NormalizeHEADmain

1 files changed, 0 insertions, 7943 deletions

diff --git a/old/67003-0.txt b/old/67003-0.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 4032be4..0000000
--- a/old/67003-0.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7943 +0,0 @@
-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Wanderings in Three Continents, by Sir
-Richard Burton
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Wanderings in Three Continents
-
-Author: Sir Richard Burton
-
-Editor: William Henry Wilkins
-
-Illustrator: A. D. McCormick
-
-Release Date: December 24, 2021 [eBook #67003]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Carol Brown, Emmanuel Ackerman and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-             produced from images generously made available by The Internet
-             Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS IN THREE CONTINENTS ***
-
-
-
-
-WANDERINGS IN
-
-THREE CONTINENTS
-
-
-
-
-[Frontispiece:
-
-Allen & Co. Ph. Sc.
-
-Richard F. Burton
-
-الحاج عباده
-]
-
-
-
-
-WANDERINGS IN
-
-THREE CONTINENTS
-
-
-
-
-BY THE LATE
-
-CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD F. BURTON, K.C.M.G.
-
-
-EDITED, WITH A PREFACE, BY W. H. WILKINS, M.A., F.S.A. EDITOR OF THE
-BURTON MSS. AND AUTHOR OF “THE ROMANCE OF ISABEL LADY BURTON,” ETC.
-
-
-WITH A PHOTOGRAVURE PORTRAIT AND
-
-WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY A. D. MᶜCORMICK
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration:  Printer’s Logo]
-
-
-
-
-London: HUTCHINSON & CO
-
-Paternoster Row [Illustration: small graphics]    1901
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-                                     PAGE
-
-PREFACE                               vii
-
-
-EL MEDINAH AND MECCAH                   1
-
-   I――THE VISITATION OF EL MEDINAH      3
-
-  II――THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCAH         35
-
-
-A RIDE TO HARAR                        71
-
-
-TO THE HEART OF AFRICA                 99
-
-   I――THE JOURNEY                     101
-
-  II――THE LAKE REGIONS                127
-
-
-THE CITY OF THE MORMONS               147
-
-   I――THE JOURNEY                     149
-
-  II――THE CITY AND ITS PROPHET        172
-
-
-A MISSION TO DAHOMÉ                   197
-
-
-A TRIP UP THE CONGO                   225
-
-
-THE INTERIOR OF BRAZIL                259
-
-
-THROUGH SYRIA TO PALMYRA              283
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE
-
-
-Burton was a many-sided man. The following volume of posthumous essays
-reveals him in the aspect in which he was best known to the world――as
-a traveller and explorer. It will add comparatively little to the
-knowledge of the Burton student; to the general reader it will contain
-much that is new, for though Burton wrote and published many bulky
-volumes of travel in years gone by, none of them assumed a popular
-form, and it may be doubted if any, save his “Pilgrimage to Meccah and
-El Medinah,” reached the outer circle of the great reading public.
-Most of his books are now out of copyright, many are out of print, and
-few are easily obtainable. This volume, therefore, will supply a need,
-in that it gives in a popular form a consensus of his most important
-travels in three continents. It will also, I hope, remind his
-countrymen of the achievements of this remarkable man, and bring home
-to many a deeper sense of what we have lost in him. This was the view
-taken by Lady Burton, who had hoped to incorporate these essays in her
-memorial edition of “The Labours and Wisdom of Sir Richard Burton,” a
-work cut short by her death. Upon me, therefore, has devolved the task
-of editing them and preparing them for publication. They form the
-second volume of the Burton MSS. which have been published since Lady
-Burton’s death, and I am the more encouraged to give them to the world
-by the success which attended the previous volume, “The Jew, the
-Gypsy, and El Islam.” The reception of this book, though published
-under obvious difficulties, and eight years after the author’s death,
-showed that the interest in the great traveller’s work was in no
-degree abated.
-
-The essays that follow were all prepared by Burton himself, and most
-of them were read by him in the form of lectures before sundry
-geographical and scientific societies at different times. For
-instance, the description of his expeditions to El Medinah, Meccah,
-Harar, and Dahomé were delivered by him as a course of four lectures
-before the Emperor and Empress of Brazil at Rio in 1866. The account
-of his Central African expedition was read, I believe, at Bath, the
-one on Damascus and Palmyra at Edinburgh, the one on the Mormons in
-London. I have deleted the local and topical allusions, which arose
-from the circumstances under which they were delivered; I have filled
-in a word or two where the notes were too sketchy; but that is all.
-Otherwise, the manuscript is reproduced exactly as it left the
-author’s hands. In his own words, simply and unaffectedly, Burton here
-gives an epitome of his principal travels in three continents.
-
-In this condensed form the essays necessarily lose something. On the
-other hand, they gain much. Careful and accurate as all Burton’s books
-of travel were, his passion for detail sometimes led him into
-tediousness. He crammed his notebooks so full that he had occasionally
-a difficulty in digesting the large mass of information he had
-acquired. He was addicted to excessive annotation. For instance, in
-his book on the Mormons, the large text occupied on some pages only
-three lines, the rest of the page being broken up by closely printed
-notes, extracts from Mormon books and sermons, which can only be
-considered as superfluous. Extraneous matter of this kind has been
-omitted here, and the result is a clear gain to the narrative.
-
-The book covers the period from 1853 to 1870, the most active years of
-Burton’s active life. It opens most fitly with an account of his
-pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah. This famous expedition was the
-turning-point of Burton’s career; in a sense it may be said to have
-been the beginning of it. Though he had already shown much promise and
-some performance, and was known to many in India as a linguist,
-soldier, writer, and man of unusual ability, he was yet unknown to the
-greater world outside. But after his pilgrimage to Meccah his fame
-became world-wide and enduring. I say this in no spirit of
-exaggeration. When all that Burton wrote and wrought has passed away
-into that limbo of forgetfulness which awaits the labours of even the
-most distinguished among us, this at least will be remembered to his
-honour, that he was the first Englishman to penetrate to the Holy of
-Holies at Meccah. I write the first Englishman advisedly. Burckhardt,
-a Swiss explorer, had gone part of the way before him, and since his
-day one or two have the made the pilgrimage, but, though it was a
-sufficiently difficult task when they performed it, it was much more
-difficult when Burton did it in 1853. He was not a man to do things by
-halves. He made the pilgrimage thoroughly, living absolutely the life
-of the Moslems, wearing their clothes, eating their food, joining in
-their prayers, sacrifices, and ritual, and speaking their language; he
-did all this, carrying his life in his hand, for one false step, one
-prayer unsaid, one trifling item of the shibboleth omitted, and the
-dog of an infidel who had dared to profane the sanctuary of the
-Prophet would have been found out, and his bones would have whitened
-the desert sand. Not that Burton went to profane the tomb of the
-Prophet. Far from it. From his early manhood he had been a sympathetic
-student of the higher aspects of El Islam. He had come to see that in
-it, above and beyond all the corruptions and abuses which clung around
-the Saving Faith, there existed an occult force which had made it a
-power among men. Not only in his achievement, but in the way he did
-it, Burton manifested those great qualities which have made the
-English race what it is; he showed tenacity, pluck, and strength of
-purpose, and, withal, he accomplished his purpose unobtrusively. None
-knew until he came back how great a task he had achieved.
-
-It was the same with all that Burton undertook. He did his work
-thoroughly, and he did it without any beating of drums or blaring of
-trumpets. “Deeds, not words,” was his rule; “Honour, not honours,” his
-motto. His expedition to Harar the following year was almost as
-arduous as his pilgrimage to Meccah. No European had ever before
-passed the gates of the city in Somaliland. But Burton passed them,
-and stayed in Harar some days. Again, his long and dangerous
-expedition into Central Africa, which occupied nearly three years,
-showed in a marvellous manner his resource, his courage, and his
-powers of endurance. On the unfortunate controversy which afterwards
-arose between himself and Speke it is not necessary to enter here; but
-this much, at least, may be said. In the discovery of Lake Tanganyika
-Burton was the pioneer; his was the brain which planned and commanded
-the expedition, and carried it through to a successful issue. It was
-he who first achieved with inadequate means and insufficient escort
-what Livingstone, Cameron, Speke, Grant, Baker, and Stanley achieved
-later.
-
-Of the remaining essays there is little to be said. Burton’s
-description of the Mormons in Great Salt Lake City printed here is, I
-think, very much better than his bulky book on the same subject, “The
-City of the Saints.” In the larger work Burton ventured on prophecy,
-always unsafe, and predicted a great future for Mormondom and
-polygamy, a prediction which has not so far been verified by events.
-On the other hand, this account of his mission to Dahomé certainly
-loses by excessive condensation. “The Trip up the Congo” and “The
-Interior of Brazil” are lightning sketches of expeditions which
-involved much preparation and trouble to carry them through. “Palmyra”
-is a formal survey rather than an account of an expedition. It is
-interesting, as it marks an epoch in (one had almost written, the end
-of) Burton’s active life. In 1870 he was suddenly recalled from
-Damascus by Lord Granville, and his career was broken.
-
-After his appointment to the post of Consul at Trieste he went on some
-expeditions, notably to Midian, but they were tame indeed compared
-with those to Meccah, Harar, and Central Africa. At Trieste the
-eagle’s wings were clipped, and the man who had great energy and
-ability, a knowledge of more than a score of languages, and an
-unrivalled experience of Eastern life and literature, was suffered to
-drag out eighteen years in the obscurity of a second-rate seaport
-town. True, it was not all lost time, for ample leisure was given him
-at Trieste for his literary labours. If he had been thrown in a more
-active sphere, his great masterpiece, “Alf Laylah Wa Laylah” (“The
-Arabian Nights”) might never have seen the light.
-
-But when all is said and done, the most fruitful years of Burton’s
-career, the richest in promise and performance, were those that began
-with the pilgrimage to Meccah and ended with his recall from Damascus.
-They were the very heart of his life: they are the years covered by
-this book.
-
-                                                  W. H. WILKINS.
-     _October 1901._
-
-
-
-
-_EL MEDINAH AND MECCAH_
-
-1853
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-_THE VISITATION OF EL MEDINAH_
-
-
-The Moslem’s pilgrimage is a familiar word to the Christian’s ear, yet
-how few are acquainted with the nature or the signification of the
-rite! Unto the present day, learned men――even those who make a
-pretence to some knowledge of the East――still confound Meccah, the
-birthplace, with El Medinah, the burial-place, of Mohammed, the Arab
-law-giver. “The Prophet’s tomb at Meccah” is a mistake which even the
-best-informed of our journals do not disdain to make.
-
-Before, however, entering upon the journey which procured for me the
-title “haji,” it is necessary for me to dispose of a few preliminaries
-which must savour of the personal. The first question that suggests
-itself is, “What course of study enabled an Englishman to pass
-unsuspected through the Moslem’s exclusive and jealously guarded Holy
-Land?”
-
-I must premise that in the matter of assuming an Oriental nationality,
-Nature was somewhat propitious to me. Golden locks and blue eyes,
-however _per se_ desirable, would have been sad obstacles to progress
-in swarthy Arabia. And to what Nature had begun, art contributed by
-long years of laborious occupation.
-
-Finding Oxford, with its Greek and Latin, its mysteries of δε and γαρ,
-and its theology and mathematics, exceedingly monotonous, I shipped
-myself for India and entered life in the 18th Sepoy Regiment of the
-Bombay Presidency. With sundry intervals of travel, my career between
-1843 and 1849 was spent in Scinde. This newly conquered province was
-very Mohammedan, and the conquerors were compelled, during the work of
-organisation, to see more of the conquered than is usual in England’s
-East Indian possession. Sir Charles Napier, of gallant memory, our
-Governor and Commander-in-Chief, honoured me with a staff appointment,
-and humoured my whim by allowing me to wander about the new land as a
-canal engineer employed upon its intricate canal system. My days and
-nights were thus spent among the people, and within five years I was
-enabled to pass examinations in six Eastern languages.
-
-In 1849 (March 30th-September 5th) an obstinate rheumatic ophthalmia,
-the result of overwork, sent me back to Europe, where nearly three
-years were passed before I was pronounced cured. Then, thoroughly
-tired of civilisation and living “dully sluggardised at home,” and
-pining for the breath of the desert and the music of the date-palm, I
-volunteered in the autumn of 1852 to explore the great waste of
-Eastern and Central Arabia――that huge white blot which still disgraces
-our best maps. But the Court of Directors of the then Honourable East
-India Company, with their mild and amiable chairman, after
-deliberation, stoutly refused. They saw in me only another victim,
-like Stoddard Connolly and the brave brothers Wyburd, rushing on his
-own destruction and leaving behind him friends and family to trouble
-with their requisitions the peace and quiet of the India House.
-
-What remained to me but to prove that what might imperil others was to
-me safe? Supplied with the sinews of travel by the Royal Geographical
-Society, curious to see what men are mostly content to hear of
-only――namely, Moslem inner life in a purely Mohammedan land――and
-longing to set foot within the mysterious Meccah which no vacation
-tourist had ever yet measured, sketched, photographed, and described,
-I resolved, _coûte qu’il coûte_, to make the attempt in my old
-character of a dervish. The safest as well as the most interesting
-time would be during the pilgrimage season.
-
-The Moslem’s hajj, or pilgrimage, means, I must premise, “aspiration,”
-and expresses man’s conviction that he is but a wayfarer on earth
-wending towards a nobler world. This explains the general belief of
-the men in sandaled shoon that the greater their hardships, the sorer
-to travel the road to Jordan, the higher will be their reward in
-heaven. The pilgrim is urged by the voice of his soul――“O thou,
-toiling so fiercely for worldly pleasure and for transitory profit,
-wilt thou endure nothing to win a more lasting boon?” Hence it is that
-pilgrimage is common to all ancient faiths. The Sabæans, or old
-Arabians, visited the Pyramids as the sepulchres of Seth and his son
-Sabi, the founder of their sect. The classical philosophers wandered
-through the Valley of the Nile. The Jews annually went up to
-Jerusalem. The Tartar Buddhists still journey to distant Lamaserais,
-and the Hindus to Egypt, to Tibet, to Gaya, on the Ganges, and to the
-inhospitable Caucasus. The spirit of pilgrimage animated mediæval
-Europe, and a learned Jesuit traveller considers the processions of
-the Roman Catholic Church modern vestiges of the olden rite.
-
-El Islam――meaning the covenant in virtue of which men earn eternal
-life by good works in this world――requires of all its votaries daily
-ablution and prayer, almsgiving on certain occasions, one month’s
-yearly fast, and at least one pilgrimage to the House of Allah at
-Meccah and the mountain of Ararat. This first, and often the single,
-visit is called Hajjat el Islam, or pilgrimage of being a Moslem, and
-all those subsequently performed are regarded as works of
-supererogation. The rite, however, is incumbent only upon those who
-possess a sufficiency of health or wealth. El Islam is a creed
-remarkable for common sense.
-
-The journey to El Medinah is not called hajj, but ziyarat, meaning a
-ceremonial visitation. Thus the difference between worship due to the
-Creator and homage rendered to the creature is steadily placed and
-kept before the Moslem’s eyes. Some sects――the Wahhabi, or Arabian
-Puritans, for instance――even condemn as impious all intercessions
-between man and his Maker, especially the prayers at the Prophet’s
-grave. The mass, however, of the Mohammedan Church, if such expression
-be applicable to a system which repudiates an ecclesiastical body,
-considers this visitation a “practice of the faith, and the most
-effectual way of drawing near to Allah through the Prophet Mohammed.”
-
-The Moslem’s literature has many a thick volume upon the minutiæ of
-pilgrimage and visitation. All four Sumni, or orthodox schools――viz.,
-Hunafi, Shafli, Maliki, and Hanbali――differ in unimportant points one
-with the other. Usually pilgrims, especially those performing the rite
-for the first time, begin with Meccah and end with El Medinah. But
-there is no positive command on the subject. In these days pilgrims
-from the north countries――Egypt and Syria, Damascus and Bagdad――pass
-through the Prophet’s burial-place going to and coming from Meccah,
-making a visitation each time. Voyagers from the south――as East
-Africa, India, and Java――must often deny themselves, on account of
-danger and expense, the spiritual advantages of prayer at Mohammed’s
-tomb.
-
-I have often been asked if the pilgrim receives any written proof that
-he has performed his pilgrimage. Formerly the Sherif (descendant of
-Hasan), or Prince, of Meccah gave a certificate to those who could
-afford it, and early in the present century the names of all who paid
-the fee were registered by a scribe. All that has passed. But the
-ceremonies are so complicated and the localities so peculiar that no
-book can thoroughly teach them. The pretended pilgrim would readily be
-detected after a short cross-questioning of the real Simon Pure. As
-facilities of travel increase, and the rite becomes more popular, no
-pilgrim, unless he comes from the edge of the Moslem world, cares to
-bind on the green turban which his grandfather affected. Few also
-style themselves haji, unless for an especial reason――as an evidence
-of reformed life, for instance, or a sign of being a serious person.
-
-Some also have inquired if I was not the first “Christian” who ever
-visited the Moslem’s Holy Land. The learned Gibbon asserted――“Our
-notions of Meccah must be drawn from the Arabians. As no unbeliever is
-permitted to enter the city, our travellers are silent.”[1] But Haji
-Yunus (Ludovico di Bartema) performed the pilgrimage in A.D. 1503;
-Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, in 1680, Ali Bey el Abbasi (the Catalonian
-Badia) in 1807, Haji Mohammed (Giovanni Finati, of Ferrara) in 1811,
-and the excellent Swiss traveller Burckhardt in 1814, all passed
-safely through the Hejaz, or Holy Land. I mention those only who have
-written upon the subject. Those who have not must be far more
-numerous. In fact, any man may become a haji by prefacing his
-pilgrimage with a solemn and public profession of faith before the
-Kazi in Cairo or Damascus; or, simpler still, by applying through his
-Consulate to be put under the protection of the Amir el Haji, or
-Commander of the Pilgrim Caravan.
-
-If I did anything new, it was this――my pilgrimage was performed as by
-one of the people. El Islam theoretically encourages, but practically
-despises and distrusts, the burma, or renegade. Such a convert is
-allowed to see as little as possible, and is ever suspected of being a
-spy. He is carefully watched night and day, and in troublous times he
-finds it difficult to travel between Meccah and El Medinah. Far be it
-from me to disparage the labours of my predecessors. But Bartema
-travelled as a Mameluke in the days when Mamelukes were Christian
-slaves, Pitts was a captive carried to the pilgrimage by his Algerine
-master, Badia’s political position was known to all the authorities,
-Finati was an Albanian soldier, and Burckhardt revealed himself to the
-old Pacha Mohammed Ali.
-
-As regards the danger of pilgrimage in the case of the non-Moslem,
-little beyond the somewhat extensive chapter of accidents is to be
-apprehended by one conversant with Moslem prayers and formulæ, manners
-and customs, and who possesses a sufficient guarantee of orthodoxy. It
-is, however, absolutely indispensable to be a Mohammedan in externals.
-Neither the Koran nor the Sultan enjoins the killing of Hebrew or
-Christian intruders; nevertheless, in 1860, a Jew, who refused to
-repeat the Creed, was crucified by the Meccan populace, and in the
-event of a pilgrim declaring himself to be an infidel the authorities
-would be powerless to protect him.
-
-The question of _Cui bono?_――of what good I did to others or to myself
-by the adventure――is not so easily answered. My account of El Medinah
-is somewhat fuller than that of Burckhardt, whose health was breaking
-when he visited it. And our caravan’s route between the Holy Cities
-was not the beaten track along the Red Sea, but the little-known
-eastern or desert road. Some critics certainly twitted me with having
-“turned Turk”; one might turn worse things. For the rest, man is ever
-most tempted by the useless and the impossible.
-
-To appear in character upon the scene of action many precautions were
-necessary. Egypt in those days was a land of passports and policemen;
-the _haute-police_ was not inferior to that of any European country.
-By the advice of a brother-officer, Captain Grindley, I assumed the
-Eastern dress at my lodgings in London, and my friend accompanied me
-as interpreter to Southampton. On April 4th, 1853, a certain Shaykh
-Abdullah (to wit, myself) left home in the P. & O. Company’s steamer
-_Bengal_, and before the end of the fortnight landed at Alexandria. It
-was not exactly pleasant for the said personage to speak broken
-English the whole way, and rigorously to refuse himself the pleasure
-of addressing the other sex; but under the circumstances it was
-necessary.
-
-Fortunately, on board the _Bengal_ was John Larking, a well-known
-Alexandrian. He was in my secret, and I was received in his house,
-where he gave me a little detached pavilion and treated me as a
-munshi, or language-master. My profession among the people was that of
-a doctor. The Egyptians are a medico-ridden race; all are more or less
-unhealthy, and they could not look upon my phials and pill-boxes
-without yearning for their contents. An Indian doctor was a novelty to
-them; Franks they despised; but how resist a man who had come so far,
-from east and west? Men, women, and children besieged my door, by
-which means I could see the people face to face, especially that
-portion of which Europeans as a rule know only the worst. Even learned
-Alexandrians, after witnessing some of my experiments in mesmerism and
-the magic mirror, opined that the stranger was a manner of holy man
-gifted with preternatural powers. An old man sent to offer me his
-daughter in marriage――my sanctity compelled me to decline the
-honour――and a middle-aged lady offered me a hundred piastres (nearly
-one pound sterling) to stay at Alexandria and superintend the
-restoration of her blind left eye.
-
-After a month pleasantly spent in the little garden of roses, jasmine,
-and oleanders, I made in early June a move towards Cairo. The first
-thing was to procure a passport; I had neglected, through ignorance,
-to bring one from England. It was not without difficulty, involving
-much unclean dressing and expenditure of horrible English, that I
-obtained from H.B.M.’s Consul at Alexandria a certificate declaring me
-to be an Indo-British subject named Abdullah, by profession a doctor,
-and, to judge from frequent blanks in the document, not distinguished
-by any remarkable conformation of eyes, nose, or cheek. This paper,
-duly countersigned by the zabit, or police magistrate, would carry me
-anywhere within the Egyptian frontier.
-
-At Alexandria also I provided a few necessaries for the pilgrimage:
-item――a change or two of clothing; a substantial leather money belt to
-carry my gold in; a little cotton bag for silver and small change,
-kept ready for use in the breast pocket; a zemzimiyah, or water-bag of
-goatskin; a huge cotton umbrella of Cairene make, brightly yellow,
-like an overgrown marigold; a coarse Persian rug, which acted as bed,
-table, chair, and oratory; a pea-green box, with red and yellow
-flowers, capable of standing falls from a camel twice a day, and
-therefore well fitted for a medicine chest; and, lastly, the only
-peculiar article――viz., the shroud, without which no one sets out _en
-route_ to Meccah. This _memento mori_ is a piece of cotton six feet
-long by five broad. It is useful, for instance, when a man is
-dangerously sick or wounded; the caravan, of course, cannot wait, and
-to loiter behind is destruction. The patient, therefore, is
-ceremonially washed, wrapped up in his kafan, partly covered with
-sand, and left to his fate. It is hard to think of such an end without
-horror; the torturing thirst of a wound, the sun heating the brain to
-madness, and, worst of all――for they do not wait for death――the
-attacks of the jackal, the vulture, and the ravens of the wilds. This
-shroud was duly sprinkled, as is the custom, with the holy water of
-the Zemzem well at Meccah. It later came to a bad end amongst the
-villainous Somal in Eastern Africa.
-
-Equipped in a dervish’s frock, I took leave of my kind host and set
-out, a third-class passenger, upon a steamer facetiously known as the
-_Little Asthmatic_. In those days the rail had not invaded Egypt. We
-had an unpleasant journey up the Mahmadiyah Canal and the Nile, which
-is connected by it with Alexandria. The usual time was thirty hours.
-We took three mortal days and nights. We were nearly wrecked at the
-then unfinished Barage, we saw nothing of the Pyramids but their tops,
-and it was with a real feeling of satisfaction that we moored
-alongside of the old tumble-down suburb, Bulak.
-
-My dervishhood was perfectly successful. I happened by chance to touch
-the elbow of an Anglo-Indian officer, and he publicly and forcibly
-condemned my organs of vision. And I made an acquaintance and a friend
-on board. The former was a shawl and cotton merchant, Meyan Khudabaksh
-Namdar, of Lahore, who, as the caravanserais were full of pilgrims,
-lodged me at his house for a fortnight. The conversations that passed
-between us were published two years later in 1855.[2] They clearly
-pointed to the mutiny which occurred two years afterwards, and this,
-together with my frankness about the Suez Canal,[3] did not tend to
-make me a favourite with the then effete Government of India.
-
-My friend was a Turkish trader, named Haji Wali-el-din. He was then a
-man about forty-five, of middle stature, with a large round head
-closely shaven, a bull neck, limbs sturdy as a Saxon’s, a thin red
-beard, and handsome features beaming benevolence. A curious dry humour
-he had, delighting in “quizzing,” but in so quiet, quaint, and solemn
-a way that before you knew him you could scarce divine his drift. He
-presently found for me rooms next his own at the wakalah, or
-caravanserai, called Jemeliyah, in the Greek quarter, and I tried to
-repay his kindness by counselling him in an unpleasant Consular suit.
-
-When we lived under the same roof, the haji and I became inseparable.
-We walked together and dined together, and spent the evening at a
-mosque or other place of public pastime. Sometimes we sat among the
-dervishes; but they are a dangerous race, travelled and inquisitive.
-Meanwhile I continued to practise my profession――the medical――and
-devoted myself several hours a day to study in the Azhar Mosque,
-sitting under the learned Shaykh Mohammed Ali Attar. The better to
-study the “humours,” I also became a grocer and druggist, and my
-little shop, a mere hole in the wall, was a perfect gem of Nilotic
-groceries. But although I sold my wares under cost price to fair
-customers, my chief clients were small boys and girls, who came,
-halfpence in hand, to buy sugar and pepper; so one day, determining to
-sink the thirty shillings which my stock in trade had stood me, I
-locked the wooden shutter that defended my establishment and made it
-over to my shaykh.
-
-The haji and I fasted together during the month of Ramazan. That year
-it fell in the torrid June, and it always makes the Moslem unhealthy
-and unamiable. At the end preparations were to be made for departure
-Meccah-wards, and the event was hastened by a convivial _séance_ with
-a bacchanalian captain of Albanians, which made the gossips of the
-quarter wonder what manner of an Indian doctor had got amongst them.
-
-I was fortunate enough, however, to hire the services of Shaykh Nur, a
-quiet East Indian, whose black skin made society suppose him to be my
-slave. Never suspecting my nationality till after my return from
-Meccah, he behaved honestly enough; but when absolved by pilgrimage
-from his past sins, Haji Nur began to rob me so boldly that we were
-compelled to part. I also made acquaintance with certain sons of the
-Holy Cities――seven men from El Medinah and Meccah――who, after a
-begging-trip to Constantinople, were returning to their homes. Having
-doctored them and lent them some trifling sums, I was invited by
-Shaykh Hamid El Shamman to stay with him at El Medinah, and by the boy
-Mohammed El Basyuni to lodge at his mother’s house in Meccah.
-
-They enabled me to collect proper stores for the journey. These
-consisted of tea, coffee, loaf sugar, biscuits, oil, vinegar, tobacco,
-lanterns, cooking-pots, and a small bell-shaped tent costing twelve
-shillings. The provisions were placed in a kafas, or hamper, of palm
-sticks, my drugs and dress in a sahharah, or wooden box measuring some
-three and a half feet each way, covered with cowskin, and the lid
-fitting into the top. And finally, not wishing to travel by the vans
-then allotted to the overland passengers, I hired two dromedaries and
-their attendant Bedouins, who for the sum of ten shillings each agreed
-to carry me across the desert between Cairo and Suez.
-
-At last, after abundant trouble, all was ready. At 3 p.m., July 1st,
-1853, my friend Haji Wali embraced me heartily, and so did my poor old
-shaykh, who, despite his decrepitude and my objections, insisted upon
-accompanying me to the city gate. I will not deny having felt a
-tightening of the heart as their honest faces and forms faded in the
-distance. All the bystanders ejaculated, “Allah bless thee, Y’all Hajj
-(O pilgrim!), and restore thee to thy family and thy friends.”
-
-We rode hard over the stretch of rock and hard clay which has since
-yielded to that monumental work, the Suez Canal. There was no _ennui_
-upon the road: to the traveller there was an interest in the
-wilderness――
-
-     Where love is liberty and Nature law――
-
-unknown to Cape seas and Alpine glaciers and even the boundless
-prairie. I felt as if looking once more upon the face of a friend, and
-my two Bedouins――though the old traveller described their forefathers
-as “folke full of all evylle condiciouns”――were excellent company. At
-midnight we halted for a little rest near the Central Station, and
-after dark on the next evening I passed through the tumble-down
-gateway of Suez and found a shelter in the Wakalah Tirjis――the George
-Inn. My Meccan and Medinah friends were already installed there, and
-the boy Mohammed El Basyuni had joined me on the road.
-
-It was not so easy to embark at Suez. In those days the greater body
-of pilgrims marched round the head of the Red Sea. Steamers were rare,
-and in the spirit of protection the Bey, or Governor, had orders to
-obstruct us till near the end of the season. Most Egyptian high
-officials sent their boats laden with pious passengers up the Nile,
-whence they returned freighted with corn. They naturally did their
-best to force upon us the delays and discomforts of what is called the
-Kussayr (Cosseir) line. And as those who travelled by the land route
-spent their money fifteen days longer in Egyptian territory than they
-would have done if allowed to embark at Suez, the Bey assisted them in
-the former and obstructed them in the latter case.
-
-We were delayed in the George Inn four mortal days and nights amidst
-all the plagues of Egypt. At last we found a sambuk, or small-decked
-vessel, about to start, and for seven dollars each we took places upon
-the poop, the only possible part in the dreadful summer months. The
-_Silk El Zahab_, or _Golden Thread_, was probably a lineal descendant
-from the ships of Solomon harboured in Ezion Geber. It was about fifty
-tons burden, and we found ninety-seven, instead of sixty, the proper
-number of passengers. The farce of a quarter-deck ten feet by eight
-accommodated eighteen of us, and our companions were Magribis, men
-from North-Western Africa――the most quarrelsome and vicious of
-pilgrims.
-
-We sailed on July 6th, and, as in an Irish packet of the olden time,
-the first preliminary to “shaking down” was a general fight. The rais
-(captain) naturally landed and left us to settle the matter, which
-ended in many a head being broken. I played my poor part in the
-_mêlée_ by pushing down a heavy jar of water upon the swarm of
-assailants. At last the Magribis, failing to dislodge us from the
-poop, made peace, and finding we were sons of the Holy Cities, became
-as civil as their unkindly natures permitted. We spent twelve days,
-instead of the normal five, in beating down the five hundred and fifty
-direct miles between Suez and Yambu.
-
-Every second day we managed to land and stretch our limbs. The
-mornings and evenings were mild and balmy, whilst the days were
-terrible. We felt as if a few more degrees of heat would be fatal to
-us. The celebrated coral reefs of the Red Sea, whence some authors
-derive its name, appeared like meadows of brilliant flowers resembling
-those of earth, only far brighter and more beautiful. The sunsets were
-magnificent; the zodiacal light, or after-glow, was a study; and the
-cold rays of the moon, falling upon a wilderness of white clay and
-pinnacle, suggested a wintry day in England.
-
-[Illustration: THE FIGHT ON THE _SILK EL ZAHAB_.     [_See Page 18._]
-
-At last, after slowly working up a narrow creek leading to the Yambu
-harbour, on July 17th we sprang into a shore-boat, and felt new life
-when bidding eternal adieu and “sweet bad luck” to the _Golden
-Thread_, which seemed determined to wreck itself about once per diem.
-
-Yambu, the port of El Medinah, lies S.S.W. of, and a little over a
-hundred and thirty miles from, its city. The road was infamous――rocky,
-often waterless, alternately fiery and freezing, and infested with the
-Beni Harb, a villainous tribe of hill Bedouins. Their chief was one
-Saad, a brigand of the first water. He was described as a little brown
-man, contemptible in appearance but remarkable for courage and for a
-ready wit, which saved him from the poison and pistol of his enemies.
-Some called him the friend of the poor, and all knew him to be the foe
-of the rich.
-
-There was nothing to see at Yambu, where, however, we enjoyed the
-hammam and the drinking-water, which appeared deliciously sweet after
-the briny supplies of Suez. By dint of abundant bargaining we hired
-camels at the moderate rate of three dollars each――half in ready
-money, the rest to be paid after arrival. I also bought a shugduf, or
-rude litter carrying two, and I chose the boy Mohammed as my
-companion. The journey is usually done in five days. We took eight,
-and we considered ourselves lucky fellows.
-
-On the evening of the next day (July 18th) we set out with all the
-gravity of men putting our heads into the lion’s jaws. The moon rose
-fair and clear as we emerged from the shadowy streets. When we
-launched into the desert, the sweet, crisp air delightfully contrasted
-with the close, offensive atmosphere of the town.
-
-My companions all, as Arabs will do on such occasions, forgot to think
-of their precious boxes full of the plunder of Constantinople, and
-began to sing. We travelled till three o’clock in the morning (these
-people insist upon setting out in the afternoon and passing the night
-in travelling). And the Prophet informs us that the “calamities of
-earth,” meaning scorpions, serpents, and wild beasts, are least
-dangerous during the dark hours.
-
-After a pleasant sleep in the wilderness, we joined for the next day’s
-march a caravan of grain carriers, about two hundred camels escorted
-by seven Turkish Bashi Buzuk, or Irregular Cavalry. They confirmed the
-report that the Bedouins were “out,” and declared that Saad, the Old
-Man of the Mountain, had threatened to cut every throat venturing into
-his passes. That night the robbers gave us a mild taste of their
-quality, but soon ran away. The third march lay over an iron land and
-under a sky of brass to a long straggling village called, from its
-ruddy look, El Hamra (the Red); it is the middle station between Yambu
-and El Medinah. The fourth stage placed us on the Sultan’s high-road
-leading from Meccah to the Prophet’s burial-place, and we joined a
-company of pious persons bound on visitation.
