Chapter V

Gebel Berkel — Antiquities — Appearance of the country — Hawks — A pastoral scene — Illustrations of Holy Writ — Arab dwellings — Wady Bashava — Bedouin revels — Christmas Day in the desert.

The next morning we were again in full march upon Gebel Berkel, which is a hill with a flat summit, rising perpendicularly from the plain on one side—with its upright face of bare rock facing the river.

The antiquities comprise the remains of a small temple at the foot, built of the yellow stone common to all the temples, and two chambers inside the mountain that were full of nothing but dust and bats. The hieroglyphics are worthy of observation, and the sculpture is painted blue. These inscriptions appear to be of the same character as those we observed at Carnac and Aboosimbel, but the industry of mason bees is here throwing that of man a little in the background. There are two double rows of columns at the entrance under the rock, and fragments of many more; proving it to have been an important place. A very large slab of black marble, covered with hieroglyphics, was taken from these ruins.

On the south side of the mountain are seven stone pyramids, four of which are perfect; one of the small ones I found thirty-nine feet square at the base, and forty-three feet high: and a large one was fifty-four feet at the base, and about sixty-two feet high. Almost all of them may be ascended within a short distance of the summit—the immense stones of which they are constructed, affording considerable assistance to the climber, till he reaches the top ones, which are polished. All the pyramids have doors; but access was impossible.

Some time since there was an eighth pyramid, but one was pulled down by Lepsius, who, there is no doubt, anticipated all sorts of grand discoveries. The Arabs watched him with immense interest, as they were fully satisfied that he was searching for treasures, which as soon as he had found, probably, they determined he should lose. Fortunately for him he found nothing, and, therefore, got away with a whole skin.

There is an extensive view from the top of the mountain, like the plains of Lombardy from the Simplon in extent, though very unlike in general features: the principal objects in our prospect was plain after plain of sand stretched on every side, except where the broad river serpentined about, with a belt of cultivation on either bank of waving corn, date- trees, cotton, senna, and castor oil; sakeias innumerable, each watering seven acres of land: and the straggling village of Merowah, stretching from below, two miles off, with boats crossing the river, and our three white tents.

Our next halt was made at Gazelle, where are the remains of an extensive building of red burnt brick, probably Coptic. While looking for partridges, I came suddenly upon four gazelles in a small valley. I loaded one barrel with ball, lay down, and as one of the beautiful creatures passed within fifteen yards I fired. Unfortunately the ball only grazed his back, close to the shoulder: he fell, but rose again immediately, and galloped up the hill. I consoled myself for my disappointment, by returning to the partridges, of which covey after covey rose on every side. They are of two kinds: yellow-necked and grey, and some are very prettily ringed on the wings with maroon. They fly very fast, and separate much.

We now met with extremely pleasant travelling, passing valley after valley full of verdure, with high mountains all around. The trees were of three or four kinds, some resembling large gooseberry-bushes, some thorny sycamores, some the cut trees in Dutch gardens, while others were the size of large apple-trees. The ground was covered with what some weeks ago was a luxuriant vegetation, but is now beginning to look much scorched. Beautiful red creepers, a parasite resembling mistletoe, hang from the highest branches, where the ring-doves are flying from bough to bough, and among the roots are large yellow flowers, bearing a strong resemblance to gigantic asparagus. Numerous little birds of plumage unknown to us sing among the branches. Hares and partridges not unfrequently make their appearance, and sometimes, but very rarely, a gazelle trots quietly by.

We passed a well, where a prodigious hole had been dug, the earth being supported by branches. Herds of flocks and goats were gathered round it, and some very wild-looking Bedouins were drawing skins of water, and emptying them into large tanks dug in the sand. We meet these flocks more frequently, each belonging to one person, who wanders with them from desert to desert, and from valley to valley, wherever there is a promise of food and water.

We had much desired to go straight from Merowah to Khartoum, but our Bedouins insisted during the first two days, in proceeding from the former place to Metamneh, a town on the river, sixty miles north of Khartoum. This is a considerable circuit, and occupies two additional days. They declared that the other road was full of grass and water, which brought there many bad Bedouins. In the summer season it is considered safe, but merchants have preferred the road to Metamneh, since a party were murdered there six years ago:—notwithstanding this statement, our fellows suddenly changed their minds, and were more anxious to go the shorter road than we had been.

Our way was through a chain of high black mountains, very like an alpine pass. The scenery was remarkably wild, and we helped to make it more picturesque, as camel followed camel in the path which has been made by caravans constantly passing over the loose stones. The heat was intense. After four hours we arrived at a pool among some rocks, but the water was of a blackish-green colour, that would have suited an artist much better than a traveller. A few yards further, we came to a well into which the water slowly filtered through the sand. I tasted it, but found it very bad. The camels, however, drank freely, and then we proceeded though a chain of low hills, so covered by cinders and volcanic matter, that the track of our beasts was not perceptible.

