Gagi, our traveller took a liberty with the chief, which elsewhere would have exposed him to danger.

"I walked into his harem without ceremony, and chatted with his wives and female slaves. Some of them were very beautifully formed; and being almost naked, they displayed finely shaped busts, and, I may say, almost perfect symmetry of shape; their features very regular, and their full dark eyes exceedingly expressive. The little drapery worn by them is adjusted with great taste, and they possess a natural ease of manner, neither bashful nor yet too forward, which is very engaging. The slaves are employed in making basket-work, and the wives reposing on their angareebs. I could not, in Egypt, have taken the liberty of entering a harem in this manner; but here, apparently, more freedom is permit. ted, for they did not seem at all offended; on the contrary, they gave me as much encouragement as I could desire. They examined my arms, and dress, and were profuse in their admiration of my beard, and in exclamations-as, 'Odjaib, whallah! wonderful, God is great! but he is a tall man,' The sheakh was smoking under the shade of some doum trees. He saw me enter, hut had the politeness not to interfere."

that it was painful to be behind him in generosity. Hav. ing no suitable articles to spare, such as a gun, pistols, or a watch, the most proper gifts to a Turk of his rank, I could only beg his acceptance of a few trifles,—a new patent powder-flask and belt, a bag of English shot, a good English penknife, and a silver watch-guard."

The bey is superior to many of the prejudices of his nation and creed; his mode of patronising the fine arts, however, is altogether Turkish.

"I complained to the bey yesterday, that, on account of the prejudices of the people, we were unable to draw any of the costumes of the country. The bey very coolly declared, that whoever dared to refuse, he would cut off his head! Though this summary order was coolly received in the divan, we did not hesitate to avail ourselves of it, and immediately set to work, and drew the portraits of all the dignitaries of consequence at his court."

We have to thank this energetic patron of painting for four very admirable portraits, taken by Bandoni, the artist who accompanied Mr. Hoskins; they are full of life and vigour, and would afford almost as good a treat to physiognomists as the sight of the originals; rarely, indeed, have we seen portraits in which character is so strongly this worthy bey, who is an especial favourite of

marked. We must extract two more anecdotes of

ours:

At El Makarrif, the capital of the ancient kingdom, now the Turkish province, of Berber, Mr. Hoskins was hospitably entertained by the bey; who did not, like other provincial governors, trade on his generosity, and make presents in hope of an extravagant return. There is an earnestness "In our tent, yesterday, we took the figure and costand simplicity in the bey's character that con-ume of a Bisharcen boy, about eighteen, whose father, a trasts strangely with the barbarous pomp by which powerful sheakh, had attempted to excite a revolt against he is surrounded. He invited Mr. Hoskins to a the pacha. Not being successful, he fled, and his son Turkish entertainment, and spoke with him freely was detained in prison until the father paid a fine of 250 camels. By way of a jest, though a barbarous one, which on a great variety of subjects. I should not have allowed had I known of it, the bey and his officers told the poor boy that we were to cut off his head, being Turks deputed from Cairo for that special purpose. He sat down on the ground in the attitude represented, with his head turned on one side, and remained motionless, in the same position, nearly three quarters of an hour. We remarked that we had never had a subject who sat so patiently. When we had finished, we told him he might get up, making him, at the same time, a small present; when, with a look of bewildered delight, he told us how differently he expected to have been treated, and that he had been awaiting every moment the stroke of the sabre.

“Afterwards, the conversation turning upon animals, he showed me the skin of a pet lion, that he had killed because it had destroyed a sheep. I happened to appear pleased with it, when he instantly made me accept it. He then sent for a beautiful little monkey, of the grey capuchin kind, with which he also presented me. I took it into my special protection, and christened it with the name uppermost in my thoughts, namely, Meroë; and many a weary mile, till my return to Thebes, did it beguile me with its mischievous gambols on my camel. When I rose to take leave, the bey said he would accompany me to my tent, and then ordered me a fine large panther's skin, on which he had been sitting. He did not give me these, as the Turks in general make presents, with the expectation of receiving others more valuable; for I told him, on receiving the first, that I had not contemplated making this journey when I left Europe, and had therefore nothing with me to offer him. He replied, All Turks are not the same; there are good and bad of every nation: these are trifles; tell me how I can be of real service to you; and the only return I wish is, that you think well of me when you go to your own country.' He privately enquired of my dragoman if we were in want of candles, sugar, coffee, of another tent, or anything else. Although we wanted nothing, we duly appreciated his kind intention. The style in which he came to my tent, and went to and from his harem every day, will give some idea of the state kept up in these provincial governments. He was preceded by his guards, armed with guns; then by four cowhasses, beating their massive silver-headed sticks on the ground,-a substitute for music: the bey himself then followed, on foot or on his charger, having behind him six other guards, with guns, and a crowd of perhaps twenty servants. I was at a loss what return to make for his liberality he had really shown himself such a fine fellow,

