told me that several of his wives were ill, and desired that I would give them my advice, which I promised to do without difficulty, as all acquaintance with the fair sex had hitherto been much to my advantage. I must confess, however, that calling these the fair sex is not preserving a precision in terms. I was admitted into a large square apartment very ill lighted, in which were about fifty women, all perfectly black, without any covering but a very narrow piece of cotton rag about their waists. While I was musing whether or not these all might be queens, or whether there was any queen among them, one of them took me by the hand and led me rudely enough into another apartment. This was much better lighted than the first. Upon a large bench, or sofa, covered with blue Surat cloth, sat three persons cloathed from the neck to the feet with blue cotton shirts.

One of these, who found was the favourite, was about six feet high, and corpulent beyond all proportion. She seemed to me, next to the elephant and rhinoceros, to be the largest living creature I had met with. Her features were perfectly like those of a Negro; a ring of gold passed through her under lip, and weighed it down, till, like a flap, it covered her chin, and left her teeth bare, which were very small and fine. The inside of her lip she had made black with antimony. Her ears reached down to her shoulders, and had the appearance of wings; she had in each of them a large ring of gold, somewhat smaller than a man's little finger, and about five inches diameter. The weight of these had drawn down the hole where her ear was pierced so much that three fingers might easily pass above the ring. She had a gold necklace, like what we used to call Esclavage, of several rows, one below another, to which were hung rows of sequins pierced. She had on her ancles two manacles of gold, larger than any I had ever seen upon the feet of felons, with which I could not conceive it was possible for her to walk, but afterwards I found they were hollow. The others were dressed pretty much in the same manner; only there was one that had chains which came from her ears to the outside of each nostril, where they were fastened. There was also a ring put thro' the gristle of her nose, and which hung down to the opening of her mouth. I think she must have breathed with great difficulty. It had altogether something of the appearance of a horse's bridle. Upon my coming near them, the eldest put her hand to her mouth and kissed it, saying, at the same time, in very vulgar Arabic, "Kifhalek howaja?" (how do you do, merchant). I never in my life was more pleased with distant salutations than at this time. I answered, "Peace be among you! I am a physician, and not a merchant."

I shall not entertain the reader with the multitude of their complaints; being a lady's physician, discretion and silence are my first duties. It is sufficient to say, that there was not one part of their whole bodies, inside and outside, in which some of them had not ailments. The three queens insisted upon being blooded, which desire I complied with, as it was an operation that required short attendance; but, upon producing the lancets, their hearts failed them. They then all cried out for the Tabange, which, in Arabic, means a pistol; but what they meant by this word was, the cupping instrument, which goes off with a spring like the snap of a pistol. I had two of these with me, but not at that time in my pocket. I sent my servant home, however, to bring one, and, that same evening, performed the operation upon the three queens with great success. The room was overflowed with an effusion of royal blood, and the whole ended with their insisting upon my giving them the instrument itself, which I was obliged to do, after cupping two of their slaves before them, who had no complaints, merely to shew them how the operation was to be performed.

Another night I was obliged to attend them, and gave the queens, and two or three of the great ladies, vomits. I will spare my reader the recital of so nauseous a scene. The ipecacuanha had great effect, and warm water was drunk very copiously. The patients were numerous, and the floor of the room received all the evacuations. It was most prodigiously hot, and the horrid, black figures, moaning and groaning with sickness all around me, gave me, I think, some slight idea of the punishment in the world below. My mortifications, however, did not stop here. I observed that, in coming into their presence, the queens were all covered with cotton shirts; but no sooner did their complaints make part of our conversation, than, to my utmost surprise, each of them, in her turn, stript herself entirely naked, laying her cotton shirt loosely on her lap as she sat cross-legged like a tailor. The custom of going naked in these warm countries abolishes all delicacy concerning it. I could not but observe that the breasts of each of them reached the length of their knees.

This exceeding confidence on their part, they thought merited some consideration on mine; and it was not without great astonishment that I heard the queen desire to see me in the like dishabille in which she had spontaneously put herself. The whole court of female attendants flocked to the spectacle. Refusal, or resistance, were in vain. I was surrounded with fifty or sixty women, all equal in stature and strength to myself. The whole of my cloathing was, like theirs, a long loose shirt of blue Surat cotton cloth, reaching from the neck down to the feet. The only terms I could possibly, and that with great difficulty, make for myself were, that they should be contented to strip me no farther than the shoulders and breast. Upon seeing the whiteness of my skin, they gave all a loud cry in token of dislike, and shuddered, seeming to consider it rather the effects of disease than natural. I think in my life I never felt so disagreeably. I have been in more than one battle, but surely I would joyfully have taken my chance again in any of them to have been freed from that examination. I could not help likewise reflecting, that, if the king had come in during this exhibition, the consequence would either have been impaling, or stripping off that skin whose colour they were so curious about; tho' I can solemnly declare there was not an idea in my breast, since ever I had the honour of seeing these royal beauties, that could have given his majesty of Sennaar the smallest reason for jealousy; and I believe the same may be said of the sentiments of the ladies in what regarded me. Ours was a mutual passion, but dangerous to no one concerned. I returned home with very different sensations from those I had felt after an interview with the beautiful Aiscach of Teawa. Indeed, it was impossible to be more chagrined at, or more disgusted with, my present situation than I was, and the more so, that my delivery from it appeared to be very distant, and the circumstances were more and more unfavourable every day.

An event happened which added to my distress. Going one evening to wait upon the king, and being already within the palace, passing through a number of rooms that are now totally deserted, where the court of guard used to be kept, I met Mahomet, the king's servant, who accompanied us from Teawa. Such people, though in reality often enough drunk, yet if they happen to be sober at the time of their committing a crime, counterfeit drunkenness, in order to avail themselves of it as an excuse. This fellow, seeing me alone, came staggering up to me, saying, "Damn you, Yagoube, I have met you now, pay me for the trouble of going for you to Teawa;" and with that he put his arm to lay hold of me by the breast. I said to him, "Off hands, you ruffian;" and, taking him by the arm, I gave him such a push that he had very near fallen backward; on which he cried out, in great fury, "Give me fifty patakas (about twelve guineas) or I'll ham-string you this instant." I had always pistols in my pocket for an extremity; but I could not consider this drunkard, though armed, to have reduced me to that situation; I therefore immediately closed upon him, and, catching him by the throat, gave him a violent wrench backward, which threw him upon the ground. I then took his sword out of his hand; and in the instant my black servant Soliman appeared, who had staid behind conversing with some acquaintance in the street. Several other black companions of this rascal likewise appeared; part seemed to defend, and part to intercede for him, but none to condemn him. Soliman, however, insisted upon carrying him before the king with his drawn sword in his hand. But how were we surprised, when the king's answer to our complaint was, "That the man was drunk, and that the people in that country were not used to see franks, like me, walking in the street." He then gave Soliman a sharp reproof for having the presumption, as he called it, to disarm one of his servants in his palace, and immediately ordered his sword to be restored him.

