Burckhardt, John Lewis, 1784-1817; Nile River Valley -- Description and travel; Nubia -- Description and travel
The Bisharye are kind, hospitable, and honest towards each other;
their women, who are said to be as handsome as those of Abyssinia,
mix in company with strangers, and are reported to be of very
depraved habits. After long and fruitless enquiries for a Bisharye
Arab, I at last met with a youth who had come to Esne to sell
leather thongs, for the manufacture of which these Bedouins are
famous. I enticed him to my dwelling by bargaining for his goods,
and made him breakfast with me; but when I began to question him
about his language he would stay no longer, although I offered him
a shirt as a present. He imagined that I dealt in spells, which I
meant to put in practise to the injury of his nation; he forced his
way out of the court-yard of my house, and I could never afterwards
prevail upon him to return. The words in the annexed vocabulary,[71]
were procured from a Negro slave who had been educated among the
Bisharye, and sold by them to the chief of a village near Esne.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Single men are always easily found, to act as guides,
but few are willing to expose their own beasts to the chances of
a dangerous journey.]
[Footnote 2:
The different items of expense during my journey
were as follow:
Piast. Par.
To the guide from Assouan to Derr 6 20
Present to him 0 10
Dhourra, bought at Assouan 1 30
Bread and onions, bought at Assouan 0 25
Present to the servant of the governor, at Derr 1 0
Present to the secretary, for writing a letter
to Sukkot, which induced him to recommend
me in strong terms 1 0
Provisions of Dhourra from Derr to Mahass 6 0
Tobacco bought at Derr 1 0
Shoes repaired at Derr 0 5
Paid on the way to my guide to Mahass 1 0
Paid wages to my guide on my return to Derr 6 20
Present to my guide 2 0
Paid to Nubians, for shewing me the ruins,
on the road from Derr to Assouan 1 10
Ferry-boat at Debot 0 10
To the guide from Derr to Assouan 6 20
Present to him 0 20
------------
36 10
or, £1. 15s. sterling.]
[Footnote 3: Anas el Wodjoud; i. e. “the social pleasures of
Wodjoud.” Wodjoud, say the Arabs, was the name of the mighty king
who built the temples of Philæ.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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