Élisée Reclus

“ To Egypt we owe the art of writing, afterwards modified by the Phoenicians, by whom it was communicated to all the peoples of the Mediterranean basin. The very groove of our thoughts had its origin on the banks of the Nile. Mankind is undoubtedly ignorant of its first epochs, nor can anyone assert positively that civilisation first arose in Egypt. Nevertheless, we are unable to trace it further back than the written records of this land, whose pyramids mark for us the limit of past times. ”

“ Like the Madi on their northern and the Lango on their southern frontier, the Shuli pass a great part of their lives in thus painting and decking themselves. The elaborate headdresses vary according to the taste of each individual, but on all alike the greatest care is lavished. Some are raised several stories high, and embellished with ornaments of all kinds—flocks of wool, wreaths of foliage, rings, strings of pearls—the whole forming an architectural edifice sufficiently incommodious to the bearer. ”

“ The Wa-Huma are also distinguished by their intense love both of personal freedom and political autonomy, sentiments which are but feebly developed amongst the true Negro populations. Such is their horror of captivity and a foreign yoke, that those who have failed to maintain their independence are no longer regarded as true Wa-Huma. The very women who have the misfortune to fall into the hands of the Arab slave-dealers are looked upon as degraded for ever, and should they escape from bondage, are burnt alive by their own people. ”

“ The wizards, daubed with ochre, decked with fantastic finery, conjuring the demons by their wild gesticulations, leaps, and shouts, flitting about in the glare and suddenly plunging into the surrounding gloom, appear themselves like spectres of the night, or fantastic beings from another world. The Wa-Nyoro have also a warlike dance like that of their kindred, the southern Zulus, and, like them also, make war with assegai, spear, and shield. ”

“ Separated from the surrounding countries by the relief of its plateaux and mountains, Ethiopia also differs from them in its climate, vegetation, fauna, inhabitants, and history. In this vast continent, where the people elsewhere intermingle like the waters of the sea, it rises like a vast highland citadel, constituting a world apart. The Abyssinians have had an historic evolution different from that of the nations surging round the foot of their highlands, like the waves dashing against the cliffs. ”

“ In this land of simple outlines, little surprise is caused even by the regular forms of the pyramids skirting the western edge of the plateau, at dawn pink and hazy cones, like flames of fire dimly seen in the brighter sunshine, at sunset gloomy triangular masses standing out against a brazen sky. ”

“ The bas-reliefs of the monuments show us the Egyptian of three thousand years ago bowed down beneath the lash, just as they are at the present day. The victim of a continual oppression, and an excessive extortion, the fellah is unable to shift his quarters like the nomad Bedouin. In the vast level plain of the delta, or in the narrow valley of the river, there is not a single retreat in which he can hope to find a refuge from his taskmasters. Although his misery is without issue and his future without hope, still he passionately loves the land of his birth. ”

“ The result of this relative abundance of the rains on the coast region is a great contrast between the Nubian districts near the Red Sea and those of the interior. To the east the Arab nomads find abundance of wells, fountains, and pasturages for their cattle ; but to the west nothing is visible but rocks and sands, the eye of the traveller seldom lighting upon a grove of palms or mimosas, or any trailing shrubs growing on the banks of the wadies. In some years the drought is so complete that no shepherd dare venture into the desert. Nubia thus offers some well-defined natural divisions. ”

“ The most charming prospects are displayed towards the north-west in the territory of U-Ganda. Here the inlets along the coast appear to be divided by the intervening wooded headlands into lakelets of unequal size. Limpid streams are everywhere seen sparkling amid the dense masses of verdure ; down every dell flows a silvery rivulet fringed with tall grasses or shrubs, above which are interlaced the branches of forest trees. Probably no other region in Central Africa enjoys a more equable climate or a richer soil than this land of U-Ganda. ”

“ To sum up briefly, the curse of slavery is not the actual holding of slaves, but the misery caused by the destruction of villages, the severing of family ties, and the cruelties perpetrated in the work of capture. People are dragged miles and miles without water, chained by the neck ; in fact, the trails of the capturers may be followed by the skeletons of the captives left on the line of route. ”