We were retiring full of thoughts what might be the occasion of this reception, when we were met by Kittou, Adelan's brother, who was left with the care of the town. I told the whole affair. He heard me very attentively, and with apparent concern. "It is all the king's fault; every slave does what he pleases, said he. If I mention this to Adelan, he will order the drunkard's head to be struck off before the palace-gate. But it is better for you that nothing of this kind happen while you are here. Mahomet Abou Kalec is daily expected, and all these things will be put upon another footing. In the mean time, keep at home as much as possible, and never go out without two or three black people along with you, servants, or others. While you are in my brother's house, as you now are, and we alive, there is no body dares molest you, and you are perfectly at liberty to refuse or admit any person you please, whether they come from the king or not, by only saying, Adelan forbids you. I will answer for the rest. The less you come here the better, and never venture into the street at night."

At this instant a message from the king called him in. I went away, better satisfied than before, because I now had learned there was a place in that town where I could remain in safety, and I was resolved there to await the arrival of Abou Kalec, to whom I looked up as to the means Providence was to use to free me from the designs the king was apparently meditating against me. I was more confirmed in the belief of these bad intentions, by a conversation he had with Hagi Belal, to whom he said, That he was very credibly informed I had along with me above 2000 ounces of gold, besides a quantity of silver, and rich embroideries from India, from which last place, and not from Cairo, I was come as a merchant, and not a physician. I resolved, therefore, to keep close at home, and to put into some form the observations that I had made upon this extraordinary government; a monarchy that had started up, as it were, in our days, and of which no traveller has as yet given the smallest account.

CHAP. IX. Conversations with Achmet—History and Government of Sennaar—Heat—Diseases—Trade of that Country—The Author's distressed Situation—Leaves Sennaar.

From Salidan's time, till the conquest of Selim emperor of the Turks, who finished the reign of the Mamalukes by the murder of Tomum Bey, that is, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, the Arabs in Nubia and Beja, and the several countries above Egypt, had been incorporated with the old indigenous inhabitants of those territories, which were the Shepherds, and, upon conversion of these last to the Mahometan religion, had become one people with those Saracens who over-ran this country in the Khalifat of Omar. The only distinction that remained was, that the Arabs continued their old manner of life in tents, while the indigenous inhabitants lived in huts, mostly by the sides of rivers, and among plantations of date-trees.

It must be, however, remembered, that this, though a pretty general observation, does not hold without exception; for the Arabs of Mahomet's own family, the Beni Koreish, mostly lived in towns, such as Mecca, Tajef, and Medina, especially after the expulsion of the Jews and the establishment of his empire. Many also of these, who came over to Beja and the eastern part of Nubia, continued their practice of living in small towns or villages, and were distinguished by the name of Jaheleen: This appellation, literally interpreted, signifies Pagans; but by extention, the ancient races of Arabs converted immediately from Paganism to the Mahometan faith, by Mahomet himself, without having ever embraced Christianity, or any other Pagan superstition besides pure Sabaism, and this was the old religion of Arabia, and of the whole peninsula of Africa to the Western Ocean. These Jaheleen are generally known by their name, referring to men of consideration in the time of Mahomet's life, whom they call their father, or to some circumstance relating to Mahomet himself. An example of the first of the race is, Rabatab, that is, Rabat was our father, or, "we are the children of Rabat." An example of the second is the Macabrab, or, the sepulchre is our father, meaning the sepulchre of their prophet at Medina.

These Jaheleen are, as I have said, truly noble Arabs of the race of Beni Koreish. Though they live in villages, they are the most dangerous and most fanatic wretches a traveller can meet. All this country, though nominally subject to Egypt for the sake of trade, had their own prince of the race of Beni Koreish, whose title was Welled Ageeb, Son of the Good, which was his general inauguration name; and, besides this, he was called Ali, or Mahomet Welled Ageeb, which is part of his title, or, as it were, his Christian name added to that of his family. This prince was, nevertheless, but the Shekh of all the Arabs, to whom they paid a tribute to enable him to maintain his dignity, and a sufficient strength to keep up order and inforce his decrees in public matters. As for œconomical ones, each tribe was under the government of its own Shekh, old men, fathers of families in each clan.

The residence of this Arab prince, called for shortness Wed Ageeb, was at Gerri, a town in the very limits of the tropical rains, immediately upon the ferry which leads across the Nile to the desert of Bahiouda, and the road to Dongola and Egypt, joining the great desert of Selima. This was a very well-chosen situation, it being a toll-gate, as it were, to catch all the Arabs that had flocks, who, living within the rains in the country which was all of fat earth, were every year, about the month of May, obliged by the fly to pass, as it were, in review, to take up their abode in the sandy desert without the tropical rains. By the time fair weather returned in the fertile part of the country to the southward, and freed them from the fly, all sorts of verdure had grown up in great luxuriancy, while hunger stared them now in the face among the sands to the northward, where every thing eatable had been consumed by the multitudes of cattle that had taken refuge there. The Arab chief, with a large army of light, unincumbered horse, stood in the way of their return to their pastures, till they had paid the uttermost farthing of tribute, including arrears, if any there were. Such was the state and government of the whole of this vast country, from the frontiers of Egypt to those of Abyssinia, at the beginning of the 16th century.

In the year 1504, a black nation, hitherto unknown, inhabiting the western banks of the Bahar el Abiad, in about latitude 13°, made a descent, in a multitude of canoes, or boats, upon the Arab provinces, and in a battle near Herbagi, they defeated Wed Ageeb, and forced him to a capitulation, by which the Arabs were to pay to their conquerors, in the beginning, one half of their stock, and every subsequent year, one-half of the increase, which was to be levied at the time of their passing into the sands to avoid the fly. Upon this condition, the Arabs were to enjoy their former possessions unmolested, and Wed Ageeb his place and dignity, that he always might be ready to use coercion in favour of the conquerors, in case any of the distant Arabs refused payment, and he thus became as it were their lieutenant.

This race of negroes is, in their own country, called Shillook. They founded Sennaar, less advantageously situated than Gerri, and removed the seat of government of Wed Ageeb to Herbagi, that he might be more immediately under their own eye. It was the year 1504 of the Christian æra that Amru, son of Adelan, the first of their sovereigns on the eastern side of the Nile, founded this monarchy, and built Sennaar, which hath ever since been the capital. From this period, till the time when I was at Sennaar, 266 years had elapsed, in which 20 kings had reigned, that is, from Amru the first, to Ismain the present king. He was about 34 years of age, and had reigned three years, so that, notwithstanding the long reigns of Amba Rabat the first, and the two Baadys, the duration of the reigns of the kings of Sennaar will be but 13 years upon an average; eight of the twenty have been deposed, and Ismain the present king stands the fairest chance possible of being very soon the 9th of that number.

