Chapter XII

Mesmerism in Nubia — An Arab Seer — Awkward disclosures — Journey from Berber — Effects of taxation — Scenery of the desert — Gagee — The comfortable point of temperature — Intense heat — Giraffes.

To have such a science as mesmerism flourishing anywhere, is a curious and somewhat perplexing thing, but to have it flourishing in Nubia, here, in the remote district of Berber, is, it must be confessed, a curiosity of the most ultra-curious character.

Wonderful as this is, it is a fact that there is in this town a man—the priest who visited us on board—who has mesmeric trances, during which he discloses the most secret doings of any one who chooses to consult him. The difference between the Nubian and the European mesmerism is, that in the former there are no preliminary passes; none of those wonderful manipulations that are elsewhere found necessary to put the patient in _rapport_ with the inquirer.

In this instance, by long fasting and solitude, the individual mesmerises himself; that is, he contrives without any outward operation to put himself into a trance or sleep, when he becomes in the proper condition to do all sorts of marvels, many of which are quite as startling as anything accomplished by the most successful operators in England, France, and Germany.

We had already had some slight taste of his quality; for on our first arrival, we had stated that Ali Bey Hassib might be expected hourly, but he had predicted that that gentleman would not arrive till the day after the morrow; and he was right. I therefore felt sufficient interest to examine his _modus operandi_. He is an extraordinarily handsome man, with eyes so remarkably sweet in their expression, that they ought to have belonged to a woman; about six feet high, very well proportioned, and of a clean coppery complexion. He wears a cotton blanket, and a scarf gracefully disposed; and without a doubt is the most striking of the many striking figures I have seen in Nubia.

When asked a difficult question he retires, as it were, within himself, falls into a kind of fit, and then gives his answer. Sometimes with a degree of correctness strangely surprising; at others, with a degree of blundering that surprises people a great deal less.

Ali Bey Hassib has put the Seer’s wonderful qualities to the test more than once. On the occasion of a Bey arriving at Berber, he shut the man up in a room, and then the stranger asked him questions respecting himself. The Seer first of all put himself into the mesmeric state, then began to relate the private history of his questioner, with a fidelity that much astonished that gentleman, and made his friend, the Governor of Berber, extremely uncomfortable.

He stated how the Bey had been banished, what was his offence, how he had left his wife and family, with various little matters of detail, that however strange they may have been, were very far from edifying.

A Frenchman here consulted him under similar circumstances; he was informed that his brother was in the 6th Chasseurs, and that France was a beautiful country, well-cultivated, and well-governed. A description satisfactory, no doubt, to the poor exile, but open to doubts of its accuracy from every other quarter. The next subjects the Seer got upon, were railroads and steam-boats; and here he appeared to be much more at home, giving accounts that were wonderful to hear in so remote a corner of the globe.

He never drinks any intoxicating liquors, and, except when mentally excited, is remarkably effeminate-looking. “Take him for all in all,” I very much doubt that we shall look upon his like again.

We were obliged at last to give up wondering, and dismiss the subject of mesmerism in Berber, for others that began to assume a vast deal more importance. The first of these was our departure, and having, with the assistance of Ali Bey Hassib, completed all our arrangements, we paid our parting compliments, and left Berber.

Our camels were not very good ones, except mine—a beautiful white Bashara (best quality), very small and light, but his best recommendation was, that he was a fool; that is to say wild, for which quality I selected him, and rode him very satisfactorily. He was extremely frisky the first few days, and not up to my weight the remaining time.

The Bashara camel is not confined to Nubia. It is a small species, generally white, with two rings burnt under its ear. These rings are perfect, or only semi-circles according to the breeding of the animal. I may here remark, that the only difference I have been able to discover between a camel and a dromedary is, that the latter is a better description of camel. As the race-horse is to the dray-horse, so is the dromedary to the camel; and I have often heard the expressions, “It is nearly a camel,” or “only half a dromedary.”

We passed innumerable villages—at one time as many as five were visible; indeed the country seemed full of villages and cemeteries. For all which the population is very small, and half the houses are uninhabited. This is said to be caused by the immense taxation. Ali Bey has made the proper representations at Cairo, but without the slightest effect. Out of the small province of Berber, the Government at Cairo receives annually six thousand purses. In this highly fertile district there are not more than five thousand persons who can pay anything, and they contribute six pounds a-piece annually, on an average. The consequence of this is, that the river banks for miles and miles are left uncultivated, while the desert swarms with Arabs, who prefer a wretched subsistence in those obscure and arid plains to remaining by the fertile land near the river. It must be added that in the taxation, only a quarter is ever paid in money—the rest in produce, which the Government takes at most favourable prices.