-
-The Bedouins, hearing that we had an escort of two hundred troopers,
-manned a gorge and would not let us advance till the armed men
-retired. The fifth and sixth days were forced halts at a vile place
-called Bir Abbas, where we could hear the distant dropping of the
-musketry, a sign that the troops and the hill-men were settling some
-little dispute. Again my companions were in cold perspirations about
-their treasures, and passed the most of their time in sulking and
-quarrelling.
-
-About sunset on July 23rd, three or four caravans assembled at Bir
-Abbas, forming one large body for better defence against the dreaded
-Bedouins. We set out at 11 p.m., travelling without halting through
-the night, and at early dawn we found ourselves in an ill-famed narrow
-known as Shuab El Haji, or the Pilgrim’s Pass. The boldest looked
-apprehensive as we approached it. Presently, from the precipitous
-cliff on our left, thin puffs of blue smoke rose in the sultry morning
-air, and afterwards the sharp cracks of the hill-men’s matchlocks were
-echoed by the rocks on the right. A number of Bedouins could be seen
-swarming like hornets up the steeper slopes, carrying huge weapons and
-“spoiling for a fight.” They took up comfortable positions on the
-cut-throat embankment and began practising upon us from behind their
-breastworks of piled stones with perfect convenience to themselves. We
-had nothing to do but to blaze away as much powder and to veil
-ourselves in as dense a smoke as possible. The result was that we lost
-twelve men, besides camels and other beasts of burden. My companions
-seemed to consider this questionable affair a most gallant exploit.
-
-The next night (July 24th) was severe. The path lay up rocky hill and
-down stony vale. A tripping and stumbling dromedary had been
-substituted for my better animal, and the consequences may be
-imagined.
-
-The sun had nearly risen before I shook off the lethargic effects of
-such a march. All around me were hurrying their beasts, regardless of
-rough ground, and not a soul spoke a word to his neighbour. “Are there
-robbers in sight?” was the natural question. “No,” responded the boy
-Mohammed. “They are walking with their eyes; they will presently sight
-their homes.”
-
-Half an hour afterwards we came to a huge mudarrij, or flight of
-steps, roughly cut in a line of black scoriaceous basalt. Arrived at
-the top, we passed through a lane of dark lava with steep banks on
-both sides, and in a few minutes a full view of the Holy City suddenly
-opened upon us. It was like a vision in “The Arabian Nights.” We
-halted our camels as if by word of command. All dismounted, in
-imitation of the pious of old, and sat down, jaded and hungry as we
-were, to feast our eyes on the “country of date-trees” which looked so
-passing fair after the “salt stony land.” As we looked eastward the
-sun rose out of the horizon of blue and pink hill, the frontier of
-Nejd staining the spacious plains with gold and purple. The site of El
-Medinah is in the western edge of the highlands which form the plateau
-of Central Arabia. On the left side, or north, was a tall grim pile of
-porphyritic rock, the celebrated Mount Ohod, with a clump of verdure
-and a dome or two nestling at its base. Round a whitewashed fortalice
-founded upon a rock clustered a walled city, irregularly oval, with
-tall minarets enclosing a conspicuous green dome. To the west and
-south lay a large suburb and long lines of brilliant vegetation
-piercing the tawny levels. I now understood the full value of a phrase
-in the Moslem ritual――“And when the pilgrim’s eyes shall fall upon the
-trees of El Medinah, let him raise his voice and bless the Prophet
-with the choicest blessings.”
-
-In all the panorama before us nothing was more striking, after the
-desolation through which we had passed, than the gardens and orchards
-about the town. My companions obeyed the command with the most
-poetical exclamations, bidding the Prophet “live for ever whilst the
-west wind bloweth gently over the hills of Nejd and the lightning
-flasheth bright in the firmament of El Hejaz.”
-
-We then remounted and hurried through the Bab El Ambari, the gate of
-the western suburb. Crowded by relatives and friends, we passed down a
-broad, dusty street, pretty well supplied with ruins, into an open
-space called Barr El Manakhah, or “place where camels are made to
-kneel.” Straight forward a line leads directly into the Bab El Misri,
-the Egyptian gate of the city. But we turned off to the right, and
-after advancing a few yards we found ourselves at the entrance of our
-friend Shaykh Hamid’s house. He had preceded us to prepare for our
-reception.
-
-No delay is allowed in the ziyarat, or visitation of the haram, or
-holy place, which received the mortal remains of the Arab Prophet. We
-were barely allowed to breakfast, to perform the religious ablution,
-and to change our travel-soiled garments. We then mounted asses,
-passed through the Egyptian, or western, gate, and suddenly came upon
-the mosque. It is choked up with ignoble buildings, and as we entered
-the “Dove of Mercy” I was not impressed by the spectacle.
-
-The site of the Prophet’s mosque――Masjid el Nabashi, as it is
-called――was originally a graveyard shaded by date-trees. The first
-walls were of adobe, or unbaked brick, and the recently felled
-palm-trunks were made into pillars for the leaf-thatched roof. The
-present building, which is almost four centuries old, is of cut stone,
-forming an oblong of four hundred and twenty feet by three hundred and
-forty feet. In the centre is a spacious uncovered area containing the
-Garden of Our Lady Fatimah――a railed plot of ground bearing a
-lote-tree and a dozen palms. At the south-east angle of this
-enclosure, under a wooden roof with columns, is the Prophet’s Well,
-whose water is hard and brackish. Near it meets the City Academy,
-where in the cool mornings and evenings the young idea is taught to
-shout rather than to shoot.
-
-Around the court are four riwaks, or porches, not unlike the cloisters
-of a monastery; they are arched to the front, backed by the wall and
-supported inside by pillars of different shape and material varying
-from dirty plaster to fine porphyry. When I made my visitation, the
-northern porch was being rebuilt; it was to be called after Abd El
-Majid, the then reigning Sultan, and it promised to be the most
-splendid. The main colonnade, however, the sanctum containing all that
-is venerable in the building, embraces the whole length of the
-southern short wall, and is deeper than the other three by nearly
-treble the number of columns. It is also paved with handsome slabs of
-white marble and marquetry work, here and there covered with coarse
-matting and above this by unclean carpets, well worn by faithful feet.
-
-To understand the tomb a few preliminary remarks are necessary.
-Mohammed, it must be remembered, died in the eleventh year of his
-mission and the sixty-third of his age, corresponding with A.D. 623.
-He was accustomed to say, “In whatsoever spot a prophet departs this
-life, there also should he be buried.” Accordingly his successor
-ordered the grave to be dug in the house of the young widow Ayisha,
-who lived close to the original mosque. After her husband’s burial she
-occupied an adjoining room partitioned off from the tomb at which men
-were accustomed to pray. Another saying of the Prophet’s forbade tombs
-to be erected in mosques; it therefore became necessary so to contrive
-that the revered spot should be in, and yet not in, the place of
-worship.
-
-Accordingly they built a detached tower in the south-eastern corner of
-the mosque, and called it the hujrah, or chamber. It is from fifty to
-fifty-five feet square, with a passage all round, and it extends from
-floor to roof, where it is capped by the green dome which strikes the
-eyes on approaching the city. The external material of the closet,
-which also serves to protect the remains from infidels and
-schismatics, is metal filagree painted a vivid grey green, relieved by
-the brightly gilt or burnished brass-work forming the long and
-graceful Arabic characters. On the south side, for greater honour, the
-railing is plated over in parts with silver, and letters of the same
-metal are interlaced with it.
-
-Entering by the western Door of Safety, we paced slowly towards the
-tomb down a line of wall about the height of a man, and called the
-“illustrious fronting.” The barrier is painted with arabesques and
-pierced with small doors. There are two niches richly worked with
-various coloured marble, and near them is a pulpit, a graceful
-collection of slender columns, elegant tracery, and inscriptions
-admirably carved. Arrived at the western small door in the dwarf wall,
-we entered the famous spot called El Ranzah (the “Garden”), after a
-saying of Mohammed: “Between my grave and my pulpit is a garden of the
-gardens of Paradise.” On the north and west sides it is not divided
-from the rest of the porch, to the south rises the dwarf wall, and
-eastward it is bounded by the west end of the filagree tower
-containing the tomb.
-
-The “Garden” is the most elaborate part of the mosque. It is a space
-of about eighty feet in length tawdrily decorated to resemble
-vegetation: the carpets are flowered, and the pediments of columns are
-cased with bright green tiles, and the shafts are adorned with gaudy
-and unnatural growths in arabesques. It is further disfigured by
-handsome branched candelabra of cut crystal, the work, I believe, of
-an English house. Its peculiar background, the filagree tower, looks
-more picturesque near than at a distance, where it suggests the idea
-of a gigantic birdcage. The one really fine feature of the scene is
-the light cast by the window of stained glass in the southern wall.
-Thus little can be said in praise of the “Garden” by day. But at night
-the eye, dazzled by oil lamps suspended from the roof, by huge wax
-candles, and by minor illuminations, whilst crowds of visitors in the
-brightest attire, with the richest and noblest of the citizens, sit in
-congregation to hear services, becomes far less critical.
-
-Entering the “Garden” we fronted towards Meccah, prayed, recited two
-chapters of the Koran, and gave alms to the poor in gratitude to Allah
-for making it our fate to visit so holy a spot. Then we repaired to
-the southern front of the chamber, where there are three dwarf
-windows, apertures half a foot square, and placed at eye’s height from
-the ground. The westernmost is supposed to be opposite to the face of
-Mohammed, who lies on the right side, facing, as is still the Moslem
-custom, the House of Allah at Meccah. The central hill is that of
-Abubaki, the first Caliph, whose head is just behind the Prophet’s
-shoulder. The easternmost window is that of Omar, the second Caliph,
-who holds the same position with respect to Abubaki. In the same
-chamber, but decorously divided by a wall from the male tenants,
-reposes the Lady Fatimah, Mohammed’s favourite daughter. Osman, the
-fourth Caliph, was not buried after his assassination near his
-predecessors, but there is a vacant space for Isa bin Maryam when he
-shall return.
-
-We stood opposite these three windows, successively, beginning with
-that of the Prophet, recited the blessings, which we were directed to
-pronounce “with awe and fear and love.” The ritual is very
-complicated, and the stranger must engage a guide technically called a
-muzawwir, or visitation-maker. He is always a son of the Holy City,
-and Shaykh Hamid was mine. Many a piercing eye was upon me: the people
-probably supposed that I was an Ajemi or Persian, and these heretics
-have often attempted to defile the tombs of the two Caliphs.
-
-When the prayers were at an end, I was allowed to look through the
-Prophet’s window. After straining my eyes for a time, the oil lamps
-shedding but a dim light, I saw a narrow passage leading round the
-chamber. The inner wall is variously represented to be made of stone
-planking or unbaked bricks. One sees nothing but thin coverings, a
-curtain of handsome silk and cotton brocade, green, with long white
-letters worked into it. Upon the hangings were three inscriptions in
-characters of gold, informing readers that behind there lie Allah’s
-Prophet and the two first Caliphs. The exact place of Mohammed’s tomb
-is, moreover, distinguished by a large pearl rosary and a peculiar
-ornament, the celebrated Kankab el Durri, or constellation of pearls;
-it is suspended breast high to the curtain. This is described to be a
-“brilliant star set in diamonds and pearls” placed in the dark that
-man’s eye may be able to endure its splendours; the vulgar believe it
-to be a “jewel of the jewels of Paradise.” To me it suggested the
-round glassy stoppers used for the humbler sort of decanters, but then
-I think the same of the Koh-i-Nur.
-
-I must allude to the vulgar story of Mohammed’s steel coffin suspended
-in mid-air between two magnets. The myth has won a world-wide
-reputation, yet Arabia has never heard of it. Travellers explain it in
-two ways. Niebuhr supposes it to have risen from the rude ground-plan
-drawings sold to strangers, and mistaken by them for elevations.
-William Banks believes that the work popularly described as hanging
-unsupported in the mosque of Omar at Jerusalem was confounded with the
-Prophet’s tomb at El Medinah by Christians, who until very lately
-could not have seen either of these Moslem shrines.
-
-A book which I published upon the subject of my pilgrimage gives in
-detail my reason for believing that the site of Mohammed’s sepulture
-is doubtful as that of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.[4] They are,
-briefly, these four: From the earliest days the shape of the Prophet’s
-tomb has never been generally known in El Islam. The accounts of the
-grave given by the learned are discrepant. The guardianship of the
-spot was long in the hands of schismatics (the Beni Husayu). And
-lastly, I cannot but look upon the tale of the blinding light which
-surrounds the Prophet’s tomb, current for ages past, and still
-universally believed upon the authority of attendant eunuchs who must
-know its falsehood as a priestly glory intended to conceal a defect.
-
-To that book also I must refer my readers for a full description of
-the minor holy places at El Medinah. They are about fifty in number,
-and of these about a dozen are generally visited. The principal of
-these are, first, El Bakia (the Country of the Saints), to the east of
-the city; on the last day some seventy thousand, others say a hundred
-thousand, holy men with faces like moons shall arise from it; the
-second is the Apostle’s mosque at Kubas, the first temple built in El
-Islam; and the third is a visitation to the tomb of Mohammed’s
-paternal uncle, Hamzeh, the “Lord of Martyrs,” who was slain fighting
-for the faith in A.D. 625.
-
-A few observations concerning the little-known capital of the Northern
-Hejaz may not be unacceptable.
-
-Medinah El Nahi (the City of the Prophet) is usually called by
-Moslems, for brevity, El Medinah, or the City by Excellence. It lies
-between the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth degrees of north latitude,
-corresponding therefore with Central Mexico; and being high raised
-above the sea, it may be called a _tierra temprada_. My predecessor,
-Burckhardt, found the water detestable. I thought it good. The winter
-is long and rigorous, hence partly the fair complexion of its
-inhabitants, who rival in turbulence and fanaticism their brethren of
-Meccah.
-
-El Medinah consists of three parts――a town, a castle, and a large
-suburb. The population, when I visited it, ranged from sixteen
-thousand to eighteen thousand souls, whereas Meccah numbered
-forty-five thousand, and the garrison consisted of a half-battalion,
-or four hundred men. Mohammed’s last resting-place has some fifteen
-hundred hearths enclosed by a wall of granite and basalt in irregular
-layers cemented with lime. It is pierced with four gates: the Syrian,
-the Gate of Hospitality, the Friday, and the Egyptian. The two latter
-are fine massive buildings, with double towers like the old Norman
-portals, but painted with broad bands of red pillars and other flaring
-colours. Except the Prophet’s mosque, there are few public buildings.
-There are only four caravanserais, and the markets are long lines of
-sheds, thatched with scorched and blackened palm-leaves. The streets
-are what they should always be in torrid lands, dark, deep, narrow,
-and rarely paved; they are generally of black earth, well watered and
-trodden to harden. The houses appear well built for the East, of
-square stone, flat roofed, double storied, and enclosing spacious
-courtyards and small gardens, where water basins and trees and sheds
-“cool the eye,” as Arabs say. Latticed balconies are here universal,
-and the windows are mere holes in the walls provided with broad
-shutters. The castle has stronger defences than the town, and inside
-it a tall donjon tower bears, proudly enough, the banner of the
-Crescent and the Star. Its whitewashed lines of wall render this
-fortalice a conspicuous object, and guns pointing in all directions,
-especially upon the town, make it appear a kind of Gibraltar to the
-Bedouins.
-
-For many reasons strangers become very much attached to El Medinah and
-there end their lives. My servant, Shaykh Nur, opined it to be a very
-“heavenly city.” Therefore the mass of the population is of foreign
-extraction.
-
-On August 28th arrived the great Damascus caravan, which sets out from
-Constantinople bringing the presents of the Sublime Porte. It is the
-main stream which absorbs all the small currents flowing at this
-season of general movement from Central Asia towards the great centre
-of the Islamitic world, and in 1853 it numbered about seven thousand
-souls. It was anxiously expected at El Medinah for several reasons. In
-the first place, it brought with it a new curtain for the Prophet’s
-chamber, the old one being in a tattered condition; secondly, it had
-charge of the annual stipends and pensions for the citizens; and
-thirdly, many families had members returning under its escort to their
-homes. The popular anxiety was greatly increased by the disordered
-state of the country round about, and moreover the great caravan was a
-day late. The Russian war had extended its excitement even into the
-bowels of Arabia, and to travel eastward according to my original
-intention was impossible.
-
-For a day or two we were doubtful about which road the caravan would
-take――the easy coast line or the difficult and dangerous eastern, or
-desert, route. Presently Saad the robber shut his doors against us,
-and we were driven perforce to choose the worse. The distance between
-El Medinah and Meccah by the frontier way would be in round numbers
-two hundred and fifty (two hundred and forty-eight) miles, and in the
-month of September water promised to be exceedingly scarce and bad.
-
-I lost no time in patching up my water-skins, in laying in a store of
-provisions, and in hiring camels. Masad El Harbi, an old Bedouin,
-agreed to let me have two animals for the sum of twenty dollars. My
-host warned me against the treachery of the wild men, with whom it is
-necessary to eat salt once a day. Otherwise they may rob the traveller
-and plead that the salt is not in their stomachs.
-
-Towards evening time on August 30th, El Medinah became a scene of
-exceeding confusion in consequence of the departure of the pilgrims.
-About an hour after sunset all our preparations were concluded. The
-evening was sultry; we therefore dined outside the house. I was told
-to repair to the shrine for the ziyarat el widoa, or the farewell
-visitation. My decided objection to this step was that we were all to
-part, and where to meet again we knew not. I therefore prayed a
-two-prostration prayer, and facing towards the haram recited the usual
-supplication. We sat up till 2 p.m. when, having heard no signal gun,
-we lay down to sleep through the hot remnant of the hours of darkness.
-Thus was spent my last night at the City of the Prophet.
-
-
-     [1] “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” chap. i.
-
-     [2] _Vide_ Burton’s “Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah,”
-         chap. iii.
-
-     [3] _Ibid._, chap. vi.
-
-     [4] “Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah,” by Richard F. Burton.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-_THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCAH_
-
-
-On Wednesday, August 31st, 1853, I embraced my good host, Shaykh
-Hamid, who had taken great trouble to see me perfectly provided for
-the journey. Shortly after leaving El Medinah we all halted and turned
-to take a last farewell. All the pilgrims dismounted and gazed long
-and wistfully at the venerable minarets and the Prophet’s green
-dome――spots upon which their memories would ever dwell with a fond and
-yearning interest.
-
-We hurried after the Damascus caravan, and presently fell into its
-wake. Our line was called the Darb el Sharki, or eastern road. It owes
-its existence to the piety of Zubaydah Khatun, wife of the well-known
-Harun el Rashid. That esteemed princess dug wells, built tanks, and
-raised, we are told, a wall with occasional towers between Bagdad and
-Meccah, to guide pilgrims over the shifting sands. Few vestiges of all
-this labour remained in the year of grace 1853.
-
-Striking is the appearance of the caravan as it draggles its slow
-length along
-
-     The golden desert glittering through
-     The subtle veil of beams,
-
-as the poet of “Palm-leaves” has it. The sky is terrible in its
-pitiless splendours and blinding beauty while the simoon, or wind of
-the wild, caresses the cheek with the flaming breath of a lion. The
-filmy spray of sand and the upseething of the atmosphere, the
-heat-reek and the dancing of the air upon the baked surface of the
-bright yellow soil, blending with the dazzling blue above, invests the
-horizon with a broad band of deep dark green, and blurs the gaunt
-figures of the camels, which, at a distance, appear strings of
-gigantic birds.
-
-There are evidently eight degrees of pilgrims. The lowest walk,
-propped on heavy staves; these are the itinerant coffee-makers,
-sherbet sellers, and tobacconists, country folks driving flocks of
-sheep and goats with infinite clamour and gesticulation, negroes from
-distant Africa, and crowds of paupers, some approaching the supreme
-hour, but therefore yearning the more to breathe their last in the
-Holy City. Then come the humble riders of laden camels, mules, and
-asses, which the Bedouin, who clings baboon-like to the hairy back of
-his animal, despises, saying:――
-
-     Honourable to the rider is the riding of the horse;
-     But the mule is a dishonour, and a donkey a disgrace.
-
-Respectable men mount dromedaries, or blood-camels, known by their
-small size, their fine limbs, and their large deer-like eyes: their
-saddles show crimson sheep-skins between tall metal pommels, and these
-are girthed over fine saddle-bags, whose long tassels of bright
-worsted hang almost to the ground. Irregular soldiers have
-picturesquely equipped steeds. Here and there rides some old Arab
-shaykh, preceded by his varlets performing a war-dance, compared with
-which the bear’s performance is graceful, firing their duck-guns in
-the air, or blowing powder into the naked legs of those before them,
-brandishing their bared swords, leaping frantically with
-parti-coloured rags floating in the wind, and tossing high their long
-spears. Women, children, and invalids of the poorer classes sit upon
-rugs or carpets spread over the large boxes that form the camel’s
-load. Those a little better off use a shibriyah, or short coat,
-fastened crosswise. The richer prefer shugduf panniers with an awning
-like a miniature tent. Grandees have led horses and gorgeously painted
-takhtrawan――litters like the bangué of Brazil――borne between camels or
-mules with scarlet and brass trappings. The vehicle mainly regulates
-the pilgrim’s expenses, which may vary from five pounds to as many
-thousands.
-
-I will not describe the marches in detail: they much resemble those
-between Yambu and El Medinah. We nighted at two small villages, El
-Suwayrkiyah and El Suyayna, which supplied a few provisions to a
-caravan of seven thousand to eight thousand souls. For the most part
-it is a haggard land, a country of wild beasts and wilder men, a
-region whose very fountains murmur the warning words, “Drink and
-away,” instead of “Rest and be thankful.” In other places it is a
-desert peopled only with echoes, an abode of death for what little
-there is to die in it, a waste where, to use an Arab phrase, “La Siwa
-Hu”――“There is none but HE.” Gigantic sand columns whirl over the
-plains, the horizon is a sea of mirage, and everywhere Nature, flayed
-and scalped, discovers her skeleton to the gazer’s eye.
-
-We passed over many ridges of rough black basalt, low plains, and
-basins white with nitrous salt, acacia barrens where litters were torn
-off the camels’ backs by the strong thorns, and domes and streets of
-polished rock. Now we travelled down dry torrent-beds of extreme
-irregularity, then we wended our way along cliffs castellated as if by
-men’s hand, and boulders and pillars of coarse-grained granite,
-sometimes thirty feet high. Quartz abounded, and the country may have
-contained gold, but here the superficial formation has long since been
-exhausted. In Arabia, as in the East Indies, the precious metal still
-lingers. At Cairo in 1854 I obtained good results by washing sand
-brought from the coast of the Red Sea north of Wijh. My plan for
-working was rendered abortive by a certain dictum, since become a
-favourite with the governing powers in England――namely, “Gold is
-getting too plentiful.”
-
-Few animals except vultures and ravens meet the eye. Once, however, we
-enjoyed a grand spectacle. It was a large yellow lion, somewhat white
-about the points――a sign of age――seated in a statuesque pose upon a
-pedestal of precipitous rock by the wayside, and gazing upon the
-passing spectacle as if monarch of all he surveyed. The caravan
-respected the wild beast, and no one molested it. The Bedouin of
-Arabia has a curious custom when he happens to fall in with a lion: he
-makes a profound salaam, says many complimentary things, and begs his
-majesty not to harm a poor man with a large family. If the brute be
-not hungry, the wayfarer is allowed to pass on; the latter, however,
-is careful when returning to follow another path. “The father of
-roaring,” he remarks, “has repented of having missed a meal.”
-
-On Friday, September 9th, we encamped at Zaribah, two marches, or
-forty-seven miles, from Meccah. This being the north-eastern limit of
-the sanctuary, we exchanged our everyday dress for the pilgrim garb,
-which is known as el ihrám, or mortification. Between the noontide and
-the afternoon prayers our heads were shaved, our beards and nails
-trimmed, and we were made to bathe. We then put on the attire which
-seems to be the obsolete costume of the ancient Arabs. It consists of
-two cotton cloths, each six feet long by three or four feet wide,
-white, with narrow red stripes and fringes――in fact, that adopted in
-the Turkish baths of London. One of these sheets is thrown over the
-back and is gathered at the right side, the arm being left exposed.
-The waistcloth extends like a belt to the knee, and, being tucked in
-at the waist, supports itself. The head is bared to the rabid sun, and
-the insteps, which must also be left naked, suffer severely.
-
-Thus equipped, we performed a prayer of two prostrations, and recited
-aloud the peculiar formula of pilgrimage called Talbiyat. In Arabic it
-is:
-
-     _Labbayk, ’Allahumma, Labbayk!
-     La Sharika laka. Labbayk!
-     Jun ’al Hamda wa’ n’ Niamata laka w’ al Mulh!
-     La Sharika laka. Labbayk!_
-
-which I would translate thus:
-
-     _Here I am, O Allah, here am I!
-     No partner hast thou. Here am I!
-     Verily the praise and the grace are thine, and the kingdom!
-     No partner hast thou. Here am I._
-
-The director of our consciences now bade us be good pilgrims, avoiding
-quarrels, abusive language, light conversation, and all immorality. We
-must religiously respect the sanctuary of Meccah by sparing the trees
-and avoiding to destroy animal life, excepting, however, the “five
-instances,”――a crow, a kite, a rat, a scorpion, and a biting dog. We
-must abstain from washes and perfumes, oils, dyes, and cosmetics; we
-must not pare the nails nor shave, pluck or cut the hair, nor must we
-tie knots in our garments. We were forbidden to cover our heads with
-turban or umbrella, although allowed to take advantage of the shade,
-and ward off the sun with our hands. And for each infraction of these
-ordinances we were commanded to sacrifice a sheep.
-
-The women followed our example. This alone would disprove the baseless
-but wide-world calumny which declares that El Islam recognises no soul
-in, and consequently no future for, the opposite sex. The Early
-Fathers of the Christian Church may have held such tenet, the
-Mohammedans never. Pilgrimesses exchange the lisam――that coquettish
-fold of thin white muslin which veils, but does not hide, the
-mouth――for a hideous mask of split, dried, and plaited palm-leaves
-pierced with bull’s-eyes to admit the light. This ugly mask is worn
-because the veil must not touch the features. The rest of the outer
-garment is a long sheet of white cotton, covering the head and falling
-to the heels. We could hardly help laughing when these queer ghostly
-figures first met our sight, and, to judge from the shaking of their
-shoulders, they were as much amused as we were.
-
-In mid-afternoon we left Zaribah, and presently it became apparent
-that although we were forbidden to take lives of others, others were
-not prevented from taking _ours_. At 5 p.m. we came upon a wide, dry
-torrent-bed, down which we were to travel all night. It was a
-cut-throat place, with a stony, precipitous buttress on the right,
-faced by a grim and barren slope. Opposite us the way seemed to be
-barred by piles of hills, crest rising above crest in the far blue
-distance. Day still smiled upon the upper peaks, but the lower grounds
-and the road were already hung with sombre shade.
-
-A damp fell upon our spirits as we neared this “Valley Perilous.” The
-voices of the women and children sank into deep silence, and the loud
-“Labbayk!” which the male pilgrims are ordered to shout whenever
-possible, was gradually stilled.
-
-The cause soon became apparent. A small curl of blue smoke on the
-summit of the right-hand precipice suddenly caught my eye, and,
-simultaneously with the echoing crack of the matchlock, a dromedary in
-front of me, shot through the heart, rolled on the sands. The Utajbah,
-bravest and most lawless of the brigand tribes of the Moslem’s Holy
-Land, were determined to boast that on such and such a night they
-stopped the Sultan’s caravan one whole hour in the pass.
-
-There ensued a scene of terrible confusion. Women screamed, children
-cried, and men vociferated, each one striving with might and main to
-urge his animal beyond the place of death. But the road was narrow and
-half-choked with rocks and thorny shrubs; the vehicles and animals
-were soon jammed into a solid and immovable mass, whilst at every shot
-a cold shudder ran through the huge body. Our guard, the irregular
-horsemen, about one thousand in number, pushed up and down perfectly
-useless, shouting to and ordering one another. The Pacha of the
-soldiers had his carpet spread near the precipice, and over his pipe
-debated with the officers about what should be done. No one seemed to
-whisper, “Crown the heights.”
-
-Presently two or three hundred Wahhabis――mountaineers of Tebel Shammar
-in North-Eastern Arabia――sprang from their barebacked camels, with
-their elf-locks tossing in the wind, and the flaming matches of their
-guns casting a lurid light over their wild features. Led by the Sherif
-Zayd, a brave Meccan noble, who, happily for us, was present, they
-swarmed up the steep, and the robbers, after receiving a few shots,
-retired to fire upon our rear.
-
-Our forced halt was now exchanged for a flight, and it required much
-tact to guide our camels clear of danger. Whoever and whatever fell,
-remained on the ground; that many were lost became evident from the
-boxes and baggage which strewed the shingles. I had no means of
-ascertaining our exact number of killed and wounded; reports were
-contradictory, and exaggeration was unanimous. The robbers were said
-to be one hundred and fifty in number. Besides honour and glory, they
-looked forward to the loot, and to a feast of dead camel.
-
-We then hurried down the valley in the blackness of night, between
-ribbed precipices, dark and angry. The torch smoke and the night fires
-formed a canopy sable above and livid below, with lightning-flashes
-from the burning shrubs and grim crowds hurrying as if pursued by the
-Angel of Death. The scene would have suited the theatrical canvas of
-Doré.
-
-At dawn we issued from the Perilous Pass into the Wady Laymun, or
-Valley of Limes. A wondrous contrast! Nothing can be more soothing to
-the brain than the rich green foliage of its pomegranates and other
-fruit-trees, and from the base of the southern hills bursts a babbling
-stream whose
-
-     _Chiare fresche e dolci acque_
-
-flow through the garden, cooling the pure air, and filling the ear
-with the most delicious of melodies, the gladdest sound which nature
-in these regions knows.
-
-At noon we bade adieu to the charming valley, which, since remote
-times, has been a favourite resort of the Meccan citizens.
-
-At sunset we recited the prayers suited to the occasion, straining our
-eyes, but all in vain, to catch sight of Meccah. About 1 a.m. I was
-aroused by a general excitement around me.
-
-“Meccah! Meccah!” cried some voices. “The sanctuary, oh, the
-sanctuary!” exclaimed others, and all burst into loud “Labbayk!” not
-infrequently broken by sobs. With a heartfelt “Alhamdu lillah,” I
-looked from my litter and saw under the chandelier of the Southern
-Cross the dim outlines of a large city, a shade darker than the
-surrounding plain.
-
-A cool east wind met us, showing that it was raining in the Taif
-hills, and at times sheet lightning played around the Prophet’s
-birthplace――a common phenomenon, which Moslems regard as the testimony
-of Heaven to the sanctity of the spot.
-
-Passing through a deep cutting, we entered the northern suburb of our
-destination. Then I made to the Shamiyah, or Syrian quarter, and
-finally, at 2 a.m., I found myself at the boy Mohammed’s house. We
-arrived on the morning of Sunday, September 11th, 1853, corresponding
-with Zu’l Hijjah 6th, 1269. Thus we had the whole day to spend in
-visiting the haram, and a quiet night before the opening of the true
-pilgrim season, which would begin on the morrow.
-
-The morrow dawned. After a few hours of sleep and a ceremonial
-ablution, we donned the pilgrim garb, and with loud and long
-“Labbayk!” we hastened to the Bayt Ullah, or House of Allah, as the
-great temple of Meccah is called.
-
-At the bottom of our street was the outer Bab El Salam, or Gate of
-Security, looking towards the east, and held to be, of all the
-thirty-nine, the most auspicious entrance for a first visit.
-
-Here we descended several steps, for the level of the temple has been
-preserved, whilst the foundations of the city have been raised by the
-decay of ages. We then passed through a shady colonnade divided into
-aisles, here four, and in the other sides three, pillars deep. These
-cloisters are a forest of columns upwards of five hundred and fifty in
-number, and in shape and material they are as irregular as trees. The
-outer arches of the colonnade are ogives, and every four support a
-small dome like half an orange, and white with plaster: some reckon
-one hundred and twenty, others one hundred and fifty, and Meccan
-superstition declares they cannot be counted. The rear of the
-cloisters rests upon an outer wall of cut stone, finished with
-pinnacles, or Arab battlements, and at different points in it rise
-seven minarets. These are tall towers much less bulky than ours,
-partly in facets, circular, and partly cylindrical, built at distinct
-epochs, and somewhat tawdrily banded with gaudy colours.
-
-This vast colonnade surrounds a large unroofed and slightly irregular
-oblong, which may be compared with an exaggeration of the Palais
-Royal, Paris. This sanded area is six hundred and fifty feet long by
-five hundred and twenty-five broad, dotted with small buildings
-grouped round a common centre, and is crossed by eight narrow lines of
-flagged pavement. Towards the middle of it, one hundred and fifteen
-paces from the northern colonnade and eighty-eight from the southern,
-and based upon an irregularly oval pavement of fine close grey gneiss,
-or granite, rises the far-famed Kaabah, or inner temple, its funereal
-pall contrasting vividly with the sunlit walls and the yellow
-precipices of the city.
-
-Behold it at last, the bourn of long and weary travel, realising the
-plans and hopes of many and many a year! This, then, is the kibbal, or
-direction, towards which every Moslem has turned in prayer since the
-days of Mohammed, and which for long ages before the birth of
-Christianity was reverenced by the patriarchs of the East.
-
-No wonder that the scene is one of the wildest excitement! Here are
-worshippers clinging to the curtain and sobbing as though their hearts
-would break; here some poor wretch with arms thrown high, so that his
-beating breast may touch the stone of the house, appears ready to
-faint, and there men prostrate themselves on the pavement, rubbing
-their foreheads against the stones, shedding floods of tears, and
-pouring forth frenzied ejaculations. The most careless, indeed, never
-contemplate it for the first time without fear and awe. There is a
-popular jest against new-comers that in the presence of the Kaabah
-they generally inquire the direction of prayer, although they have all
-their lives been praying towards it as the early Christian fronted
-Jerusalem.
-
-But we must look more critically at the celebrated shrine.
