Bahr el Ghazal

“ We will sail to the Bahr el-Ghazàl.” The Theban’s face became ghastly at the bare idea. “O Master!” he exclaimed, “are you not satisfied with your good fortune? We are now nearly at the end of the earth, and if we go further, it will be impossible to return.” Raïs Abou-Hammed declared that he had kept his word, and that he should now return, as it had been agreed, before we left Khartoum. ”

“ Westward the vast territories of Kordofan and Darfur afford grazing-grounds to a multitude of cattle, and give means of livelihood to great numbers of Baggara or cow-herd Arabs, who may also pursue with activity and stratagem the fleet giraffe and the still fleeter ostrich. To the south-east lies Bahr-el-Ghazal, a great tract of country occupied by dense woods and plentifully watered. Further south and nearer the Equator the forests and marshes become exuberant with tropical growths, and the whole face of the land is moist and green. ”

“ Why should such men as Yusef Pasha, Mohammed Bey, and Abu Sidr fear a starving crowd of sickly, half-famished, and almost naked Arabs? Had they not won victories on the White Nile at Duffilé? Had they not conquered Bahr el Ghazal, and brought the proud Sultans of Darfur to submission? What could this ill-armed and ignorant fiki do? Abdalla Wad Dafalla alone raised a note of warning that they should not underrate the danger. He had had a fall from his horse when marching out of El Obeid, which is considered a bad omen in the Sudan ”

“ Those Arabs who were not taken to Omdurman, and who rebelled against the Khalifa in 1896, fled after Mahmud’s [178] raids to the Nuba hills, the Gezira, or Nahud, a place which, though never mentioned by old travellers, had over 4,000 inhabitants in March, 1900, and a large market with traders from the Bahr El Ghazal, Darfur, and Wadai. Many of these people have now returned to their villages, but they are, of course, greatly impoverished and reduced in numbers. ”

“ The negro tribes of the Upper Nile and of the remote Bahr-el-Ghazal have always been looked upon by their northern neighbours much as the Greeks in classical times looked upon the Barbarians—namely, as belonging to another category of the human race and by nature destined to slavery. ”

“ You have been bred and brought up in it, and so it happens that habit makes us used to everything."
The manners and customs of these wild Arabs always interested me, and the journey passed quickly enough in chatting with my companions. We frequently passed settlements of nomad Arabs, who always insisted on our partaking of their hospitality. The post which caught me up on the way brought me instructions from the Governor-General [95] that Dar Janghé, which up till recently had formed part of the province of Dara, was in future to be attached to Bahr el Ghazal, to which it really belonged. ”

“ Abderrahman's favourite wife was a certain Umbusa, of the Begu tribe. This tribe had emigrated from Bahr el Ghazal many years before, had settled in Darfur, and had been granted lands by the kings, on condition that they should annually supply a beautiful girl for the royal harem. The Begus are a purely African race, descended from the Monolké family, and Umbusa, besides being a great beauty, was endowed with exceptionally high qualities, which induced Abderrahman to raise her to the status of a legal wife ”

“ The result was that certain traders established themselves in, and claimed a sort of proprietary right to large districts, especially in that part which lies to the South of Darfur and Kordofan, and borders the course of the White Nile, now known as the Bahr El Ghazal. Traffic in slaves was the real business carried on, and for this purpose the traders organised armies of brigands, and formed chains of stations, of about 300 men each, throughout their districts. ”

“ We shall most certainly be attacked, as we have already been, but we shall equally surely drive off the enemy. In this way the men will regain confidence after the terrible shock we have all suffered. I know the Rizighat; they will not stay here and watch us. I feel confident we shall settle accounts with Madibbo, his Bazingers, and Sheikh Jango, who fled once before to the Bahr el Ghazal. Our wounded comrades will have time to recover their strength a little; those only suffering slightly will be able to march in a few days, and the others we can mount on our horses. ”

“ They are very ignorant of the art of leather-dressing, and are no more acquainted with the use of tan than any of the rest of the tribes that have their homes in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district.
Their baskets and nets are woven out of rotang, the form of the baskets in which they bear burdens on their backs being very similar to those which are seen amongst the Thuringians. Their mode of dressing their hair necessarily prevents them from ever carrying a load upon their heads. ”