At the establishing of this monarchy, the king, and the whole nation of Shillook, were Pagans. They were soon after converted to Mahometism, for the sake of trading with Cairo, and took the name of Funge, which they interpret sometimes lords, or conquerors, and, at other times, free citizens. All that can be said with certainty of this term, as there is no access to the study of their language, is, that it is applicable to those only that have been born east of the Bahar el Abiad. It does not seem to me that they should pride themselves in being free citizens, because the first title of nobility in this country is that of slave; indeed there is no other. Upon any appearance of your undervaluing a man at Sennaar, he instantly asks you if you know who he is? if you don't know that he is a slave, in the same idea of aristocratical arrogance, as would be said in England upon an altercation, do you know to whom you are speaking? do you know that I am a peer? All titles and dignities are undervalued, and precarious, unless they are in the hands of one who is a slave. Slavery in Sennaar is the only true nobility.

As I do not know that the names of these sovereigns are to be found any where else, I have set them down here. The record from which I drew them is at least as extraordinary as any part of their history; it was the hangman's roll, or register. It is one of the singularities which obtains among this brutish people, that the king ascends his throne under an admission that he may be lawfully put to death by his own subjects or slaves, upon a council being held by the great officers, if they decree that it is not for the advantage of the state that he be suffered to reign any longer. There is one officer of his own family, who, alone, can be the instrument of shedding his sovereign and kinsman's blood. This officer is called, Sid el Coom, master of the king's household, or servants, but has no vote in deposing him; nor is any guilt imputed to him, however many of his sovereigns he thus regularly murders. Achmet Sid el Coom, the present licensed parricide, and resident in Ismain's palace, had murdered the late king Nasser, and two of his sons that were well grown, besides a child at his mother's breast; and he was expecting every day to confer the same favour upon Ismain; though at present there was no malice on the one part nor jealousy on the other, and I believe both of them had a guess of what was likely to happen. It was this Achmet, who was very much my friend, that gave me a list of the kings that had reigned, how long their reign lasted, and whether they died a natural death, or were deposed and murdered.

This extraordinary officer was one of the very few that shewed me any attention or civility at Sennaar. He had been violently tormented with the gravel, but had found much ease from the use of soap-pills that I had given him, and this had produced, on his part, no small degree of gratitude and friendship; he was also subject to the epilepsy, but this he was persuaded was witchcraft, from the machinations of an enemy who resided far off. I often staid at his house all night, when he suffered excessive pains, and I may say then only I was in safety.

Achmet seemed, by strange accident, to be one of the gentlest spirits of any that it was my misfortune to converse with at Sennaar. He was very little attached to, or convinced of, the truth of the Mahometan religion, and as little zealous or instructed in his own. He used often to qualify his ignorance, or disbelief, by saying, that any, or no religion, was better than that of a Christian. His place of birth was in a village of Fazuclo, and it appeared to me that he was still a Pagan. He was constantly attended by Nuban priests, powerful conjurers and sorcerers, if you believed him. I often conversed with these in great freedom, when it happened they understood Arabic, and from them I learned many particulars concerning the situation of the inland part of the country, especially that vast ridge of mountains, Dyre and Tegla, which run into the heart of Africa to the westward, whence they say anciently they came, after having been preserved there from a deluge. I asked them often, (powerful as they were in charms), Why they did not cure Achmet of the gravel, or epilepsy? Their answer was, That it was a Christian devil, and not subject to their power.

Achmet did not believe that I was a Christian, knew I was no Mahometan, but thought I was like himself, something between the two, nor did I ever undeceive him. I was no missionary, nor had I any care of souls, nor desire to enter into conversation about religion with a man whose only office was to be the deliberate murderer of his sovereign. He spoke good Arabic, was offended at no question, but answered freely, and without reserve, whether about the country, religion, or government, or the post which he enjoyed, if we can term it enjoying an office created for such horrid crimes. He told me, with great coolness, in answer to a question why he murdered Nasser's son in his father's presence, that he did not dare to do otherwise from duty to Nasser, whose right it was to see his son slain in a regular and lawful manner, and this was by cutting his throat with a sword, and not by a more ignominious and painful death, which, if it had not been done in the father's sight, the vengeance of his enemies might have suggested and inflicted. He said, that Nasser was very little concerned at the spectacle of his son's death, but very loth when it came to his turn to die himself; that he urged him often to suffer him to escape, but, finding this in vain, he submitted without resistance. He told me, Ismain, the present king, stood upon very precarious ground; that both the brothers, Adelan and Abou Kalec, were at the head of armies in the field; that Kittou had at his disposal all the forces that were in Sennaar; and that the king was little esteemed, and had neither experience, courage, friends, money, nor troops.

I asked him if he was not afraid, when he entered into the king's presence, lest he, too, might take it into his head to shew him, that to die or be slain was not so slight a matter as he made of it. He said, "By no means; that it was his duty to be with the king the greatest part of the morning, and necessarily once very late in the evening; that the king knew he had no hand in the wrong that might be done to him, nor any way advanced his death; but, being come to the point that he must die, the rest was only a matter of decency, and it would undoubtedly be the object of his choice rather to be slain by the hands of his own relation in private, than those of a hired assassin, an Arab, or a Christian slave, in public view before the populace." When Baady the king's father was taken prisoner, and sent to Teawa to Welled Hassan governor of Atbara, (Shekh Fidele's father) Adelan ordered him to be put to death there, and Welled Hassan carried that order into execution. The king being always armed, was stout, and seemed to be upon his guard; and Welled Hassan found no way of killing him but by thrusting him through the back with a lance while washing his hands. The people murmured against Adelan exceedingly, not on account of the murder itself, but the manner of it, and Welled Hassan was afterwards put to death himself, though he acted by express orders, because, not being the officer appointed, he had killed the king, and next, because he had done it with a lance, whereas the only lawful instrument was a sword.

I have already said, that it was the year of the Hegira, answering to 1504 of the Christian æra, that this people, called Shillook, built the town of Sennaar, and established their monarchy, which has now subsisted under a succession of twenty kings of the same family.

List of the Kings of Sennaar.

Years reigned. A. D.

