Kordofan

“ The military force stationed in Kordofan consists of three battalions of the first regiment of the line, each battalion being composed of 1000 men, further of 800 Bedouin horsemen, called also Mogghrebeen, and of about 40 artillery men to serve the few guns employed in the slave-hunting expeditions; to this number about 200 men of the irregular Turkish cavalry were added, in the commencement of the year 1839. The latter troops were removed from Dongola to Kordofan, but for an indefinite time only ”

“ Kordofan, who, with almost all his men, utterly ignorant of the effect of fire-arms, dashed up to the muzzles of the Turks' guns, and were annihilated almost to a man. Kordofan thus remained under Egyptian rule until, in 1883, it fell under the sway of the Mahdi.
Meanwhile, after the loss of Kordofan the Darfurians retired further to the west, and the kings now governed only a circumscribed area, of which Jebel Marra was the centre. The roads through these almost inaccessible mountains are few and very difficult, and in consequence the place is one of great strength. ”

“ Kordofan, excepting the free Nuba, is now divided into five districts; a Casheff, or captain, presiding over each; a colonel, resident in Lobeid, is governor of the province, and no pen can describe to what oppression the country is now subjected; all signs of wealth have entirely disappeared, and it is, as it were, drained by the Turks, who will not suffer any private person to attain the slightest degree of opulence. Many of the natives, tired of this oppression, have emigrated with all their possessions, and sought refuge either in Darfour, or in Takeli ”

“ Kordofan is the home of the gum trade; a good deal, but chiefly the inferior kinds, comes from the forests of Sennar and Kassala, but nearly all the best white gum comes from Kordofan, especially the part round Taiara [240] between Duem and El Obeid. Here there are limitless forests of hashab. The taking of the gum does not permanently injure the tree, and the only obstacles to its gathering are the distances to be travelled without water, and the lack of labour. Every new well means a fresh productive area, and people migrate temporarily from other parts of the Soudan for the gum harvest. ”

“ There exists, perhaps, no country in which the inhabitants are so various, and diametrically opposed to each other in character as in Kordofan; for, after half a day’s journey from one district to the other, the traveller is almost tempted to believe that he has arrived in a different country, subject to quite a different government, and professing a different religion. ”

“ In all my travels I never met with any country where the climate is so unhealthy, and where there is such a variety of disease as in Kordofan. Every one in the province, natives and strangers, more or less succumb to this scourge, but the Europeans are the first who fall victims. Two thirds of the white men who visit these regions may be with certainty regarded as sacrificed. The Turks and Egyptians ordered there in Mehemed Ali’s service, dwindle down perceptibly, and must be continually replaced by fresh supplies. ”

“ On my flight from Kordofan, I heard on my arrival at Tara, on the White River, that an European was residing at the chief town of the Shilluk, with a strong escort, to catch eight hippopotami for Mehemed Ali, and to prepare their skins, to stuff them, in fact, as specimens for a museum. I immediately set out on my journey from Tara, and after a long march of two tedious days on a camel, reached the scene of action, where I certainly found the hippopotamus hunters; but the European, whose name was Bartolo, had left a few days before my arrival, for Khartoom, on the eastern shore. ”

“ Breakfast is not customary in this country. Although the coffee from Abyssinia, and even from Yemen, which stands in commercial connexion with Kordofan, is very cheap, this beverage is but little known and is only drank by some few djelabi and the Turkish residents of Kordofan; with the exception of one coffee-house at Lobeid, there is no establishment of the kind in the whole province, and this single café is frequented by the Turks solely, and not by the natives. ”

“ Anything that may be stolen by his people, or destroyed through their neglect, he is forced to make good; he consequently only receives one half of the stipulated payment in advance. On my journey to Kordofan I met with seventeen camel-loads of gum and hides, near the ravine of Semmeria, which the Kubbabeesh, for some reason with which I am not acquainted, left lying in the road, having themselves decamped with their camels. ”

“ During my whole residence in Kordofan I never heard of their having ill-treated or robbed any stranger, much less of their having committed murder; always excepting their excursions into Darfour, which they do not regard as wrong, as they [145] are undertaken with the sanction or, more properly speaking, at the command of the government.
The chief sheikh, a very handsome man, is only to be distinguished from the rest of his tribe by his silver hilted sword. ”

“ The climate of these districts is far more healthy than that of Kordofan. The dress of the natives is very simple. Only the grown-up people wear a piece of cotton stuff; the majority wear only a strip about as broad as the hand, passing a cord round their hips, with which they fasten it to the abdomen and back. In addition to this simple hip-cloth, they decorate themselves with ear-rings of brass or iron wire, and the women wear necklaces of Bohemian and Venetian glass beads. Some of the men wear a ribbon, about an ell in length, round their loins. ”

“ Merchants whom I paid to send me news from Kordofan informed me that reinforcements were daily arriving at Khartum from Cairo, and that the Government was hurrying on preparations for the despatch of the expedition, under European officers, to retake Kordofan; whilst the entire population without exception had joined the Mahdi, and were determined to offer a powerful resistance.
In Darfur all the southern tribes were now in open revolt ”

“ Children born in Kordofan [294] of captive parents are generally of the highest price, because already accustomed to some species of work and more especially because acquainted with the Arabic language, for the owner of a married slave, or of a girl who brings a child into the world, is at the same time proprietor of the latter, and is permitted to sell it; masters even who have children by their female slaves may dispose of their offspring, and examples of this unnatural proceeding are by no means uncommon. ”

“ The natives of Kordofan draw but little profit from all these products of the animal and vegetable kingdoms; for, independently of their not understanding how to turn the various articles to advantage, or rather to perfect them by art or industry, they are too lazy to do any thing more, than is necessary for their absolute maintenance. Very few artisans are, consequently, to be found among them: they consist of a few weavers of calicos, smiths, tanners, and potters. ”

