The Mammoth Book of Travel in Dangerous Places (37 page)

“Why have you come hither,” says he to me, “without arms and on foot, and without attendants?”
Yagoube.
“I was told that horses were not kept as Sennaar, and
brought none with me.”
Adelan.
“You suppose you have come through great dangers, and so you have. But what do you think of me, who am day and night out in the fields, surrounded
by hundreds and thousands of Arabs, all of whom would eat me alive if they dared?” I answered, “A brave man, used to command as you are, does not look to the number of his enemies, but
to their abilities; a wolf does not fear ten thousand sheep more than he does one.”
Ad.
“True; look out at the door; these are their chiefs whom I am now taxing, and I have
brought them hither that they may judge from what they see whether I am ready for them or not.”
Yag.
“You could not do more properly; but as to my own affairs, I wait upon you
from the king of Abyssinia, desiring safe conduct through your country into Egypt, with his royal promise, that he is ready to do the like for you again, or any other favour you may call upon him
for.” He took the letter and read it.
Ad.
“The king of Abyssinia may be assured I am always ready to do more for him than this. It is true, since the mad attempt upon Sennaar,
and the next still madder, to replace old Baady upon the throne, we have had no formal peace, but neither are we at war. We understand one another as good neighbours ought to do; and what else is
peace?”
Yag.
“You know I am a stranger and traveller, seeking my way home. I have nothing to do with peace or war between nations. All I beg is a safe conduct through your
kingdom, and the rights of hospitality bestowed in such cases on every common stranger; and one of the favours I beg is, your acceptance of a small present. I bring it not from home; I have been
long absent from thence, or it would have been better.”
Ad.
“I’ll not refuse it, but it is quite unnecessary. I have faults like other men, but to hurt, or ransack
strangers, was never one of them. Mahomet Abou Kalec, my brother, is, however, a much better man to strangers than I am; you will be lucky if you meet him here; if not, I will do for you what I
can, when once the confusion of these Arabs is over.”

I gave him the Sherriffe’s letter, which he opened, looked at, and laid by without reading, saying only, “Aye, Metical is a good man, he sometimes takes care of our people going to
Mecca; for my part, I never was there, and probably never shall.” I then presented my letter from Ali Bey to him. He placed it upon his knee, and gave a slap upon it with his open hand.
Ad.
“What! do you not know, have you not heard, Mahomet Abou Dahab, his Hasnadar, has rebelled against him, banished him out of Cairo, and now sits in his place? But, don’t be
disconcerted at that; I know you to be a man of honour and prudence; if Mahomet, my brother, does not come, as soon as I can get leisure I will dispatch you.” The servant, that had conducted
me to Sennaar, and was then with us, went forward close to him, and said, in a kind of whisper, “Should he go often to the king?” “When he pleases; he may go to see the town, and
take a walk, but never alone, and also to the palace, that, when he returns to his own country, he may report he saw a king at Sennaar, that neither knows how to govern, nor will suffer others to
teach him; who knows not how to make war, and yet will not sit in peace.” I then took my leave of him; but there was a plentiful breakfast in the other room, to which he sent us, and which
went far to comfort Hagi Ismael for the misfortune of his patron, Ali Bey. At going out, I took my leave by kissing his hand, which he submitted to without reluctance. “Shekh,” said I,
“when I pass these Arabs in the square, I hope it will not disoblige you if I converse with some of them out of curiosity?”
Ad.
“By no means, as much as you please; but
don’t let them know where they can find you at Sennaar, or they will be in your house from morning till night, will eat up all your victuals, and then, in return, will cut your throat, if
they can meet you upon your journey.”

I returned home to Sennaar, very well pleased with my reception at Aira. I had not seen, since I left Gondar, a man so open and frank in his manners, and who spoke, without disguise, what
apparently he had in his heart; but he was exceedingly engaged in business, and it was of such extent that it seemed to me impossible to be brought to an end in a much longer time than I proposed
staying at Sennaar. The distance, too, between Aira and that town was a very great discouragement to me. The whole way was covered with insolent, brutish people; so that every man we met between
Sennaar and Aira produced some altercation, some demand of presents, gold, cloth, tobacco, and a variety of other disagreeable circumstances, which had always the appearance of ending in something
serious.