Amru, son of Adelan, began his reign in the year 1504, and reigned 30 1534

Neil, his son, 17 1551

Abdelcader, son of Amru, 8 1559

Amru, son of Neil, deposed, 11 1570

Dekin, son of Neil, 17 1587

Douro, his son, deposed, 3 1590

Tiby, son of Abdelcader, 3 1593

Ounsa, deposed, 13 1606

Abdelcader, son of Ounsa, deposed, 4 1610

Adelan, son of Ounsa, deposed, 5 1615

Baady, son of Abdelcader, 6 1621

Rebat, son of Baady, 30 1651

Baady, his son, 38 1689

Ounsa, son of Nasser son of Rebat, 12 1701

Baady el Achmer, his son, 25 1726

Ounsa, his son, deposed, 3 1729

L'Oul, son of Baady, 4 1733

Baady, his son, deposed, 33 1766

Nasser, his son, deposed, 3 1769

Ismain, 3 1772

Although these kings began with a very remarkable conquest, it does not appear they added much to their kingdom afterwards. Ounsa, son of Nasser, is said to have first subdued the province of Fazuclo. I shall but make three observations upon this list, which is undoubtedly authentic. The first is, that this monarchy having been established in the 1504, it must answer to the 9th year of the reign of Naod in the Abyssinian annals, as that prince began to reign in 1495.—The second is, that Tecla Haimanout, the son of Yasous the Great, writing to Baady el Achmer, or the White, who was the son of Ounsa, about the murder of M. du Roule the French Ambassador, in the beginning of this century, speaks of the ancient friendship that had subsisted between the kings of Abyssinia and those of Sennaar, ever since the reign of Kim, whom he mentions as one of Baady's remote predecessors on the throne of Sennaar. Now, in the whole list of kings we have just given, we do not find one of the name of Kim; nor is there one word mentioned of a king of Sennaar, or a treaty with him, in the whole annals of Abyssinia, till the beginning of Socinios's reign. I therefore imagine that the Kim[37], which Tecla Haimanout informs us his predecessors corresponded with in ancient times, was a prince, who, under the command of the Caliph of Cairowan, in the kingdom of Tunis in Africa, took Cairo and fortified it, by surrounding it with a strong wall, and who reigned, by himself and successors, 100 years, from 998 to 1101, when Hadec, the last prince of that race, was slain by Salidan, first Soldan of Egypt, with which country the Abyssinians at that time were in constant correspondence, though I never heard they were with Sennaar, which indeed did not exist at that time, nor was there either city or kingdom till the reign of Naod; so it was a correspondence with the sovereigns of Cairo, Tecla Haimanout mistook for that with Sennaar, which monarchy was not then founded.—The third observation is, that this Baady el Achmer, being the very king who murdered M. du Roule in 1704, did, nevertheless, live till the year 1726, having reigned 25 years; whereas M. de Maillet[38] writes to his court, that this prince had been defeated and slain in a battle he had with the Arabs, under their Shekh at Herbagi in 1705.

Upon the death of a king of Sennaar, his eldest son succeeds by right; and immediately afterwards as many of the brothers of the reigning prince as can be apprehended are put to death by the Sid el Coom, in the manner already described. Achmet, one of the sons of Baady, brother of Nasser, and Ismain now on the throne, fled, upon his brother's accession, to the frontiers of Kuara, and gathering together about a hundred of the Ganjar horse, he came to Gondar, and was kindly received by the Iteghé, who persuaded him to be baptised. Some time after he returned to Kuara, and joined the king's army a little before the battle of Serbraxos, with about the same number of horse, and there he misbehaved, taking flight upon the first appearance of the enemy, before a man was killed or wounded on either side. He was graceful in his person and carriage, but a liar and drunkard beyond all conception.

The practice which obtains at Sennaar of murdering all the collaterals of the royal family, seems to be but a part of the same idea[39] which prevails in Abyssinia, of confining the princes all their lives upon a mountain. The difference of treatment, in cases perfectly parallel, seems to offer a just manner of judging, how much the one people surpasses the other in barbarity of manners and disposition. In Abyssinia, the princes are confined for life on a mountain, and in Sennaar they are murdered in their father's sight, in the palace where they were born.

As in Abyssinia, so neither in Sennaar do women succeed to sovereignty. No historical reason is given for this exclusion. It probably was a rule brought from El-aice, their own country, before founding their monarchy, for the very contrary prevailed among the Shepherds, whom they subdued in Atbara. The princesses, however, in Abyssinia, are upon a much better footing than those of Sennaar. These last have no state nor settled income, and are regarded very little more than the daughters of private individuals. Among that crowd of women which I saw the two nights I was in the palace, there were many princesses, sisters of the king, as I was after told. At that time they were not distinguishable by their manners, nor was any particular mark of respect shewn them.

The royal family were originally Negroes, and remain so still, when their mothers have been black like themselves; but when the king has happened to marry an Arab woman, as he often does, the black colour of the father cedes to the white of the mother, and the child is white. Such was the case of Baady, therefore named Achmer; his father Rebat was black, but marrying an Arab, his son who succeeded him was white. The last Baady who was slain at Teawa was a perfect Negro; and by a slave from his own country he had the late king Nasser, who, like his father, was a perfect black. By an Arab of the tribe of Daveina he had Ismain the present king, who is white, and so it has invariably happened in the royal family, as well as in private ones. But what is still more extraordinary, though equally true, an Arab who is white, marrying a black woman slave, has infallibly white children. I will not say that this is so universal as that an example of the contrary may not be found, but all the instances I happened to see confirmed this. The Arabs, from choice, cohabit only with Negro women in the hot months of summer, on account of the remarkable coolness of their skins, in which they are said to differ from the Arab women; but I never saw one black Arab in the kingdom of Sennaar, notwithstanding the generality of this intercourse.

There is a constant mortality among the children in and about this metropolis, insomuch that, in all appearance, the people would be extinct were they not supplied by a number of slaves brought from all the different countries to the southward. The men, however, are strong and remarkable for size, but short-lived, owing, probably, to their indulging themselves in every sort of excess from their very infancy. This being the case, this climate must have undergone a strange revolution, as Sennaar is but a small distance from where the ancients place the Macrobii, a nation so called from the remarkable length of their lives. But perhaps these were mountaineers from the frontiers of Kuara, being described as having gold in their territory, and are the race now called Guba. It is very remarkable, that, though they are Mahometans, they are so brutal, not to say indelicate, with regard to their women, that they sell their slaves after having lived with, and even had children by them. The king himself, it is said, is often guilty of this unnatural practice, utterly unknown in any other Mahometan country.

Once in his reign the king is obliged, with his own hand, to plow and sow a piece of land. From this operation he is called Baady, the countryman or peasant; it is a name common to the whole race of kings, as Cæsar was among the Romans, though they have generally another name peculiar to each person, and this not attended to has occasioned confusion in the narrative given by strangers writing concerning them.