“ The wealthy inhabitants, therefore, and the Turkish officers only drink brandy. Festivals like those kept in Egypt are not known in Kordofan, for the natives in general are not sufficiently wealthy to spend large sums on the like amusements, and it is not, moreover, customary to give feasts at marriages, circumcisions, and other occasions of this kind. If a man be about to marry, he goes straightways to the father of the bride he has selected, and before exchanging a word with her concludes the contract, determining the allowance he proposes to make to his future wife. ”

“ The houses, like those of the villages, are mere huts of straw, some few of them are, indeed, built of clay, but not one single house is of stone. The former town of the same name was totally destroyed by the Turks when they took possession of Kordofan, and the six villages, of which the capital of this province now consists, were subsequently built on the same site. Although these villages are not separated from each other by the intervention of a large space, yet each of them forms a separate quarter, and is inhabited by a distinct class of men. ”

“ In the winter of 1902-03 the Kordofan tribes were all south of the Shageig-Kagmar road by the beginning of December. They are by far the pleasantest-mannered Arabs to meet, being independent, but hospitable and polite, though perhaps no more honest than the rest.
They live chiefly on camel or goats’ milk (the former is excellent) and dukhn; the latter they grow as a rain crop or buy with money earned by carrying goods, or else in exchange for sheep and goats. During the rains they all go north and east towards Dongola and beyond the Wadi Melh. ”

“ The peoples who occupy these settled groups of houses are of a very mixed race, and the original type is very difficult to be recognised. Founded as commercial stations on the routes from the Nile to the countries of Central Africa, the towns of Kordofan are places of assembly for the merchants, who here come to rest from their march across the surrounding deserts. The soldiers and slaves of every tribe who accompany these traders tend to corrupt the race and destroy its primitive elements. ”

“ Those sheikhs or saints, so common in Egypt, where they are regarded as holy, and, as it were, adored, but who are virtually idiots or cunning impostors, are not tolerated in Kordofan. On the contrary, unfortunate beings really neglected by nature are not indeed ill-treated, but kept as secluded as they possibly can be in their own families, [189] who take care that they do not so readily come in contact with strangers. ”

“ In Kordofan, on the other hand, each man builds an isolated hut, and [51] every species of building material, excepting wood, is wanting; the construction, therefore, is completely that of a swallow’s nest. When a man has fixed upon the plot of ground on which he intends to construct his house, the earth is excavated to the depth of half a foot; and as much of the sand dug out as is necessary for the building, is mixed with water in a well, at two or three paces distant from the site of the building. ”

“ In the countries bordering on Kordofan, as Nuba, Takele, Kodero, etc., the gum rots every year, because Mehemed Ali makes no use of it, but is too avaricious to allow any other person to derive benefit from it. ”

“ I think he feels that to fail here would lead to his fall, and so he will come to terms in order to keep Kordofan, as I originally proposed to him.
Faki Mustapha (the man who commanded Arabs on left bank) , has sent in to say he never wrote the impertinent letter E, [64] to which his seal was not.
The doctor took a stone as big as a swan’s-egg from a man to-day.
There is nothing like a civil war to show what skunks men are. One of my greatest worries are the Shaggyeh, who are continually feathering towards me, or towards the Mahdi. I expect both sides despise them equally. ”

“ Before undertaking a journey into Kordofan, it is essential to understand properly the characters of the various nations inhabiting this country, to study their dispositions well, and treat them accordingly; [98] for that which is to be effected with the one by rigour and intimidation, can only be obtained from the other by friendly and conciliating treatment. In the contrary case, the worst must be feared. The negroes, especially, should be treated with lenity and kindness; whereas, with the Arabs and Dongolavi, severity and intimidation are necessary. ”

“ Much time is required to bake the necessary quantity for the consumption of the house. More than one hour is spent in making bread enough of the latter description to serve two persons at dinner. Fresh bread must, therefore, be prepared every day; and it is always made by the women; for, as there is no mill in Kordofan, every one is obliged to grind the quantity of flour necessary for his consumption daily. This is done, as I have already observed, by female slaves.
[76] The assida and woika are the common dishes of the natives of Kordofan. ”

“ Is it not, therefore, probable that the aquatic birds, which set out on their migration immediately after having gorged themselves with spawn on the White Nile, and take to the water again on their arrival in Kordofan, discharge one half of their prey in an undigested form, and that thus the fish are shortly hatched?
The horses are not very excellent, or of pure Arabian blood, but a half-breed between Dongola horses and those of Berber and Darfûr; they are not, indeed, as well built as the pure Arabians, but are, nevertheless, fleet, and exceedingly hardy. ”

“ The dwelling-places, in Kordofan, are called “tukkoli,” and are of extremely simple construction. The house is generally ten to twelve feet in diameter, and of a circular form; it has but one single entrance, which answers the purpose of door, window, and chimney, and is just large enough for a man to creep in whilst stooping. One house is as like the other as one egg is like its fellow, for there is no scope for architectural display; as the residences of the negroes are built on the same plan at the present day, and formed of the same materials they were centuries ago. ”

“ If anything be thrown to them for food, they immediately pick it up, devour it quickly, and return fearlessly to fetch more. The natives of Kordofan take little pains to destroy this vermin, and merely set snares in the fields and gardens for the field rat, which is eaten by many negroes, and even by some few of the Dongolavi. I myself saw the Nuba negroes eating rats; they roast them in their skins, and flay them after they are cooked. There is one species of rat, however, which does not create the slightest disgust. ”