"In the evening, when we were with the bey, he sent for the poor youth, and frightened him again by telling him that, by virtue of the drawing we had made, we had a magical power over him, and should transport him with us into our own country. He opened his mouth aghast, asked every body if it were true, and seemed struck with horror at the idea of never again seeing his native deserts. He addressed his enquiries particularly to Sheakh Seyd, who, as chief of the Ababdes, he did not think capable of deceiving him; but I verily believe many of the meliks and chiefs present, who affected to join in the laugh, really had doubts and misgivings that such, in truth, was the necromantic power of our pencils, and particularly of the camera lucida, with which I drew several of them. My artist took the bey's likeness, at his own particular desire; I conceive, for one of his favourites. He was very well satisfied with the representation of his figure, rich costume, his sword and accoutrements, and of the fierceness of his mustachios; but he did not understand the shading, and begged my artist to take away those black things.' Before leaving Makkarif, the bey showed me round the indigo and hide manufactories belonging to the government. I parted from him with some regret, for he is decidedly the best

Turk I have ever known; and it was a great pleasure for often interior courts: the streets are wide, and there are a few days to meet with such courtesy in these wild re-in the town several open spaces, or squares, some of gions of interior Africa." which are used as market places."

mainder of the night. This morning we found that the four lions had rambled all over the ruins, and their traces were quite fresh in every part. They had evidently been deterred only by our fires from attacking us. I ascertained them, by their footsteps, to be two males and two females; one of the males must have been very large, the females much smaller."

This incident of course led to the narration of several anecdotes by the Arab guides, some of which are curious as marking the dash of chivalry that always mingles with Arab superstitions:"The Arabs tell some singularly superstitious tales of the generosity of the lion. The following has been related to me as a fact by different peasants; but I must confess that, like the generality of Arab tales, it partakes of the marvellous; yet, perhaps, with a mélange of fable, there may be some kind of foundation of truth. They that when the lion seizes the cow of a peasant, he will permit the owner to carry away a portion; particularly if he asks for it in the name of his mother, wife, or family, and takes it without showing any fear."

say,

|

of the Arab tribes. This warlike race alone never bent their knees to the great sultan of Sennaar. It is impossi ble to convey to the reader an adequate idea of the power these daring warriors once possessed. The name of a Shageea was a host in itself. I have been repeatedly assured, that a single horseman has often been known to alight at a peasant's hut, order the owner to hold his his wives, and often, it is said, still more shamefully horse, whilst he entered into his very harem, ate with abused his power. Death or slavery was the fate of the meleks of the neighbouring tribes who dared to offend them. Mounted on their dromedaries or horses, armed

with lances, swords, and shields, they scoured the province, sweeping away the herds, massacreing all who had the courage to resist, and carrying away men, women, and children into captivity. War was their sole Mothers appeased the cries of their infants by the sight delight; the cry to arms their most welcome sound. of a spear; and the lovely maiden only yielded her hand to the distinguished warrior. Their exploits are the theme of many a song; and other tribes seem to have forgotten their wrongs in admiration of the bravery of their oppressors. The blessings of peace, agriculture, Professor Heeren contends, that the ruins of and domestic repose, were considered irksome by these El Owataib are the ancient Ammonium; Mr. proud warriors. They obstinately and gallantly resisted Hoskins assigns some strong reasons for coming the invasion of the pacha, till they found it vain, with to a different conclusion, which we shall examine their lances and sabres, to contend against fields of artilhereafter. It is to be regretted that our traveller lery and disciplined troops armed with the musket. Understanding that the pacha was going to make war did not penetrate to the ruins of El Macaurat, against Melek Nimr and the Shendyans, who were also which have been, as yet, very imperfectly describ-their enemies, they joined his troops, and gradually came ed, but from want of water, he was forced to return to Shendy. Here the Katshef entertained him with an exhibition of the old mameluke exercise, which seems to be even more animated than the famous El Jerrid of the Turks.