No horse, mule, ass, or any beast of burden, will breed, or even live at Sennaar, or many miles about it. Poultry does not live there. Neither dog nor cat, sheep nor bullock, can be preserved a season there. They must go all, every half year, to the sands. Though all possible care be taken of them, they die in every place where the fat earth is about the town during the first season of the rains. Two greyhounds which I brought from Atbara, and the mules which I brought from Abyssinia, lived only a few weeks after I arrived. They seemed to have some inward complaint, for nothing appeared outwardly. The dogs had abundance of water, but I killed one of them from apprehension of madness. Several kings have tried to keep lions, but no care could prolong their lives beyond the first rains. Shekh Adelan had two, which were in great health, being kept with his horses at grass in the sands but three miles from Sennaar: neither rose, nor any species of jessamin, grow here; no tree but the lemon flowers near the city, that ever I saw; the rose has been often tried, but in vain.

Sennaar is in lat. 13° 34´ 36´´ north, and in long. 33° 30´ 30´´ east from the meridian of Greenwich. It is on the west side of the Nile, and close upon the banks of it. The ground whereon it stands rises just enough to prevent the river from entering the town, even in the height of the inundation, when it comes to be even with the street. Poncet says, that when he was at this city, his companion, father Brevedent, a Jesuit, an able mathematician, on the 21st of March 1699, determined the latitude of Sennaar to be 13° 4´ N. the difference therefore will be about half a degree. The reader however may implicitly rely upon the situation I have given it, being the mean result of above fifty observations, made both night and day, on the most favourable occasions, by a quadrant of three feet radius, and telescopes of two, and sometimes of three feet focal length, both reflectors and refractors made by the best masters.

The town of Sennaar is very populous, there being in it many good houses after the fashion of the country. Poncet says, in his time they were all of one storey high; but now the great officers have all houses of two. They have parapet roofs, which is a singular construction; for in other places, within the rains, the roofs are all conical. The houses are all built of clay, with very little straw mixed with it, which sufficiently shews the rains here must be less violent than to the southward, probably from the distance of the mountains. However, when I was there, a week of constant rain happened, and on the 30th of July the Nile increased violently, after loud thunder, and a great darkness to the south. The whole stream was covered with wreck of houses, canes, wooden bowls, and platters, living camels and cattle, and several dead ones passed Sennaar, hurried along by the current with great velocity. A hyæna, endeavouring to cross before the town, was surrounded and killed by the inhabitants. The water got into the houses that stand upon its banks, and, by rising several feet high, the walls melted, being clay, which occasioned several of them to fall. It seemed, by the floating wreck of houses that appeared in the stream, to have destroyed a great many villages to the southward towards Fazuclo.

The soil of Sennaar, as I have already said, is very unfavourable both to man and beast, and particularly adverse to their propagation. This seems to me to be owing to some noxious quality of the fat earth with which it is every way surrounded, and nothing may be depended upon more surely than the fact already mentioned, that no mare, or she-beast of burden, ever foaled in the town, or in any village within several miles round it. This remarkable quality ceases upon removing from the fertile country to the sands. Aira, between three and four miles from Sennaar, with no water near it but the Nile, surrounded with white barren sand, agrees perfectly with all animals, and here are the quarters where I saw Shekh Adelan the minister's horse, (as I suppose, for their numbers) by far the finest in the world, where in safety he watched the motion of his sovereign, who, shut up in his capital of Sennaar, could not there maintain one horse to oppose him.

But however unfavourable this soil may be for the propagation of animals, it contributes very abundantly both to the nourishment of man and beast. It is positively said to render three hundred for one, which, however confidently advanced, is, I think, both from reason and appearance, a great exaggeration. It is all sown with dora, or millet, the principal food of the natives. It produces also wheat and rice, but these at Sennaar are sold by the pound, even in years of plenty. The salt made use of at Sennaar is all extracted from the earth about it, especially at Halfaia, so strongly is the soil impregnated with this useful fossile.

About twelve miles from Sennaar, nearly to the N. W. is a collection of villages called Shaddly, from a great saint, who in his time directed large pits to be dug, and plastered closely within with clay, into which a quantity of grain was put when it was at the cheapest, and these were covered up, and plastered again at the top, which they call sealing, and the hole itself matamore. These matamores are in great number all over the plain, and, on any prospect of corn growing dearer, they are opened, and corn sold at a low price both to the town and country.

To the north of Shaddly, about twenty-four miles, is another foundation of this sort, called Wed Aboud, still greater than Shaddly. Upon these two charities the chief subsistence of the Arabs depends; for as there is continual war among these people, and their violence being always directed against the crops rather than the persons of their enemies, the destruction of each tribe would follow the loss of its harvest, was it not for the extraordinary supplies furnished at such times by these granaries.

The small villages of soldiers are scattered up and down through this immense plain to watch the grain that is sown, which is dora only, and it is said that here the ground will produce no other grain. Prodigious excavations are made at proper distances, which fill with water in the rainy season, and are a great relief to the Arabs in their passage between the cultivated country and the sands. The fly, that inexorable persecutor of the Arabs, never pursues them to the north of Shaddly. The knowledge of this circumstance was what, perhaps, determined the first builders of Sennaar to place their capital here; this too, probably, induced the two saints, Shaddly and Wed Aboud, to make here these vast excavations for corn and water. This is the first resting-place the Arabs find, where, having all things necessary for subsistence, they can at leisure transact their affairs with government.

To the westward of Shaddly and Aboud, as far as the river Abiad, or El-aice, the country is full of trees, which make it a favourite station for camels. As Shaddly is not above three hours ride on horseback from Sennaar, there could not be chosen a situation more convenient for levying the tribute; for though Gerri, from the favourable situation of the ground, being mountainous and rocky, and just on the extremity of the rains, was a place properly chosen for this purpose by the Arab prince before the conquest of the Funge, (for his troops there cut them off, either from the sands, or the fertile country, as he pleased), yet many of them might have remained behind at Shaddly, and to the westward, free from the terror of the fly, and consequently without any necessity of advancing so far north as Gerri, and there subjecting themselves to contribution.

In this extensive plain, near Shaddly, arise two mountainous districts, the one called Jibbel Moia, or the Mountain of Water, which is a ridge of considerable hills nearly of the same height, closely united; and the other Jibbel Segud, or the Cold Mountain, a broken ridge composed of parts, some high and some low, without any regular form. Both these enjoy a fine climate, and are full of inhabitants, but of no considerable extent. They serve for a protection to the Daheera, or farms of Shaddly and Wed Aboud. They are also fortresses in the way of the Arabs, to detain and force them to payment in their flight from the cultivated country and rains to the dry lands of Atbara. Each of these districts is governed by the descendant of their ancient and native princes, who long resisted all the power of the Arabs, having both horse and foot. They continued to be Pagans till the conquest of the Funge. Bloody and unnatural sacrifices were said to have been in use in these mountainous states, with horrid circumstances of cruelty, till Abdelcader, son of Amru, the third of the kings of Sennaar, about the year 1554, besieged first the one and then the other of these princes in their mountain, and forced them to surrender; and, having fastened a chain of gold to each of their ears, he exposed them in the public market-place at Sennaar in that situation, and sold them to the highest bidder, at the vile price of something like a farthing each. After this degradation, being circumcised, and converted to the Mahometan religion, they were restored each to their government, as slaves of Sennaar, upon very easy conditions of tribute, and have been faithful ever since.

