Suakin

“ They lose these good looks, though, almost entirely as they grow older.
The population of the place varies a good deal; but, counting Italians, Greeks, and Egyptian soldiery, there must be at the time I am writing little short of eight thousand people here.
One of the chief points of interest to us in Suakin was Osman Digna's house; not that there was anything particular about the house, either inside or out. It stood close to the water's edge up a small creek on the south side of the town. A stick cut from Osman Digna's garden was considered a great trophy. ”

“ In the beginning of August rumours reached Suakin that emissaries of the Mahdi were inciting the Arabs in the neighbourhood of Sinkat [328] and Erkowit [329] to revolt. On the 2nd Tewfik Bey, the Governor of Suakin, left for Sinkat, to inquire into the true state of affairs. He there learned that Osman Digma, a well-known slave-dealer, assisted by his nephews, Ahmed and Fagi Digma, had raised the Erkowit, Sherah, Mishab, Migadaff, and Bishirieh tribes in the name of the Mahdi. All these are small tribes, living in the Erkowit district ”

“ We had been the first ship to leave England, and were very keen to be the first to arrive at Suakin; so our disappointment may be imagined when we suddenly discovered that we were going dead slow, and that something was wrong with our boilers. By the next morning these were repaired, and though we had lost a good bit of our start, we were still ahead of the other transports. We all began to feel the heat very much, and what little wind there was happened to be right behind us, so we regularly panted for breath in the middle of the day. ”

“ I shall refer to the temperature that we experienced during the campaign further on.
The population of Suakin is very "mixed."
There are Arabs belonging to all the neighbouring tribes—Hadendowas, Amaras, Fadlabs, Beni Amers, Bisharems, and Shaharibs. There are also a number of Soumalis.
They are quite black in colour, and naked with the exception of a white cloth worn round the loins. The women, at least some of them, cover their faces with a thin white material, which they wear wound round them and over their heads. These are mostly the married women. ”

“ No doubt he has done that through Lieutenant Sutch. He has been at Wiesbaden with an oculist; he only returned a week ago. Otherwise he would have told me about it. Very likely he was the reason why Lieutenant Sutch was at Suakin, but he knows nothing of the four feathers. He only knows that our engagement was abruptly broken off; he believes that I have no longer any thought of you at all. But if you come back, if you and I saw anything of each other, however calmly we met, however indifferently we spoke, he would guess. He is so quick he would be sure to guess. ”

“ The aspect and history of the town and port of Suakin might afford a useful instance to a cynical politician. Most of the houses stand on a small barren island which is connected with the mainland by a narrow causeway. At a distance the tall buildings of white coral, often five storeys high, present an imposing appearance, and the prominent chimneys of the condensing machinery—for there is scarcely any fresh water—seem to suggest manufacturing activity. ”

“ For centuries the chief port of the eastern Sudan, Suakin has been since 1906 to some extent superseded by Port Sudan (q.v.) , a harbour 36 m. to the north. The customhouse and government offices present an imposing frontage to the sea, and the principal houses are of white coral stone three storeys high. The mosques are not remarkable. The mainland part of the town is surrounded by a high coral wall, built in 1884 to resist dervish attacks. About a mile beyond is a line of outer forts. ”

“ Soundings of 3,000 fathoms have been obtained. In the library you will find the 'Cruise of the Challenger,' which is the latest authority on this subject."
"I shall refer to it; thank you, Captain."
"On a little rocky island on our right," continued the commander, pointing to the location, "is the town of Suakin, as it is generally called, though the proper word is Sawakin. It is a town of ten thousand inhabitants. It is abreast of Nubia, the Soudan, and is the outlet of its commerce. When the Mahdi War became a serious matter, England took possession of this port ”

“ It is that this man and woman will return whence they have come, with speech of what they saw in Sungan. It is written in the book of fate that this shall be. Why else did the white man overcome Gela?"
He turned to Gray, with a moody smile on his lined face.
"Your people, O Man-from-the-Outside, will not find the Wusun, if they send again. That is my thought. The sun passes from the heavens and it is night; the camel leaves his bones to dry in the sands. So will the Wusun pass from Mongolia.The priests of Buddha are powerful. Soon the sands will climb over the walls of Sungan." ”

