A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar: Under the Command of His Excellence Ismael Pasha, undertaken; by Order of His Highness Mehemmed Ali Pasha, Viceroy of; Egypt, By An American In The Service Of The ViceroyEnglish, George Bethune
History
A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar: Under the Command of His Excellence Ismael Pasha, undertaken; by Order of His Highness Mehemmed Ali Pasha, Viceroy of; Egypt, By An American In The Service Of The Viceroy
English, George Bethune
Dunqulah (Sudan) -- History; Sennar (Sudan) -- History; Sudan -- History -- 1821-1881; Sudan -- History -- To 1821
[Footnote 31: I am happy to add that these relics of the renowned
cavalry of Egypt are now residing there in ease and in honor; the
promises of the Pasha Ismael having been fulfilled by his father to the
letter.]
[Footnote 32: It is a singular circumstance, that the chiefs of Dongola,
Shageia, Berber, Shendi, and Halfya; should bear the same title as used
in the Hebrew bible, to designate the petty sovereigns of Canaan.]
[Footnote 33: The Shageia cavalry, however, wore these cloths cut and
made into long shirts, in order, probably, to have the freer management
of their lances, shields, and broad swords. It should also be stated,
that the Maleks or chiefs of the Upper Nile, were generally habited in
fine blue or white shirts, brought from Egypt.]
[Footnote 34: The same circumstance of dress is common also among
the peasants of both sexes of Dongola, Shageia, and along the third
cataract, with this addition, that they not only anoint the head, but
also the whole body with butter, they say it protects them from the
heat; that employed by the personages of consideration is perfumed.
Every Malek has a servant charged with the particular care of a box of
this ointment. On our march to Sennaar, whither we were accompanied by
the Malek of Shendy, I could wind this servant of his a mile off.]
[Footnote 35: I never in my life saw such noble and beautiful specimens
of the species as were these two horses; they were stallions, eighteen
hands high, beautifully formed, of high courage and superb gait. When
mounted, they tossed their flowing manes aloft higher than the heads
of their turbaned riders, and a man might place his two fists in their
expanded nostrils; they were worthy to have carried Ali and Khaled to
"the war of God."]
[Footnote 36: I feel myself, however, bound in conscience to tell the
whole truth of this affair. In perambulating about the town, in the
course of the day, which was very hot, I got affected by a coup de
soleil, which gave me a violent fever and head-ache. I have strong
suspicions that this circumstance acted as a powerful "preventer stay"
to my virtue, and enabled me to put the devil to flight on this trying
occasion. The mother of these damsels appeared to be edified by the
discourse I made to her upon the subject of her proposal, but the young
women plainly told me, that I was "rajil batal," i.e. a man good for
nothing. If they could have understood Latin, I should have told them,
"Quodcunque ostendes mihi sic-k Invalidus odi."]
[Footnote 37: The ordinary price of a virgin wife in Berber, is a horse,
which the bridegroom is obliged to present to the father of the girl he
demands in marriage. I remember asking a young peasant, of whom I bought
some provisions one day in Berber, "why he did not marry?" He pointed to
a colt in the yard, and told me that "when the colt became big enough,
he should take a wife."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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