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
runaway slave shown to one of these men, who caught the fugitive at
the distance of three days' journey from that spot. My brother once
went out of the Bascha's house at Chartum, to visit a patient who
lived far off in the town. He had been gone an hour when the Bascha
desired to see him, and the tschansch (orderly) traced him at once
by his footmarks on the unpaved streets in which crowds had left
similar signs. When, in consequence of my sickness, we lingered for
some days on the Atbara, and then marched to overtake the army, the
Schaïgiës who escorted us detected, amidst the hoof-marks of the
seven or eight thousand donkeys accompanying the troops, those of a
particular jackass belonging to one of their friends, and the event
proved that they were right." Mr Werne fills his journal, during
his long sojourn in camp, with a great deal of curious information
concerning the habits and peculiarities of both Turks and Arabs,
as well as with the interesting results of his observations on the
brute creation. The soldiers continued to bring to him and his
brother all manner of animals and reptiles--frogs, whole coils of
snakes, and chameleons, which there abound, but whose changes of
colour Mr Werne found to be much less numerous than is commonly
believed. For two months he watched the variations of hue of these
curious lizards, and found them limited to different shades of grey
and green, with yellow stripes and spots. He made a great pet of
a young wild cat, which was perfectly tame, and extraordinarily
handsome. Its colour was grey, beautifully spotted with black,
like a panther; its head was smaller and more pointed than that of
European cats; its ears, of unusual size, were black, with white
stripes. Many of the people in camp took it to be a young tiger, but
the natives called it a _fagged_, and said it was a sort of cat, in
which Mr Werne agreed with them. "Its companion and playfellow is a
rat, about the size of a squirrel, with a long silvery tail, which,
when angry, it swells out, and sets up over its back. This poor
little beast was brought to us with two broken legs, and we gave it
to the cat, thinking it was near death. But the cat, not recognising
her natural prey--and moreover feeling the want of a companion--and
the rat, tamed by pain and cured by splints, became inseparable
friends, ate together, and slept arm in arm. The rat, which was not
ugly like our house rats, but was rather to be considered handsome,
by reason of its long frizzled tail, never made use of its liberty
to escape." Notwithstanding the numerous devices put in practice
by the Wernes to pass their time, it at last began to hang heavy,
and their pipes were almost their sole resource and consolation.
Smoking is little customary in Egypt, except amongst the Turks and
Arabs. The Mograbins prefer chewing. The blacks of the Gesira make a
concentrated infusion of this weed, which they call _bucca_; take a
mouthful of it, and roll the savoury liquor round their teeth for a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account