“ Bidding us to follow, Suka began to clamber up the side of the highest of the boulders, on the seaward face of which, he said, was a small cave, used in the olden days as a sleeping place by fishermen and sea-bird catchers. Suddenly, when half-way up, he stopped and turned to us, and with a smile on his face, held up his hand and bade us listen. Some one was singing.
"It is Susani," he whispered, "she did not sleep in the village last night. She comes to this place sometimes to sing to the sea. Come, she is not afraid of white men." ”

“ Our caravan traveled as secretly as possible. I—I paid no attention to what the Chinese said. They have their secrets. I should have been more cautious. I made the mistake of my race. Overconfidence in dealing with natives. I wanted to be the first white man in Sungan."
He paused, reaching for a cup of water that Gray had filled for him. The American watched him blankly. So the talk of the pale sickness had proved to be more than legend. And he had discovered the root of Delabar's dread of the Gobi. Why had not the scientist said in so many words that Sungan was a leper colony? ”

“ As you sail down the lagoon you will meet canoes coming up from Funâfala bringing the dead. I cannot go there to bury them."
It was nearly midnight when we put off from the schooner's side, but with Suka as pilot we ran quickly down to the island. A few natives met us as we stepped on shore, and to these we gave the provisions we had brought, telling them to divide them equally. Then with Suka leading, and carrying a lighted torch made from the spathe of the cocoanut tree, we made our way through the darkened forest to the house in which Susâni and her people were living. ”

“ Elsewhere in China there were no such colonies as Sungan.
Why were armed guards stationed around Sungan? Why were the lepers barred from the inner walled city? Where was Wu Fang Chien? The answer to these questions lay in the temple toward which they were headed.
They went forward slowly. Complete silence reigned in the passage. Occasionally Gray stumbled over a loose stone. Then he heard for the first time the chant.
It came from a great distance. It was echoed by the stone corridor, swelling and dying as the gust of air quickened or failed. ”

“ When Sutton was getting his troop together in the Mutiny a word from Mahomed Khan would have put the whole district in a blaze and rendered it impossible to recruit a man. The liking, however, which one good soldier feels for another had carried the day. The old fellow had ridden with fifty followers into Sutton's camp, unstrapped his sword, and, placing it in Sutton's hands, had sworn that he and his would follow him wherever he pleased to lead them. ”

“ There are lepers in the ruins of Sungan. That may be why the spot is isolated. The Chinese have leper colonies."
"Yes," assented Gray. Neither man voiced the thought that was uppermost in his mind, that Mary had been seized by these men. "Mirai Khan told me that Sungan was an unclean place. The Kirghiz—who are fairly free from the disease—avoid Sungan. Delabar, my companion, feared it, I think."
"This explains the myth of the white race in the Gobi—perhaps. And the guards."
"Mirai Khan said that men were brought from China, from the coast, to the sands of Sungan," added Gray grimly. ”

“ Some citrons, melons and date trees grew by the canals of Sungan. At times a caravan would come to Sungan from China bringing other food.
Through his glasses Gray made out the figures of lepers outside the wall. Garluk explained that these were "the evil fate of the Wusun." They were put there to keep the Wusun within the wall. For centuries he and his people had been pent up. They were diminishing in numbers, due to the captivity. Occasionally some adventurous man would escape through the lepers and the Chinese soldiers, cross the desert to Khotan or Kashgar. ”

“ There are men I know who would take compassion on me, and give you for me a great sum. And Belazin said to her, Be certain that so long as I live, you shall never go from my house. And Ulaca said, What then, Sir, would you do with me? and Belazin said, I will that you should remain in my house, and there you shall be free from all wretchedness, with my other wives. And she said, In an evil day was I born, if it is to be true that I have been wife of the honoured king of Spain, and now have to live in a stranger’s house as the concubine and captive of another! ”