Nothing is more pleasant than the country around Sennaar, in the end of August and beginning of September, I mean so far as the eye is concerned; instead of that barren, bare waste, which it appeared on our arrival in May, the corn now sprung up, and covering the ground, made the whole of this immense plain appear a level, green land, interspersed with great lakes of water, and ornamented at certain intervals with groups of villages, the conical tops of the houses presenting, at a distance, the appearance of small encampments. Through this immense, extensive plain, winds the Nile, a delightful river there, above a mile broad, full to the very brim, but never overflowing. Every where on these banks are seen numerous herds of the most beautiful cattle of various kinds, the tribute recently extorted from the Arabs, who, freed from all their vexations, return home with the remainder of their flocks in peace, at as great a distance from the town, country, and their oppressors, as they possibly can.

The banks of the Nile about Sennaar resemble the pleasantest parts of Holland in the summer season; but soon after, when the rains cease, and the sun exerts his utmost influence, the dora begins to ripen, the leaves to turn yellow and to rot, the lakes to putrify, smell, and be full of vermin, all this beauty suddenly disappears; bare, scorched Nubia returns, and all its terrors of poisonous winds and moving sands, glowing and ventilated with sultry blasts, which are followed by a troop of terrible attendants, epilepsies, apoplexies, violent fevers, obstinate agues, and lingering, painful dysenteries, still more obstinate and mortal.

War and treason seem to be the only employment of this horrid people, whom Heaven has separated, by almost impassable deserts, from the rest of mankind, confining them to an accursed spot, seemingly to give them earnest in time of the only other worse which he has reserved to them for an eternal hereafter.

The dress of Sennaar is very simple. It consists of a long shirt of blue Surat cloth called Marowty, which covers them from the lower part of the neck down to their feet, but does not conceal the neck itself; and this is the only difference between the men's and the women's dress; that of the women covers their neck altogether, being buttoned like ours. The men have sometimes a sash tied about their middle; and both men and women go bare-footed in the house, even those of the better sort of people. Their floors are covered with Persian carpets, especially the women's apartments. In fair weather, they wear sandals; and without doors they use a kind of wooden patten, very neatly ornamented with shells. In the greatest heat at noon, they order buckets of water to be thrown upon them instead of bathing. Both men and women anoint themselves, at least once a-day, with camels grease mixed with civet, which they imagine softens their skin, and preserves them from cutaneous eruptions, of which they are so fearful, that the smallest pimple in any visible part of their body keeps them in the house till it disappears. For the same reason, though they have a clean shirt every day, they use one dipt in grease to lie in all night, as they have no covering but this, and lie upon a bull's hide, tanned, and very much softened by this constant greasing, and at the same time very cool, though it occasions a smell that no washing can free them from.

The principal diet of the poorer sort is millet, made into bread or flour. The rich make a pudding of this, toasting the flour before the fire, and pouring milk and butter into it; besides which, they eat beef, partly roasted and partly raw. Their horned cattle are the largest and fattest in the world, and are exceedingly fine; but the common meat sold in the market is camels flesh. The liver of the animal, and the spare rib, are always eaten raw through the whole country. I never saw one instance where it was dressed with fire: it is not then true that eating raw flesh is peculiar to Abyssinia; it is practised in this instance of camels flesh in all the black countries to the westward.

Hogs flesh is not sold in the market; but all the people of Sennaar eat it publicly: men in office, who pretend to be Mahometans, eat theirs in secret. The Mahometan religion made a very remarkable progress among the Jews and Christians on the Arabian, or eastern side of the Red Sea, and soon after also in Egypt; but it was either received coolly, or not at all, by the Pagans on the west side, unless when, after a signal victory, it was strongly enforced by the sword of the conqueror.

The Saracens, who over-ran this country, were bigots in their religion, as their posterity continue to be at this day. They have preserved the language of the Koran in its ancient purity, and adhere rigidly to the letter of its precepts. They either extirpated the Pagans, or converted them; but this power and tyranny of the Saracens received a check, both in Egypt and Arabia, about the 16th century, by Selim, who established Turkish garrisons in all their principal places on the frontiers of Beja, or Barbaria, and in the Ber el Ajam, or ancient Azamia, along the west coast of the Red Sea.

These Turks were all truly atheists in their hearts, who despised the zeal of the Arabs, and oppressed them so, that Paganism again ventured to shew its head. The Shillook, as I have said before, made an eruption into Beja, and conquered the whole of that country. They became masters of the Arabs, and embraced their religion as a form, but never anxiously followed the law of Mahomet, which did not hold out to them that liberty and relaxation by which it had tempted the Jews and Christians. These the law of Mahomet had freed from many restraints upon pleasures and pursuits forbidden by the gospel, and thus made their yoke easier. But it was not so with the Pagan nations. The Mahometan religion diminished their natural liberty, by imposing prayers, ablutions, alms, circumcision, and suchlike, to which before they were under no obligation. The Pagans therefore of Sennaar, and all the little states to the westward, Dar-Fowr, Dar-Sele, Bagirma, Bornou, and Tombucto, and all that country upon the Niger, called Sudan, trouble themselves very little with the detail of the Mahometan religion, which they embraced merely for the sake of personal freedom and advantages in trade; but they are Pagans in their hearts and in their practices, Mahometans in their conversation only. As for the sons of these, they are Pagans like their fathers, unless some Fakir, or Arab saint, takes pains to instruct and teach them to read, otherwise the whole of their religion consists in the confession of faith, "La Illah el Ullah, Mahomet Rasoul Ullah,"—"There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet."

There are three principal governments in the kingdom of Sennaar. The first is at El-aice, the capital of that country, from which the Shillook come. The Bahar el Abiad spreads itself all over the territory, and, divided into a quantity of small channels, (whether by art or nature I know not) surrounds a number of little islands, upon each of which is a village, and this collection of villages is called the town of El-aice. The inhabitants are all fishermen, and have a number of boats, like canoes, in which they sail up and down to the cataracts. With incredible fleets of these their invasion was made when they undertook the conquest of the Arabs, who had not the smallest warning of the attempt. They had, at that time, no weapons of iron: their swords and lances were of a hard wood called Dengui-Sibber. It must be a relation of the Mek of Sennaar that commands at El-aice; and he is never suffered to leave that post, or come to Sennaar.