While we were shooting, a wounded bird was pursued by three hawks: they made swoop after swoop upon their intended prey with a prodigious rush of their wings, but he dodged with success till my brother shot him. As he fell, one of the hawks rushed upon him like lightning, but by a small distance only missed his prey: and then the whole party disappeared.

It is curious to observe the prevalence of the sandy colour of the soil in the creatures that have to exist upon it. Sandy coloured eagles devour sandy coloured vipers and lizards, which in their turn prey on grasshoppers and slugs of the same complexion: and partridges and sparrows, by means of their resemblance to the ground, avoid the prying eyes of the falcons and hawks.

One evening, remarking several parties of Arabs mounted on asses, or on foot, winding down the low mountains, that surrounded us, our guide assured us that they were in search of water; and in the next turn of the road, we entered a wooded amphitheatre, in the centre of which was a well, and around it, various flocks with their shepherds, waiting their turn. A timid boy, with his little flock of black goats crowded close behind him, remained at a distance till the men had withdrawn.

The scene reminded us strongly of certain pastoral passages in the Bible; for we beheld the specked and ring-striped sheep of Jacob, with drooping ears, some marked brown and white, black or fawn-coloured, like cows. The more to enjoy this interesting spectacle, we turned aside, and rode across to the well. We found it very deep; the mouth at the bottom of a steep hollow, roofed with earth, so as to be entirely sheltered; the water being drawn in leathern buckets, and emptied into troughs formed on the ground.

Nor did we wonder at Rachel’s fearing to approach such formidable- looking men, as were those we beheld watering the thirsty animals, that were clustered at the brink of the hollow. They were, however, very civil: brought us some of the water to taste, which was extremely good, and furnished us with a bottle of milk from their herds—an addition to our coffee and biscuits, we never missed an opportunity of securing.

We left this spot with reluctance, for we found it suggestive of the most sacred thoughts, realizing every inspired description of patriarchal times.

Travelling in this desert of Bayiouda, the pleasantest part of our desert journey, and, as Daireh informed us, the most like the deserts in Syria, we were continually struck with the resemblance to places described in the Bible, or to manners and anecdotes related there. Every day brought some new scene, which explained some passage we had hardly understood, or gave force to some other one we had scarcely appreciated.

One day we met a Bedouin, rich in herds, who was pursuing a single sheep, or camel, across the sandy wastes, tracking the animal by its footsteps; the next, we came on the ninety and nine left without their shepherd. We have felt the disappointment of arriving at a well and finding the waters bitter. And the cup of cold water cannot be fully appreciated, except in a country like this, where the liquid, rare to get at any time, can hardly ever be obtained even tepid, and generally has a taste of the skin it is kept in, which would disgust any, but the most thirsty.

Our Lord’s command is still obeyed by these people—indeed, throughout the East—and you may always drink any quantity of water, to whomever it may belong. I was surprised once at seeing a Bedouin walk up to my camel, and drink a whole bottlefull, my supply for the day; and I have often, when out shooting, gone into a hut or tent, and asked for water, which the poor people have had to carry a great distance. Not only have I never been refused, but my offer of a piastre or two was never accepted; they gave it me, as a Nubian woman once beautifully expressed it, for her “God’s sake.”

One of our guides once told us how he was ruined last year; for entrusting his flocks to a “hireling,”—they were all eaten by a wolf (hyena), and scattered over the desert, while he was away leading some merchants over the sandy plains.

When, after a march of ten days over stony hills, and arid plains of deep sand, we came suddenly upon the broad river, winding through the rich green of the durra-covered banks, we could exclaim with the Psalmist, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside still waters;” and as a Bedouin in advance of us called his servant, who was walking before him with his sandals, that he might put them on before he reached the village, we remembered that John the Baptist did not deem himself worthy to unloose the latchet of our Saviour’s shoes.

These are but a few of the innumerable passages of the Bible, which desert travelling daily brought to our remembrance.

Further we observed some genuine Arab tents: and again we went out of our way to visit them. Though the desert is thickly inhabited during this season, we had only on two occasions met with any dwellings. The fear of Turkish oppression, and the necessity of hospitality, makes the Arabs avoid all frequented routes; concealing themselves in the most retired valleys, wherever they can find pasture for their flocks.

Here there were three tents, if such they could be styled, being blankets stretched over some branches, and supported by bushes—open on one side.

In the course of our journey we were most agreeably surprised by the appearance of the country—which sometimes much more nearly resembled an English park than an African desert. Where the situation was low, the air was milder, and there was considerable vegetation; trees appeared occasionally of a large size, singly, and in groves. And where there were trees there were birds; some of singular beauty, their plumage gaining additional brilliancy from the brightness of the sunlight. Among them a large humming bird floated rather than flew round the bushes, where it found its insect food; then there was the widow bird with its long black tail feathers, generally set almost upright; there were also doves in great numbers, and frequently pigeons.