After passing the Bahiouda desert, Mr. Hoskins visited the great ruins at Gibel el Berkel, a little below the fourth cataract of the Nile. These magnificent remains lead to the discussion of some important questions in the history of civilisation and the arts, to which we shall return; at present, we must confine ourselves to the state of the country and its inhabitants:

completely under subjection to him. The government, however, treats them with some respect. As I have stated before, a Shageea regiment is still in the pacha's service, and engaged in the war against the Negroes, at the southern extremity of his kingdom."

Pursuing his course northwards, Mr. Hoskins reached Dongolah; and, notwithstanding his previous accounts of the wretchedness he had witnessed, we did not expect to learn that the metropolis of a district so frequently mentioned in history could have presented such a miserable aspect as he describes:

"Part of the town is in ruins. The desert has entered "To give the reader an idea of the present state of fer- into its streets: many of the houses are entirely covered tility of this country, notwithstanding that the desert has with sand, and scarcely an inhabitant is to be seen. One enormously encroached on the cultivated land, the fol- might have thought that some dreadful convulsion of lowing particulars may not be uninteresting:-The kat-nature, or some pestitential disease, had swept away the shef of Merouch commands as far as Wanly, down the population. Part of the city is, indeed, remaining, but river, one day by land, about thirty miles; and up the until I entered the houses, not a human being did I meet river as far as Berber, two days by land. Within this with. I observed some houses in the town, of a superior small extent, over which only the banks of the Nile are appearance, having divisions of rooms, galleries, and cultivated, there are 1368 water-wheels, which pay to courts, and evidently belonging to individuals once rich; the government twenty dollars each, that is, 27,360 dol- but they are now almost all deserted. In some of them lars; besides which, the government gain considerably that we entered I saw some good-looking women: the men by obliging the peasants to plant indigo, which they were idling away the day smoking and sleeping. Such purchase from them at twelve piastres the cantar. They is the scene of desolation and inactivity which now prehave calculated that they make 190 drachms of indigo sents itself to the traveller at Dongolah." from each cantar. Under the government of Dongolah, there are five manufactories of indigo,-Merouch, Handek, Haffeer, Dongolah Agous, and El Ourde. The manufactory here produces 1846 okres every year, and is now increasing. The peasants are unwilling to culti vate this plant, as the labour is very great and they do not consider the price they receive a sufficient remu

neration.

*

"The Shagcea who cultivate this district, are less op. pressed than their neighbours: they are, as Burckhardt and Waddington have remarked, considered the bravest

The okre consists of 2 3-4 rotles, or pounds of 12 ounces; and 150 rotles, or pounds, make a cantar.

The slave-trade flourishes in Egypt, and the cruelty of the dealers in this horrid traffic is as great by land as it was by sea.

The manner in which they were clogged, to prevent "I saw this evening a number of slaves going to Cairo. their escaping or rebelling against their owners, was disgraceful and revolting in the extreme. Each slave wore collar, of a triangular form, large enough to admit his a clog made of a wooden pole, four feet long, with a head: this triangular collar rests upon their shoulders, and is so contrived with straps, that it is impossible for them to throw it off. When they walk, they are obliged to carry it before them; and at night their hands are tied

to the centre of the pole, and their feet to the bottom of it. The owners of the slaves showed me, with the malicious grin of fiends, the effects of the cords, and the weight of the machine on the hands, necks, and legs of their victims. They confessed that they were often obliged to free their slaves entirely from this torture, in order to preserve their lives: I saw several in this situation, who seemed to have suffered severely from being previously loaded with this machine."

New Dongolah is described as superior to most of the cities on the upper Nile; the Ababde Arabs, in whose district it stands, seem more civilised than the other tribes; they retain their national love of imaginative fiction, and Mr. Hoskins has given a translation of a Dongolah tale, recited by an Ababde girl of thirteen, which Schahriar would gladly have heard from the mouth of Scheherazade.

poses most enormous taxes upon every article of produce, but obliges them to cultivate what he chooses, and take the price he offers for the produce. He is the only purchaser of the grain, cotton, and indigo, and of the gum of Kordofan, ostrich feathers, and other articles. Slaves are almost the only commodity the merchants now are allowed to take in exchange for the manufactures they carry to Sennaar and Kordofan: even wild animals of the desert, as the giraffe, are a monopoly of the government."