The second government, next to this in importance, is Kordofan. The revenue consists chiefly in slaves procured from Dyre and Tegla. It seems this situation is the most convenient for invading those mountains, either from its having water in the way, or from some other circumstance that is not known. Mahomet Abou Kalec had this government, and with him about 1000 black horse, armed with coats of mail, with whom he maintained himself at this time independent of the king. It is a frontier nearest to Dar-Fowr, a black state still more barbarous, if possible, than Sennaar, and by them it often has been taken from Sennaar, and again retaken.

The third government is Fazuclo, bounded by the river El-aice on the west, and the Nile on the east, and the mountains of Fazuclo, where are the great cataracts, on the south. These are part of the large chain of mountains of Dyre and Tegla, which reach so far westward into the continent, from whence comes the chief supply both of gold and slaves which constitute the riches of this country; for the greatest part of the revenue of Fazuclo is gold; and the person that commands it is not a Funge, but the same native prince from whom the army of Sennaar conquered it. This seems to be a very remarkable piece of policy in this barbarous nation, which must have succeeded, as they constantly adhere to it, of making the prince of the state they have conquered their lieutenant in the government of his own country afterwards. Such was the case with Dongola, whose Mek they continue; also with Wed Ageeb, prince of the Arabs, whom they subdued; and such was the case with Fazuclo, Wed Aboud, Jibbel Moia, and other petty states, all of which they conquered, but did not change their prince.

The forces at Sennaar, immediately around the capital, consist of about 14,000 Nuba, who fight naked, having no other armour but a short javelin and a round shield, very bad troops, as I suppose; about 1800 horse, all black, mounted by black slaves, armed with coats of mail, and without any other weapon but a broad Sclavonian sword. These I suppose, by the weight and power of man and horse, would bear down, or break through double the number of any other troops in the world: nobody, that has not seen this cavalry, can have any idea to what perfection the horse rises here. The Mek has not one musket in his whole army. Besides these horse, there is a great, but uncertain number of Arabs, who pay their tribute immediately to the Mek and to the great men in government, and live under their protection close by the town, and thereby have the advantage of trading with it, of supplying it with provisions, and, no doubt, must contribute in part to its strength and defence in time of need.

After what I have said of the latitude of Sennaar, it will scarcely be necessary to repeat that the heats are excessive. The thermometer rises in the shade to 119°, but as I have observed of the heats of Arabia, so now I do in respect to those of Sennaar. The degree of the thermometer does not convey any idea of the effect the sun has upon the sensations of the body or the colour of the skin. Nations of blacks live within lat. 13° and 14°, when 10° south of them, nearly under the Line, all the people are white, as we had an opportunity of seeing daily in the Galla, whom we have described. Sennaar, which is in lat. 13°, is hotter, by the thermometer, 50 degrees, when the sun is most distant from it, than Gondar is, though a degree farther south, when the sun is vertical.

Cold and hot are terms merely relative, not determined by the latitude, but elevation of the place; when, therefore, we say hot, some other explanation is necessary concerning the place where we are, in order to give an adequate idea of the sensations of that heat upon the body, and the effects of it upon the lungs. The degree of the thermometer conveys this very imperfectly; 90° is excessively hot at Loheia in Arabia Felix, and yet the latitude of Loheia is but 15°, whereas 90° at Sennaar is, as to sense, only warm, although Sennaar, as we have said, is in lat. 13°.

At Sennaar, then, I call it cold, when one, fully cloathed and at rest, feels himself in want of fire. I call it cool, when one, fully cloathed and at rest, feels he could bear more covering all over, or in part, more than he has then on. I call it temperate, when a man, so cloathed and at rest, feels no such want, and can take moderate exercise, such as walking about a room without sweating. I call it warm, when a man, so cloathed, does not sweat when at rest, but, upon moderate motion, sweats, and again cools. I call it hot, when a man sweats at rest, and excessively on moderate motion. I call it very hot, when a man, with thin or little cloathing, sweats much though at rest. I call it excessive hot, when a man, in his shirt, at rest, sweats excessively, when all motion is painful, and the knees feel feeble as if after a fever. I call it extreme hot, when the strength fails, a disposition to faint comes on, a straitness is found in the temples, as if a small cord was drawn tight around the head, the voice impaired, the skin dry, and the head seems more than ordinary large and light. This, I apprehend, denotes death at hand, as we have seen in the instance of Imhanzara, in our journey to Teawa; but this is rarely or never effected by the sun alone, without the addition of that poisonous wind which pursued us through Atbara, and will be more particularly described in our journey down the desert, to which Heaven, in pity to mankind, has confined it, and where it has, no doubt, contributed to the total extinction of every thing that hath the breath of life. A thermometer graduated upon this scale would exhibit a figure very different from the common one; for I am convinced by experiment, that a web of the finest muslin, wrapt round the body at Sennaar, will occasion at mid-day a greater sensation of heat in the body than the rise of 5° in the thermometer of Fahrenheit.

At Sennaar, from 70° to 78° in Fahrenheit's thermometer is cool; from 79° to 92° temperate; at 92° begins warm. Although the degree of the thermometer marks a greater heat than is felt by the body of us strangers, it seems to me that the sensations of the natives bear still a less proportion to that degree than ours. On the 2d of August, while I was lying perfectly enervated on a carpet, in a room deluged with water, at twelve o'clock, the thermometer at 116°, I saw several black labourers pulling down a house, working with great vigour, without any symptoms of being at all incommoded.

The diseases of Sennaar are the dysentery, or bloody flux, fatal in proportion as it begins with the first of the rains, or the end of them, and return of the fair weather. Intermitting fevers accompany this complaint very frequently, which often ends in them. Bark is a sovereign remedy in this country, and seems to be by so much the surer, that it purges on taking the first doze, and this it does almost without exception. Epilepsies and schirrous livers are likewise very frequent, owing, as is supposed, to their defeating or diminishing perspiration, or stopping the pores by constant unction, as also by the quantity of water they deluge themselves with at the time they are hottest. The influence of the moon in epilepsies, and the certainty with which the third day after the conjunction brings back the paroxysm in regular intermitting fevers, is what naturally surprises people not deeper read than I am in the study of medicine. Those who live much in camps, or in the parts of Atbara far from rivers, have certainly, more or less, the gravel, occasioned, probably, by the use of well-water; for at Sennaar, where they drink of the river, I never saw but one instance of it, that of the Sid el Coom; as for Shekh Ibrahim, whom I shall speak of afterwards, he had passed a great part of his life at Kordofan. The venereal disease is frequent here, but never inveterate, insomuch that it does not prevent the marriage of either sex. Sweating and abstinence never fail to cure it, although, where it had continued for a time, I have known mercury fail.