“ These incessant wars decimate the population, which still increases naturally at a rapid rate, as amongst most fish-eating peoples. All the Kuri are Mohammedans, but the Yedinas are so in name only, many still practising pagan rites, and invoking Najikenem, the great spirit of the lake, who lashes the waters and strews them with wreckage. The Bahr-el-Ghazal depressions are scantily peopled by some nomad Arabs, and the Sakerda and Kreda pastors of Daza speech. ”

“ Early in the next year he made the tour of all the Red Sea provinces, including Harrar. But in spite of all this ceaseless activity, the close of the year 1878 found things worse than ever. Trouble was once more stirring on the Abyssinian frontier. The northern provinces were quiet, but their quiet was the torpor of exhaustion. In Darfur Harûn had once more reappeared, and in Kordofan, too, a rising had taken place. In the Bahr el Ghazal Suleiman had this time revolted in good earnest. ”

“ Go back to your country; there is nothing to steal here.' The Nile people do not think well of us," he continued, "because the merchants going west to Zubeir, in Bahr el Ghazal and to our countries, were frequently maltreated by the Arabs; and when I asked them where the Mahdi, who was known as Mohammed Ahmed, lived, they gazed at me incredulously, saying, 'What are you going to him for? ”

“ Khor Metemma 3 501⁄2 Always water. River Boru 11 611⁄2 Good going through many Lulu trees to river and village of Boru, Sheikh Futer. About largest tree yet seen in Bahr El Ghazal—some sort of acacia—in centre of village, near Sheikh’s house. River is 11⁄4 mile from village, very similar to Ragaa, and formidable obstacle in rains. 11 721⁄2 Fair going, passing through two villages to pool where there is always water. Now marching almost N. through very hilly country, gravelly soil and track like a switchback. Chain of tree-covered hill on W., called Jebel I, and on E. called Jebel Yarkar. ”

“ I care not so that the sleek mask be plucked from the face of that dog-descended Sakr-el-Bahr. May Allah break his bones! What of those slaves of his—those two from England, O Asad? I am told that one is a woman, tall and of that white beauty which is the gift of Eblis to these Northerners. ”

“ Could that beardless boy lead men as Sakr-el-Bahr leads them, or wield the scimitar against the foes of Islam and increase as Sakr-el-Bahr increases the glory of the Prophet's Holy Law upon the earth? ”

“ The Valleys of Schiacha and Gegabib. 5. Augila. 6. The Harutsch. 7. Fezzan and Gadamis.
I. The Bahr-bela-ma, and Valley of Mogara.
The term Bahr is well known to signify (in Arabic) an expanse of water, whether sea, lake, or river: and Bahr-bela-ma, a hollow space that is supposed to have contained them: in other words, the sea, lake, or river, without water. In its application to the present subject, it has been understood by some great authorities, to be the ancient bed of a river; and that river, the Nile of Egypt ”

“ By Sakr-el-Bahr's orders these were dragged forth from the blackness into which they had been flung. The Muslimeen upon discovering that they had fallen into the hands of their own people and that their slavery was at an end, broke into cries of delight, and fervent praise of Allah than whom they swore there was no other God. ”

“ As the words passed her lips, the Fung pulled the horses to their haunches, Arab-fashion, lifted spears and saluted. Then their leader—not the veiled man, but another—spoke in a dialect that I, who had spent so many years among the savages of the desert, understood well enough, especially as the base of it was Arabic.
“O, Walda Nagasta, Daughter of Solomon,” he said, “we are the tongues of our Sultan Barung, Son of Barung for a hundred generations, and we speak his words to the brave white men who are your guests. Thus says Barung. ”

“ Chrysophron Zagreus to himself, "even as a short time ago spooks came overnight upon the animals, so that horses suddenly could calculate and dogs could read and write. What if he should break forth out of men themselves like unto a flame?"
"Then must we cheat light through light in man," cried Monseigneur du Ghazal. "We must dwell henceforth in their brains as a new false glow of an illusory, sober intelligence until they mistake the moon for the sun. We must teach them to distrust everything that is light." ***** What more his lordship said I cannot remember. ”