At one time we passed some extensive prairies of grass of exquisite fineness, among which we found numbers of gazelle horns; and every now and then surprised numerous herds of these beautiful creatures. Then we beheld camels, that had been turned out by their owners to find their own subsistence where they could, returning once a week for a supply of water.

We passed large fields of rich land from which the Bedouins raise fine crops of maize and millet after the rains: but they are obliged to drive their flocks and herds to a lake of rain-water in the hills every four days. Sometimes the road was over vast plains of sand thickly covered with grass and minute plants, full of briers that stuck to our clothes; with here and there small trees. Flocks of gazelles ran up the sand hills as we entered the valley: we saw also hares, partridges, and quails, with lizards; and serpents, three feet long.

We came upon the river at the town of Wady Bashava, which consists of about a hundred and thirty summer-house looking tents, made of durra corn-stacks and mud. We purchased two sheep at ten piastres (2s.) each—and a liberal quantity of weak beer, brewed from durra—that loses the little appreciation you are inclined, at your first trial to give it, on a second acquaintance: but both beer and mutton were for the Bedouins, and as they contrived to make an immense jollification with them—devouring the meat cut into slices, before it could be thoroughly warm, and swallowing the liquid in awful gulps as soon as it got near enough to their throats, I do not consider myself called upon to criticize either very narrowly. After stuffing themselves to their hearts’ content, they danced round the fire, with tremendous shouts, apparently frantic with delight.

I have seen the Ojibbeways, but our friends beat them hollow in uncouthness, as with their spears in their hands, they whirled about, each performing his particular _pas_, as the others kept time, and every dance ending with an embrace, for myself and my brother. Such a ballet would be a monstrous novelty at her Majesty’s Theatre.

To-day being Christmas-day, we determined on having a Christmas feast. It was certainly intolerably hot, the thermometer being at 93°. Yet, with this exception, we managed to enjoy ourselves very much after our good old English fashion. French champagne and Scotch ale, a plum- pudding surmounted by an acacia branch, and dashed with a liberal supply of brandy, and “last, not least, in our dear love,” a bowl of excellent punch, manufactured by Abbasis, helped us to get through the evening very comfortably. Of course we did not forget absent friends.

We had been travelling through groves of acacias swarming with doves, and beheld some high mountains rising out of an island nearly opposite Hafir. There is an immense quantity of gum trees in this neighbourhood.

I met a travelling family of wealthy Bedouins, the head man on horseback, having with him three camels with water-skins, and one with tent and bed; two or three women on donkeys, besides a cow. I was alone, and at a considerable distance from our caravan; so as the man seemed civil, I readily entered into the same mood, and shook hands with him in the most cordial manner imaginable. After this, I walked off very jauntily, congratulating myself that I was still a free agent, for I might have been carried off to the mountains without any great degree of difficulty.

We passed some villages—the dwellings constructed in the usual fashion—a court-yard of mud-wall, or hedged with dry durra or acacia-boughs, containing either a horse, an ass, or a camel. In the side, or more commonly in the centre of this court-yard, stands the house of mud and interlaced boughs, roofed with durra corn and leaves. The only one I entered contained a bed, several mats and stools, a lance and shield, camel-saddle, and similar furniture, and was inhabited by a Nubian, his wife and children, from the eldest of whom, an intelligent and pretty girl, I purchased some buttermilk and water.

The most curious thing I beheld was a large bag of hide, covered with cowries, which seemed to possess some mysterious value, for I could only persuade the owner to let me see it—selling it was evidently out of the question. It belonged to a noble and wealthy Bedouin chief, whose residence was made of three large blankets stretched on tent poles. He had a good-looking wife, and a young son. She gave us a considerable quantity of buttermilk, but would not accept a piastre, saying, she gave it for “charity.”

At length, on the 26th December, the ninth day from Gebel Berkel, the fourteenth from Dongola, and the thirtieth from Wady Halfah, at five o’clock in the evening, we suddenly came down a hill in sight of the object of our journey.

On a boundless plain below lay the junction of the two Niles; next we observed the white government house and the minarets of Khartoum; and then the broad White Nile stretched as far as one could see, looking like an immense lake, as it merged into the horizon. Some of us longed to penetrate further into the interior, and thought it a pity that Khartoum should be the _ultima thule_ of our journey, as a few days more would carry us to the goldmines of Fazokl, and half that distance to a country of elephants, lions and tigers; but the rest were glad that we had proceeded in safety so far, and having, as they fancied, done so much, had not the least desire to do any more. It looked like the end of the world almost, as we gazed on the two rivers, sulkily flowing side by side, and obstinately refraining from fraternizing as they rolled along. Lastly, appeared the boundless deserts beyond the town, making it look like a bulwark against barbarism and an outpost of civilization.

An hour afterwards we pitched our tents on a greensward, between some tall trees, opposite the junction of the Blue and White Niles, on the banks of the latter.