Our route from Berber was no road, scarcely a track, nothing but hard gravelly sand lying at some distance from the river; but we could see to our left, the line of doum palm trees that marked its course, with occasionally some stunted mimosa shrubs, or a few small palms—a very different scene to the one we had been led to expect—which had been tinted up with rich vegetation, brilliant flowers, and birds and insects of the brightest dyes. There are, however, many places along the banks that are extremely picturesque; especially where the stream, apparently small and shallow, forces its way over large stones, here and there interrupted by a verdant island, overhung by fine mimosas, filling the air with the fragrance of their rich yellow blossoms—their delicate foliage finely set off by a dark background of doum palms. No sound interrupted the stillness of the desert but the murmuring of the water, which had a singularly soothing and tranquillizing effect.

A little further on our journey we came again among date-trees which grow here in great numbers wild, without owners, and without taxation. I cannot understand why they are not made to grow at Khartoum, where they are an expensive luxury, and further south, where they are quite unknown.

The desert closely resembled that at Dongola; I beheld quartz of many colours—white, pink, blue, and red, here and there on the ground. The cataract lasted a great distance, about thirty miles; the river runs rapidly over the rocks, but hardly deserves the title of cataract. When we were not in the desert, we rode along the banks of the river, which frequently equalled the most beautiful lake scenery I had ever seen in Switzerland, or elsewhere. Wild palm-trees grew luxuriantly, and not poly like the palms in Lower Egypt.

Towards noon on the 12th of January, our guide came to a halt, and informed us that our route here left the river for three hours, during which we should find neither shade nor water. We, therefore, decided on turning towards the thick groves we beheld at some distance, and selecting some high ground where we could catch the little air that blew from the river, and find repose after the fatigue and the heat. We pitched our tents under the shade of some of the trees on a semi- circular arena, that had in better times been cultivated, and which was still bordered along the edge of the river by crops of durra corn. At a short distance lay a small village, consisting of a few mud huts, separated one from the other by little yards wherein the children played. The heat was often intense—in the valley broiling, but the Nile ran swiftly by on the other side of the village, and a bath there invariably brought down my temperature to the comfortable point.

This place was called Gagee, and is about twenty miles from Aboohamed. While here we had several visits: among others, the Sheik of the camels, hearing of our caravan, came to see what detained us—galloping on his camel in grand style out of the arena, followed by two attendants. He is a fine handsome man, owner of hundreds of camels, and levies a tribute of six piastres on every camel that crosses the desert of Korosko. He was travelling with several servants on capital dromedaries.

During our stay in the neighbourhood of some Bedouins, we, as was customary with us, contrived to establish very close relations with one of the children—a laughing, pretty, graceful, copper-coloured little fellow, about two years old. The next day came his mamma, with face and eyes worthy of a princess; yet her residence was made of a mat, stretched on poles three or four feet high.

We visited some Bedouin huts, and by means of dates and tobacco, made ourselves agreeable to both old and young. One woman was extremely pretty, and her husband was also very good-looking. He was quite a young man, and arrived during our stay at Gagee, with his two camels. He took possession of his house—a quantity of mats stretched over crooked sticks stuck in the ground, not unlike a gipsy tent in appearance—but his young wife had made it both comfortable and picturesque inside, by hanging it round with bows, spears and calabashes, while preparing for his return—till then spending her time with some friends, who lived close by in one of those summer-house kind of residences composed of four palm- trees with poles between, and durra stalks, which made walls that

“Contrived a double debt to pay,”

they kept out the sun and let in the wind.

Three other ladies occupied this residence (only seven feet square), without counting husbands who were working at the durra-fields, or at the groaning sakeia, or riding over the desert after ostriches or gazelles, so they did not trouble us much. To say the truth, we did not miss them, for, as in more civilized countries, the women are far the most tractable of the sexes.

Though Mungo Park was lamented by ladies, who were sorry that he had

“No wife, nor mother, he,

His milk and corn prepare.”

This could hardly have been in Nubia, where the corn is, with water, their only food; where that corn is wretched durra, which is roasted in ashes which were durra fruit. The extreme poverty of these people is not more wonderful to me, than is the way in which they manage to flourish on their scanty fare. The women, like the men, are all sleek and fat; the children the same.

One day we were shewn a fox, quite English in character. It had been chained by his captors, and was brought to us to purchase; but we did not fancy it as a favourite.

Three giraffes rested near us, under a shady out-house, through the ruined roof of which it was curious to see them poking their long heads. They were a present from Latiffe Pasha to _Son Altesse_, and were travellers in grand state, each having two she-camels to provide it with milk.

The heat was often scarcely to be endured, and the wind occasionally blew a hurricane, generally veering round with the sun, and then the dust was extremely troublesome. We tried to shelter the tent from the rays of the afternoon sun with palm-leaves, but they shrunk up so quickly that we were obliged to abandon the attempt. Then we prepared one of the deserted mud houses, on the edge of the cleared spot where we were encamped, and fresh thatched it with branches of euphorbia and palm.

On the fourth day of our stay, our dragoman startled us a little with the announcement, that our provisions would not last more than a week or a fortnight; as we knew not how long we might remain, and had a desert before us of from eight to twenty days’ journey according to different accounts, we found it absolutely necessary to send for a fresh supply; and, with full reliance on his honesty and celerity, we dispatched the head guide to Berber.