Ferdinand Werne

“ The three islands of Genna, Siàl, and Schèbesha, stood out, with their thick forests, from the tranquil water; and on the other side the pointed peaks of the mountains grew dim in the deep blue, over the dusky woody foreground of the left border of the river, with the charms of an island in the Ægean Sea. Close to me, the shore is enlivened by the coloured and black forms of the crew; some play and wrestle, with songs to the sounds of the pot-drum, (Tarabuka) ; others lie and squat round the fire, stir and cook by it ”

“ Beyond this village we perceive some trees, near which the smoke rises up in several places. The last little hamlet consists of fourteen tokuls, and the people are seen afar off amid the grass hastening to five other tokuls by the reeds. The inundation seems here altogether to cease, and the medium height of the water to have commenced for some time. A vigorous smoke, like a wide-spread steam of slaughtering, delights our crew. They hope to be able to regale their stomachs with the delicious roasted morsels, enveloped by these clouds of smoke, and protected against the insects. ”

“ At twelve o’clock, a large herdsmen’s village on the right shore, with black giants, to whom the ant-hills serve as watch-towers, and where they look even taller, being contrasted with the horizon. This is the nation of the Bohrs. Here and there are seen men waiting on the shore, holding cattle by a rope, to sell them for beads.
The ox is said to be sacred amongst them. They may perhaps love and prize their cattle, to which they have but little else preferable, and may prefer the bull as the founder of the family, but that is all. ”

“ At three o’clock in the afternoon, we continue to sail towards the South in this immeasurable tract of water. On the right and left are partly grass islands, and partly reedy marshes, which join on to the shore, and must, when the water is higher, before the overflowed vegetation has yet made its way to the surface, form a regular long lake or gigantic stream. After four o’clock we landed on the right shore, where the white lotus was distinguished in the pools amongst the trees, with far larger flowers than is the case where neither shrub nor tree shelters it from the sun. ”

“ The Haba, with its videttes of old shores behind, draws nearer before us. The right shore is a vast semicircle, circumscribed by isolated trees, with many green grass-plats, pools, ambaks, and a kind of acacia, with yellow clusters of flowers, like the gold-rain of the laburnum. To judge from the many pools, the river does not appear yet to have receded entirely, although the nearest shore-land is already burnt away, right and left. We sail half an hour, but the northern wind is too faint, and we come to its assistance by towing. ”

“ The life, buds, and bursting into development of the different plants appear to be arbitrary, for rain, water, and the height, depth, and quality of the soil have such effect, that the very same species often display entirely different stages of progression. From the tall dark mimosas, and other trees, down to the waving reeds, and the spikes of the high grass shooting out of the water, a vegetable life spreads with a freshness and fulness bordering on the marvellous. ”

“ In the neighbourhood, we saw far and wide, towards the left side of the village, the smoke assume a magnificent form. We see from the deck flames moving towards us, the wind being favourable, in long battle array, and steam and black ashes spread near us, apparently arising from the dry grass. Thousands of birds driven thence swarm in the air around the vessels. A number of turtle-doves remain quite innocently in our neighbourhood, perched on the ambak-bushes. ”

“ At half-past nine o’clock the left bank, close at hand, presented a real forest of tamarinds, which also traverses the lower covered pasture-land, or follows, in an irregular form, the newer line of the shore, caused by the descent of the stream. An incredible number of birds appear on all sides; these airy attendants of the marshes devour terrestrial animals, which perish through the overflow of water, and would otherwise entirely poison the air, as in Egypt. The trees, standing singly, are, for the most part, quite white, from the excrement of the birds, and naturally die away. ”

“ About twelve o’clock we see, on the right side of the river, six ostriches walking about. This sight Suliman Kashef cannot withstand. We go ashore therefore, but the ostriches do not seem to trust us strangers: they stride up the country, and run away, directly the first shot sounds in their ears. The shore here gently rises from ten to twelve feet; and the hill, which might once have counted many huts where now only a few cabins are seen, rose some six feet higher. ”