I had a long conversation with the Arabs I met with at Aira, and from them I learned pretty nearly the situation of the different clans, or tribes, in Atbara. – These were all in their way
northward to the respective countries, in the sands to the eastward of Mendera and Barbar. These sands, so barren and desolate the rest of the year, were beginning now to be crowded with multitudes
of cattle and inhabitants. The fly, in the flat and fertile mold, which composes all the soil to the southward of Sennaar, had forced this number of people to migrate, which they very well knew was
to cost them at least one half of their substance; of such consequence is the weakest instrument in the hand of Providence. The troops of Sennaar, few in number, but well-provided with every thing,
stood ready to cut these people off from their access to the sands, till every chief of a tribe had given in a well-verified inventory of his whole stock, and made a composition, at passing, with
Shekh Adelan.

All subterfuge was in vain. The fly, in possession of the fertile country, inexorably pursued every single camel till he took refuge in the sands, and there he was to stay till the rains ceased;
and if, in the interim, it was discovered that any concealment of number, or quality, had been made, they were again to return in the beginning of September to their old pastures; and, in this
second passage, any fraud, whether real, or alledged, was punished with great severity. – Resistance had been often tried, and as often found ineffectual. However great their numbers,
encumbered with families and baggage as they were, they had always fallen a sacrifice to those troops, well-mounted and armed, that awaited them in their way within sight of their own homes.
Arrived once in these sands, they were quiet during the rains, having paid their passage northward; and so they were afterwards, for the same reason, when they came again to their own station,
southward, when those rains had ceased.

It may be asked reasonably, “What does the government of Sennaar do with that immense number of camels, whic they receive from all those tribes of Arabs in their passage by Sennaar?”
To this I answer, “That all this tribute is not paid in kind.” The different tribes possessing so many camels, or so many other cattle, have a quantum laid upon them at an average
value. This is paid in gold, or in slaves, the rest in kind; so many for the maintenance of the king and government; for there is no flesh commonly used at Sennaar in the markets but that of
camels. The residue is bought by the merchants of Dongola, and sent into Egypt, where they supply that great consumption of these animals made every year by the caravans going to Mecca.

One thing had made a very strong impression on me, which was the contemptuous manner in which Adelan expressed himself as to his sovereign. I was satisfied, that, with some address, I could keep
myself in favour with either of them; but, in the terms they then were, or were very soon to be, I could not but fear I was likely to fall into trouble between the two.

A few days after this I had a message from the palace. I found the king sitting alone, apparently much chagrined, and in ill-humour. He asked me in a very peevish manner,
“If I was not yet gone?” To which I answered, “Your Majesty knows that it is impossible for me to go a step from Sennaar without assistance from you.” He again asked me, in
the same tone as before, “How I could think of coming that way?” I said, “Nobody imagined in Abyssinia, but that he was able to give a stranger safe conduct through his own
dominions.” He made no reply, but nodded a sign for me to depart; which I immediately did, and so finished this short, but disagreeable interview.

About four o’clock that same afternoon I was again sent for to the palace, when the king told me that several of his wives were ill, and desired that I would give them my advice, which I
promised to do without difficulty, as all acquaintance with the fair sex had hitherto been much to my advantage. I must confess, however, that calling these the fair sex is not preserving a
precision in terms. I was admitted into a large square apartment, very ill-lighted, in which were about fifty women, all perfectly black, without any covering but a very narrow piece of cotton rag
about their waists. While I was musing whether or not these all might be queens, or whether there was any queen among them, one of them took me by the hand and led me rudely enough into another
apartment. This was much better lighted than the first. Upon a large bench, or sofa, covered with blue Surat cloth, sat three persons cloathed from the neck to the feet with blue cotton shirts.