-
-The word Kaabah means a cube, a square, a _maison carrée_. It is
-called Bayt Ullah (House of God) because according to the Koran it is
-“certainly the first temple erected for mankind.” It is also known as
-the “Bride of Meccah,” probably from the old custom of typifying the
-Church Visible by a young married woman――hence probably its face-veil,
-its covering, and its guard of eunuchs. Externally it is a low tower
-of fine grey granite laid in horizontal courses of irregular depth;
-the stones are tolerably fitted, and are not cemented. It shows no
-signs of decay, and indeed, in its present form, it dates only from
-1627. The shape is rather a trapezoid than a square, being forty feet
-long by thirty-five broad and forty-five high, the flat roof having a
-cubit of depression from south-west to north-east, where a gold or
-gilt spout discharges the drainage. The foundation is a marble base
-two feet high, and presents a sharp inclined plane.
-
-All the Kaabah except the roof is covered with a kiswatu garment. It
-is a pall-like hanging, the work of a certain family at Cairo, and
-annually renewed. The ground is dully black, and Koranic verses
-interwoven into it are shining black. There is a door curtain of gold
-thread upon red silk, and a bright band of similar material, called
-the face-veil of the house, two feet broad, runs horizontally round
-the Kaabah at two-thirds of its height. This covering when new is
-tucked up by ropes from the roof; when old it is fastened to large
-metal rings welded into the basement of the building. When this
-peculiar adjunct to the shrine is swollen and moved by the breeze,
-pious Moslems believe that angels are waving their wings over it.
-
-The only entrance to the Kaabah is a narrow door of aloe wood, in the
-eastern side. It is now raised seven feet, and one enters it hoisted
-up in men’s arms. In A.D. 686, when the whole building took its
-present shape, it was level with the external ground. The Kaabah opens
-gratis ten or twelve times a year, when crowds rush in and men lose
-their lives. Wealthy pilgrims obtain the favour by paying for it.
-Scrupulous Moslems do not willingly enter it, as they may never
-afterwards walk about barefooted, take up fire with their fingers, or
-tell lies. It is not every one who can afford such luxuries as
-slippers, tongs, and truth. Nothing is simpler than the interior of
-the building. The walls are covered with handsome red damask, flowered
-over with gold, tucked up beyond the pilgrim’s reach. The flat roof
-apparently rests upon three posts of carved and ornamented aloe wood.
-
-Between the three pillars, and about nine feet from the ground, run
-metal bars, to which hang lamps, said to be gold. At the northern
-corner there is a dwarf door; it leads into a narrow passage and to
-the dwarf staircase by which the servants ascend to the roof. In the
-south-eastern corner is a quadrant-shaped sofa, also of aloe wood, and
-on it sits the guardian of the shrine.
-
-The Hajar el Aswad, or black stone, of which all the world talks, is
-fixed in the south-eastern angle outside the house, between four and
-five feet from the ground, the more conveniently to be kissed. It
-shows a black and slaggy surface, glossy and pitch-like, worn and
-polished by myriads of lips; its diameter is about seven inches, and
-it appears only in the central aperture of a gilt or gold dish. The
-depth to which it extends into the wall is unknown: most people say
-two cubits.
-
-Believers declare, with poetry, if not with reason, that in the day of
-Atast, when Allah made covenant concerning the souls that animate the
-sons of Adam, the instrument was placed in a fragment of the lower
-heaven, then white as snow, now black by reason of men’s sins. The
-rationalistic infidel opines this sacred corner-stone to be a common
-aerolite, a remnant of the stone-worship which considered it the
-symbol of power presiding over universal reproduction, and inserted by
-Mohammed into the edifice of El Islam. This relic has fared ill; it
-has been stolen and broken, and has suffered other accidents.
-
-Another remarkable part of the Kaabah is that between the door and the
-black stone. It is called the multazem, or “attached to,” because here
-the pilgrim should apply his bosom, weep bitterly, and beg pardon for
-his sins. In ancient times, according to some authors, it was the
-place for contracting solemn engagements.
-
-The pavement which surrounds the Kaabah is about eight inches high,
-and the inside is marked by an oval balustrade of some score and a
-half of slender gilt metal pillars. Between every two of these cross
-rods support oil lamps, with globes of white and green glasses. Gas is
-much wanted at Meccah! At the north end, and separated by a space of
-about five feet from the building, is El Hatrim, or the “broken,” a
-dwarf semi-circular wall, whose extremities are on a line with the
-sides of the Kaabah. In its concavity are two slabs of a finer stone,
-which cover the remains of Ishmael, and of his mother Hagar. The
-former, I may be allowed to remark, is regarded by Moslems as the
-eldest son and legitimate successor of Abraham, in opposition to the
-Jews, who prefer Isaac, the child of Sarai the free woman. It is an
-old dispute and not likely to be soon settled.
-
-Besides the Kaabah, ten minor structures dot the vast quadrangle. The
-most important is the massive covering of the well Zemzem. The word
-means “the murmuring,” and here the water gushed from the ground where
-the child Ishmael was shuffling his feet in the agonies of thirst. The
-supply is abundant, but I found it nauseously bitter; its external
-application, however, when dashed like a douche over the pilgrim,
-causes sins to fall from his soul like dust.
-
-On the south-east, and near the well, are the Kubbatayn, two domes
-crowning heavy ugly buildings, vulgarly painted with red, green, and
-yellow bands; one of these domes is used as a library. Directly
-opposite the Kaabah door is a short ladder or staircase of carved
-wood, which is wheeled up to the entrance door on the rare occasions
-when it is opened. North of it is the inner Bab El Salam, or Gate of
-Security, under which the pilgrims pass in their first visit to the
-shrine. It is a slightly built and detached arch of stone, about
-fifteen feet of space in width and eighteen in height, somewhat like
-our meaningless triumphal arches, which come from no place and go
-nowhere. Between this and the Kaabah stands the Makam Ibraham, or
-Station of Abraham, a small building containing the stone which
-supported the Friend of Allah when he was building the house. It
-served for a scaffold, rising and falling of itself as required, and
-it preserved the impressions of Abraham’s feet, especially of the two
-big toes. Devout and wealthy pilgrims fill the cavities with water,
-which they rub over their eyes and faces with physical as well as
-spiritual refreshment. To the north of it is a fine white marble
-pulpit with narrow steps leading to the preacher’s post, which is
-supported by a gilt and sharply tapering steeple. Lastly, opposite the
-northern, the western, and the south-eastern sides of the Kaabah,
-stand three ornamental pavilions, with light sloping roofs resting on
-slender pillars. From these the representatives of the three orthodox
-schools direct the prayers of their congregations. The Shafli, or
-fourth branch, collect between the corner of the well Zemzem and the
-Station of Abraham, whilst the heretical sects lay claim to certain
-mysterious and invisible places of reunion.
-
-I must now describe what the pilgrims do.
-
-Entering with the boy Mohammed, who acted as my mutawwif, or circuit
-guide, we passed through the inner Gate of Security, uttering various
-religious formulas, and we recited the usual two-prostration prayer in
-honour of the mosque at the Shafli place of worship. We then proceeded
-to the angle of the house, in which the black stone is set, and there
-recited other prayers before beginning tawaf, or circumambulation. The
-place was crowded with pilgrims, all males――women rarely appear during
-the hours of light. Bareheaded and barefooted they passed the giant
-pavement, which, smooth as glass and hot as sun can make it, surrounds
-the Kaabah, suggesting the idea of perpetual motion. Meccans declare
-that at no time of the day or night is the place ever wholly deserted.
-
-Circumambulation consists of seven shauts, or rounds, of the house, to
-which the left shoulder is turned, and each noted spot has its
-peculiar prayers. The three first courses are performed at a brisk
-trot, like the French _pas gymnastique_. The four latter are leisurely
-passed. The origin of this custom is variously accounted for. The
-general idea is that Mohammed directed his followers thus to show
-themselves strong and active to the infidels, who had declared them to
-have been weakened by the air of El Medinah.
-
-When I had performed my seven courses I fought my way through the
-thin-legged host of Bedouins, and kissed the black stone, rubbing my
-hands and forehead upon it. There were some other unimportant
-devotions, which concluded with a douche at the well Zemzem, and with
-a general almsgiving. The circumambulation ceremony is performed
-several times in the day, despite the heat. It is positive torture.
-
-The visit to the Kaabah, however, does not entitle a man to be called
-haji. The essence of pilgrimage is to be present at the sermon
-pronounced by the preacher on the Holy Hill of Arafat, distant about
-twelve miles from, and to the east of, Meccah. This performed even in
-a state of insensibility is valid, and to die by the roadside is
-martyrdom, saving all the pains and penalties of the tomb.
-
-The visit, however, must be paid on the 8th, 9th, and the 10th of the
-month Zu’l Hijjah (the Lord of Pilgrimage), the last month of the Arab
-year. At this time there is a great throb through the framework of
-Moslem society from Gibraltar to Japan, and those who cannot visit the
-Holy City content themselves with prayers and sacrifices at home. As
-the Moslem computation is lunar, the epoch retrocedes through the
-seasons in thirty-three years. When I visited Meccah, the rites began
-on September 12th and ended on September 14th, 1853. In 1863 the
-opening day was June 8th; the closing, June 10th.
-
-My readers will observe that the modern pilgrimage ceremonies of the
-Moslem are evidently a commemoration of Abraham and his descendants.
-The practices of the Father of the Faithful when he issued from the
-land of Chaldea seem to have formed a religious standard in the mind
-of the Arab law-giver, who preferred Abraham before all the other
-prophets, himself alone excepted.
-
-The day after our arrival at Meccah was the Yaum El Tarwiyah (the Day
-of Carrying Water), the first of the three which compose the
-pilgrimage season proper. From the earliest dawn the road was densely
-thronged with white-robed votaries, some walking, others mounted, and
-all shouting “Labbayk!” with all their might. As usual the scene was
-one of strange contrasts. Turkish dignitaries on fine horses, Bedouins
-bestriding swift dromedaries, the most uninteresting soldiery, and the
-most conspicuous beggars. Before nightfall I saw no less than five
-exhausted and emaciated devotees give up the ghost and become
-“martyrs.”
-
-The first object of interest lies on the right-hand side of the road.
-This was a high conical hill, known in books as Tebel Hora, but now
-called Tebel Nur, or Mountain of Light, because there Mohammed’s mind
-was first illuminated. The Cave of Revelation is still shown. It looks
-upon a wild scene. Eastward and southward the vision is limited by
-abrupt hills. In the other directions there is a dreary landscape,
-with here and there a stunted acacia or a clump of brushwood growing
-on rough ground, where stony glens and valleys of white sand, most of
-them water-courses after the rare rains, separate black, grey, and
-yellow rocks.
-
-Passing over El Akabah (the Steeps), an important spot in classical
-Arab history, we entered Muna, a hot hollow three or four miles from
-the barren valley of Meccah. It is a long, narrow, straggling village
-of mud and stone houses, single storied and double storied, built in
-the common Arab style. We were fated to see it again. At noon we
-passed Mugdalifah, or the Approacher, known to El Islam as the Minaret
-without the Mosque, and thus distinguished from a neighbouring
-building, the Mosque without the Minaret. There is something
-peculiarly impressive in the tall, solitary, tower springing from the
-desolate valley of gravel. No wonder that the old Arab conquerors
-loved to give the high-sounding name of this oratory to distant points
-in their extensive empire!
-
-Here, as we halted for the noon prayer, the Damascus caravan appeared
-in all its glory. The mahmal, or litter, sent by the Sultan to
-represent his presence, no longer a framework as on the line of march,
-now flashed in the sun all gold and green, and the huge white camel
-seemed to carry it with pride. Around the moving host of peaceful
-pilgrims hovered a crowd of mounted Bedouins armed to the teeth. These
-people often visit Arafat for blood revenge; nothing can be more
-sacrilegious than murder at such a season, but they find the enemy
-unprepared. As their draperies floated in the wind and their faces
-were swathed and veiled with their head-kerchiefs, it was not always
-easy to distinguish the sex of the wild beings who hurried past at
-speed. The women were unscrupulous, and many were seen emulating the
-men in reckless riding, and in striking with their sticks at every
-animal in their way.
-
-Presently, after safely threading the gorge called the pass of the Two
-Rugged Hills, and celebrated for accidents, we passed between the two
-“signs”――whitewashed pillars, or, rather, tall towers, their walls
-surmounted with pinnacles. They mark the limits of the Arafat
-Plain――the Standing-Ground, as it is called. Here is sight of the Holy
-Hill of Arafat, standing boldly out from the fair blue sky, and backed
-by the azure peaks of Taif. All the pilgrim host raised loud shouts of
-“Labbayk!” The noise was that of a storm.
-
-We then sought our quarters in the town of tents scattered over two or
-three miles of plain at the southern foot of the Holy Hill, and there
-we passed a turbulent night of prayer.
-
-I estimated the total number of devotees to be fifty thousand; usually
-it may amount to eighty thousand. The Arabs, however, believe that the
-total of those “standing on Arafat” cannot be counted, and that if
-less than six hundred thousand human beings are gathered, the angels
-descend and make up the sum. Even in A.D. 1853 my Moslem friends
-declared that a hundred and fifty thousand immortal beings were
-present in mortal shape.
-
-The Mount of Mercy, which is also called Tebel Ilál, or Mount of
-Wrestling in Prayer, is physically considered a mass of coarse
-granite, split into large blocks and thinly covered with a coat of
-withered thorns. It rises abruptly to a height of a hundred and eighty
-to two hundred feet from the gravelly flat, and it is separated by a
-sandy vale from the last spur of the Taif hills. The dwarf wall
-encircling it gives the barren eminence a somewhat artificial look,
-which is not diminished by the broad flight of steps winding up the
-southern face, and by the large stuccoed platform near the summit,
-where the preacher delivers the “Sermon of the Standing.”
-
-Arafat means “recognition,” and owes its name and honours to a
-well-known legend. When our first parents were expelled from Paradise,
-which, according to Moslems, is in the lowest of the seven heavens,
-Adam descended at Ceylon, Eve upon Arafat. The former, seeking his
-wife, began a journey to which the earth owes its present mottled
-appearance. Wherever he placed his foot a town arose in the fulness of
-time; between the strides all has remained country. Wandering for many
-years he came to the Holy Hill of Arafat, the Mountain of Mercy, where
-our common mother was continually calling upon his name, and their
-recognition of each other there gave the place its name. Upon the
-hill-top, Adam, instructed by the Archangel Gabriel, erected a
-prayer-station, and in its neighbourhood the pair abode until death.
-
-It is interesting to know that Adam’s grave is shown at Muna, the
-village through which we had passed that day. The mosque covering his
-remains is called El Kharf; his head is at one end of the long wall,
-his feet are at the other, and the dome covers his middle. Our first
-father’s forehead, we are told, originally brushed the skies, but this
-stature being found inconvenient, it was dwarfed to a hundred and
-fifty feet. Eve, again, is buried near the port of Meccah――Jeddah,
-which means the “grandmother.” She is supposed to lie, like a
-Moslemah, fronting the Kaabah, with her head southwards, her feet to
-the north, and her right cheek resting on her right hand. Whitewashed
-and conspicuous to the voyager from afar is the dome opening to the
-west, and covering a square stone fancifully carved to represent her
-middle. Two low parallel walls about eighteen feet apart define the
-mortal remains of our mother, who, as she measured a hundred and
-twenty paces from head to waist and eighty from waist to heel, must
-have presented in life a very peculiar appearance. The archæologist
-will remember that the great idol of Jeddah in the age of the Arab
-litholatry was a “long stone.”
-
-The next day, the 9th of the month Zu’l Hijjah, is known as Yaum
-Arafat (the Day of Arafat). After ablution and prayer, we visited
-sundry interesting places on the Mount of Mercy, and we breakfasted
-late and copiously, as we could not eat again before nightfall. Even
-at dawn the rocky hill was crowded with pilgrims, principally Bedouins
-and wild men, who had secured favourable places for hearing the
-discourse. From noon onwards the hum and murmur of the multitude waxed
-louder, people swarmed here and there, guns fired, and horsemen and
-camelmen rushed about in all directions. A discharge of cannon about 2
-p.m. announced that the ceremony of wukuf, or standing on the Holy
-Hill, was about to commence.
-
-The procession was headed by the retinue of the Sherif, or Prince, of
-Meccah, the Pope of El Islam. A way for him was cleared through the
-dense mob of spectators by a cloud of macebearers and by horsemen of
-the desert carrying long bamboo spears tufted with black ostrich
-feathers. These were followed by led horses, the proudest blood of
-Arabia, and by a stalwart band of negro matchlock men. Five red and
-green flags immediately preceded the Prince, who, habited in plain
-pilgrim garb, rode a fine mule. The only sign of his rank was a fine
-green silk and gold umbrella, held over his head by one of his slaves.
-He was followed by his family and courtiers, and the rear was brought
-up by a troop of Bedouins on horses and dromedaries. The picturesque
-background of the scene was the granite hill, covered, wherever foot
-could be planted, with half-naked devotees, crying “Labbayk!” at the
-top of their voices, and violently waving the skirts of their gleaming
-garments. It was necessary to stand literally upon Arafat, but we did
-not go too near, and a little way off sighted the preacher sitting,
-after the manner of Mohammed, on his camel and delivering the sermon.
-Slowly the _cortège_ wound its way towards the Mount of Mercy. Exactly
-at afternoon prayer-time, the two mahmal, or ornamental litters, of
-Damascus and Cairo, took their station side by side on a platform in
-the lower part of the hill. A little above them stood the Prince of
-Meccah, within hearing of the priest. The pilgrims crowded around
-them. The loud cries were stilled, and the waving of white robes
-ceased.
-
-Then the preacher began the “Sermon of the Mount,” which teaches the
-devotees the duties of the season. At first it was spoken without
-interruption; then: loud “Amin” and volleys of “Labbayk” exploded at
-certain intervals. At last the breeze became laden with a purgatorial
-chorus of sobs, cries, and shrieks. Even the Meccans, who, like the
-sons of other Holy Cities, are hardened to holy days, thought it
-proper to appear affected, and those unable to squeeze out a tear
-buried their faces in the corners of their pilgrim cloths. I buried
-mine――at intervals.
-
-The sermon lasted about three hours, and when sunset was near, the
-preacher gave the israf, or permission to depart. Then began that
-risky part of the ceremony known as the “hurrying from Arafat.” The
-pilgrims all rushed down the Mount of Mercy with cries like trumpet
-blasts, and took the road to Muna. Every man urged his beast to the
-uttermost over the plain, which bristled with pegs, and was strewn
-with struck tents. Pedestrians were trampled, litters were crushed,
-and camels were thrown; here a woman, there a child, was lost, whilst
-night coming on without twilight added to the chaotic confusion of the
-scene. The pass of the Two Rugged Hills, where all the currents
-converged, was the crisis, after which progress was easier. We spent,
-however, at least three hours in reaching Mugdalifah, and there we
-resolved to sleep. The minaret was brilliantly illuminated, but my
-companions apparently thought more of rest and supper than of prayer.
-The night was by no means peaceful nor silent. Lines of laden beasts
-passed us every ten minutes, devotees guarding their boxes from
-plunderers gave loud tokens of being wide awake, and the shouting of
-travellers continued till near dawn.
-
-The 10th of Zu’l Hijjah, the day following the sermon, is called Yaum
-Vahr (the Day of Camel Killing), or EEd El Kurban (the Festival of the
-Sacrifice), the Kurban Bairam of the Turks. It is the most solemn of
-the year, and it holds amongst Moslems the rank which Easter Day
-claims from Christendom.
-
-We awoke at daybreak, and exchanged with all around us the compliments
-of the season――“EEd Kum mubarak”――“May your festival be auspicious.”
-Then each man gathered for himself seven jamrah (bits of granite the
-size of a small bean), washed them in “seven waters,” and then
-proceeded to the western end of the long street which forms the
-village of Muna. Here is the place called the Great Devil, to
-distinguish it from two others, the Middle Devil and the First Devil,
-or the easternmost. The outward and visible signs are nothing but
-short buttresses of whitewashed masonry placed against a rough wall in
-the main thoroughfare. Some derive the rite from the days of Adam, who
-put to flight the Evil One by pelting him, as Martin Luther did with
-the inkstand. Others opine that the ceremony is performed in imitation
-of Abraham, who, meeting Sathanas at Muna, and being tempted to
-disobedience in the matter of sacrificing his son, was commanded by
-Allah to drive him away with stones. Pilgrims approach if possible
-within five paces of the pillar, and throw at it successfully seven
-pebbles, holding each one between the thumb and forefinger of the
-right hand, either extended, or shooting it as a boy does a marble. At
-every cast they exclaim: “In the name of Allah, and Allah is almighty!
-In hatred to the Fiend and to his shame I do this!” It is one of the
-local miracles that all the pebbles thus flung return by spiritual
-agency whence they came.
-
-As Satan was malicious enough to appear in a rugged lane hardly forty
-feet broad, the place was rendered dangerous by the crowd. On one side
-stood the devil’s buttress and wall, bristling with wild men and boys.
-Opposite it was a row of temporary booths tenanted by barbers, and the
-space between swarmed with pilgrims, all trying to get at the enemy of
-mankind. A monkey might have run over the heads of the mob. Amongst
-them were horsemen flogging their steeds, Bedouins urging frightened
-camels, and running footmen opening paths for the grandees, their
-masters, by assault and battery. We congratulated each other, the boy
-Mohammed and I, when we escaped with trifling hurts. Some Moslem
-travellers assert, by way of miracle, that no man was ever killed
-during the ceremony of rajm, or lapidation. Several Meccans, however,
-assured me that fatal accidents are by no means rare.
-
-After throwing the seven pebbles, we doffed our pilgrim garb, and
-returned to ihlal, or normal attire.
-
-The barber placed us upon an earthen bench in the open shop, shaved
-our heads, trimmed our beards, and pared our nails, causing us to
-repeat after him: “I purpose throwing off my ceremonial attire,
-according to the practice of the Prophet――whom may Allah bless and
-preserve! O Allah, grant to me for every hair a light, a purity, and a
-generous reward! In the name of Allah, and Allah is almighty!” The
-barber then addressed me: “Naiman”――“Pleasure to thee!”――and I
-responded: “Allah, give _thee_ pleasure!” Now we could at once use
-cloths to cover our heads, and slippers to defend our feet from fiery
-sun and hot soil, and we might safely twirl our mustachios and stroke
-our beards――placid enjoyments of which we had been deprived by the
-ceremonial law.
-
-The day ended with the sacrifice of an animal to commemorate the
-substitution of a ram for Ishmael, the father of the Arabs. The place
-of the original offering is in the Muna Valley, and it is still
-visited by pilgrims. None but the Kruma, the Pacha, and high
-dignitaries slaughter camels. These beasts are killed by thrusting a
-knife into the interval between the throat and the breast, the muscles
-of the wind-pipe being too hard and thick to cut; their flesh is
-lawful to the Arabs, but not to the Hebrews. Oxen, sheep, and goats
-are made to face the Kaabah, and their throats are cut, the sacrificer
-ejaculating: “In the name of Allah! Allah is almighty!” It is
-meritorious to give away the victim without eating any part of it, and
-thus crowds of poor pilgrims were enabled to regale themselves.
-
-There is a terrible want of cleanliness in this sacrifice. Thousands
-of animals are cut up and left unburied in this “Devil’s Punchbowl.” I
-leave the rest to the imagination. Pilgrims usually pass in the Muna
-Valley the Days of Flesh Drying――namely, the 11th, the 12th, and the
-13th of the month Zu’l Hijjah――and on the two former the Great, the
-Middle, and the Little Satan are again pelted. The standing miracles
-of the place are that beasts and birds cannot prey there, nor can
-flies settle upon provisions exposed in the markets. But animals are
-frightened away by the bustling crowds, and flies are found in
-myriads. The revolting scene, aided by a steady temperature of 120°
-Fahr., has more than once caused a desolating pestilence at Meccah:
-the cholera of 1865 has been traced back to it; in fine, the safety of
-Europe demands the reformation of this filthy slaughter-house, which
-is still the same.
-
-The pilgrimage rites over, we returned to Meccah for a short sojourn.
-Visitors are advised, and wisely, not to linger long in the Holy City
-after the conclusion of the ceremonies. Use soon spoils the marvels,
-and, after the greater excitements, all becomes flat, stale, and
-unprofitable. The rite called umrah, or the “little pilgrimage,” and
-the running between Mounts Safa and Marwah, in imitation of Hagar
-seeking her child, remain to be performed. And there are many spots of
-minor sanctity to be visited, such as the Jannal El Maala, or Cemetery
-of the Saints, the mosque where the genii paid fealty to the Prophet,
-the house where Mohammed was born, that in which he lived with his
-first wife, Khadijah, and in which his daughter Fatimah and his
-grandsons Hasan and Hussayn saw the light, the place where the stone
-gave the founder of El Islam God-speed, and about a dozen others. Men,
-however, either neglect them or visit them cursorily, and think of
-little now beyond returning home.
-
-I must briefly sketch the Holy City before we bid it adieu.
-
-Meccah, also called Beccah, the words being synonymous, signifies
-according to some a “place of great concourse,” is built between 21°
-and 22° of N. Lat. and in 39° E. Long. (Greenwich).[5] It is therefore
-more decidedly tropical than El Medinah, and the parallel corresponds
-with that of Cuba. The origin of the Bayt Ullah is lost in the glooms
-of time, but Meccah as it now stands is a comparatively modern place,
-built in A.D. 450 by Kusayr the Kuraysh. It is a city colligated
-together like Jerusalem and Rome. The site is a winding valley in the
-midst of many little hills; the effect is that it offers no general
-_coup d’œil_. Thus the views of Meccah known to Europe are not more
-like Meccah than like Cairo or Bombay.
-
-The utmost length of the Holy City is two miles and a half from the
-Mab’dah, or northern suburb, to the southern mound called Jiyad. The
-extreme breadth may be three-quarters between the Abu Kubays hill on
-the east and the Kaykaan, or Kuwaykaan, eminence on the west. The mass
-of houses clusters at the western base of Abu Kubays. The mounts
-called Safa and Marwah extend from Abu Kubays to Kayhaan, and are
-about seven hundred and eighty cubits apart. The great temple is near
-the centre of the city, as the Kaabah is near the middle of the
-temple. Upon Jebel Jiyad the Greater there is a fort held by Turkish
-soldiery; it seems to have no great strength. In olden time Meccah had
-walls and gates; now there are none.
-
-The ground in and about the Holy City is sandy and barren, the hills
-are rocky and desert. Meat, fruits, and vegetables must be imported
-_viâ_ Jeddah, the port, distant about forty-five miles. The climate is
-exceedingly hot and rarely tempered by the sea breeze. I never
-suffered so much from temperature as during my fortnight at Meccah.
-
-The capital of the Hejaz, which is about double the size of El
-Medinah, has all the conveniences of a city. The streets are narrow,
-deep, and well watered. The houses are durable and well built of brick
-mixed with granite and sandstone, quarried in the neighbouring hills.
-Some of them are five stories high, and more like fortresses than
-dwelling-places. The lime, however, is bad, and after heavy rain,
-sometimes ten days in the year, those of inferior structure fall in
-ruins. None but the best have open-work of brick and courses of
-coloured stone. The roofs are made flat to serve for sleeping-places,
-the interiors are sombre to keep out the heat; they have jutting upper
-stories, as in the old town of Brazil, and huge latticed hanging
-balconies――the maswrabujah of Cairo, here called the shamiyah――project
-picturesquely into the streets and the small squares in which the city
-abounds.
-
-The population is guessed at forty-five thousand souls. The citizens
-appeared to me more civilised and more vicious than those of El
-Medinah, and their habit of travel makes them a worldly-wise and
-God-forgetting and Mammonist sort of folk. “Circumambulate and run
-between Mounts Safa and Marwah and do the seven deadly sins,” is a
-satire popularly levelled against them. Their redeeming qualities are
-courage, _bonhomie_, manners at once manly and suave, a fiery sense of
-honour, strong family affections, and a near approach to what we call
-patriotism. The dark half of the picture is pride, bigotry,
-irreligion, greed of gain, debauchery, and prodigal ostentation.
-
-Unlike his brother of El Medinah, the Meccan is a swarthy man. He is
-recognised throughout the east by three parallel gashes down each
-cheek, from the exterior angles of the eyes to the corners of the
-mouth. These mashali, as they call them, are clean contrary to the
-commands of El Islam. The people excuse the practice by saying that it
-preserves their children from being kidnapped, and it is performed the
-fortieth day after birth.
-
-The last pilgrimage ceremony performed at Meccah is the Tawaf el
-Widaaf, or circumambulation of farewell, a solemn occasion. The
-devotee walks round the House of Allah, he drinks the water of the
-Zemzem well, he kisses the threshold of the door, and he stands for
-some time with his face and bosom pressed against the multazem wall,
-clinging to the curtain, reciting religious formulas, blessing the
-Prophet, weeping if possible, but at least groaning. He then leaves
-the temple, backing out of it with many salutations till he reaches
-the Gate of Farewell, when, with a parting glance at the Kaabah, he
-turns his face towards home.
-
-I will not dwell upon my return journey――how, accompanied by the boy
-Mohammed, I reached Jeddah on the Red Sea, how my countrymen refused
-for a time to believe me, and how I sadly parted with my Moslem
-friends. My wanderings ended for a time, and, worn out with fatigue
-and with the fatal fiery heat, I steamed out of Jeddah on September
-26th in the little _Dwarka_, and on October 3rd, 1853, after six
-months’ absence from England, I found myself safely anchored in Suez
-Harbour.
-
-
-     [5] Both latitude and longitude are disputed points, as the
-     following table shows. The Arabs, it must be remembered,
-     placed the first meridian at the Fortunate Islands:
-
-     The Atwal makes the latitude 21° 40′, longitude 67° 13′
-     Kanun       ”          ”     21° 20′      ”     67°  0′
-     Ibu Said    ”          ”     21° 31′      ”     67° 31′
-     Rasm        ”          ”     21°  0′      ”     67°  0′
-     Khúshyar    ”          ”     21° 40′      ”     67° 10′
-     Masr el Din ”          ”     21° 40′      ”     77° 10′
-     D’Anville   ”          ”     22°  0′      ”     77° 10′
-     Niebuhr     ”          ”     21° 30′      ”     77° 10′
-
-     Humbodlt, therefore, is hardly right to say: “L’erreur est
-     que le Mecque paraissait déjà aux Arabes de 19° trop a
-     l’est” (“Correspondence,” p. 459).
-
-
-
-
-_A RIDE TO HARAR_
-
-1854-1855
-
-
-
-
-_A RIDE TO HARAR_
-
-
-The pilgrimage to Meccah being a thing of the past, and the spirit of
-unrest still strong within me, I next turned my thoughts to the hot
-depths of the Dark Continent. Returning to Bombay early in 1854, I
-volunteered to explore the Land of the Somali, the eastern horn of
-Africa, extending from Cape Guardafui (N. Lat. 12°) to near the
-Equator. For many years naval officers had coasted along it; many of
-our ships had been lost there, and we had carefully shot their
-wreckers and plunderers. But no modern traveller had ventured into the
-wild depths, and we were driven for information to the pages of Father
-Lobo, of Salt, and de Rienzi.
-
-My project aimed at something higher; and indeed it was this journey
-which led directly to the discovery of the sources of the Nile, so far
-as they are yet discovered.
-
-I had read in Ptolemy (I., par. 9) the following words: “Then
-concerning the navigation between the Aromata Promontory (_i.e._,
-Guardafui) and Rhapta (the ‘place of seven ships,’ generally supposed
-to be north of Kilwa), Marianus of Tyre declares that a certain
-Diogenes, one of those sailing to India … when near Aromata and having
-the Troglodytic region on the right (some of the Somali were still
-cave-dwellers), reached, after twenty-five days’ march, the lakes
-(plural and not dual) whence the Nile flows and of which Point Raphta
-is a little south.”
-
-This remarkable passage was to me a revelation; it was the _mot de
-l’enigme_, the way to make the egg stand upright, the rending of the
-veil of Isis. The feat for which Julius Cæsar would have relinquished
-a civil war, the secret which kings from Nero to Mahommet Ali vainly
-attempted to solve, the discovery of which travellers, from Herodotus
-to Bruce, have risked their lives, was reduced to comparative
-facility. For the last three thousand years explorers had been
-working, literally and metaphorically, against the stream, where
-disease and savagery had exhausted health and strength, pocket and
-patience, at the very beginning of the end. I therefore resolved to
-reverse the operation, and thus I hoped to see the young Nile and to
-stultify a certain old proverb.
-
-The Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company
-unwillingly sanctioned my project: I was too clever by half, and they
-suspected that it concealed projects of annexation or conquest. All
-that my political views aimed at was to secure the supremacy of my
-country in the Red Sea. Despite Lord Palmerston and Robert Stephenson,
-I foresaw that the Suez Canal would be a success, and I proposed to
-purchase for the sum of £10,000 all the ports on the East African
-shore as far south as Berbera. This was refused; I was sternly
-reprimanded, and the result will presently appear.
-
-In July of the same year we reached Aden from Bombay. Our little party
-was composed of Lieutenant Herne and Lieutenant Stroyan, with myself
-in command. Before setting out I permitted Lieutenant J. H. Speke to
-join us; he was in search of African sport, and, being a stranger, he
-was glad to find companions. This officer afterwards accompanied me to
-Central Africa, and died at Bath on Thursday, September 15th, 1864.
-
-Aden――“eye of Yemen,” the “coal-hole of the East” (as we call it), the
-“dry and squalid city” of Abulfeda――gave me much trouble. It is one of
-the worst, if not _the_ worst, places of residence to which
-Anglo-Indians can be condemned. The town occupies the crater floor of
-an extinct volcano whose northern wall, a grim rock of bare black
-basalt known as Jebel Shamsham, is said to be the sepulchre of Kabil,
-or Cain, and certainly the First Murderer lies in an appropriate spot.
-Between May and October the climate is dreadful. The storms of unclean
-dust necessitate candles at noon, and not a drop of rain falls, whilst
-high in the red hot air you see the clouds rolling towards the
-highlands of the interior, where their blessed loads will make Arabia
-happy. In Yemen――Arabia Felix――there are bubbling springs and fruits
-and vineyards, sweet waters, fertilising suns, and cool nights. In
-Aden and its neighbourhood all is the abomination of desolation.
-
-The miseries of our unfortunate troops might have been lightened had
-we originally occupied the true key of the Red Sea, the port of
-Berbera on the Somali coast opposite Aden. But the step had been
-taken; the authorities would not say “Peccavi” and undo the past.