“ Whilst we come slowly up the river, the negroes remain standing right and left on the shore; they do not sing and jump, and we remark no astonishment in their faces. The next question which they put to themselves may perhaps be, “What do these strangers want here? What can they wish but our riches?” Let us ask the first best Turk or Arab what are we doing here? He knows not; he does not comprehend the aim of such an expedition, where there is no robbery, no plunder, no kidnapping. ”

“ I write—I try once more to embrace the mightiest picture of ethereal life, but the ship has, in the mean time, turned, and the sails cover the sun, so as not to weaken the first impression. There are moments, truly, when one is, as it were, a god; but this god-like feeling lasts, in its entire strength, only as long as the external impression, which the inmost persuasion rather weakens than strengthens. Cheerfully, and with a fresh heart, I settled myself there in a vernùs, on my little bamber, before the cabin, to a soothing sleep, where dreamy pictures of my home delighted me. ”

“ As a half-forgotten tradition descending to our days from the infancy of the [87] human race, impels us to explore the Nile, so our expedition is, in the main, nothing but a continuation of the endeavours of the Priests of the Nile, the Pharaohs, the Phœnicians, the Greeks under the Ptolemies, and the Romans under Cæsar and Nero. It is as if mankind in general, like a single individual, were ever seeking anew, with unabated desire, the sources with which the first awakening to intellectual consciousness is connected. ”

“ The river has resumed its former breadth of some three hundred paces, and the vessels run against one another, according to the dear old custom, always breaking something or getting stuck together. Our captain, nevertheless, does not fall into a passion: the vessel may crack and shake for what he cares; for his sewing-needle appears to him of more importance, and he handles it with an air of determination, as if all his work must be done within the very next hour. Every one wishes to avail himself of the wind ”

“ At five o’clock we sailed from hence W., and then W.N.W.; made three miles, and followed the course of the river to S.W. As the sun sets, we seem to sail through a blooming park. On the right shore are isolated dark tamarinds, shining like gold, magnificent masses of creepers, and bowers of flowers on a green, grass ground, the blooming lotus shining through them. We extend our gaze across this island over the country, on the right shore, and perceive only a few tamarinds. ”

“ With a faint north wind we advance for some minutes N.E. by S. A light mist, thrown over the horizon, rises high to the heavens, and melts away. Neither land or tree is to be seen, for the village is an island in the verdant sea, extending boldly in all shades of green, and to an immeasurable distance. About seven o’clock N.E. by E., and in a bend to W. Wild geese fly here and there, but they scream, and are therefore not roasted. Even I feel inclined for meat.
At 8 o’clock, three villages appear in the south. From N.N.W. we turn a sharp angle to the south. ”

“ Ahmed Basha is a true economist in every thing, and boasts of his parsimony, (which, however, unfortunately degenerates into avarice,) saying, it is extremely necessary for him;—that he requires a good deal of money for present occasions, and will want more for the future;—and that Mohammed Ali has only become great through his gold;—every means, therefore, is justifiable by which he can acquire wealth. His table is sparingly served; he does not touch the sweet favourite dishes of the Turks, as being fit for women and not for men; he hates the Turks and calls them [35] asses. ”

“ Near the palms were four ant-hills, on the tops of which we found the wet blue clay worked up. Some miserable tokuls also stood around, but they were deserted by the inhabitants. To my sorrow, I see again a sürtuk destroyed, for the sake of some splinters of wood, merely to keep up a fire the whole night for amusement, on board the sandal,—not to drive away the gnats, for they let the fire burn in a clear flame. Wherever they have the opportunity of displaying their petulance, our blacks also are ever ready. ”

“ In the low ground lying close to the river, which the tamarinds I saw yesterday shew to be dark marsh ground, I, for the first time, examined closely, a kind of mimosa, called talle, distinguished by its reddish rind from the whitish rind of the tamarind, the boughs of which are twisted nearly like those of oaks. The rind of the talle-tree is used like that of the geïlid, to be burnt as a perfume: a little also, grated, and strewn on the merissa, gives it a piquant flavour. ”