One of these, who, I found, was the favourite, was about six feet high, and corpulent beyond all proportion. She seemed to me, next to the elephant and rhinoceros, the largest living creature I
had met with. – Her features were perfectly like those of a Negro; a ring of gold passed through her under lip, and weighed it down, till, like a flap, it covered her chin, and left her teeth
bare, which were very small and fine. The inside of her lip she had made black with antimony. Her ears reached down to her shoulders, and had the appearance of wings; she had in each of them a
large ring of gold, somewhat smaller than a man’s little finger, and about five inches diameter. The weight of these had drawn down the hole where her ear was pierced so much, that three
fingers might easily pass above the ring. She had a gold necklace, like what we used to call
esclavage,
of several rows of sequins pierced. She had on her ankles two manacles of gold, larger
than any I had ever seen upon the feet of felons, with which I could not conceive it was possible for her to walk, but afterwards I found they were hollow. – The others were dressed pretty
much in the same manner; only there was one that had chains, which came from her ears to the outside of each nostril, where they were fastened. There was also a ring put through the gristle of her
nose, and which hung down to the opening of her mouth. I think she must have breathed with great difficulty. It had altogether something of the appearance of a horse’s bridle. Upon my coming
near them, the eldest put her hand to her mouth, and kissed it, saying, at the same time, in very vulgar Arabic, “Kifhalek howaja?” (how do you do, merchant) – I never in my life
was more pleased with distant salutations than at this time. I answered, “Peace be among you! I am a physician, and not a merchant.”

I shall not entertain the reader with the multitude of their complaints; being a lady’s physician, discretion and silence are my first duties. It is sufficient to say, that there was not
one part of their whole bodies, inside and outside, in which some of them had not ailments. The three queens insisted upon being blooded, which desire I complied with, as it was an operation that
required short attendance; but, upon producing the lancets, their hearts failed them. They then all cried out for the Tabange, which, in Arabic, means a pistol; but what they meant by this word
was, the cupping instrument, which goes off with a spring like the snap of a pistol. I had two of these with me, but not at that time in my pocket. I sent my servant home, however, to bring one,
and, that same evening, performed the operation upon the three queens with great success. The room was overflowed with an effusion of royal blood, and the whole ended with their insisting upon my
giving them the instrument itself, which I was obliged to do, after cupping two of their slaves before them, who had no complaints, merely to shew them how the operation was to be performed.

Another night I was obliged to attend them, and gave the queens, and two or three of the great ladies, vomits. I will spare my reader the recital of so nauseous a scene. The ipecacuanha had
great effect, and warm water was drunk very copiously. The patients were numerous, and the floor of the room received all the evacuations. It was most prodigiously hot, and the horrid, black
figures, moaning and groaning with sickness all around me, gave me, I think, some slight idea of the punishment in the world below. My mortifications, however did not stop here. I observed that, on
coming into their presence, the queens were all covered with cotton shirts; but no sooner did their complaints make part of our conversation, than, to my utmost surprise, each of them, in her turn,
stript herself entirely naked, laying her cotton shirt loosely on her lap, as she sat cross-legged like a tailor. The custom of going naked in these warm countries abolishes all delicacy concerning
it. I could not but observe that the breasts of each of them reached the length of their knees.

This exceeding confidence on their part, they thought, merited some consideration on mine; and it was not without great astonishment that I heard the queen desire to see me in the like
dishabille in which she had spontaneously put herself. The whole court of female attendants flocked to the spectacle. Refusal, or resistance, were in vain. I was surrounded with fifty or sixty
women, all equal in stature and strength to myself. The whole of my cloathing was, like theirs, a long loose shirt of blue Surat cotton cloth, reaching from the neck down to the feet. The only
terms I could possibly, and that with great difficulty, make for myself were, that they should be contented to strip me no farther than the shoulders and breast. Upon seeing the whiteness of my
skin, they gave all a loud cry in token of dislike, and shuddered, seeming to consider it rather the effects of disease than natural. I think in my life I never felt so disagreeably. I have been in
more than one battle, but surely I would joyfully have taken my chance again in any of them to have been freed from that examination. I could not help likewise reflecting, that, if the king had
come in during this exhibition, the consequence would either have been impaling, or stripping off that skin whose colour they were so curious about; though I can solemnly declare there was not an
idea in my breast, since ever I had the honour of seeing these royal beauties, that could have given his majesty of Sennaar the smallest reason for jealousy; and I believe the same may be said of
the sentiments of the ladies in what regarded me. Ours was a mutual passion, but dangerous to no one concerned. I returned home with very different sensations from those I had felt after an
interview with the beautiful Aiscach of Teawa. Indeed, it was impossible to be more chagrined at, or more disgusted with, my present situation that I was, and the more so, that my delivery from it
appeared to be very distant, and the circumstances were more and more unfavourable every day.