-Therefore we died of fever and dysentery; the smallest wound became a
-fearful ulcer which destroyed limb or life. Even in health, existence
-without appetite or sleep was a pest. I had the audacity to publish
-these facts, and had once more to pay the usual penalty for telling
-the truth.
-
-The English spirit suffers from confinement behind any but wooden
-walls, and the Aden garrison displayed a timidity which astonished me.
-The fierce faces, the screaming voices, and the frequent faction
-fights of the savage Somali had cowed our countrymen, and they were
-depressed by a “peace at any price” policy. Even the Brigadier
-commanding, General (afterwards Sir) James Outram, opposed my
-explorations, and the leader was represented as a madman leading
-others to a certain and cruel death.
-
-I at once changed my plans. To prove that the journey presented no
-real danger, I offered to visit alone what was considered the most
-perilous part of the country and explore Harar, the capital of the
-_terra incognita_. But to prevent my being detained meanwhile, I
-stationed my companions on the African coast with orders to seize and
-stop the inland caravans――a measure which would have had the effect of
-releasing me. This is a serious danger in Abyssinian travel: witness
-the case of Pedro Cavilham in 1499, and the unfortunate Consul Cameron
-in our own day. Those “nameless Ethiopians,” the older savages,
-sacrificed strangers to their gods. The modern only keep them in
-irons, flog them, and starve them.
-
-At the time I went few but professed geographers knew even the name of
-Harar, or suspected that within three hundred miles of Aden there is a
-counterpart of ill-famed Timbuctu. Travellers of all nations had
-attempted it in vain; men of science, missionaries, and geographers
-had all failed. It was said that some Hamitu prophet had read decline
-and fall in the first footsteps of the Frank, and that the bigoted
-barbarians had threatened death to the infidel caught within their
-walls. Yet it was worth seeing, especially in those days, when few
-were the unvisited cities of the world. It has a stirring history, a
-peculiar race and language, it coins its own money, and it exports the
-finest coffee known. Finally it is the southernmost town in Tropical
-Africa.
-
-On April 28th, 1854, in an open boat, I left Aden alone, without my
-companions, re-becoming El Hajj Abdullah, the Arab. My attendants were
-Mohammed and Guled, two Somali policemen bound to keep my secret for
-the safety of their own throats. I afterwards engaged one Abdy Abokr,
-a kind of hedge-priest, whose nickname was the “End of Time,” meaning
-the _ne plus ultra_ of villainy. He was a caution――a bad tongue, a
-mischievous brain, covetous and wasteful, treacherous as a hyena,
-revengeful as a camel, timorous as a jackal.
-
-Three days of summer sail on the “blind billows” and the “singing
-waves” of the romantic Arab geographers landed us at Zayla, _alias_
-Andal, the classical Sinus Avaliticus, to the south-west of Aden.
-During the seventh century it was the capital of a kingdom which
-measured forty-three by forty days’ march; now the Bedouin rides up to
-its walls. The site is the normal Arabo-African scene, a strip of
-sulphur-yellow sand with a deep blue dome above and a foreground of
-indigo-coloured sea; behind it lies the country, a reeking desert of
-loose white sand and brown clay, thinly scattered with thorny shrub
-and tree. The buildings are a dozen large houses of mud and coralline
-rubble painfully whitewashed. There are six mosques――green little
-battlemented things with the Wahhali dwarf tower by way of minaret,
-and two hundred huts of dingy palm-leaf.
-
-The population of fifteen thousand souls has not a good name――Zayla
-boasting or vanity and Kurayeh pride is a proverb. They are managed by
-forty Turkish soldiers under a Somali Governor, the Hajj Shermarkuy,
-meaning “one who sees no harm.” The tall old man was a brave in his
-youth; he could manage four spears, and his sword-cut was known. He
-always befriended English travellers.
-
-The only thing in favour of Zayla is its cheapness. A family of six
-persons can live well on £30 per annum. Being poor, the people are
-idle, and the hateful “Inshalla bukra”――“To-morrow if Allah
-pleases”――and the Arab “tenha paciencia,” “amanha,” and “espere um
-pouco” is the rule.
-
-I was delayed twenty-seven days whilst a route was debated upon, mules
-were sent for, camels were bought, and an abban, or protector-guide,
-was secured. Hereabouts no stranger could travel without such a
-patron, who was paid to defend his client’s life and property.
-Practically he took his money and ran away.
-
-On the evening of November 27th, 1864, the caravan was ready. It
-consisted of five camels laden with provisions, cooking-pots,
-ammunition, and our money――that is to say, beads, coarse tobacco,
-American sheeting, Indian cotton, and indigo-dyed stuffs. The escort
-was formed by the two policemen, the “End of Time,” and Yusuf, a
-one-eyed lad from Zayla, with the guide and his tail of three
-followers. My men were the pink of Somali fashion. They had stained
-their hair of a light straw colour by plastering it with ashes; they
-had teased it till it stood up a full foot, and they had mutually
-spirted upon their wigs melted tallow, making their heads look like
-giant cauliflowers that contrasted curiously with the bistre-coloured
-skins. Their tobes (togas) were dazzlingly white, with borders
-dazzlingly red. Outside the dress was strapped a horn-hilted two-edged
-dagger, long and heavy; their shields of rhinoceros hide were brand
-new, and their two spears poised upon the right shoulder were freshly
-scraped and oiled, and blackened and polished. They had added my spare
-rifle and guns to the camel loads――the things were well enough in
-Aden, but in Somali we would deride such strange, unmanly weapons.
-They balanced themselves upon dwarf Abyssinian saddles, extending the
-leg and raising the heel like the _haute école_ of Louis XIV. The
-stirrup was an iron ring admitting only the big toe, and worse than
-that of the Sertanejo.
-
-As usual in this country, where the gender masculine will not work, we
-had two cooks――tall, buxom, muscular dames, chocolate skinned and
-round faced. They had curiously soft and fluted voices, hardly to be
-expected from their square and huge-hipped figures, and contrasting
-agreeably with the harsh organs of the men. Their feet were bare,
-their veil was confined by a narrow fillet, and the body-cloth was an
-indigo-dyed cotton, girt at the waist and graceful as a winding sheet.
-I never saw them eat; probably, as the people say of cooks, they lived
-by sucking their fingers.
-
-And here a few words about the Somali, amongst whom we were to travel.
-These nomads were not pure negroes; like the old Egyptians, they were
-a mixed breed of African and Arab. The face from the brow to the
-nostrils is Asiatic, from the nostrils to the chin showed traces of
-negro blood. The hair was African; they decorated it by a sheep-skin
-wig cut to the head and died fiery orange with henna. The figure was
-peculiar, the shoulders were high and narrow, the trunk was small, the
-limbs were spider-like, and the forearm was often of simian
-proportions.
-
-The Somali were a free people, lawless as free. The British Government
-would not sanction their being sold as slaves. Of course they enslaved
-others, and they had a servile caste called Midyan, who were the only
-archers. They had little reverence for their own chiefs except in
-council, and they discussed every question in public, none hesitating
-to offer the wildest conjectures. At different times they suggested
-that I was a Turk, an Egyptian, a Marah man, a Banyan, Ahmad the
-Indian, the Governor of Aden, a merchant, a pilgrim, the chief of
-Zayla or his son, a boy, a warrior in silver armour, an old woman, a
-man painted white, and lastly, a calamity sent down from heaven to
-tire out the lives of the Somali.
-
-The Somali were bad Moslems, but they believed in a deity and they
-knew the name of their Prophet. Wives being purchased for their value
-in cows or camels, the wealthy old were polygamous and the young poor
-were perforce bachelors. They worked milk-pots of tree-fibre like the
-beer-baskets of Kaffir-land. They were not bad smiths, but they
-confined their work to knives, spear-heads, and neat bits for their
-unshod horses. Like the Kaffirs, they called bright iron “rotten,” and
-they never tempered it. Like all Africans, they were very cruel
-riders.
-
-These nomads had a passion for independence, and yet when placed under
-a strong arm they were easily disciplined. In British Aden a merry,
-laughing, dancing, and fighting race, at home they were a moping,
-melancholy people; for this their lives of perpetual danger might
-account. This insecurity made them truly hard-hearted. I have seen
-them when shifting camp barbarously leave behind for the hyenas their
-sick and decrepit parents. When the fatal smallpox breaks out, the
-first cases are often speared and the huts burned over the still warm
-corpse.
-
-The Somali deemed nothing so noble as murder. The more cowardly the
-deed is, the better, as showing the more “nous.” Even the midnight
-butchery of a sleeping guest is highly honourable. The hero plants a
-rish, or white ostrich feather, in his tufty pole and walks about the
-admired of all admirers, whilst the wives of those who have not
-received this order of merit taunt their husbands as _noirs
-fainéants_. Curious to say, the Greek and Roman officers used to
-present these plumes to the bravest of their officers for wearing on
-their helmet.
-
-My journey began with the hard alluvial plain, forty-five to
-fifty-eight miles broad, between the sea and the mountains. It
-belonged to the Eesa, a tribe of Somali Bedouins, and how these
-“sun-dwellers” could exist there was a mystery. On the second day we
-reached a kraal consisting of gurgi, or diminutive hide huts. There
-was no thorn fence as is required in the lion-haunted lands to the
-west. The scene was characteristic of that pastoral life which
-supplies poetry with Arcadian images and history with its blackest
-tragedies. Whistling shepherds, tall thin men, spear in hand, bore the
-younglings of the herd in their bosoms or drove to pasture the
-long-necked camels preceded by a patriarch with a wooden bell. Patches
-of Persian sheep with snowy bodies and jetty faces flecked the tawny
-plain, and flocks of goats were committed to women dressed in skins
-and boys who were unclad till the days of puberty. Some led the ram,
-around whose neck a cord of white heather was tied for luck. Others
-frisked with the dogs, animals by no means contemptible in the eyes of
-these Bedouin Moslems. All begged for bori――the precious
-tobacco――their only narcotic. They run away if they see smoke, and
-they suspect a kettle to be a mortal weapon. So the Bachwanas called
-our cannon, “pots.” Many of these wild people had never tasted grain
-and had never heard of coffee or sugar. During the rains they lived on
-milk; in the dries they ate meat, avoiding, however, the blood. Like
-other races to the north and south, they would not touch fish or
-birds, which they compared to snakes and vultures. “Speak not to me
-with that mouth that has tasted fish!” is a dire insult.
-
-The Eesa were a typical Somali tribe; it might have numbered one
-hundred thousand spears, and it had a bad name. “Treacherous as an
-Eesa,” is a proverb at Zayla, where it is said these savages would
-offer you a bowl of milk with the left hand and would stab you with
-the right. Their lives were spent in battle and murder.
-
-The next march, a total of fifty-two miles, nearly lost us. Just
-before reaching the mountains which subtend the coast, we crossed the
-warm trail of a razzia, or cavalcade: some two hundred of the Habr
-Awal, our inveterate enemies, had been scouring the country. Robinson
-Crusoe was less scared by the footprint than were my companions. Our
-weak party numbered only nine men, of whom all except Mohammed and
-Guled were useless, and the first charge would have been certain
-death.
-
-Escaping this danger, we painfully endured the rocks and thorns of the
-mountains and wilds. The third march placed us at Halimalah, a sacred
-tree about half-way between this coast and our destination――Harar. It
-is a huge sycamore suggesting the hiero-sykaminon of Egypt. The Gallas
-are still tree-worshippers, and the Somali respect this venerable
-vegetable as do the English their Druidical mistletoe.
-
-We were well received at the kers (the kraals or villages). They were
-fenced with large and terrible thorns, an effectual defence against
-barelegged men. The animals had a place apart――semi-circular beehives
-made of grass mats mounted on sticks. The furniture consisted of
-weapons, hides, wooden pillows and mats for beds, pots of woven fibre,
-and horse gear. We carried our own dates and rice, we bought meat and
-the people supplied us with milk gratis――to sell it was a disgrace.
-Fresh milk was drunk only by the civilised; pastoral people preferred
-it when artificially curdled and soured.
-
-We soon rose high above sea-level, as the cold nights and the burning
-suns told us. The eighth march placed us on the Ban Marar, a plain
-twenty-seven miles broad――at that season a waterless stubble, a yellow
-nap, dotted with thorny trees and bushes, and at all times infamous
-for robbery and murder. It was a glorious place for game: in places it
-was absolutely covered with antelopes, and every random shot must have
-told in the immense herds.
-
-Here I had the distinction of being stalked by a lion. As night drew
-in we were urging our jaded mules over the western prairie towards a
-dusky line of hills. My men proceeded whilst I rode in rear with a
-double-barrelled gun at full cock across my knees. Suddenly my animal
-trembled and bolted forward with a sidelong glance of fear. I looked
-back and saw, within some twenty yards, the king of beasts creeping up
-silently as a cat. To fire both barrels in the direction of my stalker
-was the work of a second. I had no intention of hitting, as aim could
-not be taken in the gloaming, and to wound would have been fatal. The
-flame and the echoed roar from the hills made my friend slink away.
-Its intention was, doubtless, to crawl within springing distance and
-then by a bound on my neck to have finished my journey through
-Somaliland and through life. My companions shouted in horror “Libah!
-libah!”――“The lion! the lion!”――and saw a multitude of lions that
-night.
-
-After crossing the desert prairie, we entered the hills of the
-agricultural Somali, the threshold of the South Abyssinian mountains.
-The pastoral scene now changed for waving crops of millet, birds in
-flights, and hedged lanes, where I saw with pleasure the dog-rose.
-Guided by a wild fellow called Altidon, we passed on to the Sagharah,
-the village of the Gerad, or chief, Adan. He had not a good name, and
-I was afterwards told he was my principal danger. But we never went
-anywhere without our weapons, and the shooting of a few vultures on
-the wing was considered a great feat where small shot is unknown. “He
-brings down birds from the sky!” exclaimed the people.
-
-I must speak of the Gerad, however, as I found him――a civil and
-hospitable man, greedy, of course, suspicious, and of shortsighted
-policy.
-
-His good and pretty wife Kayrah was very kind, and supplied me with
-abundance of honey wine, the merissa of Abyssinia. It tasted like
-champagne to a palate long condemned to total abstinence, without even
-tea.
-
-We were now within thirty direct miles of Harar, and my escort made a
-great stand. The chief Adan wanted to monopolise us and our goods. My
-men, therefore, were threatened with smallpox, the bastinado, lifelong
-captivity in unlit dungeons, and similar amenities.
-
-On June 2nd, 1855, sent for our mules. They were missing. An
-unpleasantness was the consequence, and the animals appeared about
-noon. I saddled my own――no one would assist me. When, mounted and gun
-in hand, I rode up to my followers, who sat sulkily on the ground, and
-observing that hitherto their acts had not been those of the brave, I
-suggested that before returning to Aden we should do something of
-manliness. They arose, begged me not to speak such words, and offered
-to advance if I would promise to reward them should we live and to pay
-blood-money to their friends in case of the other contingency. They
-apparently attached much importance to what is vulgarly termed
-“cutting up well.”
-
-Now, however, we were talking reason, and I settled all difficulties
-by leaving a letter addressed to the Political Resident at Aden.
-Mohammed and Guled were chosen to accompany me, the rest remaining
-with the Gerad Adan. I must say for my companions that once in the
-saddle they shook off their fears; they were fatalists, and they
-believed in my star, whilst they had the fullest confidence in their
-pay or pension.
-
-The country now became romantic and beautiful――a confusion of lofty
-stony mountains, plantations of the finest coffee, scatters of
-villages, forests of noble trees, with rivulets of the coolest and
-clearest water. We here stood some five thousand five hundred feet
-high, and although only nine degrees removed from the Line, the air
-was light and pleasant. It made me remember the climate of Aden, and
-hate it.
-
-We slept _en route_, and on January 3rd we first sighted Harar City.
-On the crest of a hill distant two miles it appeared, a long sombre
-line strikingly contrasting with the whitewashed settlements of the
-more civilised East, and nothing broke the outline except the two grey
-and rudely shaped minarets of the Jami, or Maritz (cathedral). I
-almost grudged the exposure of three lives to win so paltry a prize.
-But of all Europeans who had attempted it before me not one had
-succeeded in entering that ugly pile of stones.
-
-We then approached the city gate and sat there, as is the custom, till
-invited to enter. Presently we were ordered to the palace by a
-chamberlain, a man with loud and angry voice and eyes.
-
-At the entrance of the palace we dismounted by command, and we were
-told to run across the court, which I refused to do. We were then
-placed under a tree in one corner of the yard and to the right of the
-palace. The latter is a huge, windowless barn of rough stone and red
-clay, without other insignia but a thin coat of whitewash over the
-doorway.
-
-Presently we were beckoned in and told to doff our slippers. A curtain
-was raised, and we stood in the presence of the then Amir of Harar,
-Sultan Ahmed bin Sultan Abibaki.
-
-The sight was savage, if not imposing. The hall of audience was a dark
-room, eighty to ninety feet long, and its whitewashed walls were hung
-with rusty fetters and bright matchlocks. At the further end, on a
-common East Indian cane sofa, sat a small yellow personage――the great
-man. He wore a flowing robe of crimson cloth edged with snowy fur, and
-a narrow white turban twisted round a tall conical cap of red velvet.
-Ranged in double ranks perpendicular to the presence and nearest to
-the chief were his favourites and courtiers, with right arms bared
-after the fashion of Abyssinia. Prolonging these parallel lines
-towards the door were Galla warriors, wild men with bushy wigs.
-Shining rings of zinc on their arms, wrists, and ankles formed their
-principal attire. They stood motionless as statues; not an eye moved,
-and each right hand held up a spear with an enormous head of metal,
-the heel being planted in the ground.
-
-I entered with a loud “As ’salem alaykum”――“Peace be upon ye!”――and
-the normal answer was returned. A pair of chamberlains then led me
-forward to bow over the chief’s hand. He directed me to sit on a mat
-opposite to him, and with lowering brow and inquisitive glance he
-asked what might be my business in Harar. It was the crisis. I
-introduced myself as an Englishman from Aden coming to report that
-certain changes had taken place there, in the hope that the “cordial
-intent” might endure between the kingdoms of Harar and England.
-
-The Amir smiled graciously. I must admit that the smile was a relief
-to me. It was a joy to my attendants, who sat on the ground behind
-their master, grey-brown with emotion, and mentally inquiring, “What
-next?”
-
-The audience over, we were sent to one of the Amir’s houses, distant
-about one hundred paces from the palace. Here cakes of sour maize
-(fuba), soaked in curdled milk, and lumps of beef plenteously powdered
-with pepper, awaited us. Then we were directed to call upon Gerad
-Mohammed, Grand Vizier of Harar. He received us well, and we retired
-to rest not dissatisfied with the afternoon’s work. We had eaten the
-chief’s bread and salt.
-
-During my ten days’ stay at Harar I carefully observed the place and
-its people. The city was walled and pierced with five large gates,
-flanked by towers, but was ignorant of cannon. The streets――narrow
-lanes strewed with rocks and rubbish――were formed by houses built of
-granite and sandstone from the adjacent mountains. The best abodes
-were double storied, long and flat roofed, with holes for windows
-placed jealously high up, and the doors were composed of a single
-plank. The women, I need hardly say, had separate apartments. The city
-abounded in mosques――plain buildings without minarets――and the
-graveyards were stuffed with tombs――oblongs formed by slabs placed
-edgeways in the ground.
-
-The people, numbering about eight thousand souls, had a bad name among
-their neighbours. The Somali say that Harar is a “paradise inhabited
-by asses”; and “hard as the heart of Harar” is a byword. The junior
-members of the royal family were imprisoned till wanted for the
-throne. Amongst the men I did not see a handsome face or hear one
-pleasant voice. The features were harsh and plain, the skin was a
-sickly brown, the hair and beard were short and untractable, and the
-hands and feet were large and coarse. They were celebrated for laxity
-of morals, fondness for strong waters, much praying, coffee-drinking,
-and chewing tobacco and kat, a well-known theme plant. They had a
-considerable commerce with the coast, which was reached by a large
-caravan once a year.
-
-The women were beautiful by the side of their lords. They had small
-heads, regular profiles, straight noses, large eyes, mouths almost
-Caucasian, and light brown skins. The hair, parted in the centre and
-gathered into two large bunches behind the ears, was covered with dark
-blue muslin or network, whose ends were tied under the chin. Girls
-collected their locks, which were long, thick, and wavy――not
-wiry――into a knot _à la Diane_; a curtain of short close plaits
-escaping from the bunch fell upon the shoulders. The dress was a wide
-frock of chocolate or indigo-dyed cotton, girt round the middle with a
-sash; before and behind there was a triangle of scarlet with the point
-downwards. The ornaments were earrings and necklaces of black buffalo
-horn, the work of Western India. The bosom was tattooed with stars,
-the eyebrows were lengthened with dyes, the eyes were fringed with
-antimony, and the palms and soles were stained red. Those pretty faces
-had harsh voices, their manners were rude, and I regret to say that an
-indiscreet affection for tobacco and honey wine sometimes led to a
-public bastinado.
-
-At Harar was a university which supplied Somaliland with poor scholars
-and crazy priests. There were no endowments for students――learning was
-its own reward――and books (manuscripts) were rare and costly. Only
-theology was studied. Some of the graduates had made a name in the
-Holy Land of Arabia, where few ranked higher than my friend Shaykh
-Jami el Berteri. To be on the safer side he would never touch tobacco
-or coffee. I liked his conversation, but I eschewed his dinners.
-
-Harar――called Gay or Harar Gay by her sons――is the capital of Hadiyah,
-a province of the ancient Zala empire, and her fierce Moslems nearly
-extirpated Christianity from Shoa and Amara. The local Attila Mohammed
-Gragne, or the “Left-Handed,” slew in 1540 David III., the last
-Ethiopian monarch who styled himself “King of Kings.”
-
-David’s successor, Claudius, sent imploring messages to Europe, and D.
-Joao III. ordered the chivalrous Stephen and Christopher da Gama, sons
-of Vasco da Gama, to the rescue. The Portuguese could oppose only
-three hundred and fifty muskets and a rabble rout of Abyssinians to
-ten thousand Moslems. D. Christopher was wounded, taken prisoner, and
-decapitated. Good Father Lobo declares that “where the martyr’s head
-fell, a fountain sprung up of wonderful virtue, which cured many
-hopeless diseases.”
-
-Eventually Gragne was shot by one Pedro Leao, a Portuguese soldier who
-was bent upon revenging his leader’s fall. The Moslem’s wife,
-Tamwalbara, prevented the dispersion of the army, making a slave
-personate her dead husband, and drew off his forces in safety. A
-strong-minded woman!
-
-My days at Harar were dull enough. At first we were visited by all the
-few strangers of the city, but they soon thought it prudent to shun
-us. The report of my “English brethren” being on the coast made them
-look upon me as a mufsid, or dangerous man. The Somali, on the other
-hand, in compliment to my attendants, were most attentive. It was
-harvest home, and we had opportunity of seeing the revels of the
-threshers and reapers――a jovial race, slightly “dipsomaniac.”
-
-Harar also was the great half-way house and resting place for slaves
-between Abyssinia and the coast. In making purchases, the adage was,
-“If you want a brother in battle, buy a Nubian; if you would be rich,
-an Abyssinian; if you require an ass, a negro.”
-
-I sometimes called upon the learned and religious, but not
-willingly――these shaykhash, or reverend men, had proposed detaining me
-until duly converted and favoured with a “call.” Harar, like most
-African cities, was a prison on a large scale. “You enter it by your
-own will; you leave it by another’s,” is the pithy saw.
-
-At length, when really anxious to depart, and when my two Somali had
-consulted their rosaries for the thousandth time, I called upon the
-Gerad Mohammed, who had always been civil to us. He was suffering from
-a chronic bronchitis. Here, then, lay my chance of escaping from my
-rat-trap. The smoke of some brown paper matches steeped in saltpetre
-relieved him. We at once made a bargain. The minister was to take me
-before the Amir and secure for me a ceremonious dismission. On the
-other part, I bound myself to send up from the coast a lifelong supply
-of the precious medicine. We both kept faith. Moreover, after
-returning to Aden I persuaded the authorities to reward with handsome
-presents the men who held my life in their hands and yet did not take
-it.
-
-After a pleasing interview with the Amir, who did his best to smile,
-we left Harar on January 13th, 1855. At Sagharah, where the villagers
-had prayed the death-prayer as we set out for the city, we were
-received with effusion. They now scattered over us handfuls of toasted
-grain, and they danced with delight, absorbing copious draughts of
-liquor. The “End of Time” wept crocodile’s tears, and the women were
-grateful that their charms had not been exposed to the terrible
-smallpox.
-
-After a week’s rest we prepared to make the coast. I was desirous of
-striking Berbera, a port south of Zayla, where my friends awaited me.
-The escort consented to accompany me by the short direct road, on
-condition of travelling night and day. They warned me that they had a
-blood feud with all the tribes on the path, that we should find very
-little water and no provisions, and that the heat would be frightful.
-Truly, a pleasant prospect for a weary man!
-
-But if they could stand it, so could I. The weaker attendants, the
-women, and the camels were sent back by the old path, and I found
-myself _en route_ on January 26th, accompanied by my two Somali and by
-a wild guide known as Dubayr――the “Donkey.” My provaunt for five days
-consisted of five biscuits, a few limes, and sundry lumps of sugar.
-
-I will not deny that the ride was trying work. The sun was fearful,
-the nights were raw and damp. For twenty-four hours we did not taste
-water; our brains felt baked, our throats burned, the mirage mocked us
-at every turn, and the effect was a kind of monomania. At length a
-small bird showed us a well and prevented, I believe, our going mad.
-The scenery was uniform and uninteresting――horrid hills upon which
-withered aloes raised their spears; plains apparently rained upon by
-showers of fire and stones, and rolling ground rich only in “wait a
-bit” thorns, made to rend man’s skin and garment. We scrupulously
-avoided the kraals, and when on one occasion the wild people barred
-the way we were so intolerably fierce with hunger and thirst that they
-fled from us as though we were fiends. The immortal Ten Thousand
-certainly did not sight the cold waters of the Euxine with more
-delight than we felt when hailing the warm bay of Berbera. I ended
-that toilsome ride to and from Harar of two hundred and forty miles at
-2 a.m. on January 30th, 1855, after a last spell of forty miles. A
-glad welcome from my brother expeditionists soon made amends for past
-privations and fatigues.
-
-                      *     *     *     *     *
-
-And now to recount the most unpleasant part of my first adventure in
-East Africa.
-
-Having paid a visit to Aden, I returned to Berbera in April, 1855,
-prepared to march upon the head waters of the Nile.
-
-But Fate and the British authorities were against me. I had done too
-much――I had dared to make Berbera a rival port. They were not
-scrupulous at Aden, even to the taking of life.
-
-My little party consisted of forty-two muskets, including three
-officers and myself. The men, however, were not to be trusted, but
-after repeated applications I could not obtain an escort of Somali
-policemen. Matters looked ugly, and the more so as there was no
-retreat.
-
-The fair of Berbera, which had opened in early October, was breaking
-up, and the wild clansmen were retiring from the seaboard to their
-native hills. The harbour rapidly emptied; happily, however, for us, a
-single boat remained there.
-
-We slept comfortably on April 18th, agreeing to have a final shot at
-the gazelles before marching. Between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. we were roused
-by a rush of men like a roar of a stormy wind. I learned afterwards
-that our enemies numbered between three and four hundred. We armed
-ourselves with all speed, whilst our party, after firing a single
-volley, ran away as quickly as possible.
-
-[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON THE CAMP AT BERBERA.    [_See Page 96._]
-
-The unfortunate Lieutenant Stroyan was run through with a spear; he
-slept far from us, and we did not see him fall. Lieutenants Herne and
-Speke and I defended ourselves in our tent till the savages proceeded
-to beat it down. I then gave the word to sally, and cleared the way
-with my sabre. Lieutenant Herne accompanied me and――wonderful to
-relate――escaped without injury. Lieutenant Speke was seized and tied
-up; he had eleven spear-thrusts before he could free himself, and he
-escaped by a miracle. When outside the camp, I vainly tried once more
-to bring up our men to the fray. Finding me badly hurt they carried me
-on board the boat. Here I was joined by the survivors, who carried
-with them the corpse of our ill-fated friend.
-
-Sad and dispirited, we returned to Aden. We had lost our property as
-well as our blood, and I knew too well that we should be rewarded with
-nothing but blame. The authorities held a Court of Inquiry in my
-absence, and facetiously found that we and not they were in fault.
-Lord Dalhousie, the admirable statesman then governing in general
-British India, declared that they were quite right. I have sometimes
-thought they were.
-
-
-
-
-_TO THE HEART OF AFRICA_
-
-1856-1859
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-_THE JOURNEY_
-
-
-I had long wished to “unveil Isis”――in other words, to discover the
-sources of the Nile and the Lake regions of Central Africa――and to
-this end I left London in September, 1856, for Bombay. Here I applied
-for Captain Speke to accompany me as second in command, as he wished
-much to go. My subsequent dispute with Speke is well known, and I will
-not refer to it here. I took him with me out of pure good nature, for,
-as he had suffered with me in purse and person at Berbera the year
-before, I thought it only just to offer him the opportunity of
-renewing an attempt to penetrate to the unknown regions of Central
-Africa. I had no other reasons. He was not a linguist, nor a man of
-science, nor an astronomical observer, and during the expedition he
-acted in a subordinate capacity only. The Court of Directors refused
-him leave, but I obtained it from the local authorities in Bombay. I
-may here add that the Royal Geographical Society had given me a grant
-of £1,000, and that the Court of Directors of the East India Company
-had given me two years’ leave.
-
-I landed at Zanzibar from Bombay on December 19th, 1856, and received
-much kindness from Lieutenant-Colonel Hamerton, Her Majesty’s Consul.
-First of all I made an experimental trip, and this and the study of
-Zanzibar occupied my time until May 14th, 1857, when I left Zanzibar
-for the second time, and on the 27th of the same month I landed at
-Wale Point, on the east coast of Africa, about eighty-four miles from
-the town of Bagamoyo.
-
-I wanted to engage one hundred and seventy porters, but could only get
-thirty-six, and thirty animals were found, which were all dead in six
-months, so I had to leave a part of my things behind, including a
-greater part of my ammunition and my iron boat. I paid various visits
-to the hippopotamus haunts, and had my boat uplifted from the water
-upon the points of two tusks, which made corresponding holes in the
-bottom. My escort were under the impression that nothing less than one
-hundred and fifty guns and several cannon would enable them to fight a
-way through the perils of the interior. I was warned that I must pass
-through savages who shot with poisoned arrows, that I must avoid
-trees――which was not easy in a land of forest――that the Wazaramo had
-forbidden white men to enter their country, that one rhinoceros had
-killed two hundred men, that armies of elephants would attack my camp
-by night, and that the hyena was more dangerous than the Bengal
-tiger――altogether, not a cheerful outlook.
-
-Most of these difficulties were raised by a rascal named Ramji, who
-had his own ends in view. Being a Hindoo, he thought I was ignorant of
-Cutchee; so one day I overheard the following conversation between him
-and a native.
-
-“Will he ever reach it?” asked the native, meaning the Sea of Ujiji;
-to which Ramji replied:
-
-“Of course not; what is he that he should pass through Ugogo?” (a
-province about half way).
-
-So I remarked at once that I did intend to pass Ugogo and also reach
-the Sea of Ujiji, that I did know Cutchee, and that if he was up to
-any tricks, I should be equal to him.
-
-On June 26th, 1857, I set out in earnest on a journey into the far
-interior.
-
-On this journey I had several queer experiences. At Nzasa I was
-visited by three native chiefs, who came to ascertain whether I was
-bound on a peaceful errand. When I assured them of my unwarlike
-intentions, they told me I must halt on the morrow and send forth a
-message to the next chief, but as this plan invariably loses three
-days, I replied that I could not be bound by their rules, but was
-ready to pay for their infraction. During the debate upon this
-fascinating proposal for breaking the law, one of the most turbulent
-of the Baloch, who were native servants in my train, drew his sword
-upon an old woman because she refused to give up a basket of grain.
-She rushed, with the face of a black Medusa, into the assembly, and
-created a great disturbance. When that was allayed, the principal
-chief asked me what brought the white man into their country, and at
-the same time to predict the loss of their gains and commerce, land
-and liberty.
-
-“I am old,” he quoth pathetically, “and my beard is grey, yet I never
-beheld such a calamity as this.”
-
-“These men,” replied my interpreter, “neither buy nor sell; they do
-not inquire into price, nor do they covet profit.”
-
-An extravagant present――for at that time I was ignorant of the price I
-ought to pay――opened the chiefs’ hearts, and they appointed one of
-their body to accompany me as far as the western half of the Kingani
-valley. They also caused to be performed a dance of ceremony in my
-honour. A line of small, plump, chestnut-coloured women, with wild,
-beady eyes and thatch of clay-plastered hair, dressed in their
-loin-cloths, with a profusion of bead necklaces and other ornaments,
-and with their ample bosoms tightly corded down, advanced and retired
-in a convulsion of wriggle and contortion, whose fit expression was a
-long discordant howl. I threw them a few strings of green beads, and
-one of these falling to the ground, I was stooping to pick it up when
-Said, my interpreter whispered, in my ear, “Bend not; they will say
-‘He will not bend even to take up beads.’”
-
-In some places I found the attentions of the fair sex somewhat
-embarrassing, but when I entered the fine green fields that guarded
-the settlements of Muhoewee, I was met _en masse_ by the ladies of the
-villages, who came out to stare, laugh, and wonder at the white man.
-
-“What would you think of these whites as husbands?” asked one of the
-crowd.
-
-“With such things on their legs, not by any means!” was the unanimous
-reply, accompanied by peals of merriment.
