Chapter IX

The Governor’s dahabeeyeh — A Bedouin feast — Tickling a crocodile — Pyramids at Meroe — A frightened hippopotamus — Their manners — Arrival at Berber — A very pretty investment.

On the first of January we sailed, or rather rowed from Khartoum, in the Governor’s dahabeeyeh with eighteen oars. We fired a salute of twelve guns on passing his Excellency’s house, which brought him out to the balcony, where he stood for some time waving his hand to us. We presently passed “the meeting of the waters,” soon arrived on the broad Nile; indeed, made such way, that by eleven o’clock in the morning we anchored opposite Saiab.

Our dahabeeyeh is much larger than any of the boats at Khartoum: it is about ninety-one feet long, carried eighteen oars, and a crew of twenty- two men. It had two masts, besides the small sail behind; but they are taken down and arranged on the deck. It was built by Mehemet Ali at Cairo, by him brought up to Khartoum through the six cataracts—an unheard-of feat—where it came into the hands of Latiffe Pasha, who caused it to be thoroughly overhauled and made as good as new. The cabin is small—a portion having been devoted to a bath—but though somewhat pinched for room, we contrived to make it do, both by night and by day, without suffering much inconvenience. The men were mostly Nubians, and they pulled us along with immense sweeps.

We continued to proceed slowly towards Berber, making but little progress against the very strong north winds, although the rowers exerted themselves manfully. They were encouraged with promises of money, and with what they much more appreciated, two or three sheep, and prodigious quantities of burra, which they drink with great zest. One day we walked out on the sand, where they were feasting, and watched them devour the stomach of a sheep raw, apparently with extraordinary relish, washing it down with beer, of which, in the course of the day, they contrived to swallow seventeen quarts among them.

We passed several high mountains before we entered the sixth cataract, which was more like the second than the others, and continued for four or six hours among rocks, many of them concealed from sight, which made it dangerous proceeding at night. We shot one little fall of about four feet, nearly opposite Wady Bashava, where we slept on Christmas Eve. The affair was managed with remarkable skill.

We beheld many crocodiles, most of them white, or nearly so—sometimes four basking on a bank—and we shot at one. He rolled over in a great hurry; but being at a distance of a hundred yards, with only a charge of large shot in the gun, we could only have tickled him. These crocodiles, of which, during our passage from Khartoum to Berber, we saw immense quantities, are what are usually called white—grey would be a more exact expression. They are not so large as the black ones, generally speaking. The largest we saw may have been twenty feet long; but they were usually from four to twelve feet only. To give some idea of how numerous these monsters are in this part of the river, I may mention that, on one occasion, looking out of a window of the boat, I counted twenty-seven on one side of the river. We saw also herds of many thousand head of cattle, drinking in various places from the banks—most probably they had come many miles from the interior. Their immense numbers corroborated one of the statements of Latiffe Pasha.

We have only as yet been met by two or three diabeheehs and a few boats of the country; the former hoisted their flags, thinking we were the Pasha, and were considerably mystified on observing our European costumes, with the further botheration of ladies staring at them with all their might; but, borne along by the wind which delayed us, they shot past with their three sails, and were soon far away. The other vessels were large rowing-boats, propelled by three or four men, with paddles of a very small size.

I was called out to observe two crocodiles lying with their paws familiarly round each other’s necks, and their necks on each other’s shoulders. On the other side, I counted nearly three hundred and fifty camels refreshing themselves with a draught. We next observed something like a black rock, which was introduced to us as an hippopotamus; but before we had time to identify it with the telescope, it was gone.

We arrived at Meroe on the evening of the fifth of January, and after breakfast next morning mounted our asses and set off to inspect the “eighty brick pyramids” marked on the map. We passed a considerable breadth of land covered with brick and stone—the ruins of the capital of Ethiopia, subsequently the kingdom of Meroe, while under the rule of Candace.

“That proud Ethiop Queen, that strove

To set her beauties’ praise above

The sea-nymphs.”

After proceeding over the remains of what might either have been her palace or her bath, we soon came in sight of what probably is her monument. We beheld in one place in the vast plain, about twenty-six pyramids. Of these not one was quite perfect, and twelve of the number were shapeless heaps of ruin. On an eminence, about two miles further in the desert, we observed a still greater number of these monuments standing in the form of a semi-circle. Of these eighteen were perfect, except near the top, four a good deal injured, three quite broken down, and six in a straight line. We measured one, and found it forty-seven feet square, and thirty feet high—had been fifty perhaps when perfect. Twenty-one stones formed its elevation up to the broken part, each stone one foot five inches in thickness. The highest pyramid we measured was composed of thirty-six stones, equal to about fifty feet; but like almost all the others it had suffered at the top.

