Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 4 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 4 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
were in constant correspondence, though I never heard they were with
Sennaar, which indeed did not exist at that time, nor was there either
city or kingdom till the reign of Naod; so it was a correspondence
with the sovereigns of Cairo, Tecla Haimanout mistook for that with
Sennaar, which monarchy was not then founded.--The third observation
is, that this Baady el Achmer, being the very king who murdered M.
du Roule in 1704, did, nevertheless, live till the year 1726, having
reigned 25 years; whereas M. de Maillet[38] writes to his court, that
this prince had been defeated and slain in a battle he had with the
Arabs, under their Shekh at Herbagi in 1705.
Upon the death of a king of Sennaar, his eldest son succeeds by right;
and immediately afterwards as many of the brothers of the reigning
prince as can be apprehended are put to death by the Sid el Coom,
in the manner already described. Achmet, one of the sons of Baady,
brother of Nasser, and Ismain now on the throne, fled, upon his
brother's accession, to the frontiers of Kuara, and gathering together
about a hundred of the Ganjar horse, he came to Gondar, and was
kindly received by the Iteghé, who persuaded him to be baptised. Some
time after he returned to Kuara, and joined the king's army a little
before the battle of Serbraxos, with about the same number of horse,
and there he misbehaved, taking flight upon the first appearance of
the enemy, before a man was killed or wounded on either side. He was
graceful in his person and carriage, but a liar and drunkard beyond
all conception.
The practice which obtains at Sennaar of murdering all the collaterals
of the royal family, seems to be but a part of the same idea[39]
which prevails in Abyssinia, of confining the princes all their lives
upon a mountain. The difference of treatment, in cases perfectly
parallel, seems to offer a just manner of judging, how much the one
people surpasses the other in barbarity of manners and disposition.
In Abyssinia, the princes are confined for life on a mountain, and in
Sennaar they are murdered in their father's sight, in the palace where
they were born.
[39] Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne. POPE.
As in Abyssinia, so neither in Sennaar do women succeed to
sovereignty. No historical reason is given for this exclusion. It
probably was a rule brought from El-aice, their own country, before
founding their monarchy, for the very contrary prevailed among the
Shepherds, whom they subdued in Atbara. The princesses, however, in
Abyssinia, are upon a much better footing than those of Sennaar. These
last have no state nor settled income, and are regarded very little
more than the daughters of private individuals. Among that crowd of
women which I saw the two nights I was in the palace, there were many
princesses, sisters of the king, as I was after told. At that time
they were not distinguishable by their manners, nor was any particular
mark of respect shewn them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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