The elephantiasis, so common in Abyssinia, is not known here. The small-pox is a disease not endemial in the country of Sennaar. It is sometimes twelve or fifteen years without its being known, notwithstanding the constant intercourse they have with, and merchandizes they bring from Arabia. It is likewise said this disease never broke out in Sennaar, unless in the rainy season. However, when it comes, it sweeps away a vast proportion of those that are infected: The women, both blacks and Arabs, those of the former that live in plains, like the Shillook, or inhabitants of El-aice, those of the Nuba and Guba, that live in mountains, all the various species of slaves that come from Dyre and Tegla, from time immemorial have known a species of inoculation which they call Tishteree el Jidderee, or, the buying of the small pox. The women are the conductors of this operation in the fairest and driest season of the year, but never at other times. Upon the first hearing of the small pox any where, these people go to the infected place, and, wrapping a fillet of cotton cloth about the arm of the person infected, they let it remain there till they bargain with the mother how many she is to sell them. It is necessary that the terms be discussed judaically, and that the bargain be not made collusively or gratuitously, but that one piece of silver, or more, be paid for the number. This being concluded, they go home, and tie the fillet about their own child's arm; certain, as they say, from long experience, that the child infected is to do well, and not to have one more than the number of pustules that were agreed and paid for. There is no example, as far as I could learn, either here or in Abyssinia, of this disease returning, that is, attacking any one person more than once.

The trade of Sennaar is not great; they have no manufactures, but the principal article of consumption is blue cotton cloth from Surat. Formerly, when the ways were open, and merchants went in caravans with safety, Indian goods were brought in quantities to Sennaar from Jidda, and then dispersed over the black country. The return was made in gold, in powder called Tibbar, civet, rhinoceros's horns, ivory, ostrich feathers, and, above all, in slaves or glass, more of which was exported from Sennaar than all the east of Africa together. But this trade is almost destroyed, so is that of the gold and ivory. However, the gold still keeps up its reputation of being the purest and best in Africa, and therefore bought at Mocha to be carried to India, where it all at last centers. If the wakea of Abyssinian gold sells at 16 patakas, the Sennaar gold sells at the same place for 22 patakas. The ivory sells at 1½ oz.[40] per rotol at Cairo, which is about 25 per cent lighter than the rotol of Mocha. Men-slaves, at a medium, may be about a wakea per head at Sennaar. There are women, however, who sell for 13 or 14 wakeas. What their peculiar excellencies may be, which so far alters the price, I cannot tell, only they are preferred by rich people, both Turks and Moors, to the Arab, Circassian, and Georgian women, during the warm months in summer.

The Daveina Arabs, who are great hunters, carry the ivory to Abyssinia, where they are not in fear. But no caravan comes now from Sudan[41] to Sennaar, nor from Abyssinia or Cairo. The violence of the Arabs, and the faithlessness of the government of Sennaar, have shut them up on every side but that of Jidda, whether they go once a-year by Suakem.

The wakea of Sennaar, by which they sell gold, civet, scented oils, &c. consists of 10 drams; 10 of these wakeas make a rotol. This wakea at Sennaar is accounted the same as that of Masuah and Cairo. It is equal to 7 drams 57 grains troy weight.

1 Rotol 10 Wakeas.

1 Wakea 10 Drams.

But there is another wakea used by the merchants called the Atareys.

1 Rotol 12 Wakeas.

1 Wakea 12 Drams.

But this is only used for coarse goods. There is but one long measure in Sennaar, called the Draa, which is the peek, or cubit, and is measured from the center of the elbow-joint to the point of the middle finger. This is probably the ancient cubit of Egypt, and of the holy scripture.

I have said, that the 5th and 6th of August it rained, and the river brought down great quantities of fragments of houses which it had swept away from the country to the southward. It was a very unusual sight to observe a multitude of men swimming in this violent current, and then coming ashore riding upon sticks and pieces of timber. Many people make a trade of this, as fuel is exceedingly scarce at Sennaar. But there were other signs in this inundation, that occupied the imagination of this superstitious people. Part of the town had fallen, and a hyæna, as already observed, had come alive across the river, from which the wise ones drew melancholy presages.

I had not been out of the house for two days on account of the rain. On the 7th I intended to have gone to Aira; but on the morning was told by Hagi Belal, that Mahomet Abou Kalec had advanced to the river El-aice, to cross it into Atbara, and that Shekh Adelan had decamped from Aira, and was gone to meet him; to this it was added, that Wed Ageeb had been sent to by the king, to collect all his forces among the Arabs, and join him between Herbagi and Sennaar. It was foreseen, that if this was true, a revolution of some kind was near at hand, probably the deposing and death of the king, and that, in the interim, all subordination would cease in the town, and every man do what seemed good in his own eyes.

Hagi Belal had, besides, told me that Shekh Fidele of Teawa had been several days in the palace with the king, and had informed him that I was laden with money, besides a quantity of cloth of gold, the richest he had ever seen, which the king of Abyssinia had destined as a present to him, but which I had perverted to my own use: He added, that the king had expressed himself in a very threatening manner, and that he was very much afraid I was not in safety if Shekh Adelan was gone from Aira. Upon this I desired Hagi Belal to go to the palace, and obtain for me an audience of the king. In vain he represented to me the risk I ran by this measure; I persisted in my resolution, I was tied to the stake. To fly was impossible, and I had often overcome such dangers by braving them.

He went then unwillingly to the palace. Whether he delivered the message I know not, but he returned saying, the king was busy, and could not be seen. I had, in the interim, sent Soliman to the Gindi, or Sid el Coom, telling him my difficulties, and the news I had heard. In place of returning an answer, he came directly to me himself; and was sitting with me when Hagi Belal returned, who, I thought, appeared somewhat disconcerted at the meeting. He told me the story of Abou Kalec was false, as also that of Wed Ageeb; but it was really true that Shekh Adelan had left Aira, and was then encamped at Shaddly. He chid Hagi Belal very sharply, asking him, what good all that tittle tattle did either to him or me? and insinuated pretty plainly, that he believed Hagi Belal did this in concert with the king, to extort some present from me. "What is the difference to Yagoube, says he, if Shekh Adelan be at Aira, three hours journey from Sennaar, or at Shaddly, five? Is not Kittou in town? and shall not I bring every slave of the king to join him upon the first requisition? At a time like this, will you persuade me, Hagi Belal, the king is not rather thinking of his own safety than of robbing Yagoube? I do not wish that Yagoube should stay a minute longer at Sennaar; but, till some way be found to get necessaries for his journey, it is not in the king's power to hurt him in the house where he is; and he is much safer in Sennaar than he could be any where out of it. Before the king attempts to hurt Yagoube, as long as he stays in Adelan's house, he will think twice of it, while any of the three brothers are alive. But I will speak to Kittou in the evening, and the king too, if I have an opportunity. In the mean time, do you, Yagoube, put your mind at rest, defend yourself if any body attempts to enter this house, and do what you will to those that shall force themselves into it." I then attended him down stairs, with many professions of gratitude; and at the door he said, in a very low voice, to me, "Take care of yon Belal, he is a dog, worse than a Christian."