-
-On July 8th I fell into what my Arab called the “Valley of Death and
-the Home of Hunger,” a malarious level plain. Speke, whom I shall
-henceforth call my companion, was compelled by sickness to ride. The
-path, descending into a dense thicket of spear grass, bush, and thorny
-trees based on sand, was rough and uneven, but when I arrived at a
-ragged camping kraal, I found the water bad, and a smell of decay was
-emitted by the dark, dank ground. It was a most appalling day, and one
-I shall not lightly forget. From the black clouds driven before
-furious blasts pattered raindrops like musket bullets, splashing the
-already saturated ground. Tall, stiff trees groaned and bent before
-the gusts; birds screamed as they were driven from their
-resting-places; the asses stood with heads depressed, ears hung down,
-and shrinking tails turned to the wind; even the beasts of the wild
-seemed to have taken refuge in their dens.
-
-Despite our increasing weakness, we marched on the following day, when
-we were interrupted by a body of about fifty Wazaramo, who called to
-us to halt. We bought them off with a small present of cloth and
-beads, and they stood aside to let us pass. I could not but admire the
-athletic and statuesque figures of the young warriors, and their
-martial attitudes, grasping in one hand their full-sized bows, and in
-the other sheaths of grinded arrows, whose black barbs and necks
-showed a fresh layer of poison.
-
-Though handicapped by a very inadequate force, in eighteen days we
-accomplished, despite sickness and every manner of difficulty, a march
-of one hundred and eighteen miles, and entered K’hutu, the safe
-rendezvous of foreign merchants, on July 14th. I found consolation in
-the thought that the expedition had passed without accident through
-the most dangerous part of the journey.
-
-Resuming our march through the maritime region, on July 15th we
-penetrated into a thick and tangled jungle, with luxuriant and
-putrescent vegetation. Presently, however, the dense thicket opened
-out into a fine park country, peculiarly rich in game, where the giant
-trees of the seaboard gave way to mimosas, gums, and stunted thorns.
-Large gnus pranced about, pawing the ground and shaking their
-formidable manes; hartebeest and other antelopes clustered together on
-the plain. The homely cry of the partridge resounded from the brake,
-and the guinea-fowls looked like large bluebells upon the trees. Small
-land-crabs took refuge in pits and holes, which made the path a cause
-of frequent accidents, whilst ants of various kinds, crossing the road
-in close columns, attacked man and beast ferociously, causing the
-caravan to break into a halting, trotting hobble. The weather was a
-succession of raw mists, rain in torrents, and fiery sunbursts; the
-land appeared rotten, and the jungle smelt of death. At Kiruru I found
-a cottage and enjoyed for the first time an atmosphere of sweet, warm
-smoke. My companion would remain in the reeking, miry tent, where he
-partially laid the foundations of the fever which afterwards
-threatened his life in the mountains of Usagara.
-
-Despite the dangers of hyenas, leopards, and crocodiles, we were
-delayed by the torrents of rain in the depths of the mud at Kiruru. We
-then resumed our march under most unpromising conditions. Thick grass
-and the humid vegetation rendered the black earth greasy and slippery,
-and the road became worse as we advanced. In three places we crossed
-bogs from a hundred yards to a mile in length, and admitting a man up
-to the knee. The porters plunged through them like laden animals, and
-I was obliged to be held upon the ass. At last we reached Dut’humi,
-where we were detained nearly a week, for malaria had brought on
-attacks of marsh fever, which, in my case, thoroughly prostrated me. I
-had during the fever fit, and often for hours afterwards, a queer
-conviction of divided identity, never ceasing to be two persons that
-generally thwarted and opposed each other. The sleepless nights
-brought with them horrid visions, animals of grisliest form, and
-hag-like women and men.
-
-Dut’humi is one of the most fertile districts in K’hutu, and, despite
-its bad name as regards climate, Arabs sometimes reside here for some
-months for the purpose of purchasing slaves cheaply, and to repair
-their broken fortunes for a fresh trip into the interior. This kept up
-a perpetual feud amongst the chiefs of the country, and scarcely a
-month passed without fields being laid waste, villages burnt down, and
-the unhappy cultivators being carried off to be sold.
-
-On July 24th, feeling strong enough to advance, we passed out of the
-cultivation of Dut’humi. Beyond the cultivation the road plunged into
-a jungle, where the European traveller realised every preconceived
-idea of Africa’s aspect at once hideous and grotesque. The general
-appearance is a mingling of bush and forest, most monotonous to the
-eye. The black, greasy ground, veiled with thick shrubbery, supports
-in the more open spaces screens of tiger and spear grass twelve and
-thirteen feet high, with every blade a finger’s breadth; and the
-towering trees are often clothed with huge creepers, forming heavy
-columns of densest verdure. The earth, ever rain-drenched, emits the
-odour of sulphuretted hydrogen, and in some parts the traveller might
-fancy a corpse to be hidden behind every bush. That no feature of
-miasma might be wanting to complete the picture, filthy heaps of the
-meanest hovels sheltered their miserable inhabitants, whose frames are
-lean with constant intoxication, and whose limbs are distorted with
-ulcerous sores. Such a revolting scene is East Africa from Central
-K’hutu to the base of the Usagara Mountains.
-
-After a long, long tramp the next day through rice swamps, we came to
-the nearest outposts of the Zungomero district. Here were several
-caravans, with pitched tents, piles of ivory, and crowds of porters.
-The march had occupied us over four weeks, about double the usual
-time, and a gang of thirty-six Wanyamwezi native porters whom I had
-sent on in advance to Zungomero naturally began to suspect accident.
-
-Zungomero was not a pleasant place, and though the sea breeze was here
-strong, beyond its influence the atmosphere was sultry and oppressive.
-It was the great centre of traffic in the eastern regions. Lying upon
-the main trunk road, it must be traversed by the up and down caravans,
-and during the travelling season, between June and April, large bodies
-of some thousand men pass through it every week. It was, therefore, a
-very important station, and the daily expenditure of large caravans
-being considerable, there was a good deal of buying and selling.
-
-The same attractions which draw caravans to Zungomero render it the
-great rendezvous of an army of touts, who, whilst watching the arrival
-of ivory traders, amuse themselves with plundering the country.
-
-Zungomero is the end of the maritime region, and when I had reached
-it, I considered that the first stage of my journey was accomplished.
-
-I had to remain at Zungomero about a fortnight to await the coming of
-my porters. In this hot-bed of pestilence we nearly found “wet
-graves.” Our only lodging was under the closed eaves of a hut, built
-African fashion, one abode within the other; the roof was a sieve, the
-walls were a system of chinks, and the floor was a sheet of mud.
-Outside the rain poured pertinaciously, the winds were raw and
-chilling, and the gigantic vegetation was sopped to decay, and the
-river added its quotum of miasma. The hardships of the march had upset
-our Baloch guard, and they became almost mutinous, and would do
-nothing for themselves. They stole the poultry of the villagers,
-quarrelled violently with the slaves, and foully abused their temporal
-superior, Said bin Salim.
-
-When we were ready to start from Zungomero, our whole party amounted
-to a total of one hundred and thirty-two souls, whom I need not, I
-think, describe in detail. We had plenty of cloth and beads for
-traffic with the natives, a good store of provisions, arms, and
-ammunition, a certain amount of camp furniture, instruments, such as
-chronometers, compasses, thermometers, etc., a stock of stationery,
-plenty of useful tools, clothing, bedding, and shoes, books and
-drawing materials, a portable domestic medicine chest, and a number of
-miscellaneous articles. As life at Zungomero was the acme of
-discomfort, I was glad enough to leave it.
-
-On August 7th, 1857, our expedition left Zungomero to cross the East
-African ghauts in rather a pitiful plight. We were martyred by miasma;
-my companion and I were so feeble that we could hardly sit our asses,
-and we could scarcely hear. It was a day of severe toil, and we loaded
-with great difficulty.
-
-From Central Zungomero to the nearest ascent of the Usagara Mountains
-is a march of five hours; and, after a painful and troublesome
-journey, we arrived at the frontier of the first gradient of the
-Usagara Mountains. Here we found a tattered kraal, erected by the last
-passing caravan, and, spent with fatigue, we threw ourselves on the
-short grass to rest. We were now about three hundred feet above the
-plain level, and there was a wondrous change of climate. Strength and
-health returned as if by magic; the pure sweet mountain air,
-alternately soft and balmy, put new life into us. Our gipsy encampment
-was surrounded by trees, from which depended graceful creepers, and
-wood-apples large as melons. Monkeys played at hide-and-seek,
-chattering behind the bolls, as the iguana, with its painted
-scale-armour, issued forth; white-breasted ravens cawed, doves cooed
-on well-clothed boughs, and the field cricket chirped in the shady
-bush. By night the view disclosed a peaceful scene, the moonbeams
-lying like sheets of snow upon the ruddy highlands, and the stars
-shone like glow-lamps in the dome above. I never wearied of
-contemplating the scene, and contrasting it with the Slough of
-Despond, unhappy Zungomero. We stayed here two days, and then resumed
-our upward march.
-
-All along our way we were saddened by the sight of clean-picked
-skeletons and here and there the swollen corpses of porters who had
-perished by the wayside. A single large body passed us one day, having
-lost fifty of their number by smallpox, and the sight of their
-deceased comrades made a terrible impression. Men staggered on,
-blinded by disease; mothers carried infants as loathsome as
-themselves. He who once fell never rose again. No village would admit
-a corpse into its precincts, and they had to lie there until their
-agony was ended by the vulture, the raven, and the hyena. Several of
-my party caught the infection, and must have thrown themselves into
-the jungle, for when they were missed they could not be found. The
-farther we went on, the more we found the corpses; it was a regular
-way of death. Our Moslems passed them with averted faces, and with the
-low “La haul” of disgust.
-
-When we arrived at Rufutah, I found that nearly all our instruments
-had been spoilt or broken; and one discomfort followed another until
-we arrived at Zonhwe, which was the turning-point of our expedition’s
-difficulties.
-
-As we went on, the path fell easily westwards through a long, grassy
-incline, cut by several water-courses. At noon I lay down fainting in
-the sandy bed of the Muhama, and, keeping two natives with me, I
-begged my companion to go on, and send me back a hammock from the
-halting-place. My men, who before had become mutinous and deserting,
-when they saw my extremity came out well; even the deserters
-reappeared, and they led me to a place where stagnant water was found,
-and said they were sorry. At two o’clock, as my companion did not send
-a hammock, I remounted, and passed through several little villages. I
-found my caravan halted on a hillside, where they had been attacked by
-a swarm of wild bees.
-
-Our march presented curious contrasts of this strange African nature,
-which is ever in extremes. At one time a splendid view would charm me;
-above, a sky of purest azure, flecked with fleecy clouds. The plain
-was as a park in autumn, burnt tawny by the sun. A party was at work
-merrily, as if preparing for an English harvest home. Calabashes and
-clumps of evergreen trees were scattered over the scene, each
-stretching its lordly arms aloft. The dove, the peewit, and the
-guinea-fowl fluttered about. The most graceful of animals, the zebra
-and the antelope, browsed in the distance. Then suddenly the fair
-scene would vanish as if by enchantment. We suddenly turned into a
-tangled mass of tall, fœtid reeds, rank jungle, and forest. After the
-fiery sun and dry atmosphere of the plains, the sudden effect of the
-damp and clammy chill was overpowering. In such places one feels as if
-poisoned by miasma; a shudder runs through the frame, and cold
-perspiration breaks over the brow.
-
-So things went on until September 4th, which still found us on the
-march. We had reached the basin of Inenge, which lies at the foot of
-the Windy Pass, the third and westernmost range of the Usagara
-Mountains. The climate is ever in extremes; during the day a furnace,
-and at night a refrigerator. Here we halted. The villagers of the
-settlements overlooking the ravine flocked down to barter their
-animals and grain.
-
-The halt was celebrated by abundant drumming and droning, which lasted
-half the night; it served to raise the spirits of the men, who had
-talked of nothing the whole day but the danger of being attacked by
-the Wahumba, a savage tribe. The next morning there arrived a caravan
-of about four hundred porters, marching to the coast under the command
-of some Arab merchants. We interchanged civilities, and I was allured
-into buying a few yards of rope and other things, and also some asses.
-One of my men had also increased his suite, unknown to me at first, by
-the addition of Zawada――the “Nice Gift.” She was a woman of about
-thirty, with black skin shining like a patent leather boot, a bulging
-brow, little red eyes, a wide mouth, which displayed a few long,
-scattered teeth, and a figure considerably too bulky for her thin
-legs. She was a patient and hardworking woman, and respectable enough
-in the acceptation of the term. She was at once married off to old
-Musangesi, one of the donkey-men, whose nose and chin made him a
-caricature of our old friend Punch. After detecting her in a lengthy
-walk, perhaps not a solitary one, he was guilty of such cruelty to her
-that I felt compelled to decree a dissolution of the marriage, and she
-returned safely to Zanzibar. At Inenge another female slave was added
-to our troop in the person of Sikujui――“Don’t Know”――a herculean
-person with a virago manner. The channel of her upper lip had been
-pierced to admit a bone, which gave her the appearance of having a
-duck’s bill. “Don’t Know’s” morals were frightful. She was duly
-espoused, in the forlorn hope of making her a respectable woman, to
-Goha, the sturdiest of the Wak’hutu porters; after a week she treated
-him with sublime contempt. She gave him first one and then a dozen
-rivals, and she disordered the whole caravan with her irregularities,
-in addition to breaking every article entrusted to her charge, and at
-last deserted shamelessly, so that her husband finally disposed of her
-to a travelling trader in exchange for a few measures of rice. Her
-ultimate fate I do not know, but the trader came next morning to
-complain of a broken head.
-
-After Inenge we were in for a bad part of the journey, and great
-labour. Trembling with ague, with swimming heads, ears deafened by
-weakness, and limbs that would hardly support us, we contemplated with
-horrid despair the apparently perpendicular path up which we and our
-starving asses were about to toil.
-
-On September 10th we hardened our hearts and began to breast the Pass
-Terrible. After rounding in two places wall-like sheets of rock and
-crossing a bushy slope, we faced a long steep of loose white soil and
-rolling stones, up which we could see the porters swarming more like
-baboons than human beings, and the asses falling every few yards. As
-we moved slowly and painfully forward, compelled to lie down by cough,
-thirst, and fatigue, the sayhah, or war-cry, rang loud from hill to
-hill, and Indian files of archers and spearmen streamed like lines of
-black ants in all directions down the paths. The predatory Wahumba,
-awaiting the caravan’s departure, had seized the opportunity of
-driving the cattle and plundering the village of Inenge.
-
-By resting every few yards, we reached, after about six hours, the
-summit of the Pass Terrible, and here we sat down amongst aromatic
-flowers and pretty shrubs to recover strength and breath.
-
-On September 14th, our health much improved by the weather, we left
-the hilltop and began to descend the counterslope of the Usagara
-Mountains. For the first time since many days I had strength enough to
-muster the porters and inspect their loads. The outfit which had been
-expected to last a year had been half exhausted within three months. I
-summoned Said bin Salim, and told him my anxiety. Like a veritable
-Arab, he declared we had enough to last until we reached Unyamyembe,
-where we should certainly be joined by reinforcements of porters.
-
-“How do you know?” I inquired.
-
-“Allah is all-knowing,” said Said. “The caravan will come.”
-
-As the fatalism was infectious, I ceased to think upon the subject.
-
-The next day we sighted the plateau of Ugogo and its eastern desert.
-The spectacle was truly impressive. The first aspect was stern and
-wild――the rough nurse of rugged men. We went on the descent from day
-to day until September 18th, when a final march of four hours placed
-us on the plains of Ugogo. Before noon I sighted from a sharp turn in
-the bed of a river our tent pitched under a huge sycamore, on a level
-step. It was a pretty spot in the barren scene, grassy, and grown with
-green mimosas, and here we halted for a while. The second stage of our
-journey was accomplished.
-
-After three days’ sojourn at Ugogo to recruit the party and lay in
-rations for four long desert marches, we set forth on our long march
-through the province of Ugogo. Our first day’s journey was over a
-grassy country, and we accomplished it in comparative comfort. The
-next day we toiled through the sunshine of the hot waste, crossing
-plains over paths where the slides of elephants’ feet upon the last
-year’s muddy clay showed that the land was not always dry. During this
-journey we suffered many discomforts and difficulties. The orb of day
-glowed like a fireball in our faces; then our path would take us
-through dense, thorny jungle, and over plains of black, cracked earth.
-Our caravan once rested in a thorny copse based upon rich red and
-yellow clay; once it was hurriedly dislodged by a swarm of wild bees,
-and the next morning I learnt that we had sustained a loss――one of our
-porters had deserted, and to his care had been committed one of the
-most valuable of our packages, a portmanteau containing “The Nautical
-Almanac,” surveying books, and most of our papers, pen, and ink.
-
-At last we arrived at Ziwa, a place where caravans generally encamped,
-because they found water there. At Ziwa we had many troubles. One
-Marema, the Sultan of a new settlement, visited us on the day of our
-arrival, and reproved us for sitting in the jungle, pointing the way
-to his village. On my replying we were going to traverse Ugogo by
-another road, he demanded his customs, which we refused, as they were
-a form of blackmail. The Sultan threatened violence, whereupon the
-asses were brought in from grazing and ostentatiously loaded before
-his eyes. He then changed his tone from threats to beggary. I gave him
-two cloths and a few strings of beads, preferring this to the chance
-of a flight of arrows during the night.
-
-When we resumed our journey, the heat was awful. The sun burnt like
-the breath of a bonfire, warm siroccos raised clouds of dust, and in
-front of us the horizon was so distant that, as the Arabs expressed
-themselves, a man might be seen three marches off.
-
-October 5th saw us in the centre of Kanyenye, a clearing in the jungle
-of about ten miles in diameter. The surface was of a red clayey soil
-dotted with small villages, huge calabashes, and stunted mimosas. Here
-I was delayed four days to settle blackmail with Magomba, the most
-powerful of the Wagogo chiefs. He was of a most avaricious nature.
-First of all I acknowledged his compliments with two cottons. On
-arrival at his headquarters, I was waited on by an oily Cabinet of
-Elders, who would not depart without their “respects”――four cottons.
-The next demand was made by his favourite, a hideous old Princess with
-more wrinkles than hair, with no hair black and no tooth white; she
-was not put right without a fee of six cottons. At last, accompanied
-by a mob of courtiers, appeared the chief _in magnifico_. He was the
-only chief who ever entered my tent in Ugogo――pride and a propensity
-for strong drink prevented such visits. He was much too great a man to
-call upon Arab merchants, but in our case curiosity mastered State
-considerations. Magomba was an old man, black and wrinkled, drivelling
-and decrepid. He wore a coating of castor-oil and a loin-cloth which
-grease and use had changed from blue to black. He chewed his quid, and
-expectorated without mercy; he asked many questions, and was all eyes
-to the main chance. He demanded, and received, five cloths, one coil
-of brass wire, and four blue cottons. In return he made me a present
-of the leanest of calves, and when it was driven into camp with much
-parade, his son, to crown all, put in a claim for three cottons. Yet
-Magomba, before our departure, boasted of his generosity――and indeed
-he was generous, for everything we had was in his hands, and we were
-truly in his power. It was, indeed, my firm conviction from first to
-last in this expedition that in case of attack or surprise by natives
-I had not a soul except my companion to stand by me, and all those who
-accompanied us would have either betrayed us or fled. We literally,
-therefore, carried our lives in our hands.
-
-We toiled on and on, suffering severely from the heat by day and
-sometimes the cold by night, and troubled much with mutinous porters
-and fears of desertion, until at last we reached the heart of the
-great desert, or elephant ground, known as Fiery Field. On October
-20th we began the transit of this Fiery Field. The waste here appeared
-in its most horrid phase; a narrow goat-path serpentined in and out of
-a growth of poisonous thorny jungle, with thin, hard grass straw
-growing on a glaring white and rolling ground. The march was a severe
-trial, and we lost on it three boxes of ammunition. By-and-by we
-passed over the rolling ground, and plunged into a thorny jungle,
-which seemed interminable, but which gradually thinned out into a
-forest of thorns and gums, bush and underwood, which afforded a broad
-path and pleasanter travelling. Unfortunately, it did not last long,
-and we again had a very rough bit of ground to go over. Another forest
-to pass through, and then we came out on October 27th into a clearing
-studded with large stockaded villages, fields of maize and millet,
-gourds and watermelons, and showing numerous flocks and herds. We had
-arrived at Unyamwezi, and our traverse of Ugogo was over.
-
-The people swarmed from their abodes, young and old hustling one
-another for a better stare; the man forsook his loom and the girl her
-hoe, and we were welcomed and escorted into the village by a tail of
-screaming boys and shouting adults, the males almost nude, the women
-bare to the waist, and clothed only knee-deep in kilts. Leading the
-way, our guide, according to the immemorial custom of Unyamwezi,
-entered uninvited and _sans cérémonie_ the nearest village; the long
-string of porters flocked in with bag and baggage, and we followed
-their example. We were placed under a wall-less roof, bounded on one
-side by the bars of the village palisade, and surrounded by a mob of
-starers, who relieved one another from morning to night, which made me
-feel like a wild beast in a menagerie.
-
-We rested some days at Unyamwezi――the far-famed “Land of the
-Moon”――but I was urged to advance on the ground that the natives were
-a dangerous race, though they appeared to be a timid and ignoble
-people, dripping with castor and sesamum oil, and scantily attired in
-shreds of cotton or greasy goat-skins. The dangers of the road between
-Unyamwezi and Ujiji were declared to be great. I found afterwards that
-they were grossly exaggerated, but I set forth with the impression
-that this last stage of my journey would be the worst of all. The
-country over which we travelled varied very much from day to day,
-being sometimes opened and streaked with a thin forest of mimosas, and
-at other times leading us through jungly patches. Going through a
-thick forest, one of the porters, having imprudently lagged behind,
-was clubbed and cruelly bruised by three black robbers, who relieved
-him of his load. These highwaymen were not unusual in this part, and
-their raids formed one of the many dangers we had to guard against.
-
-On November 7th, 1857, the one hundred and thirty-fourth day from the
-date of leaving the coast, we entered Kazeh, the principal village of
-Unyamwezi, much frequented by Arab merchants. I always got on well
-with the Arabs, and they gave me a most favourable reception. Striking
-indeed was the contrast between the open-handed hospitality and hearty
-goodwill of this truly noble race and the niggardliness of the savage
-and selfish Africans. Whatever I alluded to――onions, plantains, limes,
-vegetables, tamarinds, coffee, and other things, only to be found
-amongst the Arabs――were sent at once, and the very name of payment
-would have been an insult.
-
-Kazeh is situated in Unyamyembe, the principal province of Unyamwezi,
-and is a great meeting-place of merchants and point of departure for
-caravans, which then radiate into the interior of Central
-Intertropical Africa. Here the Arab merchant from Zanzibar meets his
-compatriot returning from the Tanganyika and Uruwwa. Many of the Arabs
-settle here for years, and live comfortably, and even splendidly.
-Their houses, though single storied, are large, substantial, and
-capable of defence; their gardens are extensive and well planted. They
-receive regular supplies of merchandise, comforts, and luxuries from
-the coast; they are surrounded by troops of concubines and slaves;
-rich men have riding asses from Zanzibar, and even the poorest keep
-flocks and herds.
-
-I was detained at Kazeh from November 8th until December 14th, and the
-delay was one long trial of patience.
-
-It is customary for stranger caravans proceeding towards Ujiji to
-remain six weeks or two months at Unyamyembe for repose and recovery
-from the labours which they have endured; moreover, they are expected
-to enjoy the pleasures of civilised society, and to accept the
-hospitality offered them by the resident Arabs. In Eastern Africa, I
-may mention, six weeks was the same as the three days’ visit in
-England.
-
-The morning after our arrival at Kazeh a great number of our porters
-left us, and the rest of our party apparently considered that
-Unyamyembe, and not Ujiji, was the end of the exploration. Several of
-them were mutinous when I told them they would not be rewarded for
-safe-conduct until we had reached the end of the up march, which was
-not here; and these difficulties took a long time to settle. Kazeh,
-indeed, proved in effect a second point of departure, easier only
-because I had now gained some experience. Another cause of delay was
-the sickness of many of our people, and it took some time for them to
-shake off the ague which they had contracted. Indeed, the wing of
-Azrael seemed waving over my own head. Nevertheless, on the morning of
-December 15th I started off afresh, charmed with the prospect of a
-fine open country, and delighted to get away from what had been to me
-a veritable imprisonment.
-
-I will not describe the details of our march, which went on without a
-break. Christmas Day found us still marching, and so on day after day,
-if I except an enforced halt of twelve days at Msene. On January 10th,
-1858, I left Msene, with considerable difficulty through the mutiny of
-porters; and so we pressed on, more or less with difficulty, until at
-last a formidable obstacle to progress presented itself. I had been
-suffering for some days; the miasmatic airs of Sorora had sown the
-seeds of a fresh illness. On the afternoon of January 18th, 1858, I
-was seized with an attack of fever, and then paralysis set in from the
-feet upwards, and I was completely _hors de combat_. There seemed
-nothing left for me but to lie down and die. One of my chief porters
-declared that the case was beyond his skill: it was one of partial
-paralysis, brought on by malaria, and he called in an Arab, who looked
-at me also. The Arab was more cheerful, and successfully predicted
-that I should be able to move in ten days. On the tenth I again
-mounted my ass, but the paralysis wore off very slowly, and prevented
-me from walking any distance for nearly a year. The sensation of
-numbness in my hands and feet disappeared even more slowly than that.
-I had, however, undertaken the journey in a “nothing like leather”
-frame of mind, and was determined to press on. So we pressed.
-
-We had now left the “Land of the Moon” behind us, and entered upon a
-new district. The road before us lay through a howling wilderness, and
-the march lay along the right bank of a malarial river, and the
-mosquitoes feasted right royally upon our bodies, even in the daytime.
-A good deal of the ground was very swampy, and it then stretched over
-jungly and wooded hill-spires, with steep ascents and descents.
-Everywhere was thick, fœtid, and putrescent vegetation. The heaviness
-of this march caused two of our porters to levant and another four to
-strike work. It was, therefore, necessary for me to again mount ass
-ten days after an attack of paralysis. So we dragged on for the next
-week, throughout the early days of February, a weary toil of fighting
-through tiger and spear grass, over broken and slippery paths, and
-through thick jungle. But these difficulties were lightly borne, for
-we felt that we must be nearing the end of our journey.
-
-On February 13th we resumed our travel through screens of lofty grass,
-which thinned out into a straggling forest. After about an hour’s
-march, as we entered a small savannah, I saw our Arab leader running
-forward and changing the direction of the caravan. Presently he
-breasted a steep and stony hill, sparsely clad with thorny trees.
-Arrived at the summit with toil, for our fagged beasts now refused to
-proceed, we halted for a few minutes and gazed.
-
-“What is that streak of light which lies below?” I inquired of Seedy
-Bombay, one of our porters.
-
-“I am of opinion,” quoth Seedy, “that is the water.”
-
-I gazed in dismay. The remains of my blindness, the veil of trees, and
-broad ray of sunshine illuminating but one reach of the lake, had
-shrunk its fair proportions. Prematurely I began to curse my folly in
-having risked life and health for so poor a prize, and even thought of
-proposing an immediate return with a view of exploring the Nyanza, or
-Northern Lake. Advancing, however, a few yards, the whole scene
-suddenly burst upon my view, filling me with wonder, admiration, and
-delight. My longing eyes beheld the Tanganyika Lake as it lay in the
-lap of the mountain, basking in the gorgeous tropical sunshine. Our
-journey had not been in vain.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-_THE LAKE REGIONS_
-
-
-I shall never forget my first glimpse of Tanganyika. Below and beyond
-a short foreground of rugged and precipitous hill-fold, down which the
-footpath zigzagged painfully, a narrow strip of emerald green shelved
-towards a ribbon of glistening yellow sand, here bordered by sedgy
-rushes, there cleanly cut by the breaking wavelets. Further in front
-stretched the waters, an expanse of soft blue, in breadth varying from
-thirty to thirty-five miles, and sprinkled by the crisp east wind with
-tiny crescents of snowy foam. The background in front was a high and
-broken wall of steel-coloured mountain. To the south, and opposite the
-long, low point, lay bluff headlands, and, as the eye dilated, it fell
-upon a cluster of outlying islets, speckling a sea horizon. Villages,
-cultivated lands, the frequent canoes of the fishermen on the waters,
-and, as we came nearer, the murmur of the waters breaking upon the
-shore, gave variety and movement to the landscape. The riant shores of
-this vast lake appeared doubly beautiful to me after the silent and
-spectral mangrove creeks on the East African seaboard, and the
-melancholy, mononotous experience I had gone through of desert and
-jungle, tawny rock and sunburnt plain, or rank herbage and flats of
-black mire. Truly it was a feast of soul and sight. Forgetting toils,
-dangers, and the doubtfulness of return, I felt willing to endure
-double what I had endured. I had sighted the fabled lake, and all the
-party seemed to join with me in joy. Even my purblind companion found
-nothing to grumble at except the “mist and glare before his eyes.”
-
-Arrived at Ukaranga I was disappointed to find there a few miserable
-grass huts that clustered around a single “tembe,” or inn, then
-occupied by its proprietor, an Arab trader. I found that that part of
-Ukaranga contained not a single native canoe, and there seemed no
-possibility of getting one, the innkeeper being determined that I
-should spend beads for rations and lodgings among him and his
-companions, and be heavily mulcted for a boat into the bargain. The
-latter manœuvre was frustrated by my securing a solid-built Arab craft
-for the morrow, capable of containing from thirty to thirty-five men.
-It belonged to an absent merchant, and in point of size it was second
-on Tanganyika, and, being too large for paddling, the crew rowed,
-instead of scooping up the water like the natives. I paid an
-exorbitant price for the hire of this boat.
-
-Early in the morning of the following day, February 14th, we began
-coasting along the eastern shore of the lake in a north-westerly
-direction, towards the Kawele district, in the land of Ujiji. The view
-was exceedingly beautiful, and the picturesque and varied forms of the
-mountains, rising above and dipping into the lake, were clad in
-purplish blue, set off by the rosy tints of the morning. As we
-approached our destination, I wondered at the absence of houses and
-people. By the Arabs I had been taught to expect a town, a port, and a
-bazaar excelling in size that of Zanzibar, instead of which I found a
-few scattered hovels, and our craft was poled up through a hole in a
-thick welting of coarse grass to a level landing-place of flat
-shingle. Such was the disembarkation quay of the great Ujiji.
-
-We stepped ashore. Around the landing-place a few scattered huts
-represented the port-town. Advancing some hundred yards through a din
-of shouts and screams, tom-toms and trumpets, which defies
-description, and mobbed by a swarm of black beings whose eyes seemed
-about to start from their heads with surprise, I passed a relic of
-Arab civilisation, the bazaar. It was on a plot of higher ground, and
-there, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., weather permitting, a mass of
-standing and squatting negroes buy and sell, barter and exchange,
-offer and chaffer, with a hubbub heard for miles. The articles exposed
-for sale were sometimes goats and sheep and poultry, generally fish,
-vegetables, and a few fruits, and palm wine was a staple commodity.
-Occasionally an ivory or a slave was hawked about. Such was the little
-village of Kawele. The Tanganyika is ever seen to advantage from its
-shores, and here I found a lodging in a ruinous tembe inn, built by an
-Arab merchant, where I was lodged in comparative comfort, though the
-tembe was tenanted only by ticks and slaves.
-
-As the tembe was to be my home for a space, my first care was to
-purify the floor by pastilles of asafœtida and fumigations of
-gunpowder; the second to prepare the roof for the rainy season.
-Improvement, however, was slow, for the natives were too lazy to work,
-and the porters took the earliest opportunity of deserting. I,
-however, managed to provide a pair of cartels, with substitutes for
-chairs and tables. Benches of clay were built round the rooms, but
-they proved useless, being found regularly every morning occupied in
-force by a swarming, struggling colony of white ants. The roof, long
-overgrown with tall grass, was fortified with mud; it never ceased,
-however, to leak like a colander, and presently the floor was covered
-with deep puddles, then masses of earth dropped from the soft sides of
-the walls, and, at last, during the violent showers, half the building
-fell in.
-
-On the second day of my arrival I was called upon by Kannena, the
-headman of Kawele. He was introduced, habited in silk turban and a
-broadcloth coat, which I afterwards heard he had borrowed from the
-Baloch. His aspect was truly ignoble; a short, squat, and broad-backed
-figure, and his apology for a nose much resembled the pug with which
-the ancients provided Silenus. On this, his first appearance, he
-behaved with remarkable civility, and proceeded to levy his blackmail,
-which was finally settled at ten coil-bracelets and two fundi of
-beads. I had no salt to spare, or much valuable merchandise might have
-been saved. Their return was six small bundles of grain. Then Kannena
-opened trade by sending us a nominal gift, a fine ivory, weighing at
-least seventy pounds, and worth, perhaps, £100. After keeping it a day
-or two I returned it, saying I had no dealings in ivory and slaves.
-This, it appears, was a mistake, as I ought, by a trifling outlay, to
-have supported the character of a trader. The Wajiji did not
-understand. “These are men who live by doing nothing!” they exclaimed,
-and they lost no time in requesting me to quit their territory. To
-this I objected, and endeavoured to bribe them off. My bribes, I
-suppose, were not sufficient, for we at once began to see the dark
-side of the native character. Thieves broke into our out-houses, our
-asses were wounded by spears, and we were accused of having bewitched
-and killed their cattle. Still, other travellers fared even worse than
-we did.
-
-At first the cold, damp climate of the lake regions did not agree with
-us; perhaps, too, the fish diet was over-rich and fat, and the
-abundance of vegetables led to little excesses. All energy seemed to
-have abandoned us. I lay for a fortnight upon the earth, too blind to
-read and write except at long intervals, too weak to ride, and too ill
-to talk. My companion, Speke, who, when we arrived at the Tanganyika
-Lake, was almost as groggy upon his legs as I was, suffered from a
-painful ophthalmia and a curious distortion of face, which made him
-chew sideways, like a ruminant. The Baloch complained of influenzas
-and catarrhs, and their tempers were as sore as their lungs and
-throats.
-
-But work remained undone, and it was necessary to awaken from my
-lethargy. Being determined to explore the northern extremity of the
-Tanganyika Lake, whence, according to several informants, issued a
-large river flowing northwards, I tried to hire from an Arab merchant
-the only dhow, or sailing boat, then in existence, since the wretched
-canoes of the people were quite unfit for a long cruise. I entrusted
-the mission first of all to my Arab, Said bin Salim, but he shirked
-it, and I therefore directed my companion to do his best. I got the
-dhow, and set about stocking it with provisions for a month’s cruise.