But Mohammed Ali is not the only scourge of this unfortunate race

66

Each soldier is a little tyrant, and commits a series of gross and petty vexations inconceivable to a European. Of the many I have witnessed, I will give only a few specimens:-If the soldier wants a sheep, fowls, eggs, or any other article, he obliges the peasant to sell them at half the market price, and not unfrequently refuses to pay After having visited the colossal antiquities in any thing at all. When becalined on the river, he gues the island of Argo, Mr. Hoskins was preparing to on shore, and forces ten, and sometimes twenty, natives to drag his boat, without any remuneration. If he meets continue his route homewards, when he was alarmed by the news of a dangerous revolt in the a peasant girl carrying milk or butter, he often helps himself to half without paying for it, unless with a saprovince of Mahas. The history of this brief lute; and woe betide the imprudent sheahk or peasant rebellion is a sad illustration of the system of who refuses to give gratuitously the best his house provincial government; it was provoked by op affords, or neglects the horse or camel of the Turk or pression, and suppressed by perfidy. The regular soldier who has taken up his quarters for the night at troops were equal in number to the insurgents; his house. If camels or donkeys are wanted, they must and, though well supplied with arms and ammu- furnish them, and consider themselves fortunate if they nition, narrowly escaped defeat from peasants, get any trifle in return. The haughty manner of the whose weapons are thus described :conquerors is still more galling to the Arabs: their usual manner of addressing them is, Kelp, Marhas!—' Dog! villain! Do this! do that! quick! quick; cursed be your race!' with threats of a beating, even actual blows, and sometimes with the sole of the shoe, which is the greatest indignity that a Mahomedan can receive.

"About 150 of the Mahas had guns, but very bad ones, mostly matchlocks, and they were very ill supplied with ammunition. They were variously armed: some with lances, shields, German swords; while others had only swords made of the acacia wood, about four feet "Men whose ancestors have been chiefs in the country long, rounded at one end for the hand, the rest cut thin, for ages, must now submit to the insolence and contumely flat, and sharpened at both sides,-a heavy but formida- of this vile and lawless soldiery. From negligence, the ble weapon in the hands of an athletic Arab. Others latter often do not demand the tax on the water-wheels had staves only. Sentences in Arabic were written by for some time; then, all at once, they appear, calling out, the fakeers, on the wooden swords and staves; on somePay me to-morrow, or the bastinado! The peasant, of them lines from the Koran: the most common were, May God give me force to destroy my enemies! May my foes tremble before me! May the acacia sword be as the sharp steel in my hand!' I have seen a staff similarly shaped in the museum at Berlin, with hieroglyphics on it; the latter I could not examine, as it was on a shelf, at too great a distance to be read."

not being allowed sufficient time to raise the money, is obliged to suffer this degrading punishment, and often even have his ears nailed to a board. Being at a distance, perhaps, from the seat of government, or large market towns, he has no opportunity of selling his produce; nevertheless, with double the value of the sum required in effects, he has to undergo a disgraceful punishment, because he has no dollars.

It may appear strange that peasants, thus mise"The Mahas who revolted had not paid the governrably provided, would dare to resist a strong mili-ment for some time. The mahmoor sent a villanous tary government; but Mr. Hoskins informs us, that they are so cruelly oppressed, as to be reckless of danger or death. The only wonder is, that men, so ground down by exactions, are ever quiet.

Turk into their province, with the instruments of torture, who immediately began bastinadoing them, nailing their ears, and threatening to cut off their heads, if they did not pay him. He visited Melek Backeet, who owed a considerable sum to the government, and told him that, if he did not pay his taxes in a few days, every species "If the peasants did not actually steal from their own of torture would be inflicted upon him. The Mahas fields, in some places, they could not exist. Although manufacture strong linen cloth, which is very much esthey bury their grain under ground, and by various other teemed throughout all the valley of the Nile. Being at a methods deceive their oppressors, numbers perish from distance from the capital, and thus unable to command the want of sufficient nourishment and clothing. I have an immediate sale, at least for the large quantity on hand, seen them, in winter, assembled in a corner, round a they tendered it in part of their taxes. The government miserable fire, shivering with cold and hunger. In the refused, though the transaction would have been very most favoured clime under heaven, and the most pro-advantageous to them, the linen being offered at a price ductive country on the face of the earth, a vast proportion of the peasants may be said barely to exist upon food more calculated for cattle than for human beings, and, bad as it is, they have rarely enough.

"The pacha has power sufficient to hold them in subjection, and by his extortions fills his coffers; but necessity alone induces them to submit. He not only im

much lower than it sells for in the bazaar of Dongolah. Melek Backeet, therefore, excited the revolt, preferring death to the ignominious punishment with which he was

threatened."

Having arrived on the Egyptian frontiers, Mr. Hoskins concludes his narrative with some gene

TRADITIONARY BALLADS.