“ The cliffs of the Jebel-Mokattam extend to the south-east angle of the city, where their advanced spurs are crowned with the citadel, which was occupied by the British forces in 1883, immediately after the battle of Tel- el-Kebir. From this eminence, flanked by sustaining walls and ramparts, a view is commanded of the whole city, with its cupolas and minarets, its party-coloured buildings, its groves and gardens. Round this city of bright colours and throbbing life, stretches the grey and silent plain overlooked from a distance by the pyramids. Cairo had been built on the bank of the Nile ”

“ Doubtless these piles of stone have only the beauty of their geometrical lines, lacking all architectural display ; but they overawe by their very mass, and still more by their antiquity : by the memory of the generations of man that, like the everlasting stream of the Nile, have flowed silently onwards at their feet. For however old in themselves, these monuments of human slavery attest the existence of a still older antecedent culture, marked by the slow evolution of science and the industries from their crude beginnings in the Nile Valley. ”

“ Off the coast of U-Ganda an archipelago of four hundred islands, of which the largest group bears the name of Sesse, stretches in a continuous chain between the high sea and the creeks along the shore. The scenery of this insular world is even more diversified and its vegetation more exuberant than on the opposite mainland. Here magnificent timber clothes the slopes of the hills down to the beach, which is everywhere bordered by masses of papyrus. Towards the west the basalt island of Bukerebe, Stanley's Alice Island, raises its blackish walls over 300 feet above the lake. ”

“ Slavery even has been introduced into the Bazen country, although under a very mild form. If the slave either marries or runs away he becomes free by right. Undoubtedly the communities of the Mareb and of the Tukkazeh will soon have lost the independence of which they are justly so jealous, and a new destiny will then commence for them. Their initiation will doubtless be a hard one, and these populations, who were till recently the happiest in Africa, will have to traverse a sea of blood before they can unite with their neighbours, and thus constitute a great nation. ”

“ Since we must no longer, build monuments," said a queen in the middle of this century, " why should we allow those of others to exist?" Seen from afar at the foot of its picturesque ruins, commanded by churches, and dotted with clumps of trees, Gondar presents the appearance of a picturesque European town, with its amphitheatre of hills, its silvery rivulets winding through the prairies of the Dembea, and the glittering surface of the neighbouring lake. ”

“ Mostly nomads, the huge pachyderms from one season to another roam over regions of many hundreds of miles in extent. Like the Somali Gadibursi on the other side of the Abyssinian Mountains, the hunters of the Ilamran tribes, in Taka, attack these enormous animals in the boldest manner. Mounted on swift horses they fly before the elephant ; then, suddenly wheeling round, they spring to the ground behind the animal and hamstring it. The huge beast falls on the ground, and the hunter awaits an opportunity to give the second and usually mortal blow. ”

“ So ancient is the civilisation of Egypt that in certain respects it was known only by virtue of its decadence. The national records reveal to us the peoples of the Nile Valley constantly in a state of bondage, consequently living under a system which must have debased them, suppressing all personal impulse, replacing spontaneous growth of thought by formal rule, and substituting formulas for ideas. But the extent to which a nation can develop itself and increase its store of knowledge is determined by the amount of liberty which it enjoys. ”

“ The fields and plants hemmed in between the escarpments and the stream present on either side nothing but a narrow strip of verdure winding along the foot of the grey or yellow rocks, which glitter like burnished gold in the sun. The cultivated zone lies chiefly to the west, along the so-called "Libyan" bank, which is most exposed to the solar rays. Like most other rivers of the northern hemisphere, the Nile bears chiefly towards its right bank, the current skirting the foot of the rocks, which at some points rise sheer above the stream. The towns stand mostly on the left bank. ”

“ In the eyes of the commune a family has no other rights than those of the persons who compose it. They have no process to sustain or feuds to avenge, every debate being at once referred to the decision of the elders of the tribe. Marriage is not a family feast, but a common ceremony, in which everyone takes part. ”

“ It would even seem more natural that the capital, like nearly all the other cities of Middle Egypt, should stand on the west side, which comprises over three-fourths of the arable lands, and which gives more easy access to Alexandria, the chief out- port of the country. But Cairo is not an Egyptian foundation. It was built by Asiatic conquerors, who naturally could not think of founding their chief strong- hold on the wrong side of the river for them. Thus the very position of Cairo on the right bank of the Nile suffices to show that Egypt is a conquered land. ”