-I had great difficulty in obtaining sufficient provisions, the prices
-demanded were so exorbitant. After many delays I at last sent my
-companion away, supplied with an ample outfit, escorted by two Baloch,
-and attended by his men, across the Bay of Ukaranga. I was then left
-alone.
-
-During my twenty-seven days of solitude the time sped quickly; it was
-chiefly spent in eating and drinking, dozing and smoking. Awaking at 2
-a.m. or 3 a.m., I lay anxiously expecting the grey light creeping
-through the door chinks; the glad tidings of its approach were
-announced by the cawing of the crows and the crowing of the village
-cocks. When the golden rays began to stream over the red earth, my
-torpid servant was called out, and he brought me a mass of suji, or
-rice-flour boiled in water, with a little cold milk as a relish. Then
-entered the “slavey” of the establishment, armed with a leafy branch,
-to sweep the floor and slay the huge wasps that riddled the walls of
-the tenement. This done, he lit the fire, as the excessive damp
-rendered this precaution necessary. Then ensued visits of ceremony
-from Said bin Salim and another, who sat, stared, and seeing that I
-was not yet dead, showed disappointment in their faces and walked
-away. So the morning wore on. My servant was employed with tailoring,
-gun-cleaning, and similar light work, over which he grumbled
-perpetually, whilst I settled down to diaries and vocabularies, a
-process interrupted by sundry pipes. We had two hours’ sleep at noon,
-and I may say that most of the day I lay like a log upon my cot,
-smoking almost uninterruptedly, dreaming of things past and visioning
-things present, and sometimes indulging myself in a few lines of
-reading and writing.
-
-Dinner was an alternation of fish and fowl, butchers’ meat being
-extremely rare at Ujiji. At evening I used to make an attempt to sit
-under the broad eaves of the tembe and enjoy the delicious spectacle
-of this virgin nature. I was still very weak.
-
-At 7 p.m., as the last flush faded from the occident, the lamp, a wick
-in a pot full of palm oil, was brought in, Said bin Salim would
-appear, and a brief conversation led to the hour of sleep. A dreary,
-dismal day, yet it had its enjoyments.
-
-On March 29th the rattling of the matchlocks announced my companion’s
-return. I never saw a man so thoroughly moist and mildewed; he
-justified even the French phrase, “Wet to the bone.” His paraphernalia
-were in a similar state; his guns were grained with rust, and his
-fireproof powder magazine had admitted the monsoon rain. I was sorely
-disappointed; he had done literally nothing. I cannot explain where
-the mismanagement lay, but the result was that he had come back to me
-without boat or provisions to report ill-success.
-
-It now became apparent that the rainy season was drawing to a close,
-and the time for navigation was beginning. After some preliminaries
-with Said bin Salim, Kannena, who had been preparing for a cruise
-northward, was summoned before me. He agreed to convey me; but when I
-asked him the conditions on which he would show me the mtoni, or
-river, he jumped up, discharged a volley of oaths, and sprang from the
-house like a baboon. I was resolved, however, at all costs, even if we
-were reduced to actual want, to visit this mysterious stream. I made
-other overtures to Kannena, made him many promises, and threw over his
-shoulders a six-feet length of scarlet broadcloth, which made him
-tremble with joy. I ultimately secured two large canoes and fifty-five
-men.
-
-On April 12th my canoe, bearing for the first time the British flag,
-stood out of Bangwe Bay, and, followed by my companion in another
-canoe, we made for the cloudy and storm-vexed north. There were great
-rejoicings at our arrival at Uvira, the northernmost station to which
-merchants had at that time been admitted. Opposite still, rose in a
-high, broken line the mountains of the inhospitable Urundi, apparently
-prolonged beyond the northern extremity of the waters. The breadth of
-the Tanganyika here is between seven and eight miles. Now my hopes
-were dashed to the ground; the stalwart sons of the chief Maruta
-visited me, and told me that they had been to the northern extremity,
-and that the Rusizi enters into, and does not flow out of, the
-Tanganyika. I was sick at heart. It appears that my companion had
-misunderstood, and our guide now told us that he had never been beyond
-Uvira, and never intended to go; so we stopped here nine days, and I
-got such a bad ulceration of the tongue that I could not speak. The
-chiefs came and claimed their blackmail, and also Kannena, so I had to
-pay up all for nothing, as the gales began to threaten, and our crews
-insisted on putting to lake on May 6th.
-
-We touched at various stages about the lake, and anchored at Mzimu,
-but we left again at sunset; the waves began to rise, the wind also,
-and it rained in torrents. It was a doubt whether the cockleshell
-craft could live through a short, choppy sea in heavy weather. I
-sheltered myself in my mackintosh as best I might. Fortunately the
-rain beat down the wind and the sea, or nothing could have saved us.
-The next morning Mabruki rushed into my tent, thrust a sword into my
-hands, and declared the Warundi were upon us, and that the crews were
-rushing to the boats and pushing them off. Knowing that they would
-leave us stranded in case of danger, we hurried in without delay; but
-no enemy appeared. It was a false alarm.
-
-On May 11th we paddled about a grassy inlet; on the 12th we paddled
-again, and the next day we spent in Bangwe Bay. We were too proud to
-sneak home in the dark; we had done the expedition, and we wanted to
-be looked at by the fair and howled at by the valiant.
-
-The next morning we appeared at the entrance of Kawele, and had a
-triumphal entrance. The people of the whole country-side assembled to
-welcome us, and pressed waist-deep into the water. My companion and I
-were repeatedly called for, but true merit is always modest. We
-regained our old tembe, were salaamed to by everybody, and it felt
-like a return home. The upshot of it all was this――we had expended
-upwards of a month exploring the Tanganyika Lake.
-
-I had explored it thoroughly. My health now began to improve, my
-strength increased; my feet were still swollen, but my hands lost
-their numbness, and I could again read and write. A relieved mind had
-helped on this recovery――the object of my expedition was now
-effected――and I threw off the burden of grinding care with which the
-prospect of a probable failure had sorely laden me.[6]
-
-The rainy monsoon broke up after our return to Kawele, and the climate
-became most enjoyable, but it was accompanied by that inexplicable
-melancholy peculiar to tropical countries. I have never felt this
-sadness in Egypt and Arabia, but I was never without it in India and
-Zanzibar. We were expecting stores and provisions, but we got not one
-single word from the agents who were to forward our things, and want
-began to stare us in the face. Money was a necessity, or its
-equivalent. I had to engage porters for the hammocks, feed
-seventy-five mouths, to fee several chieftains, and to incur the heavy
-expenses of two hundred and sixty miles’ marching back to Unyamyembe,
-so I had to supplement the sum allowed me by the Royal Geographical
-Society with my own little patrimony. One thousand pounds does not go
-very far when it has to be divided amongst two hundred greedy savages
-in two and a half years.
-
-On May 22nd our ears were gladdened by the sound of musket-shots
-announcing arrivals, and then, after a long silence of eleven months,
-there arrived a caravan with boxes, bales, porters, slaves, and a
-parcel of papers and letters from Europe, India, and Zanzibar. How we
-pounced upon them! Here we first knew of the Indian Mutiny. The
-caravan arrived at a crisis when it was really wanted, but as my agent
-could not find porters for all the packages, he had kept back some of
-them, and what he sent me were the least useful. They would suffice to
-take us back to Unyamyembe, but were wholly inadequate for exploring
-the southern end of Tanganyika, far less for returning to Zanzibar
-_viâ_ the Nyassa Lake and Kilwa, as I had hoped to do.
-
-On May 26th, 1858, we set out on our homeward journey, and left Kawele
-_en route_ for Unyamyembe. I shall never forget my last sunrise look
-on Tanganyika. The mists, luminously fringed with purple, were cut by
-filmy rays; the living fire shot forth broad beams over the light blue
-waters of the lake, and a soft breeze, the breath of the morning,
-awoke the waves into life.
-
-I had great difficulties in getting away, but at nine o’clock we
-departed with a full gang of porters, and advanced until the evening.
-Many troubles arose: a porter placed his burden upon the ground and
-levanted, and being cognac and vinegar it was deeply regretted; then
-the Unyamwezi guide, because his newly purchased slave girl had become
-footsore and unable to walk, cut her head off. All these disagreeables
-I was obliged to smooth down as best I could. Then there was a great
-dread of savage tribes, and there was also a fear of conflagration, a
-sort of prairie fire.
-
-A sheet of flame, beginning with the size of a spark, would overspread
-the hillside, advancing on the wings of the wind with the roaring,
-rushing sound of many hosts, where the grass was thick, shooting huge
-forked tongues high into the air, and tall trees, the patriarchs of
-the forest, yielded their lives to the blast. Onward the fire would
-sweep, smouldering and darkening where the rock afforded scanty fuel,
-then flickering, blazing up, and soaring on again over the brow of the
-hill, until the sheet became a thin line of fire, gradually vanishing
-from the view.
-
-On October 4th, after a week of halts and snails’ marches, we at last
-reached Hanga, our former quarters in the western confines of the
-Unyamyembe district. Here my companion was taken seriously ill, and
-immediately after our arrival at this foul village, where we were
-lodged in a sort of cow-house, full of vermin and exposed directly to
-the fury of the cold gales, he complained, in addition to the deaf
-ear, an inflamed eye, and a swollen face, of a mysterious pain, which
-he knew not whether to attribute to the liver or the spleen. Shortly
-after this his mind began to wander, and then he underwent three fits
-of an epileptic description, which more closely resembled those of
-hydrophobia than any I have ever witnessed. He was haunted by a crowd
-of hideous devils, giants, and lion-headed demons, who were wrenching
-and stripping the sinews and tendons of his legs. He began to utter a
-barking noise, with a peculiar chopping motion of the mouth and
-tongue. When the third spasm was over, he called for pen and paper,
-and, fearing that increased weakness of mind and body might prevent
-any further exertion, he wrote an incoherent letter of farewell to his
-family. That, however, was the crisis, and he afterwards spent a
-better night; the pains were mitigated, or, as he expressed it, “the
-knives were sheathed.”
-
-As we were threatened with want of water on the way, I prepared for
-that difficulty by packing a box with empty bottles, which, when
-occasion required, might be filled at the springs. The zemzemiyah, or
-travelling canteen of the East African, was everywhere a long-necked
-gourd, slung to the shoulder by a string. But it became offensive
-after some use, and could never be entrusted to a servant for a mile
-before its contents were exhausted.
-
-We left Hanga, my companion being now better, on October 13th. Seven
-short marches between that place and Tura occupied fifteen days, a
-serious waste of time, caused by the craving of the porters for their
-homes.
-
-The stages now appeared shorter, the sun cooler, the breeze warmer,
-for, after fourteen months of incessant fevers, we had become
-tolerably acclimatised; we were now loud in praise, as we had been in
-censure, of the water and air. Before re-entering the Fiery Field the
-hire for carrying hammocks became so exorbitant that I dismissed the
-bearers, drew on my jackboots, mounted the Zanzibar ass, and appeared
-once more as the mtongi of a caravan. My companion was also now able
-to ride.
-
-At Eastern Tura, where we arrived on October 28th, a halt was
-occasioned by the necessity of providing and preparing food for the
-week’s march through the Fiery Field. The caravan was then mustered,
-and it completed altogether a party of one hundred and fifty-two
-souls.
-
-On November 3rd the caravan, issuing from Tura, plunged manfully into
-the Fiery Field, and after seven marches in as many days――we halted
-for breath and forage at the Round Stone――Jiwe la Mkoa. Here we
-procured a few rations, and resumed our way on November 12th, and in
-two days exchanged, with a sensible pleasure, the dull expanse of dry
-brown bush and brushwood for the fertile red plain of Mdaburn. At that
-point began our re-transit of Ugogo, where I had been taught to expect
-accidents; they resolved themselves into nothing more than the
-disappearance of cloth and beads in inordinate quantities. The
-Wanyamwezi porters seemed even more timid on the down journey than on
-the up march. They slank about like curs, and the fierce look of a
-Mgogo boy was enough to strike terror into their hearts. One of them
-would frequently indulge me in a dialogue like the following, which
-may serve as a specimen of our conversation in East Africa:――
-
-“The state, Mdula?” (_i.e._, Abdullah, a word unpronounceable to
-negroid organs).
-
-“The state is very! (well), and thy state?”
-
-“The state is very! (well), and the state of Spikka?” (my companion).
-
-“The state of Spikka is very! (well).”
-
-“We have escaped the Wagogo, white man O!”
-
-“We have escaped, O my brother!”
-
-“The Wagogo are bad!”
-
-“They are bad!”
-
-“The Wagogo are very bad!”
-
-“They are very bad!”
-
-“The Wagogo are not good!”
-
-“They are not good!”
-
-“The Wagogo are not at all good!”
-
-“They are not at all good!”
-
-“I greatly feared the Wagogo, who killed the Wanyamwezi!”
-
-“Exactly so!”
-
-“But now I don’t fear them. I call them ――――s and ――――s, and I would
-fight the whole tribe, white man O!”
-
-“Truly so, O my brother!”
-
-And so on for two mortal hours.
-
-The transit of Ugogo occupied three weeks, from November 14th to
-December 5th. In Kanyenye we were joined by a large caravan of
-Wanyamwezi, carrying ivories. On December 6th we arrived at a halting
-place in the Ugogi Dhun, and were greeted by another caravan, freshly
-arrived, commanded by Hindus, who, after receiving and returning news
-with much solemnity, presently drew forth a packet of papers and
-letters, which as usual promised trouble, and the inevitable――to
-me――“official wigging.” I also received the following pleasant
-letter:――
-
-     DEAR BURTON,
-
-     Go ahead! Vogel and Macguire dead――murdered. Write often to
-
-                                                Yours truly,
-                                                            N.S.
-
-At Ugogo, which, it will be remembered, is considered the half-way
-station between Unyamyembe and the coast, we were detained a day
-through difficulties with porters, who declared there was a famine
-upon the road we had previously traversed, and also that a great
-chief, who was also a great extortioner, was likely to insist upon our
-calling upon him in person, which would involve a change of route.
-However, there was nothing to be done but to take the road. We loaded
-on December 7th, and began the passage of the Usagara Mountains, going
-this time by the Kiringawana route.
-
-Travelling by a roundabout way, we arrived at the village of the chief
-Kiringawana on December 19th, and the next day proceeded to palaver.
-After abundant chaffering, the chief accepted from the expedition
-three expensive coloured cloths and other things, grumbling the while
-because we had neglected to reserve for him something more worthy his
-acceptance; he returned a fat bullock, which was instantly shot and
-devoured.
-
-We resumed our march on December 22nd, which was almost entirely
-down-hill. We crossed in a blazing sun the fœtid plain, and after
-finding with some difficulty the jungly path, we struck into a
-pleasant forest. Presently we emerged again upon the extremity of the
-Makata Plain, a hideous low level of black vegetable earth, peaty in
-appearance, and bearing long puddles of dark and stagnant
-rain-water――mere horse-ponds, with the additional qualities of miasma
-and mosquitoes. The transit of this plain took some days.
-
-The dawn of Christmas Day, 1858, saw us toiling along the Kikoboga
-River, which we forded four times. The road presently turned up a
-rough rise, from whose crest began the descent of the Mabruki Pass.
-The descent was very steep and rough; the path, spanning rough ground
-at the hill base, led us to the plains of Uziraha in K’hutu.
-
-We had reserved a bullock in honour of Christmas Day, but as he was
-lost, I ordered the purchase of half a dozen goats to celebrate it,
-but the porters were too lazy to collect them. My companion and I made
-good cheer upon a fat capon, which acted as roast beef, with a mess of
-ground-nuts sweetened with sugar-cane, which did duty as plum-pudding.
-
-We started off again and entered Zungomero on December 29th. An army
-of black musketeers, in scanty but various and gaudy attire, came out
-to meet us, and with the usual shots and shouts conducted us to the
-headman’s house. They then stared at us, as usual, for half a dozen
-consecutive hours, which done, they retired to rest.
-
-We stayed at Zungomero some time and celebrated the New Year there,
-but January 21st, 1859, enabled us to bid it adieu and merrily take to
-the footpath way. We made Konduchi on February 3rd, after twelve
-marches, which we accomplished in fourteen days. There is little of
-interest or adventure to record in this return line, for we travelled
-over much the same ground we had done before.
-
-As the mud near Dut’humi was throat-deep, we crossed it lower down――a
-weary trudge of several miles through thick, slabby mire, which
-admitted a man to his knees. In places, after toiling under a sickly
-sun, we crept under tunnels of thick jungle growth, the dank and fœtid
-cold causing a deadly sensation of faintness, which was only relieved
-by the glass of æther sherbet, a pipe or two of the strongest tobacco,
-and half an hour’s rest.
-
-On January 30th our natives of Zanzibar screamed with delight at the
-sight of the monkey-tree, an old, familiar sight to them. On February
-2nd we greeted, with doffed caps, and with three times three and one
-more, as Britons will do on such occasions, the kindly, smiling face
-of our father Neptune as he lay basking in the sunbeams between earth
-and air. February 3rd saw us winding through the poles decorated with
-skulls――a sort of negro Temple Bar――which pointed out the way into the
-little village of Konduchi.
-
-Our return was attended with much ceremony: the war-men danced, shot,
-and shouted; a rabble of adults, youths, and boys crowded upon us; the
-fair sex lulliloo’d with vigour; and a general procession conducted us
-to a hut, swept, cleaned, and garnished for us by the principal banyan
-of the village, and there they laughed and stared at us until they
-could laugh and stare no more.
-
-We were detained at Konduchi for some days, and on February 9th the
-battela and the stores required for our trip arrived from Zanzibar,
-and the next day saw us rolling down the coast towards the Island of
-Zanzibar, where we landed on March 4th, 1859. I was taken ill there,
-and my companion went home alone――thereby hangs a tale. But I
-recovered after a while, and left Zanzibar for Aden to catch the
-homeward boat. I bade adieu to the “coal-hole of the East” on April
-28th, 1859, and in due time arrived once more on the shores of Old
-England, after an absence of two years and eight months.
-
-
-     [6] At the time of which I write (1858) the Tanganyika had
-     never before been visited by any European.
-
-
-
-
-_THE CITY OF THE MORMONS_
-
-1860
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-_THE JOURNEY_
-
-
-I had long determined to add the last new name――Great Salt Lake
-City――to my list of Holy Cities; to visit the new rival, _soi-disant_,
-of Memphis, Benares, Jerusalem, Rome, and Meccah; and to observe the
-origin and working of a regular go-ahead Western revelation. Mingled
-with the wish of prospecting the city of the Mormons from a spiritual
-point of view was the mundane desire of enjoying a little skirmishing
-with the savages, who had lately been giving the “pale-faces” tough
-work to do.
-
-The man was ready, the hour hardly appeared propitious for other than
-belligerent purposes. Throughout the summer of 1860 an Indian war was
-raging in Nebraska; the Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes were “out”;
-the Federal Government had despatched three columns to the centres of
-confusion; intestine feuds amongst the aborigines were talked of; the
-Dakota, or Sioux, had threatened to “wipe out” their old foe the
-Pawnee. Both tribes were possessors of the soil over which the road to
-Great Salt Lake City ran. Horrible accounts of murdered post-boys and
-cannibal emigrants, grossly exaggerated as usual, filled the papers.
-“Going amongst the Mormons!” said a friend to me at New Orleans. “They
-are shooting and cutting one another in all directions. How can _you_
-expect to escape?” But sagely reflecting that “dangers which loom
-large from afar generally lose size as one draws near,” and that even
-the Mormons might turn out less black than they were painted, I
-resolved to run the risk of the “red nightcap” from the bloodthirsty
-Indians and the poisoned bowie-dagger from the jealous Latter-Day
-Saints. I therefore applied myself to then audacious task of an
-expedition to the City of the Mormons.
-
-There were three roads to be chosen from――the three main lines,
-perhaps, for a Pacific railway between the Mississippi and the Western
-Ocean――the northern, the central, and the southern. The first, or
-British, was not to be thought of, since it involved semi-starvation,
-a possible plundering by the Bedouins, and, what was far worse, five
-or six months of slow travel. The third, or southern, took twenty-four
-days and nights, and the journey was accompanied by excessive heat in
-a malarial climate, to say nothing of poisonous food. There remained
-only the central road, which has two branches; of these I chose the
-great emigrant road from Missouri to California. The mail coach on
-this line was not what one would call luxurious, and the hours of
-halting-places were badly selected. The schedule time from St. Joseph,
-Missouri, to Great Salt Lake City was twenty-one days; we accomplished
-it, it turned out, in nineteen. I therefore travelled to St. Joseph,
-disrespectfully known as St. Jo, bought my ticket, and prepared to
-start.
-
-An important part in my preparations was the kit, which in my case was
-represented as follows:――One India-rubber blanket, pierced in the
-centre for a poncho, and with buttons and elastic loops, which
-converted it into a carpet bag. I ought to have added a buffalo robe
-as a bed, but ignorance prevented. With one’s coat as a pillow, a
-buffalo robe, and a blanket, one might defy the dangerous “bunks” of
-the stations. For weapons I carried two revolvers. In those days, from
-the moment of leaving St. Joseph to the time of reaching Placerville
-or Sacramento, the pistol ought never to be absent from a man’s right
-hand, nor the bowie-knife from his left. Contingencies with Indians
-and others might happen, when the difference of an instant might save
-life. In dangerous places the revolver should be discharged and loaded
-every morning, both for the purpose of keeping the hand in and doing
-the weapon justice. A revolver is an admirable tool when properly
-used. Those, however, who are too idle or careless to attend to it had
-better carry a pair of “Derringers.” I took also some opium, which is
-invaluable on the prairie, and some other drugs against fever. The
-“holy weed, Nicotian,” was not forgotten, for cigars were most useful,
-as the driver either received or took the lion’s share. The prairie
-traveller was not very particular about his clothes; the easiest dress
-was a dark flannel shirt, worn over the normal article, no braces, but
-a broad leather belt for a six-shooter and a “Kansas tooth-pick,” a
-long clasp-knife. The nether garments were forked with good buckskin,
-or they would infallibly have given out, and the lower ends were
-tucked into the boots, after the sensible fashion of our grandfathers.
-In cold weather――the nights were rarely warm――there was nothing better
-than an old English shooting-jacket; for riding or driving a large
-pair of buckskin gloves, or rather gauntlets, were advisable, and we
-did not forget spurs. The best hat was a brown felt, which, by boring
-holes around the brim to admit a ribbon, could be converted into a
-riding-hat or a nightcap, as you pleased. Having got my kit and
-purchased my ticket, I was ready to start.
-
-Precisely at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, August 7th, 1860, there appeared in
-front of the Patee House, the Fifth Avenue Hotel of St. Joseph, the
-vehicle destined to be my home for the next three weeks. I scrutinised
-it curiously. It was what was known as a “concord coach,” a spring
-waggon, of which the body is shaped something like an English tax-cart
-considerably magnified. It paid no regard to appearances, but was
-safe, strong, and light. The wheels were five to six feet apart,
-affording security against capsizing; the tyres were of unusual
-thickness, and polished like steel by the hard, dry ground. The waggon
-bed was supported by iron bands, and the whole bed was covered with
-stout osnaburg, supported by strong bars of white oak. There was a
-sunshade, or hood, in front where the driver sat, a curtain behind,
-which could be raised or lowered at discretion, and four flaps on each
-side, either folded up, or fastened down with hooks and eyes. The
-coach was drawn by a team of four mules, which were much preferred to
-horses as being more enduring. The rate of travel, on an average, was
-five miles an hour. This was good; between seven and eight was the
-maximum, which sank in hilly country to three or four.
-
-We were detained more than an hour before we started. Our “plunder,”
-as they called the luggage, was clapped on with little ceremony, and
-when all was packed away (and a good deal of the comfort of the
-journey depended on the packing), we rattled through the dusty roads
-of St. Jo, got on the steam ferry, which conveyed us from the right to
-the left bank of the Missouri River, and landed us in “bleeding”
-Kansas. We then fell at once into the emigrant road, as it was called,
-to the Far West, a great thoroughfare at this point, open, broad, and
-well worn as a European turnpike or a Roman military road, and
-undoubtedly the best and longest natural highway in the world.
-
-At first the scene was one of a luxuriant vegetation; but after an
-hour of burning sun and sickly damp, the effects of the late storms,
-we emerged from the waste of vegetation on to the region of the Grand
-Prairie. Over the rolling surface, which rarely broke into hill or
-dale, lay a tapestry of thick grass, already turning to a ruddy yellow
-under the influence of approaching autumn. Nothing, I may remark, is
-more monotonous, except the African and Indian jungle, than these
-prairie tracks. You saw, as it were, the ends of the earth, and looked
-around in vain for some object upon which the eye might rest; it
-wanted the sublimity of repose so suggestive in the sandy deserts, and
-the perpetual motion so pleasing in the aspect of the sea.
-
-Passing through a few wretched shanties called Troy, in Syracuse, we
-arrived about three o’clock at Cold Springs, where we were allowed an
-hour’s halt to dine and change mules. The scene was the “rale” Far
-West. The widow body to whom the shanty of the station belonged lay
-sick with fever, and the aspect of her family was a “caution to
-snakes.” The ill-conditioned sons dawdled about, listless as Indians,
-in skin tunics, and the daughters, whose sole attire was apparently a
-calico morning wrapper, waited on us in a grudging way in the wretched
-log hut, which appeared ignorant of the duster and the broom. Myriads
-of flies disputed with us a dinner consisting of dough-nuts,
-suspicious eggs in a greasy fritter, and rusty bacon, intolerably fat.
-It was our first sight of squatter life, and, except in two cases, it
-was our worst.
-
-We drove on all the afternoon and all the night, except for a halt for
-supper. The last part of our journey was performed under a heavy
-thunderstorm. Gusts of violent wind whizzed overhead, thunder crashed
-and rattled, and vivid lightning, flashing out of the murky depths
-around, made earth and air one blaze of fire. We arrived about one
-o’clock a.m. at Locknan’s station, a few log huts near a creek. Here
-we found beds and snatched an hour of sleep. So passed the first day.
-
-It is not my purpose to describe the journey day by day, for it lasted
-nineteen days, and one day was often much like another. I shall
-therefore content myself with picking out the chief points of interest
-on the route.
-
-Before long the prairies wore a burnt-up aspect. As far as the eye
-could see the tintage was that of the Arabian desert. It was still,
-however, too early for prairie fires, and I therefore did not witness
-this magnificent spectacle. In some parts, where the grass is tall and
-rank, and the roaring flames leap before the fire with the stride of a
-maddened horse, the danger is imminent, and the spectacle must be one
-of awful sublimity.
-
-I said at first that the prairie scenery was monotonous, and so on the
-whole it was, but every now and then we came upon beautiful oases in
-the desert. Such was the valley of the Little Blue River, fringed with
-emerald-green oak groves, cotton wood, and long-leaved willow. As we
-got on to the tableland above this river, between that and the River
-Platte, the evening approached, and a smile from above lit up into
-perfect beauty the features of the world below. It was a glorious
-sunset. Stratum upon stratum of cloud banks, burnished to golden red
-in the vicinity of the setting sun, and polished to dazzling silvery
-white above, lay piled half-way from the horizon to the zenith, with a
-distinct strike towards a vanishing point to the west and dipping into
-a gateway, through which the orb of day slowly retired. Overhead
-floated, in a sea of amber and yellow, pink and green heavy purple
-clouds, whilst in the east black and blue were so curiously blended
-that the eye could not distinguish whether it rested upon a darkening
-air or a lowering thunder-cloud. We enjoyed these beauties, I am glad
-to say, in silence; not a soul said “Look there!” or “How pretty!”
-
-When we came to the fork of the great River Platte we saw from time to
-time a line of Indian removes. This meant that these wild people were
-shifting their quarters for grass, and when it became a little colder
-they sought some winter abode on the banks of a stream which supplied
-fuel and where they could find meat, so that with warmth and food,
-song and talk, and smoke and sleep, they could while away the dull and
-dreary winter.
-
-The remove of an Indian village presented an interesting sight. The
-animated and shifting scene of bucks and braves, squaws and papooses,
-ponies dwarfed by bad breeding and hard living, dogs and puppies――all
-straggled over the plains westward. In front, singly or in pairs, rode
-the men, as if born upon, and bred to become part of, the animal; some
-went bare-backed, others rode upon a saddle tree. In some cases the
-saddle was trimmed with bead hangings. Their long, lank, thick,
-brownish-black hair, ruddy from the effects of the weather, was worn
-parted in the middle. This parting in men, as well as in women, was
-generally coloured with vermilion, and plates of brass or tin were
-inserted into the front hair. They wore many ornaments, and the body
-dress was a tight-sleeved waistcoat over an American cotton shirt,
-scarlet and blue being the colours preferred. The garb ended with
-buckskin leggings and moccasins. The braves were armed with small
-tomahawks, or iron hatchets, which they carried with the powder horn
-in the belt on the right side. Their nags were lean and ungroomed.
-They treat them as cruelly as do the Somali, yet nothing――short of
-whiskey――could persuade an Indian warrior to part with his favourite
-steed. Behind the warriors and the braves followed the baggage of the
-village. The rich squaws rode in litters, the poorer followed their
-pack-horses on foot. Their garb did not a little resemble their lords,
-and I saw no great beauty among them, young or old, rich or poor. _La
-belle savage_ of the party had large and languishing eyes, dentists’
-teeth that glittered, and silky, long, black hair like the ears of a
-Blenheim spaniel. Her ears and neck were laden with tinsel ornaments,
-and she was very finely dressed. There was with the cavalcade a great
-company of boys and girls.
-
-On the sixth day we crossed the Platte. We had spent most of the night
-in the waggon, most uncomfortably. At 3.15 a.m., hungry and thirsty,
-and by no means in the best of humours, we heard with joy the savage
-“Yep, yep, yep,” with which the driver was wont to announce our
-approach to a station. Presently the plank lodging appeared through
-the darkness. We sprang out of the ambulance; but all was dark and
-silent as the grave: the station was asleep. A heavy kick opened the
-door of the restaurant, when a wheezy, drowsy voice from an inner room
-asked us in German-English, “And how ze komen in?” Without waiting to
-answer we pulled the owner of it out of bed, and ordered supper,
-refreshment, and repose. But he raised all sorts of difficulties, and
-it ended with our sitting down and staring at the fire and waiting for
-the vile food which he provided for our breakfast. I should like here
-to describe an ordinary prairie breakfast, the one which greeted us
-nearly all through our journey. First, the coffee, three parts burnt
-beans, which had been duly ground to a fine powder and exposed to the
-air lest the aroma should prove too strong for us. It was placed on
-the stove to simmer, till every noxious principle was duly extracted
-from it. Then the rusty bacon, cut into thick slices, was thrust into
-the frying-pan; here the gridiron was unknown. Thirdly, antelope
-steak, cut off a carcase suspended for the benefit of flies outside
-was placed to stew within influence of the bacon’s aroma. Lastly came
-the bread, which, of course, should have been cooked first. The meal
-was kneaded with water and a pinch of salt; the raising was done by
-means of a little sour malt, or more generally by the deleterious
-yeast powders of the trade. The dough, after having been sufficiently
-manipulated, was divided into doughnuts, or biscuits, and finally it
-was placed to be half-cooked under the immediate influence of the
-rusty bacon and rancid antelope. Uncle Sam’s stove was a triumph of
-convenience, cheapness, unwholesomeness, and nastiness. It made
-everything taste like its neighbour; by virtue of it mutton borrowed
-the flavour of fish, and tomatoes resolved themselves into the flavour
-of greens.
-
-One of the most notable points of our journey was Scott’s Bluffs, the
-last of the great marl formations which break the dull uniformity of
-the prairies. Before we came to them we passed the far-famed Chimney
-Rock, which lies two and a half miles from the south bank of the
-Platte. Viewed from the south-east, it was not unlike a gigantic
-jack-boot poised on a high pyramidal mound; I took a sketch of it.
-Scott’s Bluffs are far more striking and attractive objects; indeed,
-they excel the Castle Craig of Drachenfels or any of the beauties of
-the romantic Rhine. From the distance of a day’s march they appeared
-in the shape of a large blue mound. As you approached within four or
-five miles, a massive mediæval city gradually defined itself,
-clustering with wonderful fulness of detail round a colossal fortress,
-and crowned with a royal castle. It was indeed a beautiful castle on
-the rock, and that nothing may be wanting to the resemblance, the
-dashing rains and angry winds have cut the old line of road at its
-base into a regular moat with a semicircular sweep, which the mirage
-fills with a mimic river. Quaint figures develop themselves, guards
-and sentinels in dark armour keep watch and ward upon the slopes, the
-lion of Bastia crouched unmistakably overlooking the road, and, as the
-shades of evening closed in, so weird was its aspect that one might
-almost expect to see some spectral horseman go his rounds about the
-broken walls. At a nearer aspect the quaint illusion vanished, the
-lines of masonry became great layers of boulder, curtains and angles
-changed to the gnashing rents of ages, and the warriors were
-transformed into dwarf cedars and dense shrubs. Travellers have
-compared Scott’s Bluffs to Gibraltar, to the Capitol at Washington,
-and to Stirling Castle; I could think of nothing in its presence but
-the Arabs’ “City of Brass,” that mysterious abode of bewitched
-infidels, which often appears to the wayfarer toiling under the sun,
-but which for ever eludes his nearer search.
-
-On our last day in the Platte Valley, just before we entered the Sioux
-territory, we came to Horseshoe station, which was impressed upon my
-memory by one thing, which I shall presently explain. We were struck
-by the aspect of the buildings, which were on an extensive scale; in
-fact, got up regardless of expense. An immense silence, however,
-reigned. At last, by hard knocking, we were admitted into a house with
-a Floridan verandah. By the pretensions of the room we were at once
-threatened with a “lady.” Our mishap was really worse than we
-expected, for in reality we were exposed to two “ladies,” and one of
-these was a Bloomer. This, it is fair to state, was the only
-hermaphrodite of the kind that ever met my eyes in the States; the
-great founder of the Bloomer order has long since subsided into her
-original obscurity, and her acolytes have relapsed into petticoats.