“ Failing to turn them back, their assailants might have sent word of their approach to Sungan.
"Let's see what I know," mused Gray methodically. "Camel feet armed with guns beaten off by Hastings' caravan—send news to Sungan. Ambuscade prepared at Sungan ruins for Sir Lionel. He walks into it. After attack by lepers, camel feet take up pursuit of him, tracking him back to well, where they engage us."
Then the camel feet constituted a kind of outer guard of Sungan. They were poor fighters and seemed to have no heart for their work. The men who had wiped out the caravan were another kind. ”

“ There on the hearthrug by the fire, with Princess Sukey, the two children, or, rather, the boy and the child, sat and talked, while the Judge listened quietly from his armchair. Part of the time Titus was shouting with laughter. In some marvelous way he had got over all his bashfulness of the morning. Bethany was such a little girl that it did not seem worth while to be afraid of her, and then he was in honor bound to tell her about their visit to the Tingsbys. ”

“ Nor was Kinsai alone and unmatched in all its wonder and beauty, for a three days' journey from it stood Sugui, which today we call Suchow, lying also on the great canal, with its circumference of twenty miles, its prodigious multitudes swarming the streets, its physicians, philosophers, and magicians; Sugui, with the ginger which was so common that forty pounds of it might be bought for the price of a Venetian silver groat, the silk which was manufactured in such vast quantities that all the citizens were dressed in it and still ships laden with it sailed away ”

“ Bethany looked up at him and smiled—such a demure, knowing little smile. Then she pressed his hand to her lips. “Making boxes, Daddy Grandpa.”
She was swinging on the Judge’s hand, leading him down to the lunch table. Every day she ran up to his study at one o’clock when she came from school. That gave her time for a little chat with him and a play with Sukey before the bell rang for lunch. ”

“ Suebia was that part of Germany inhabited by the Suevi. It looks as though Tacitus considered that courage and manliness decreased the farther north one went. The Suiones allow themselves to be bullied by an absolute king, who sets a thrall to guard their weapons, and the Sitones are in a still worse plight, in allowing themselves to be governed by a woman. The Sitones are not mentioned before or after this in literature, and it seems as though the name must be due to some misunderstanding. ”

“ The two chief ports on the African coast of the Red Sea are Port Sudan and Suakim. They were nothing until the completion of the Red Sea road. The original plan was to use Suakim as the terminus of the Sudan railway. The English surveyors, however, finding a much better harbour at Port Sudan, extended the railroad to that point. The town which was a mere village a few years ago has now several thousand people, and grows like one of the mushroom settlements of the Canadian west. ”

“ And to this Belazin was nothing loth and he granted it, and his marriage was performed with her according to the law of the Moors; and every day he liked her more, and did her such honour that greater could not be. [304] And it befell that Belazin being one day with Ulaca, she said to him, Sir, do not think it ill if I tell you of a thing in which you do not act as if you knew the custom. And he said, Wherein is it that I err? Sir, said she, because you have no crown, for no one was ever confirmed in Spain, except he had a crown upon his head. ”

“ The white man's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I came to find a woman of my people that you seized. She is here in Sungan."
Bassalor Danek looked up quickly. "When did she come to Sungan?"
"Several days ago. And Wu Fang Chien kept her. He planned to bring me here, in order to kill me." Gray met the gaze of the old man squarely. "This woman and I, Bassalor Khan, are descended from the same fathers as your race. We were coming to Sungan to seek you. And this man has tried to prevent that. A score of men have lost their lives because of it." ”

“ Sukyman was more cordial now than before, and invited me to his house, which was the most beautiful in Kizlich. He was a rich pagan, and greatly respected, as well for his bravery as his good fortune, which had withheld favor from him only in one thing, and that was, that from many wives he had no son, but five daughters. The eldest of these, Illa, he loved much for her beauty. I happened often to see her; for the Tartars do not keep their women in seclusion as the Turks do, and do not force them to cover their faces. ”