“ The forest, extending behind the doum-palms to within fifty and a hundred paces of the shore, appears also in the neighbourhood, and looks well covered and inviting to the chase. The broad river is so shallow here that we are obliged to stop in the centre of it, with our ships still heavily laden, whilst the men towing wade in the water; they often disappear altogether in the deep, when we come to these numerous shallows, and emerge again like ducks. ”

“ Some natives are sitting quietly under it, and seem to be fishermen. Two o’clock, S.S.E. We have the point of an island covered with reeds, in the middle of the river. Although I dread the mid-day sun after yesterday’s attack, which reminds me of a similar one in Taka, yet I venture upon deck, and see an island on the left. The arm embracing it has already shrunk to a large pool, and behind are the old or high shores, overlaid by sloping, grass-covered rubbish, as with a green mat. ”

“ On the right shore we noticed a giraffe and twenty elephants, the latter teazed in an impudently friendly manner by white birds, against whom they tossed up their trunks: their tormentors, however, always returned to their heads and high backs, in order to pick the ticks out of their thick skins, like the crows on the pigs in Greece. They appear to me to be the very same birds we saw in Egypt perched on cows and camels. When the last-named animals have old wounds on their backs, they are visited by birds of prey. ”

“ A large semicircle is formed, and we go, at half-past twelve o’clock, from an easterly direction again to S.W. On the left shore, a troop of some twenty negroes squat, holding cows and calves for us by a cord. Beads are dear to them above everything. These blameless Ethiopians will not even receive gold and silver, the chimerical value of which they know not; and it is only stupidity that laughs at them in pity.
From the mast:—two pastoral villages behind the right shore; four more farther on, before the Haba, which forms a semicircle. ”

“ We halt, in a southerly direction, at sun-set, in the middle of the river, not to be annoyed by the natives, and to avoid all provocation on the part of the crew. The country is still a real paradise, and the durra is putting forth its shoots, to give a second crop. It must not be supposed that the fields have a [346] regular form; on the contrary, every thing looks as if it grew of its own accord, without sowing. The trees stand in such strength, as though they had no need of water; and the human beings shew, by their more noble appearance, that they enjoy a generous nourishment. ”

“ The Baudas resemble our long-legged gnats, although their proboscis, with which they bore through a triple fold of strong linen, appears to me longer. Their head is blue; the back dun-coloured, and their legs are covered with white [165] specks, like small pearls. Another kind has shorter and stronger legs, a thicker body, of a brown-colour, with a red head and iris-hued posteriors.
The crew are quite wearied from sleepless nights, and rowing must be given up if the calm continues, although we find ourselves in a canal whose water propels us so little that we do not cast anchor. ”

“ Our little black female slaves are right to ornament their noses with rings, for without them, their flat noses would be lost in their dark countenance. As usual, the wind almost ceases at noon. We sailed south with a faint north-east breeze, and make scarcely one mile. At half-past twelve we passed a long grass island on the left, the upper part of which was covered with wood; whilst on the right, another one still extends; and on the left, the high grass of a long narrow back of an island rises up from the water. ”

“ They made gestures, and greeted us with uplifted arms; but our people thought that we could not trust such a friendly welcoming, for they might have concealed their spears in the grass, in which, perhaps, a whole troop of men were hidden.
Neither these Shilluks nor the Jengähs, up the river, possess horses or camels, but merely sheep and cows. When they take a horse or camel from the Turks, they do not kill it—probably not eating the flesh of these animals,—but put out its eyes as a punishment for having brought the enemy into their country. ”

“ On the left is a gohr to S.S.E., into which the people plunge with loud huzzaing, so that they may accompany us a little longer. No beads are given gratis; the poor people must run, make the Turks laugh first, and give them entertainment, before it is determined to throw on shore these glass bits of paste, though Selim Capitan possesses an enormous stock of them, and then this generosity is only for the sake of seeing the bustle and noise of the great children. ”