About a quarter of a mile towards the south, on another rising ground, there exist several other pyramids in a more perfect state—about thirteen in all. In the centre is a large and deep hole, whence exhales a strong smell of buried mummy—by no means of a refreshing character. Out of this hole Lepsius has extracted, according to report, numerous sarcophagi of much value. One of our men had been with him, and assured us that the present ruinous state of many of these monuments was produced by his researches.

These pyramids are extremely interesting, as genuine remains of a very remote antiquity, and are as extensive as any of the kind I have seen since leaving Carnac. The map incorrectly designated them brick; they are built of the usual stone—grit sandstone. The summit of nearly all of them may be reached without any great difficulty, the ascent being step- like; but in the highest four stones, some are too smooth. At the top, the inside is solid, with large stones and gravel; and many of those that were pulled down, were solid all the way to the bottom. In front of several, there is a small porch, which, from its lowness, has escaped the ravages of time better than those portions of the building that rear their heads a good deal nearer the skies.

Many very uncouth hieroglyphics are sculptured on the walls; but everything here is well worthy of observation; and not the least so is the prospect of the vast plain, the pink-tinted mountains, and the broad Nile, continually winding along and disappearing.

On the sixth of January, we began to make more progress, and about ten o’clock in the morning, arrived at the most northern tributary of the Nile—rather a small stream, when compared with the immense river into which it falls. The banks of the Atbarah are high, and far apart; but it was quite low water, and the channel appeared half-filled with lupins and beans, sprouting luxuriantly from a bed of mud. To-day, for the first time, I saw a hippopotamus, though some of our party had already beheld two. He was frightened at a shot that had been fired at a crocodile, and rushed for a minute or so out of the water on to the bank, but speedily made a dive into his native mud and disappeared.

This was a very young one, about as large, perhaps, as a small Guernsey cow. Those seen on a former occasion by some of the party, were much more interesting. Two of these enormous beasts were floating unconcernedly, with their immense mouths wide open, and, being pink inside, they very much resembled a mass of butcher’s meat; our ladies voted them plain and even disgusting. They are here very numerous, and commit great ravages; not so much by eating as by trampling down whole fields of corn and beans. They are hardly ever seen during the day; but at night they resort in numbers to the islands on the river, where they take the air unmolested, and roll themselves in fields of grass and lupins.

They are, accordingly, much hated by the natives, who hear them making their peculiar noise, while destroying and ravaging some unhappy Arab’s property. The sufferers do not seem to take very active measures to disperse them; probably as it is Allah’s will, and partly also from their aversion to going out in the dark.

The inhabitants of an island, a short distance below Berber, applied, while we were at Khartoum, for troops to drive away these midnight revellers, and a hundred soldiers were dispatched hippopotami-hunting. Troops are made of all sorts of use in the East; a battalion of infantry was sent boar-hunting in the Delta last year, owing to the great devastation committed by these animals, by rooting up acres of cotton. I think this sporting must be more amusing than the frontier work against the Shellouk tribes, north of Kordofan.

By sunset we came in sight of Berber, on the sixth day of our voyage from Khartoum, which city it much resembled, though its banks sloped a great deal more to the river. Scarcely was the plank adjusted for our stepping ashore, when Mahamet Elmi, the sub-governor of Berber, a well- dressed and curious little Turk, apparently as quiet as a dormouse, came to the boat to pay his respects to us, accompanied by a good-looking cavalry officer, and by one of the handsomest men I had ever seen—he was a priest, and quite a celebrity in the country; of him I shall say more presently. We ascertained that every preparation had been made for us that we could have desired, and that if we insisted we might start at once. We, however, resolved to await the arrival of Ali Bey Hassib, whom we expected hourly.

We here made the acquaintance of Monsieur L——, a gentleman from Bordeaux, who makes annual excursions up the White River. He prefers the climate and society of Berber, to existing in the continual sunshine enjoyed by his compatriots at Khartoum. He finds the air of Berber so healthy, that he has settled himself here—his first step in that direction being the selection of a wife, a beautiful white slave, whom he purchased. How dear she was to him, I really had not the means of ascertaining; but I have no doubt that his capital found what in the city is called “a very pretty investment.” It would not do to sing here—

“Oh! say not woman’s heart is bought.”

The heart finds a market every day, and the rest of her organization is thrown in by way of make-weight. I do not know but what this system has its advantages. The immortal direction of Mrs. Glasse, as to the dressing a hare, is not more to the purpose than would be the suggestions of a Berber bachelor as to the securing a wife: for nothing can be made so completely one’s own, as what we have bought and paid for.