-The Bloomer was an uncouth being, her hair, cut level with her eyes,
-depended with the graceful curl of a drake’s tail around a fat and
-flabby countenance, whose only expression was sullen insolence. Her
-body-dress, glazed brown calico, fitted her somewhat like a soldier’s
-tunic, developing haunches which would be admired only in venison;
-and――curious inconsequence of woman’s nature!――all this sacrifice of
-appearance upon the shrine of comfort did not prevent her wearing that
-kind of crinoline depicted by Mr. _Punch_ around “our Mary Hanne.” The
-pantolettes of glazed brown calico, like the vest, tunic, blouse,
-shirt, or whatever they may call it, were in peg-top style, admirably
-setting off a pair of thin-soled, Frenchified, patent-leather
-bottines, with elastic sides, which contained feet as large, broad,
-and flat as a negro’s in Africa. The dear creature had a husband: it
-was hardly safe to look at her, and as for sketching her, I avoided
-it. The other “lady,” though more decently attired, was like women in
-this wild part of the world generally――cold and disagreeable, with a
-touch-me-not air, which reminded me of a certain
-
-                      Miss Baxter,
-  Who refused a man before he axed her.
-
-Her husband was the renowned Slade, who had the reputation of having
-killed his three men. This pleasant individual “for an evening party”
-wore a revolver and bowie-knife here, there, and everywhere. It at
-once became evident that this station was not conducted for the public
-convenience. One of our party who had ventured into the kitchen was
-fiercely ejected by the “ladies,” and, asking for dormitories, we were
-informed that lady travellers were admitted into the house, but men
-could sleep where they could. We found a barn outside; it was hardly
-fit for a decently brought up pig: the floor was damp and knotty;
-there was not even a door to keep out the night breeze; and several
-drunken fellows lay about in different parts of it. Into this
-disreputable hole we were all thrust for the night. “May gracious
-Heaven,” I prayed, “keep us safe from all ‘ladies’ in future!” Better
-a hundred times the squaw, with her uncleanliness and her civility!
-
-It was about the tenth day of our journey that the formation of the
-land began to warn us that we were approaching, as yet far off, the
-Rocky Mountains. We saw for the first time a train of Mormon waggons,
-twenty-four in number, slowly wending their way towards the Promised
-Land. The “captain” was young Brigham Young, a nephew of the
-Prophet――a fine fellow, with yellow hair and beard, an intelligent
-countenance, a six-shooter by his right, and a bowie-knife by his left
-side. It was impossible to mistake, even through the veil of freckles
-and sunburn with which a two months’ journey had invested them, the
-nationality of these emigrants――“British-English” was written all over
-them. One young person concealed her facial attractions under a manner
-of mask. I I though that perhaps she might be a sultana, reserved for
-the establishment of some very magnificent Mormon bashaw; but the
-driver, when appealed to, responded with contempt, “’Guess old Briggy
-won’t stampede many o’ that ere lot!” Though homely in appearance,
-they seemed to be healthy and well fed.
-
-The same day, a little later, we crossed a war party of Arapahos; they
-looked less like warriors than a band of horse-stealers, and though
-they had set out with the determination of bringing back some Utah
-scalps and fingers, they had not succeeded. The war party consisted of
-some dozen warriors, with a few limber, lithe lads. They had sundry
-lean, sorry-looking nags, which were presently turned out to graze.
-Dirty rags formed the dress of the band; their arms were the usual
-light lances, garnished with leather at the handles, with two cropped
-tufts and a long loose feather dangling from them. They carried mangy
-buffalo robes; and scattered upon the ground was a variety of belts,
-baldricks, and pouches, with split porcupine quills dyed a saffron
-yellow. I found them sulky and not disposed to be communicative, a
-fact which, no doubt, was accounted for by the ill-success of their
-expedition.
-
-I have given some account of the “ladies” we met _en route_; in
-fairness one must reverse the shield, for, at a station forbiddingly
-known as the Devil’s Post-Office, we came across an Englishwoman, a
-“Miss” Moore (Miss is still used for Mrs. by Western men and negroes),
-who was a pattern of cleanliness, tidiness, civility, and housewifery
-in general. Her little ranche was neatly swept and garnished, papered
-and ornamented. The table-cloth was clean, so was the cooking, and so
-were the children, and I was reminded of Europe by the way in which
-she insisted upon washing my shirt, an operation which, after leaving
-the Missouri, had fallen to my own lot. This day also introduced me to
-the third novel sensation on the western side of the Atlantic. The
-first was to feel that all men were your equal; that you were no man’s
-superior, and that no man was yours. The second――this is spoken as an
-African wanderer――was to see one’s quondam acquaintance, the Kaffir or
-Negro, put by his grass kilt and coat of grease, invest himself in
-broadcloth, part his wool on one side, shave, and call himself, not
-Sambo, but “Mr. Scott.” The third was to meet in the Rocky Mountains
-with this woman, a refreshing specimen of that far-off Old World.
-“Miss” Moore’s husband, a decent appendage, had transferred his belief
-from the Church of England to the Church of Utah, and the good wife,
-as in duty bound, had followed in his wake. But when the Serpent came
-and whispered in “Miss” Moore’s modest, respectable, one-idea’d ear
-that the Abrahams of Great Salt Lake City were mere “Shamabrams,” and
-not content with Sarahs, but added to them an unlimited supply of
-Hagars, her power of endurance broke down. Not an inch would she
-budge, not a step nearer to the City of the Saints would she take. She
-fought against the impending misfortune, and she succeeded in reducing
-her husband to submission and making him earn a good livelihood as
-station-master on the waggon-line――he who might have been a Solomon in
-the City of the Saints!
-
-The evening of the next day, when we had reached Pacific Springs, the
-Wind River Mountains appeared in marvellous majesty. It was one of the
-sights of the journey. The huge purple hangings of rain-clouds in the
-northern sky set off their vast proportions, and gave prominence, as
-in a stereoscope, to their gigantic forms and their upper heights,
-hoar with the frosts of ages. The setting sun diffused a charming
-softness over their more rugged features, defining the folds and
-ravines with a distinctness which deceived every idea of distance. As
-the light sank beyond the far western horizon it travelled slowly up
-the mountain side, till, reaching the summit, it mingled its
-splendours with the snow. Nor was the scene less lovely in the morning
-hour, as the first effulgence of day fell upon the masses of
-dew-cloud, lit up the peaks, which gleamed like silver, and poured
-streams of light and warmth over the broad skirts reposing on the
-plain.
-
-On August 25th, the nineteenth day of our journey, we set out at 7
-a.m. to breast the Wasach, the last and highest chain of the mountain
-mass before we reached Great Salt Lake Valley, and to arrive at our
-destination――the New Jerusalem, the future Zion on the tops of the
-mountains. The road up the big mountain was a very rough one, lined on
-either side with great trees――hemlocks, firs, and balsam-pines. The
-varied hues of the quaking ash were there also; the beech, dwarf oak,
-and thickets of elders and wild roses; whilst over all the warm
-autumnal tints already mingled with the bright green of summer. The
-ascent became more and more rugged; this steep pitch, at the end of a
-thousand miles of hard work and semi-starvation, caused the death of
-many a wretched animal. Towards the summit it rises sharpest. Here we
-descended from the waggon, which the four mules had work enough to
-draw. The big mountain lies eighteen miles from the city; the top is a
-narrow crest. From that eyrie, eight thousand feet above sea-level,
-the weary pilgrim first sights his shrine, the object of his long
-wanderings, hardships, and perils――the Happy Valley of the Great Salt
-Lake.
-
-After a few minutes’ delay to stand and gaze, we resumed the footpath
-way, whilst the mail-waggon, with wheels rough-locked, descended what
-appeared to be an impracticable slope. Falling into the gorge of Big
-Kanyon Creek, we reached about midday a station, half stifled by the
-thick dust and the sun. We slaked our thirst with the cool water that
-trickled down the hill by the house side. Presently the station-master
-arrived; he was introduced to us as Mr. Eph Hanks. I had often heard
-of him as a Mormon desperado, leader of the dreaded Danite band, and a
-model ruffian. We found him very pleasant and sociable, though a
-facetious allusion to the dangers that awaited us under the roof of
-the Danite was made. We had dinner there, and, after a friendly leave,
-we entered the mail-waggon again, and prepared ourselves for the last
-climb over the western-most reach of the Wasach.
-
-The road was now only a narrow shelf, and frequent fordings were
-rendered necessary by the capricious wanderings of the torrent. At one
-of the most ticklish turns our driver kindly pointed out a precipice
-where four of the mail passengers fell and broke their necks. He also
-entertained us with sundry other horrible tales. In due time, emerging
-from the gates and portals and deep serrations of the upper course, we
-descended into a lower level, and the valley presently lay full before
-our sight. At this place the pilgrim emigrants, like the hajis of
-Jerusalem and Meccah, were wont to give vent to the emotions pent up
-in their bosoms by sobs and tears, laughter and congratulations,
-psalms and hysterics. It is indeed no wonder that children danced,
-that strong men cheered and shouted, and that nervous women, broken
-with fatigue and hope deferred, screamed and fainted; that the
-ignorant fondly believed that the “Spirit of God” pervaded the very
-atmosphere, and that Zion on the tops of the mountains is nearer
-Heaven than the other parts of the earth. In good sooth, though
-uninfluenced by religious fervour――beyond the natural satisfaction of
-seeing a brand new Holy City――even I could not, after nineteen days of
-the mail-waggon, gaze upon the scene without emotion.
-
-The hour was about 6 p.m., the atmosphere was touched with a dreamy
-haze, and a little bank of rose-coloured clouds, edged with flames of
-purple and gold, floated in the upper air, whilst the mellow radiance
-of an American autumn diffused its mild, soft lustre over the face of
-the earth. The sun was setting in a flood of heavenly light behind the
-bold, jagged outline of Antelope Island. At its feet, and then
-bounding the far horizon, lay, like a band of burnished silver, the
-Great Salt Lake, that innocent Dead Sea. South-westwards, and the
-Oquirrh Range sharply silhouetted against the depths of an evening
-sky.
-
-The undulating valley-plain between us and the Oquirrh Range, once a
-howling wilderness given over to a few miserable savages, was now the
-site of a populous city. Truly the Mormon prophecy had been fulfilled;
-the desert had blossomed like the rose.
-
-As we descended the Wasach Mountains we could look and enjoy the view
-of the Happy Valley, and the bench-land then attracted our attention.
-The eastern valley-bench, upon whose western declivity the city lies,
-may be traced on a clear day along the base of the mountains for a
-distance of twenty miles. As we advanced over the bench-ground, the
-city by slow degrees broke upon our sight. It showed, one may readily
-believe, to special advantage after a succession of Indian lodges,
-Canadian ranchos, and log-hut mail-stations of the prairies and the
-mountains. About two miles north, and overlooking the settlements from
-a height of four hundred feet, a detached cone called Ensign Mount
-rose at the end of a chain, and overhung and sheltered the
-north-eastern corner of the valley. Upon this mount the spirit of the
-martyred Prophet, Mr. Joseph Smith, is said to have appeared to his
-successor, Mr. Brigham Young, and pointed out to him the position of
-the new temple, which, after Zion had “got up into the high mountain,”
-was to console the saints for the loss of Nauvoo the Beautiful.
-
-The city was about two miles broad, running parallel with the right
-bank of the Jordan, which forms its western limit. As we approached,
-it lay stretched before us as upon a map; at a little distance the
-aspect was somewhat Oriental, and in some points it reminded me of
-modern Athens――without the Acropolis. None of the buildings, except
-the Prophet’s house, were whitewashed. The material, the thick,
-sun-dried adobe, common to all parts of the Eastern world, was here of
-a dull leaden blue, deepened by the atmosphere to a grey, like the
-shingles of the roofs. The number of gardens and compounds, the dark
-clumps of cottonwood, locust, or acacia, fruit trees――apples, peaches
-and vines――and, finally, the fields of long-eared maize, strengthened
-the similarity to an Asiatic rather than to an American settlement.
-But the difference presently became as marked. Farm houses strongly
-suggested the old country; moreover, domes and minarets, even churches
-and steeples, were wholly wanting. The only building conspicuous from
-afar was the block occupied by the present Head of the Church. The
-court-house, with its tinned, Muscovian dome; the arsenal, a barn-like
-structure; and a saw-mill were next in importance.
-
-As we entered the suburbs, the houses were almost all of one pattern,
-a barn shape, and the diminutive casements showed that window glass
-was not yet made in the valley. The poorer houses are small, low, and
-hut-like; the others, single-storied buildings, somewhat like stables,
-with many entrances. The best houses resembled East Indian bungalows,
-with flat roofs and low, shady verandahs, well trellised, and
-supported by posts or pillars. I looked in vain for the outhouse-harems,
-in which certain romancers concerning things Mormon had told me that
-wives were kept, like other stock. I presently found this one of a
-multitude of delusions. The people came out to their doors to see the
-mail-coach, as if it were a “Derby dilly” of old, go by. I was struck
-by the English appearance of the colony, and the prodigious numbers of
-white-headed children.
-
-Presently we turned into the main thoroughfare, the centre of
-population and business, where the houses of the principal Mormon
-dignitaries and the stores of the Gentile merchants combined to form
-the city’s only street, properly so called. We pulled up at the Salt
-Lake House, the principal if not the only establishment of the kind in
-New Zion. In the Far West one learns not to expect much of a hostelry,
-and I had not seen one so grand for many a day. It was a two-storied
-building, with a long verandah supported by painted posts. There was a
-large yard behind for coralling cattle. A rough-looking crowd of
-drivers and their friends and idlers, almost every man armed with
-revolver and bowie-knife, gathered round the doorway to prospect the
-“new lot.” The host presently came out to assist us in carrying in our
-luggage. There was no bar, but upstairs we found a Gentile ball-room,
-a fair sitting-room, and bedchambers, apparently made out of a single
-apartment by partitions too thin to be strictly agreeable. The
-proprietor was a Mormon who had married an Englishwoman. We found him
-in the highest degree civil and obliging. To sum up, notwithstanding
-some considerable drawbacks, my first experience of the Holy City of
-the Far West was decidedly better than I expected.
-
-Our journey had occupied nineteen days, from August 7th to 25th both
-included, and in that time we had accomplished not less than 1,136
-statute miles.
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-_THE CITY AND ITS PROPHET_
-
-
-Before giving any detailed account of the Mormons, I should like to
-say that I was twenty-four days at headquarters, and every opportunity
-was given me of surface observation; but there is in Mormondom, as in
-all other exclusive faiths, Jewish, Hindu, or other, an inner life,
-into which I cannot flatter myself to have penetrated. No Gentile,
-however long he may live in Salt Lake City, or how intimately he may
-be connected with the Mormons, can expect to see anything but the
-outside. The different accounts which have been given of life in the
-City of the Saints by anti-Mormons and apostates are venomous and
-misleading, whilst the writings of the faithful are necessarily
-untrustworthy. I therefore take the middle distance of the
-unprejudiced observer, and can only recount, honestly and truthfully,
-what I heard, felt, and saw.
-
-The day after my arrival I went to see the Governor, the Hon. Alfred
-Cumming, who had been appointed by the President of the United States
-to assume the supreme executive authority at Great Salt Lake City. The
-conditions were that polygamy should not be interfered with, nor
-forcible measures resorted to, except in extremest need. Governor
-Cumming, accompanied by his wife, with an escort of six hundred
-dragoons, entered the city in the spring of 1858, shortly after the
-Mormons were in open rebellion against the Federal authority. By
-firmness, prudence, and conciliation, he not only prevented any
-collision between the local militia and the United States army, but
-succeeded in restoring order and obedience throughout the territory.
-He was told that his life was in danger, and warned that he might
-share the fate of Governor Boggs, who was shot through the mouth when
-standing at the window. His answer was to enlarge the casements of his
-house, in order to give the shooters a fair chance. The impartiality
-which he brought to bear in the discharge of his difficult and
-delicate duties, and his resolution to treat the saints like Gentiles
-and citizens, not as Digger Indians or felons, had not, when I was at
-Great Salt Lake City, won him the credit which he deserved from either
-party. The anti-Mormons abused him, and declared him to be a Mormon in
-Christian disguise; the Mormons, though more moderate, could never, by
-their very organisation, be content with a temporal and extraneous
-power existing side by side with a spiritual power. Governor Cumming
-did not meet his predecessor, the ex-Governor, Brigham Young, except
-on public duty. Mrs. Cumming visited Mrs. Young and the houses of the
-principal dignitaries, this being the only society in the place.
-Amongst the Moslems a Lady Mary Wortley Montagu could learn more of
-domestic life in a week than a man could in a year. So it was among
-the Mormons, and Mrs. Cumming’s knowledge far exceeded all that I
-might ever hope to gain.
-
-The leading feature of Great Salt Lake City was Main, otherwise
-Whiskey, Street. This broadway was 132 feet wide, including twenty
-sidewalks, and, like the rest of the principal avenues, was planted
-with locust and other trees. The whole city was divided up into wide
-streets, and planted with trees. The stores were far superior to the
-shops of an English country town; the public buildings were few and
-unimposing. I was disappointed with the Temple block, the only place
-of public and general worship in the city; when I was there it was
-unfinished, a mere waste. The Tabernacle, the principal building,
-required enlarging, and was quite unfitted for the temple of a new
-faith. It seemed hardly in accordance with the energy and devotedness
-of this new religion that such a building should represent the House
-of the Lord, while Mr. Brigham Young, the Prophet, thinking of his own
-comfort before the glory of God, was lodged, like Solomon of old, in
-what was comparatively a palace. Near the Tabernacle was the Endowment
-House, or place of great medicine. Many rites took place here in
-secret that were carefully concealed from Gentile eyes, and with a
-result that human sacrifices were said to be performed within its
-walls. Personally, I did not believe in these orgies; there were
-probably ceremonies of the nature of masonic rites. Gentiles declared
-that the ceremonies consisted of a sort of miracle play, and a
-respectable judge was popularly known as “The Devil,” because he was
-supposed to play the part of the Father of Sin when tempting Adam and
-Eve. It was said that baptism by total immersion was performed, and
-the ceremony occupied eleven or twelve hours, the neophyte, after
-bathing, being anointed with oil, and dressed in clean white garments,
-cap and shirt, of which the latter was rarely removed.
-
-On the Monday after my arrival a smoke-like column towards the east
-announced that the emigrants were crossing the bench-land, and the
-people hurried from all sides to greet them. Of course, I went, too,
-as the arrival of these emigrants, or rather prilgrims, was one of the
-sights of the City of the Saints. Presently the carts came. All the
-new arrivals were in clean clothes, the men washed and shaved, and the
-girls were singing hymns, habited in Sunday dress. Except the very
-young and the very old, the company of pilgrims did not trouble the
-waggons. They marched through clouds of dust over the sandy road
-leading to the town, accompanied by crowds, some on foot, others on
-horseback, and a few in traps. A score of youths of rather rowdy
-appearance were mounted in all the tawdriness of Western
-trappings――Rocky Mountain hats, embroidered buckskin garments, red
-flannel shirts, gigantic spurs, pistols and knives stuck in red sashes
-with depending ends. By-and-by the train of pilgrims reached the
-public square, and here, before the invasion of the Federal army, the
-first President used to make a point of honouring the arrival of
-pilgrims by a greeting in person. Not so on this occasion; indeed, it
-was whispered that Brigham Young seldom left his house except for the
-Tabernacle, and, despite his powerful will and high moral courage, did
-not show the personal intrepidity of Mr. Joseph Smith. He had guards
-at his gates, and never appeared in public unattended by friends and
-followers, who were, of course, armed. On this occasion the place of
-Mr. Brigham Young was taken by President-Bishop Hunter. Preceded by a
-brass band, and accompanied by the City Marshal, the Bishop stood up
-in his conveyance, and calling up the captains of companies, shook
-hands with them, and proceeded forthwith to business. In a short time
-arrangements were made for the housing and employment of all who
-required work, whether men or women. Everything was conducted with
-decorum.
-
-I mingled freely among the crowd, and was introduced to many, whose
-names I did not remember. Indeed, the nomenclature of the Mormons was
-apt to be rather confusing, because, in order to distinguish children
-of different mothers, it was usual to prefix the maternal to the
-paternal parents’ name, suppressing the Christian name altogether.
-Thus, for instance, my sons, if I had any, by Miss Brown and Miss
-Jones and Miss Robinson respectively, would call themselves Brother
-Brown-Burton, Brother Jones-Burton, and Brother Robinson-Burton. The
-saints, even the highest dignitaries, waive the reverend and the
-ridiculous esquire, that “title much in use among vulgar people.” The
-Mormon pontiff and the eminences around him are simply brother or
-mister. _En revanche_, amongst the crowd there are as many colonels
-and majors, about ten being the proportion to one captain, as in the
-days when Mrs. Trollope set the Mississippi on fire. Sister is applied
-to women of all ages, whether married or single.
-
-Many of the pilgrims were English, who had crossed over the plains,
-looking towards Mr. Brigham Young and Great Salt Lake City much as
-Roman Catholics regard the Pope and Rome. The arrangements for their
-convoy appeared to have been admirable, but many tales were told of
-mismangement. An old but favourite illustration of the trials of
-inexperienced travellers from the Mississippi to California was as
-follows. A man rode up to a standing waggon, and seeing a
-wretched-looking lad nursing a starving baby, asked him what the
-matter might be: “Wal now,” responded the youth, “guess I’m kinder
-streakt――ole dad’s drunk, ole marm’s in hy-sterics, brother Jim be
-playing poker with two gamblers, sister Sal’s down yonder a-courtin’
-with an in-tire stranger, this ’ere baby’s got the diaree, the team’s
-clean guv out, the waggon’s broke down, it’s twenty miles to the next
-water. I don’t care a damn if I never see Californy!”
-
-The dress of the fair sex in Great Salt Lake City was somewhat
-peculiar. The article called in Cornwall a “gowk,” in other parts of
-England a “cottage bonnet,” was universally used, plus a long, thick
-veil behind, which acts as a cape or shawl. A loose jacket and a
-petticoat, mostly of calico or some inexpensive stuff, made up all
-that was visible. The wealthier ladies affected silks, especially
-black. Love of dress, however, was as great among the sisters as in
-women in any other part of the world; in fact, I noticed that this
-essential is everywhere a pleasing foible, and the semi-nude savage,
-the crinolined “civilisee,” the nun and the quakeress, the sinner and
-the saint, the _biche_ and the _grande dame_, all meet for once in
-their lives pretty much on a par and on the same ground.
-
-The sisters of Great Salt Lake City――at least, the native ones――were
-distinctly good-looking, with regular features, lofty brow, clear
-complexion, long, silky hair, and a bewitching soft smile. It would
-seem that polygamy had agreed with them. The belle of the city, so far
-as I could see, was a Miss Sally A――――, daughter of a judge. Strict
-Mormons, however, rather wagged their heads at this pretty person. She
-was supposed to prefer Gentile and heathenish society, and it was
-whispered against her that she had actually vowed never to marry a
-saint.
-
-The City of the Saints was not a dull city. In addition to the
-spiritual exercises, provision was also made for physical pastimes.
-The Social Hall was the usual scene of Mormon festivities, and here
-one could see the beauty and fashion of Great Salt Lake City _en
-grande tenue_. Good amateur acting took place here, and dancing seemed
-to be considered a most edifying exercise. The Prophet danced, the
-apostles danced, the bishops danced, the young and the old danced.
-There is high authority for perseverance in this practice: David
-danced, we are told, with all his might; and Scipio, according to
-Seneca, was wont thus to exercise his heroic limbs. The balls at the
-Social Hall were highly select, and conducted on an expensive scale;
-ten-dollar tickets admitted one lady with one gentleman, and for all
-extra ladies two dollars each had to be paid. Space was limited, and
-many a Jacob was shorn of his glory by having to appear with only
-Rachael in his train, and without a following of Leahs, Zilpahs, and
-Bilhahs.
-
-An account of one of these balls might be of interest. The hall was
-tastefully decorated. At four o’clock in the afternoon the Prophet
-entered, and order was called. He ascended a kind of platform, and,
-with uplifted hands, blessed those present. He then descended to the
-boards and led off the first cotillon. At 8 p.m. supper was served;
-dancing was resumed with spirit; and finally the party ended as it
-began, with prayer and benediction, about five o’clock in the
-morning――thirteen successive mortal hours. I may mention that, in
-order to balance any disparity of the sexes, each gentleman was
-allowed to lead out two ladies and dance with them, either together or
-alternately. What an advantage this would be in many a London
-ball-room!
-
-I will now proceed to describe my visit to the President, or Prophet,
-Brigham Young. Governor Cumming had first written to ask if he would
-give me the honour of an interview; and, having received a gracious
-reply, I proceeded with him to call upon the Prophet on August 31st,
-at 11 a.m., as appointed. We arrived at the house, and, after a slight
-scrutiny, passed the guard, and, walking down the verandah, entered
-the Prophet’s private office. Several people who were sitting there
-rose at Governor Cumming’s entrance. At a few words of introduction,
-Brigham Young advanced, shook hands with me, and invited me to be
-seated on a sofa on one side of the room, and presented me to those
-present.
-
-The “President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints all
-over the World” was born at Whittingham, Vermont, on June 1st, 1801.
-He was, consequently, at the time I saw him, in 1860, fifty-nine years
-old; he looked about forty-five. I had expected to see a
-venerable-looking old man; but scarcely a grey thread appeared in his
-hair, which was parted on the side, light-coloured, and rather thick.
-His forehead was somewhat narrow, the eyebrows thin, the eyes between
-grey and blue, with a calm and somewhat reserved expression. A slight
-droop in the left lid made me think he had suffered from paralysis; I
-afterwards heard it was the result of a neuralgia, which long
-tormented him. The nose, which was fine and somewhat pointed, was bent
-a little to the left; the lips were like the New Englander’s, and the
-teeth were imperfect. The cheeks were rather fleshy, the chin somewhat
-peaked, and face clean-shaven, except under the jaws, where the beard
-was allowed to grow. The hands were well-made, and the figure was
-somewhat large and broad-shouldered.
-
-The Prophet’s dress was neat and plain as a Quaker’s, of grey
-homespun, except the cravat and waistcoat. His coat was of antique cut
-and, like the pantaloons, baggy, and the buttons were black. A necktie
-of dark silk, with a large bow, was passed round a starchless collar.
-He wore a black satin waistcoat, and plain gold chain. Altogether, the
-Prophet’s appearance was that of a gentleman farmer in New England.
-
-His manner was affable and impressive, and distinctly unpretentious.
-He showed no signs of dogmatism or bigotry, and never once entered,
-with me at least, on the subject of religion. He impressed me with a
-certain sense of power. It was commonly said there was only one chief
-in Great Salt Lake City, and that was “Brigham.” His temper was even,
-and his manner cold; in fact, like his face, somewhat bloodless. He
-had great powers of observation and judgment of character; if he
-disliked a stranger at the first interview, he never saw him again. He
-lived a most temperate and sober life, his favourite food being baked
-potatoes, with a little buttermilk, and his drink water; he
-disapproved, like all strict Mormons, of spirituous liquors, and never
-touched anything stronger than a glass of lager beer, and never smoked
-tobacco. His followers deemed him an angel of light, his foes a fiend
-damned; he was, I presume, neither one nor the other. He has been
-called a hypocrite, swindler, forger, and murderer; no one looked it
-less. In fact, he was the St. Paul of the New Dispensation; he gave
-point, energy, and consistency to the disjointed and turbulent
-fanaticism of Mr. Joseph Smith; and if he was not able to create, he
-was at least able to control circumstances.
-
-Such was His Excellency, President Brigham Young, “painter and
-glazier”――his earliest craft――prophet, revelator, translator, and
-seer; the man who was revered as no king or kaiser, pope or pontiff,
-ever was; who, like the Old Man of the Mountain, by holding up his
-hand could cause the death of any one within his reach; who, governing
-as well as reigning, long stood up to fight with the sword of the
-Lord, and with his few hundred guerillas, against the mighty power of
-the United States; who outwitted all diplomacy opposed to him; and,
-finally, made a treaty of peace with the President of the great
-Republic as though he had wielded the combined power of France,
-Russia, and England.
-
-The Prophet’s private office, where he was in the habit of transacting
-the greater part of his business, correcting his sermons, and
-conducting his correspondence, was a plain, neat room, with a large
-writing-table and money-safe. I remarked a pistol and rifle hung
-within easy reach on the right-hand wall. There was a look of order
-which suited the character of the man, and his style of doing business
-was to issue distinct directions to his employés, after which he
-disliked referring to the subject. He had the reputation of being a
-wealthy man, though he began life as a poor one; and, so far as I
-could see, he had made his money, not by enriching himself by the
-tithes and plunder of his followers, but in business and by hard work.
-
-After the first few words of greeting, I interpreted the Prophet’s
-look to mean that he would like to know my object in coming to the
-City of the Saints. I told him that, having read and heard much about
-Utah as it was said to be, I was anxious to see Utah as it was. He
-then touched upon agricultural and other subjects; but we carefully
-avoided anything to do with religion or his domestic peculiarities, on
-which, I was warned, he disliked to be questioned. After talking for
-about half an hour, the conversation began to flag, so we rose up,
-shook hands all round, as was the custom there, and took our leave.
-
-The first impression left upon my mind, and subsequently confirmed,
-was that the Prophet was no common man, and that he had none of the
-weakness and vanity which characterise the common uncommon man. I also
-remarked the veneration shown to him by his followers, whose affection
-for him was equalled only by the confidence with which they entrusted
-to him their dearest interests in this world and in the next. After my
-visit many congratulated me, as would the followers of Tien Wong, or
-Heavenly King, upon having at last seen the most remarkable man in the
-world.
-
-The Prophet’s block was surrounded by a high wall and strengthened
-with semi-circular buttresses; it consisted of many houses. The Lion
-House was occupied by Mrs. Young and her family in the eastern part of
-the square. On the west of it lay the private office, in which we were
-received, and further west again was the public office, where the
-church and other business was transacted. Beyond this was the Bee
-House, so named from the sculptured bee-hive in front of it. The Bee
-House was a large building with long walls facing east and west. It
-was tenanted by the Prophet’s “plurality wives” and their families,
-who each had a bedroom, sitting-room, and closet, simply and similarly
-furnished. There was a Moslem air of retirement about the Bee House;
-the face of woman was rarely seen at the window, and her voice was
-never heard without. Anti-Mormons declared the Bee House to be like
-the State prison of Auburn, a self-supporting establishment, for not
-even the wives of the Prophet were allowed to live in idleness.
-
-As I have said before, I was unwilling to add to those who had annoyed
-the Prophet by domestic allusions, and have, therefore, no direct
-knowledge of the extent to which he carried his polygamy; some
-Gentiles allowed him seventeen, others thirty-six, wives out of a
-household of seventy members, others an indefinite number of wives
-scattered through the different settlements. Of these, doubtless, many
-were but wives by name――such, for instance, as the wives of the late
-Prophet; and others were married more for the purpose of building up
-for themselves spiritual kingdoms than for the normal purpose of
-matrimony. I judged the Prophet’s progeny to be numerous from the
-following circumstance. On one occasion, when standing with him on the
-belvedere, my eye fell upon a new erection; it could be compared
-externally to nothing but an English gentleman’s hunting-stables, and
-I asked him what it was intended for. “A private school for my
-children,” he replied, “directed by Brother Kelsey.”
-
-The following Sunday I attended a Mormon service. I passed the morning
-in the painful but appropriate exercise of reading the books of Mormon
-and of Moroni the prophet. Some people had told me that it was the
-best imitation of the Old Testament existing; to me it seemed to
-emulate the sprightliness of Leviticus. Surely there never was a book
-so dull and heavy; it was as monotonous as a sage prairie. In
-Mormonism it holds the same place as the Bible in the more ignorant
-Roman Catholic countries, where religious reading is chiefly
-restricted to the Breviary, tales of miracles, of saints, and so
-forth. It was strictly proper, and did not contain a word about
-materialism and polygamy.
-
-The early part of the morning passed. At 9.45 a.m. we entered “the
-Bowery”; it was advisable to go early to get seats within hearing.
-This place was a kind of “hangar,” about one hundred feet long by the
-same breadth, with a roofing of bushes and boughs supported by rough
-posts, and open for ventilation on the sides; it contained about three
-thousand souls. The congregation was accommodated upon long rows of
-benches, opposite the dais, or tribune, which looked like a long lane
-of boarding open to the north, where it faced the audience, and
-entered by steps from the east. Between the people and the platform
-was the orchestra――a violin, a bass, two women, and four men
-performers――who sang the sweet songs of Zion tolerably well.
-
-We took our seats on the benches, where we could see the congregation
-flocking in, a proceeding which was not over for half an hour. The
-people were all in their Sunday best, and many a pretty face peeped
-out from the sun-bonnet, though the “mushroom” and the “pork-pie” had
-found their way over the plains, and trim figures were clad in neat
-dresses, sometimes with a little faded finery. The men were decently
-attired; but the weather being hot, many of them had left their coats
-at home, and had come in their shirt sleeves. The custom, however,
-looked natural, and there was no want of cleanliness, such as
-sometimes lurks behind the bulwark of buttons. The elders and
-dignitaries on the platform affected coats of black broadcloth. All
-wore their hats till the address began, then all uncovered. The number
-of old people astonished me; half a dozen were sitting on the same
-bench: these broken-down men and decrepit crones had come to lay their
-bones in the Holy City.
-
-At 10 a.m. the meeting opened with a spiritual song, and then a
-civilised-looking man, being called upon by the presiding Elder for
-the day, offered up prayer. The matter was good, but somewhat
-commonplace. The conclusion was an “Amen,” in which all hands joined.
-It reminded me of the historical practice of “humming” in the
-seventeenth century.
-
-Next arose Bishop Abraham O. Smoot, second Mayor of Zion, who began
-with “Brethring,” and proceeded in a Methody tone of voice to praise
-the saints and pitch into the apostates. He made an undue use of the
-regular Wesleyan organ――the nose; but he appeared to speak excellent
-sense in execrable English. As he was in the midst of an allusion to
-the President, Brigham Young entered, and all turned their faces, even
-the old lady who was sleeping through the discourse.