“ But their beauty is soon blighted by their laborious life in this country of lava and sand, under the hottest climate in the world. More scantily clothed than the Abyssinians or Gallas, the Danakils merely wear a waistcloth of a many-coloured material, with a toga or shamma, often replaced by a skin thrown negligently over the shoulders. The men stick a porcupine-quill in their deftly arranged coiffure, and, like the Gallas, are extremely proud when they can ornament it with an ostrich feather, emblem of an enemy slain in battle. ”

“ In any case the labour expended on the ascent is amply compensated by the marvellous view commanded from the summit. From this altitude tho eye sweeps over a boundless and varied prospect, where the red and yellow sands of tho desert roll away in one direction like ocean billows, while in another the verdant plains with their dark groups of hamlets and silver lakelets left by the last overflow of the Nile and its canals stretch beyond the horizon. Travellers often ascend the Pyramid of Cheops before dawn in order to contemplate the morning sun suddenly lighting up these limitless spaces. ”

“ The youths are so slender and graceful in form that they might easily be taken for young girls. During their prime the features of the Bisharin are regular and slightly angular ; the nose is straight and shapely ; the skin, always healthy and clean, appears as if stretched over their hollow cheeks, and on smiling, a glimpse is obtained of their pure ivory teeth, whitened by the continual mastication of the bark of the arak, an evergreen tree found in abundance near Dongola. They never smoke. Old age comes upon them rapidly, fatigue, misery, hunger and thirst quickly changing their appearance. ”

“ Everywhere the eye lights on miracles of workmanship ; but the glory of this architectural museum is the chamber of colonnades, or " hypostyle," constructed in the reign of Seti I. It is the largest work of the kind in Egypt, one of those stupendous monuments which the memory instinctively conjures up when the mind iwsses in survey the great masterpieces of human genius. ”

“ Knowing that the principal wealth of the Bari consists of cattle, and that they are very proud of these beautiful animals, decorating them with bells, like the Swiss cows, the slavers first captured their herds, the Bari bringing their own wives and children to ransom them, unless a fortunate expedition enabled them to substitute the families of some neighbouring tribe. The cow is held as sacred amongst these Nile populations. Instead of squatting, like most other Negroes, or sitting cross-legged, like the Arabs, the Bari are accustomed to sit on stools painted red. ”

“ Most European explorers who have visited the Ethiopian uplands have penetrated from the east, where these highlands present the most imposing aspect. Above the samhar or mudun, a naked plain separating the coast from the plateau, the outer terraces of the escarpment are seen piled up in domes and pyramids, barren rocks or verdant slopes, whose sharp hazy crests seem to merge in a single irregular range. ”

“ Mosque of Mohammed Ali the tombs of kings and princes. These elegant structures present a striking contrast to the bare ground, here strewn with all manner of débris, and to the rugged walls of the surrounding quarries. The Kait-bey mosque, north of the cluster of hills, dates from the fifteenth century, but has been recently restored. It is, perhaps, the most perfect specimen of Arab architecture in Egypt, at least as regards the arabesque and geometrical designs of its fretted walls, and the exquisite symmetry of its minaret, disposed in corbelled galleries. ”

“ Between the dunes and the populations of the oases on the edge of the desert the struggle is incessant ; the sands, borne forward by the winds, surround the trees, cover up cultivations, block up the fountains, and encroach upon the inhabitable domain. But on his side the peasant utilises the sand by mixing it with his soil. The extent of ground he can render productive depends entirely upon the quantity of water at his disposal. ”

“ How could the riverain populations refrain from worshipping this stream, "Creator of wheat and giver of barley," a stream but for which " the gods would fall prostrate and all men perish"? "Hail, Nile!" sang the priests of old, "Hail, thou that comest to give life to Egypt!" According to its periodical return all things were and still are regulated—field operations, town work, civil and religious feasts. But at present it is easier to prepare for the rising waters, which are announced from Khartum thirty or forty days beforehand. ”