“ Even at a distance of 300 miles above its mouth it is found throughout the year as a stream which cannot be forded, but must be crossed in boats, whilst the Bahr-el-Dyoor cannot be traced at all at so great a distance from its union with the Nile. The plains through which the Gazelle flows are too level to allow of any recognition at first sight of the true limits of the territory subject to its inundations. Any one, however, who is familiar with the character of the vegetation of the country, will easily detect symptoms from which he could form a tolerably correct opinion. ”

“ In their upper courses all the southern affluents of the Ghazal flow across a plateau of ferruginous laterite, their valleys having steep banks. North of 7° 20′ N. (where rapids interrupt the currents) the valleys open out and the rivers wind in tortuous channels often choked by sandbanks. This alluvial region, flooded in the rainy season, gives place about 9° N. to a sea of swamps, forming in fact part of the huge swamp region of the Nile (q.v.) ”

“ The girl had an exquisite sense of the beauty of simplicity—both in dress and manner, and in her art; it was as if a lotus flower had been animated—given life. Her dancing was a floaty rhythm, an undulating drifting to the soft call of the sitar; and her voice, when she sang the ghazal, the love-song, was soft, holding the compelling power of subdued passion—it thrilled Barlow with an emotion that, when she had finished, caused him to take himself to task. ”

“ Then the Wazir sent for Ajib and his grandmother stood up and fell on his neck and wept; but Shams al-Din said to her, "This is no time for weeping; this is the time to get thee ready for travelling with us to the land of Egypt; haply Allah will reunite me and thee with thy son and my nephew." Replied she, "Hearkening and obedience;" and, rising at once, collected her baggage and treasures and her jewels, and equipped herself and her slave-girls for the march, whilst the Wazir went to take his leave of the Sultan of Bassorah, who sent by him presents and rarities for the Soldan of Egypt. ”

“ Bahrām deposed the vassal king of the Persian part of Armenia and made it a province. He is a great favourite in Persian tradition, which relates many stories of his valour and beauty, of his victories over the Romans, Turks, Indians and Negroes, and of his adventures in hunting and in love; he is called Bahrām Gor, “the wild ass,” on account of his strength and courage. In reality he seems to have been rather a weak monarch, after the heart of the grandees and the priests. ”

“ Hassa has been a part of the Busrah vilayet, and the Pasha, who resides at Hofhoof, has the title Mutaserif Pasha of Nejd. Continual troubles with the Arabs mark the history of the occupation of Hassa; the caravan routes are not as safe as in the dominions of the Amir of Nejd; the whole country shows decay and lack of government; taxation of the pearl fishers has driven many of them to Bahrein; the peninsula of Katar is occupied by a garrison, but that does not prevent continual blood feuds and battles between the Arab tribes. ”

“ STONES OF GAFSA There are interesting walks in the neighbourhood of Gafsa, but I can imagine nothing more curious than the town itself; a place of some five thousand inhabitants, about a thousand of whom are Jews, with a sprinkling of Italian tradespeople and French officials and soldiers. Beyond naming the streets and putting up a few lamps, the Government has left it in its Arab condition; the roadways are unpaved, hardly a single wall is plumb ”

“ The Sudan government, however, sent engineering parties to remove the sudd blocks and open out a continuous waterway. Chief affluents. This Bahr-el-Homr is the only affluent of [v.03 p.0213] importance which has tributaries coming from north of the main stream; the rest of the very numerous affluents have their rise in the hilly country which stretches from Albert Nyanza in a general north-west direction as far as 23° E., and forms the watershed between the Nile basin and that of the Congo. The most westerly is the Lol or Bahr-el-Arab. ”

“ The Ghazwah, or slave-hunts, in Dar-Fertyt, and amongst the Jenakherah, are carried on in a different manner in Darfur and Wadaï. In the latter country, the Sultan sends one of his governors with a troop, chosen beforehand, to which no strangers attach themselves; but in Darfur things are managed differently. There, even a private individual, if he thinks himself capable of conducting a Ghazwah, demands a salatieh, and, if he obtains it, sets out with as many people as he can collect. ”