Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 431, September 1851Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 431, September 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
nape, a fringe composed of small rings. His straight-bladed sword
had a golden hilt. The whole equipment, which seems to correspond
very closely with that of some of the Sikhs or other warlike Indian
tribes, proceeded from India, and Defalla had forty or fifty such
suits of arms. About the same time with him, arrived two Schechs
from the refractory land of Taka, tall handsome men; whilst, from
the environs of the neighbouring town of Gos-Rajeb, a number of
people rode out on dromedaries to meet the Bascha, their hair quite
white with camel-fat, which melted in the sun and streamed over
their backs. Gos-Rajeb, situated at about a quarter of a mile from
the left bank of the Atbara, consists of some two hundred _tokul_
(huts) and clay-built houses, and in those parts is considered
an important commercial depot, Indian goods being transported
thither on camels from the port of Souakim, on the Red Sea. The
inhabitants are of various tribes, more of them red than black
or brown; but few were visible, many having fled at the approach
of Achmet's army, which passed the town in imposing array--the
infantry in double column in the centre, the Turkish cavalry on the
right, the Schaïgiës and Mograbins on the left, the artillery, with
kettledrums, cymbals, and other music, in the van--marched through
the Atbara, there very shallow, and encamped on the right bank, in
a stony and almost treeless plain, at the foot of two rocky hills.
The Bascha ordered the Shech of Gos-Rajeb to act as guide to the
Wernes in their examination of the vicinity, and to afford them all
the information in his power. The most remarkable spot to which
he conducted them was to the site of an ancient city, which once,
according to tradition, had been as large as Cairo, and inhabited
by Christians. The date of its existence must be very remote, for
the ground was smooth, and the sole trace of buildings consisted in
a few heaps of broken bricks. There were indications of a terrible
conflagration, the bricks in one place being melted together into a
black glazed mass. Mr Werne could trace nothing satisfactory with
respect to former Christian occupants, and seems disposed to think
that Burckhardt, who speaks of Christian monuments at that spot, (in
the neighbourhood of the hill of Herrerem,) may have been misled by
certain peculiarly formed rocks.
[4] _Blackwood's Magazine_, No. CCCCIV., for June 1849.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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