-
-The Prophet was dressed as usual in grey homespun and home-woven; he
-wore, like most of the elders, a tall, steeple-crowned straw hat, with
-a broad black ribbon, and he had the gentility of black kid gloves. He
-entered the tribune covered, and sat down. A man in a fit was carried
-out pumpwards. Bishop Smoot concluded with informing us that we should
-live for God. Another hymn was sung. Then a great silence, which told
-us that something was about to happen: _that_ old man held his cough;
-_that_ old lady awoke with a start; _that_ child ceased to squall.
-President Brigham Young removed his hat, advanced to the end of the
-tribune, expectorated into the spittoon, restored the balance of fluid
-by a glass of water from a decanter on a stand, and, leaning slightly
-forwards with both hands propped on the green baize of the tribune,
-addressed his followers.
-
-The discourse began slowly, word crept titubantly after word, and the
-opening phrases were scarcely audible; but as the orator warmed, his
-voice rose high and sonorous, and a fluency so remarkable succeeded
-hesitation that the latter seemed to have been a work of art. The
-gestures were easy and rounded, except one of raising and shaking the
-forefinger, which struck me as threatening and bullying. The address
-was long. Mormonism was a great fact. Religion had made him, Brigham
-Young, the happiest of men. He was ready to dance like a Shaker. At
-this the Prophet, who was a good mimic and had much of humour, raised
-his right arm, and gave, to the amusement of the congregation, a droll
-imitation of the Shakers. A great deal of what followed contained
-topical allusions. The Saints had a glorious destiny before them, and
-their morality was remarkable as the beauty of the Promised Land. The
-soft breeze blowing over the Bowery, and the glorious sunshine
-outside, made the allusion highly appropriate. After a somewhat
-lengthy string of sentences concerning the great tribulation coming on
-earth――it had been coming for the last eighteen hundred years――he
-concluded with good wishes to visitors and Gentiles generally, with a
-solemn blessing upon the President of the United States, the
-territorial Governor, and all that be in authority over us, and with
-an “Amen” which was loudly re-echoed by all around, he restored his
-hat and resumed his seat.
-
-Then arose Mr. Heber C. Kimball, the second President. He was the
-model of a Methodist, a tall, powerful man, with dark, piercing eyes
-and clean-shaven, blue face. He affected the Boanerges style, from a
-certain dislike to the Nonconformist rant and whine, and his manner of
-speech savoured rather of familiarity than of reverence. Several of
-his remarks were loudly laughed at by the congregation. His style of
-oratory was certainly startling; he reminded me of Luther’s
-description of Tetzel’s sermon, in which he used to shout the words
-“Bring! bring! bring!” with such a horrible bellowing that one would
-have said it was a mad bull rushing on the people and goring them with
-its horns.
-
-After this worthy’s address, a list of names for whom letters were
-lying unclaimed was called from the platform. A missionary adjourned
-the meeting till two o’clock, delivered the prayer of dismissal,
-during which all stood up, and ended with the Benediction and “Amen.”
-The Sacrament was not administered on this occasion. It was often
-given, and reduced to the very elements of a ceremony; even water was
-used instead of wine, because the latter is of Gentile manufacture.
-Two elders walked up and down the rows, one carrying a pitcher, the
-other a plate of broken bread, and each Saint partook of both.
-
-That same evening when dining out, I had a lesson in Mormon modesty.
-The mistress of the house, a Gentile but not an anti-Mormon, was
-requested by a saintly visitor, who was also a widow, to instruct me
-that on no account I must propose to see her home. “Mormon ladies,”
-said my kind informant, “are very strict”; “Unnecessarily so on this
-occasion,” I could not help adding. Something similar occurred on
-another occasion: a very old lady, wishing to return home,
-surreptitiously left the room and sidled out of the garden gate, and
-my companion, an officer from Camp Floyd, at once recognised the
-object of the retreat――_viz._ to avoid our possible escort. I
-afterwards learned at dinner and elsewhere amongst the Mormons to
-abjure the Gentile practice of giving precedence to the fair sex. The
-lesson, however, was not new; I had been taught the same, in times
-past, amongst certain German missionaries, who assumed precedence over
-their wives upon a principle borrowed from St. Paul.
-
-There was a certain monotony of life in Great Salt Lake City, a
-sameness from day to day, which does not render the subject favourable
-for a lively description; moreover, the Moslem gloom, the result of
-austere morals and manner, of the semi-seclusion of the sexes, and, in
-my case, the reserve arising towards a stranger who appeared in the
-train of Federal officials, hung over society. We rose early, and
-breakfasted at any hour between 6 and 9 a.m. Then ensued “business,”
-which seemed to consist principally of correcting one’s teeth and a
-walk about the town, with an occasional liquor up. Dinner was at 1
-p.m., announced not by the normal gong of Eastern States, but by a
-most discordant hand-bell. Jostling into the long room of the
-ordinary, we took our seats, and, seizing our forks, proceeded at once
-to action. Nothing but water was drunk at dinner, except when a
-gentleman preferred to wash down roast pork with a tumbler of milk.
-Wine in this part of the world was dear and bad, and even if the
-Saints made their own, it could scarcely be cheap, on account of the
-price of labour. The feeding ended with a glass of liquor, not at the
-bar, because there was none, but in the privacy of one’s own chamber,
-which takes from drinking half its charms. Most of the well-to-do men
-found time for a siesta in the afternoon. There was supper at 6 p.m.,
-and the evening was quietly spent with a friend.
-
-To describe Great Salt Lake City in those days without some account of
-polygamy would be like seeing _Hamlet_ with the part of the Prince of
-Denmark omitted. It is, I suppose, therefore necessary to supply a
-popular view of the peculiar institution which at once was the bane
-and the blessing of Mormonism――plurality. I approach the subject with
-a feeling of despair, so conflicting are opinions concerning it, and
-so difficult is it to naturalise in Europe the customs of Asia,
-Africa, and America, and reconcile the habits of the nineteenth
-century A.D. with those of 1900 B.C. A return to the patriarchal ages
-must necessarily have its disadvantages.
-
-I found that the marriage ceremony was performed in the Temple, or, if
-that was impossible, in Mr. Brigham Young’s office, properly speaking,
-by the Prophet, who, however, could depute any follower to act for
-him. When mutual consent was given, the parties were pronounced man
-and wife in the name of Jesus Christ; prayers followed, and there was
-a patriarchal feast of joy in the evening.
-
-The first wife, as amongst polygamists generally, was _the_ wife, and
-assumed the husband’s name and title. Her plurality partners were
-called sisters, such as Sister Anne, or Sister Maria, and were the
-“aunts” of her children. The first wife was married for time, the
-others were sealed for eternity. Girls rarely remained single past
-sixteen (in England the average marrying age is thirty), and they
-would have been the pity of the community if they had been doomed to a
-waste of youth so unnatural.
-
-Divorce was rarely obtained by the man, who was ashamed to own that he
-could not keep his house in order. Some, such as the President, would
-grant it only in the case of adultery; and here I may say the two
-mortal sins in Mormonism are (1) adultery, and (2) shedding innocent
-blood. Wives, however, were allowed to claim it for cruelty,
-desertion, or neglect. Mormon women married to Gentiles were cut off
-from the society of the Saints, and without uncharitableness men
-suspected a sound previous reason. The widows of the Prophet were
-married to his successor, as David took unto himself the wives of
-Saul; being generally aged, they occupied the position of matron
-rather than wife, and the same was the case where a man espoused a
-mother and her daughter.
-
-There were rules and regulations of Mormonism. All sensuality in the
-married state was strictly forbidden beyond that necessary to procure
-progeny――the practice, in fact, of Adam and Abraham.
-
-It is not necessary to go into the arguments which are adduced by the
-Mormons in favour of polygamy, nor to recount the arguments on the
-other side. I content myself here with stating facts as I saw them. It
-will be asked, What view did the softer sex take of this state of
-affairs? A few, mostly from the Old Country, lamented that Mr. Joseph
-Smith ever asked of the Creator that question which was answered in
-the affirmative. A very few, like the Curia Electa, Emma, the first
-wife of Mr. Joseph Smith――who said of her, by-the-bye, that she could
-not be contented in Heaven without rule――apostatised, and became Mrs.
-Brideman. But most of the women were even more in favour of polygamy
-than the men. For this attachment of the women of the Saints to the
-doctrine of plurality I found two reasons. The Mormon prophets
-expended all their arts upon this end, well knowing that without the
-hearty co-operation of mothers and wives, sisters and daughters, their
-institution could not exist long. They bribed them with promises of
-Paradise, they subjugated them with threats of annihilation. With
-them, once a Mormon always a Mormon. The apostate Mormon was looked
-upon by other people as a scamp and a knave, and as regards a woman,
-she was looked upon as worse than a prostitute. The Mormon household
-has been described by its enemies as a hell of hatred, envy, and
-malice; the same has been said of the Moslem harem; both, I believe,
-suffer from the assertions of prejudice or ignorance.
-
-Another curious effect may be noticed. When a man had four or five
-wives, with reasonable families by each, he was fixed for life; his
-interests, if not his affections, bound him irrevocably to his New
-Faith. But the bachelor, as well as the monogamic youth, was prone to
-backsliding and apostacy. This, when I was at Great Salt Lake City,
-was apparently so common that many of the new Saints formed a mere
-floating population. But without expressing any further opinions
-(those I have given so far are merely the opinions of others), I may
-say that the result of my investigations was to prove that Great Salt
-Lake City had been wonderfully successful in its colonisation.
-Physically speaking, there was no comparison between the Saints and
-the class from which they were mostly taken, and, in point of view of
-mere morality, the Mormon community was perhaps purer than any other
-of equal numbers.
-
-About the middle of September the time for my departure drew nigh. I
-prepared for difficulties by having my hair “shingled off,” till my
-head somewhat resembled a pointer’s dorsum, and deeply regretted
-having left all my wigs behind me. We laid in a good store of
-provisions, not forgetting an allowance of whiskey and schnapps.
-
-My last evening was spent in the genial company of a few friends. I
-thanked Governor Cumming for his generous hospitality, and made my
-acknowledgments to the courtesy of his amiable wife. My adieux were on
-an extensive scale, and the next day, September 19th, in the morning,
-I left Great Salt Lake City, _en route_ for the South.
-
-The day was fine and wondrous clear, affording a splendid back view of
-the Happy Valley before it was finally shut out from sight, and the
-Utah Lake looked a very gem of beauty, a diamond in its setting of
-steelly blue mountains. It was with a feeling of real regret that I
-bade adieu to the City of the Saints.
-
-
-
-
-_A MISSION TO DAHOMÉ_
-
-1863
-
-
-
-
-_A MISSION TO DAHOMÉ_
-
-1863
-
-
-It is a long stride from Salt Lake City to Dahomé, from the Mormons to
-the Amazons, but I take my visit to the King of Dahomé as next in
-date. Before, however, beginning my journey to Dahomé let me touch
-briefly on that much-vexed and little-understood subject――the negro.
-
-Central Intertropical Africa, lying between north latitude 10° and
-south latitude 20°, at that time contained eight considerable negro
-circles, which may be called kingdoms. Of these there were three on
-the west coast north of the Equator, namely:
-
-1st. Ashanti, the land which exports the “Minas” negroes. This
-despotism has been well known to us since the beginning of the present
-century. The capital is Kumasi, nearly 133 direct miles from the
-coast. This empire may be said to rest on two pillars, blood and gold.
-Human sacrifice was excessive, and the “customs” mean the slaughter of
-fellow-creatures.
-
-2nd. Benin, a kingdom well known to old travellers, and the place
-where Belzoni of the Pyramids died. I visited it in August, 1862, and
-my reception was the crucifixion of a negro. On the night after my
-arrival a second slave was slain and placed before my doorway. My
-lodgings commanded a view of the principal square, which was strewn
-with human bones, _green_ and _white_.
-
-3rd. Dahomé. From the plain and unvarnished account of this tyranny,
-which I am about to relate, may be estimated the amount of hopeless
-misery which awaited the African in Africa. And as it is
-unsatisfactory to point out a disease without suggesting a remedy, I
-will propose my panacea at the end of this essay.
-
-We now cross the Equator and find ourselves among the great South
-African family. Their common origin is proved by their speech. Briefly
-to characterise their language, the place of our genders are taken by
-personal and impersonal forms, and all changes of words are made at
-the beginning, not, as with us, at the end. The Kaffir (Caffre race in
-South-east Africa) is evidently a mixed breed, and it has nearly
-annihilated the Bushmen and the Hottentots――the original lords of the
-land. There is a curious resemblance between the Coptic, or Old
-Egyptian, and the Hottentot tongues, which suggests that in the
-prehistoric ages one language extended from the Nile Valley to the
-Cape of Good Hope. The true negroes, distinguished by their long,
-ape-like head and projecting jaws, bowed shins and elongated heels and
-forearms, are all the tribes of Intertropical Africa whose blood is
-unmixed. This is my definition; but of this point opinions differ.
-
-And here we may stand to view the gleam of light which the future
-casts across the Dark Continent. Slowly but surely the wave of Moslem
-conquest rolls down towards the line. Every Moslem is a propagandist,
-and their traders, unlike ours, carry conversion with them. This fact
-European missionaries deny, because they do not like it: they would
-rather preach to heathens than to Moslems, whom Locke describes as
-unorthodox Christians. They even deny the superiority of El Islam,
-which forbids the pagan abominations of child-murder, human sacrifice,
-witch-burning, ordeal-poisons, and horrors innumerable. But we, who
-look forward to the advent of a higher law, of a nobler humanity, hail
-with infinite pleasure every sign of progress.
-
-Philanthropists, whose heads are sometimes softer than their hearts,
-have summed up their opinion of slavery as the “sum of all
-villainies.” I look upon it as an evil, to the slaveholder even more
-than to the slave, but a necessary evil, or, rather, a condition of
-things essentially connected, like polygamy, with the progress of
-human society, especially in the tropics. The savage hunting tribes
-slave for themselves; they are at the bottom of the ladder. Advancing
-to agricultural and settled life, man must have assistants, hands,
-slaves. As population increases, commerce develops itself and free
-labour fills the markets; the slave and the serf are emancipated: they
-have done their task; they disappear from the community, never more to
-return. Hence every nation, Hindu and Hebrew, English and French, have
-had slaves; all rose to their present state of civilisation by the
-“sum of all villainies.” And here, when owning slavery to be an evil,
-I must guard against being misunderstood. It is an evil to the white
-man: it is often an incalculable boon to the black. In the case of the
-negro it is life, it is comfort, it is civilisation; in the case of
-the white it has done evil by retarding progress, by demoralising
-society, and by giving rise to a mixed race.
-
-And there is yet another point to be settled when speaking of the
-negro. In the United States every black man is a negro, or, to speak
-politely, a “cullard pussun.” Thus the noble races of Northern Africa
-and the half-Arab Moors, the Nubians and Abyssinians, and the fine
-Kaffir (Caffre) type of South-eastern Africa are confounded with the
-anthropoid of Sierra Leone, of the Guinea and of the Congo regions.
-The families first mentioned differ more from the true negro than they
-do from the white man.
-
-My first visit to Gelele, then King of Dahomé, was in May and June,
-1863. Already in 1861 I had proposed to restore those amicable
-relations which we had with his father Gezo; but my application was
-not accepted by the Government. On my return to the West African coast
-after a six weeks’ visit to England, the journey was made on my own
-responsibility, and it was not pleasant. I was alone――in such matters
-negroes do not count as men――and four mortal days upon the Slave Coast
-lagoons, salt, miry rivers, rich only in mud, miasma, and mosquitoes,
-with drenching rains and burning suns playing upon a cramping canoe
-without awning, are unsatisfactory even to remember. Having reached
-Whydah, the seaport and slave-market of Dahomé, I procured a hammock,
-and in three days I arrived at Kana, a summer residency for the Court,
-distant 7,500 miles from Agbomé, the capital.
-
-The human sacrifices called the “nago customs” had lately ended.
-Twelve men had lost their lives, and, dressed in various attire like
-reapers, dancers, and musicians, had been exposed on tall scaffolds of
-strong scantling. “_C’est se moquer de l’humanité_,” remarked to me
-the Principal of the French Mission at Whydah. But the corpses had
-been removed, and during my flying visit of five days nothing
-offensive was witnessed.
-
-At Kana I met M. Jules Gerard, first “_le chasseur_,” then “_le tueur
-des lions_”: we had sailed together from Europe to Madeira, and he had
-been sea-sick during the whole voyage. Men who have spent their youth
-in the excitement of dangerous sport often lose their nerve in middle
-age. This was the case with the unfortunate lion-hunter; the sight of
-the “customs” threw him into a fever. Disappointment also weighed upon
-his spirits. He came to West Africa in the hope that his fame as a
-killer of lions had preceded him; but the only lion that can exist in
-that mouldy climate is the British lion, and even he is not a terrible
-beast to bring amongst the ladies. He expected to find Dahomé a kind
-of Algiers, and he exchanged a good for a very bad country. He had set
-his mind upon crossing the northern frontier; but the king at once put
-an end to that plan, and afterwards played me the same trick. He had
-also based his hopes upon his good shooting and upon an explosive
-bullet calculated to do great execution; but many of the king’s women
-guards could use their guns better than he did, and when the said
-shell was produced, Gelele sent to his stores and brought out a
-box-full.
-
-M. Gerard proposed to himself a journey which would have severely
-tried the health of the strongest man in Europe. He resolved to make
-his way from the Gulf of Guinea through dangerous Timbuktu (Timbuctos)
-and the terrible Sahara to Algiers. I advised him to retire to
-Teneriffe or Madeira and recruit his energies. But he was game to the
-last. He made another departure through the malarious Sherbro country,
-south of pestilential Sierra Leone. The next thing we heard of him was
-when crossing the Jong River he had been drowned by the upsetting of a
-canoe. Somewhat later came the report that he had been foully
-murdered. I was rejoiced to hear that a subscription had been raised
-for his aged and bereaved mother.
-
-Having reported that Dahomé was, under normal circumstances, as safe
-as most parts of Africa, I received in August, 1863, orders to visit
-it as Commissioner. My “mission” was to make certain presents to the
-king, and to preach up cotton and palm oil versus war and human
-sacrifices. I may begin by saying I lectured hard and talked to the
-wind.
-
-H.M.’s cruiser _Antelope_ landed me at Whydah in December, the dry
-season, and the surf was not particularly dangerous. The beach is
-open; between it and Brazil rolls the broad Atlantic; and near the
-shore are an outer and inner sandbar with an interval forming a fine
-breeding-ground for sharks. A girl is occasionally thrown in as an
-offering to “Hu,” the sea-dog, and this does not diminish the evil.
-
-We entered Whydah in state, paraded and surrounded by chiefs and
-soldiery in war dress, kilts and silver horns like the giraffe’s:
-their arms were long guns and short swords for decapitating the
-wounded. Each troop had its flag, its umbrella, its band of drums and
-tom-toms, its horns and cymbals. I especially remarked a gourd bottle
-full of, and covered with, cowries, or pebbles――in fact the celebrated
-“maraca” of Brazil, which, it has been conjectured, contributed
-towards the formation of the word America. Every five minutes the
-warriors halted to drink and dance. The drink is easily described――tafia
-or bad caxaca. But the dance! I defy mortal man to paint it in words.
-Let me briefly say that the arms are held up as though the owner were
-running, the elbows being jerked so as nearly to meet behind the back;
-the hands paddle like the paws of a swimming dog; the feet shuffle and
-stamp as though treading water; the body-trunk joins in the play, and
-the hips move backwards and forwards to the beating time. The jig and
-the hornpipe are repose compared with this performance. There is also
-a decapitation dance over an ideal dead enemy, whose head is duly sawn
-off with the edge of the hand.
-
-At Whydah I lodged at the English fort, a large double-storied
-building of “taipa,” tenanted by Wesleyan missionaries. It was once a
-strong place, as the ruined towers and burst guns show.
-
-There were three other forts in the town. The Brazilian, which was
-nearest the sea, was held by Chico de Souza, the son of the late
-Francisco Fellis de Souza. This was a remarkable man. Born at
-Cachoeira, near Bahia, he emigrated to Africa, where by courage and
-conduct he became the Chacha, or Governor, of the Guild of Merchants,
-a kind of Board of Trade. He made an enormous fortune, and by his many
-wives he left about a hundred olive branches. Though a slave-dealer,
-he was a man of honour and honesty. The English had done him many an
-injury, yet he was invariably courteous and hospitable to every
-English traveller. He strongly opposed human sacrifice, and he saved
-many lives by curious contrivances. Of the same stamp was M. Domingos
-Martins of Bahia, once celebrated for enormous wealth. He died in the
-interval between my first and second visits. I regretted his death,
-for he had been most kind and attentive to me.
-
-The Portuguese fort had also been repaired, and was inhabited by six
-members of the Lyons Mission, “_Le Vicariate Apostolique de Dahomé_.”
-They kept a school, and they were apparently convinced that it was
-hopeless to attempt the conversion of adults. The superior, Father
-François Borghero, had several times been ill-treated by the
-barbarians, and his hatred of idolatry had exposed him to not a little
-danger. It is rare in those lands to find a highly educated and
-thoroughly gentlemanly man; and, looking back, I am not surprised that
-all my time not occupied by study or observation was spent in the
-Portuguese fort.
-
-Lastly, there was the French fort, in far better condition than the
-others. It was held in my time by M. Marius Daumas, agent to M. Regis
-(_aîné_) of Marseilles, and _faute de mieux_ he was buying and
-shipping palm oil.
-
-Whydah was easily seen. The houses were red “taipa” with thick thatch,
-and each had its large and slovenly courtyard. The market-place was a
-long street of small booths open to the front, where everything from a
-needle to a moleque (small slave-boy) could be bought. The
-thoroughfares were studded with small round roofs of grass, which
-sheltered a hideous deity called Legba. He was made of muddy clay,
-with holes for eyes and cowries for teeth, and he squatted before a
-pot in which the faithful placed provisions, which were devoured by
-the urubu (vulture). The chief temple was dedicated to the danh, or
-snake, which here was the principal “fetish.” It was a circular hut
-with two doorless entrances, and the venerated boas curled themselves
-comfortably on the thickness of the walls. The largest was about six
-feet long, and it was dangerous only to rats, of which it was very
-fond. Several foreigners had been killed for injuring these reptiles,
-and Whydah, once an independent kingdom, lost her liberty through the
-snakes. When attacked by Dahomé in 1729, her chief defence was to
-place a serpent on the invaders’ path. The Dahomans killed the
-guardian genius and slaughtered the Whydahs till the streets ran
-blood. But, when the conquerors had reduced their neighbour, they gave
-her leave to adore the snake, and Whydah felt consoled, even happy. It
-sounds like a traveller’s tale. I am writing history.
-
-At Whydah we complied with the custom of sending up a messenger to
-report our arrival. After three days came three officials from the
-palace, who presented their sticks and delivered to me a verbal
-invitation from their master. The sticks were white sticks, two feet
-long, adorned with plates of silver, cut into the shapes of lions,
-sharks, crocodiles, and other savage beasts. These batons served as
-visiting cards, and were signs of dignity. When the king made me
-honorary commandant of a corps of life-guardswomen, he sent me two
-sticks by way of commission or diploma.
-
-We set out _en route_ for the capital on December 13th, 1863. My
-little party consisted of Mr. George Cruikshank, a naval
-assistant-surgeon detached to accompany me; the Rev. Mr. Bernasco,
-Wesleyan missionary and private friend of the king; two negro
-interpreters, thirty hammock men, and a troop of baggage porters. This
-made up a total of ninety-nine mouths, which were never idle except
-when asleep.
-
-Between the seaboard and Kana, the “villegiatura,” or country capital,
-of the king, there were fifty-two to fifty-three direct miles. The
-country was here a campo, or rolling grassy prairie: there was a dense
-and magnificent forest. At every few miles there were settlements, now
-villages, once capitals which felt the weight of the Dahomé arm. The
-first was Savé, ancient metropolis of the Whydah kingdom, when the
-present Whydah, which was properly Gle-hwe, or the Garden House, was
-only a squalid port. The territory was only thirty miles by seven, but
-it mustered 200,000 fighting men. This, however, was easily explained.
-In Africa every male between the ages of seventeen and fifty carried
-arms: this would be about one-fifth of the population; consequently
-there was one million inhabitants in an area of two hundred square
-miles (4,762 souls to each mile).
-
-After Savé came Tevé, also an ex-capital. It was a pretty little
-village commanded by a Dahoman “caboceer.” This frequently used word
-is a corruption of a Portuguese corruption, “caboceer,” or, rather,
-“caboceira,” and means a pillow, a headman, or a chief officer. The
-etiquette on arriving at such places is as follows. You alight from
-your hammock before the tree under which the grandee and his party are
-drawn up to receive you with vociferous shouts, with singing,
-drumming, and dancing. After the first greetings you pledge him in
-fresh water, which he has tasted before you. Then you drink spirits
-and receive an offering of provisions. You make a return of rum and
-gin, the people drum, dance, sing, and shout their thanks, and you are
-at liberty to proceed.
-
-On the fourth day we crossed the “Agrime Swamp,” which is hardly
-practicable in the wet season. The road then entered upon a true
-continent: we emerged from the false coast, which at one time was
-under water, and which is raised by secular upheaval. At the little
-town of Agrime we were delayed till the king, who was in his country
-capital, sent an escort and permission to advance.
-
-On Friday, December 18th, we entered Kana, a large and scattered town,
-shaded by magnificent trees. It is about two hundred and seventy feet
-above sea-level, and the climate is a relief after Whydah. The morrow
-was fixed for our reception. It was Ember Day, and the date could
-hardly have been better chosen.
-
-It is hardly possible to form an idea of the _peine forte et dure_
-attending the presentation in Africa. It is every negro’s object to
-keep the white man waiting as long as possible, and the visitor must
-be very firm and angry if he would not lose all his time.
-
-We were duly warned to be ready at 10 a.m.; but local knowledge kept
-me in the house till 1 p.m. Then we sat under a tree upon the chairs
-which we had brought from Whydah, to witness the procession of
-“caboceers.” Each grandee, preceded by his flag or flags, his band of
-drums and rattles, and his armed retainers dancing and singing, passed
-before us, shaded by an enormous umbrella of many colours. Having
-marched round, he came up to us and snapped fingers (the local style
-of shaking hands); then he drank with us three toasts, beginning with
-his master’s health. After the “caboceers” trooped various
-companies――musicians, eunuchs, and jesters. The last are buffoons,
-reminding one of our feudal days. Their entertainment consists in
-“making faces” (_cara feia_), as children say――wrinkling the forehead,
-protruding the tongue, and clapping the jaws as apes do. They can
-tumble a little and “throw the cart wheel” neatly; they dance in a
-caricatured style, draw in the stomach to show that they are hungry,
-pretend to be deaf and dumb, smoke a bone by way of a pipe, and
-imitate my writing by scratching a sweet potato with a stick.
-
-The review over, we made for the palace in a long procession; my men,
-wearing bright red caps and waist-cloths, carried the flag of St.
-George. The royal abodes are all on the same pattern: enclosures of
-“taipa” wall, four courses high, and pierced with eight or ten gates.
-The irregular square or oblong may be half a mile in circumference. At
-the principal entrances are thatched sheds like verandahs, one hundred
-feet long by fourteen to fifteen feet deep. The roof ledge rises sixty
-to seventy feet high, enough for two stories, whilst the eaves of
-thick and solidly packed straw rested upon posts barely four feet
-tall. The inner buildings, as far as they could be seen, corresponded
-with the external, and the king held his levées in one of these
-barn-like sheds. The royal sleeping-places, which were often changed,
-were described to me as neat rooms, divided from the courtyard by a
-wall with a _chevaux de frise_ of human jawbones. The floors were
-paved with the skulls of conquered chiefs, forming a _descente de lit_
-upon which Gelele had the daily pleasure of trampling.
-
-The complicated reception was typical of the Dahoman military empire.
-We found, ranged in a line outside the gate, twenty-four umbrellas or
-brigades belonging to the highest male dignitaries. The army, or, what
-was here synonymous, the Court, was divided into two portions, male
-and female, or, rather, female and male, as the women troops took
-precedence. They occupied the inside of the palace, and they were the
-king’s bodyguard in peace or war. Each line had a right and a left
-wing, so called from their position relative to the throne. The
-former, which is the senior, was commanded by the “min-gau” who
-cumulated the offices of premier and head executioner. His lieutenant
-was the adanejan. Dahoman officials, for better espionage, were always
-in pairs. The general of the left wing was the “meu,” who collected
-revenue and tribute, declared war, and had charge of all strangers.
-His _alter ego_ was styled the ben-wan-ton. Under these great men were
-smaller great men, and all were _de facto_ as well as _de jure_ slaves
-to the king.
-
-[Illustration: BURTON VISITS THE KING OF DAHOMÉ.    [_See Page 213._]
-
-Presently we were summoned to enter the palace. We closed our
-umbrellas by order, walked hurriedly across a large yard, and halted
-at a circle of white sand spread upon the clayey ground. Here we bowed
-to a figure sitting under the shady thatch; and he returned, we were
-told, the compliment. The chief ministers who accompanied us fell flat
-upon the sand, kissed it, rolled in it, and threw it by handfuls over
-their heads and robes of satin and velvet. The ceremony is repeated at
-every possible opportunity; and when the king drinks, all the subjects
-turn their backs upon him and shout.
-
-Then we advanced to the clay bench upon which King Gelele sat. After
-the usual quadruple bows and hand-wavings, he stood up, tucked in his
-toga, descended to the ground, and, aided by nimble feminine fingers,
-donned his sandals. He then greeted me with sundry vigorous wrings _à
-la John Bull_, and inquired after Queen Victoria, the Ministry, and
-the people of England, which country is supposed to be like Dahomé,
-but a little larger and richer.
-
-Our chairs were then placed before the seat, to which he returned, and
-we drank the normal three toasts to his health. On these occasions it
-is not necessary to empty the glass, which may be handed to an
-attendant. Salutes having been fired, we retired a hundred feet from
-the presence and sat under giant umbrellas.
-
-Gelele was then about forty-five years old, upwards of six feet high,
-olive complexioned, athletic and well made, with clear signs of
-African blood. His dress was simple to excess: a loose shirt of plain
-white stuff edged with green silk, a small smoking-cap, a few iron
-rings on his arms, and a human tooth strung round his neck. The only
-splendour was in his gold and scarlet sandals, here distinctive of
-royalty. They were studded with crosses, also royal emblems. He called
-himself a Christian, and he was a Moslem as well: like all barbarians,
-he would rather believe too much than too little, and he would give
-himself every chance in both worlds.
-
-Under the thatch behind the king were his wives, known by their
-handsome dresses, silver hair studs, and the absence of weapons. They
-atoned for want of beauty by excessive devotion to their lord, who
-apparently did everything by proxy except smoke his long-stemmed clay
-pipe.
-
-The inner court of the palace reflected the outer, and the women sat
-in the sun along the external wall of the royal shed with their
-musket-barrels bristling upwards. The right wing was commanded by a
-“premieress,” who executed all women; the left was also under the she
-“meu.” A semicircle of bamboos lying on the ground separated the sexes
-at levées. The instrument of communication was a woman-messenger, who,
-walking up to the bamboos, delivered her message on all fours to the
-“meu.” The latter proclaimed it to the many.
-
-I must here say a few words about the Amazons, or fighting women. The
-corps was a favourite with the late king, who thus checked the
-turbulence and treachery of his male subjects. The number was
-estimated at 10,000 to 12,000; I do not believe it exceeded 2,500.
-They were divided into blunderbuss-women, elephant-hunters, beheaders,
-who carry razors four feet long, and the line armed with muskets and
-short swords.
-
-All the Amazons were _ex-officio_ royal wives, and the first person
-who made the king a father was one of his soldieresses. It was high
-treason to touch them even accidentally; they lodged in the palace,
-and when they went abroad all men, even strangers, had to clear off
-the road. Gelele often made his visitors honorary commandants of his
-guard of Amazons (I was made one); but this did not entitle them to
-inspect companies.
-
-Such a _régime_ makes the Amazons, as might be expected, intolerably
-fierce. Their sole object in life is blood-spilling and head-snatching.
-They pride themselves upon not being men, and with reason. The
-soldiers blink and shrink when they fire their guns; the soldieresses
-do not. The men run away; the women fight to the bitter end. In the
-last attack on the city of Abokuta (March 15th, 1864) several of the
-Amazons of my own regiment scaled the walls; their brethren-in-arms
-hardly attempted the feat.
-
-Dahomé thus presented the anomaly of an African kingdom in which women
-took precedence of men. Hence every employé of Government had to
-choose a “mother”――that is to say, some elderly Amazon officer who
-would look after his interests at headquarters. Often he had two, an
-“old mother,” dating from the days of the late king, and a “young
-mother,” belonging to the actual reign. He had to pay them well, or
-his affairs were inevitably bad. Thus there was also a Brazilian, an
-English, and a French “mother”; and visitors of those nations were
-expected to propitiate their fond and unpleasant parents with presents
-of cloth, jewelry, perfumes, and so forth.
-
-The levée ended with a kind of parade. A few simple manœuvres and many
-furious decapitation dances were performed by a select company of the
-young Amazons. They were decently dressed in long sleeveless
-waistcoats, petticoats of various coloured cottons, secured at the
-waist by a sash and extending to the ankles, whilst narrow fillets of
-ribbon secured their hair and denoted their corps. Their arms were
-muskets and short swords, and all had belts, bullet bags, and
-cartridge boxes.
-
-When the sun set a bottle of rum was sent to us. At this hint we rose
-and prepared to retire. Gelele again descended from his seat and
-accompanied us to the gate, preceded by a buzzing swarm of courtiers,
-who smoothed every inch of ground for the royal foot. He finally shook
-hands with us, and promised to meet us in a few days at Agbomé, the
-capital.
-
-We lost no time in setting out for Agbomé, and were surprised to find
-an excellent carriage road, broad and smooth, between the two cities.
-Agbomé had no hotels, but we managed lodgings at the house of the
-bukono, a high officer who was doctor and wizard to the Court and
-curator of strangers, whom he fleeced pitilessly.
-
-I will now touch briefly on the ill-famed “customs” of Dahomé. The
-word is taken from the Portuguese _costume_, and here means the royal
-sacrifices. Many travellers have witnessed them, but no one has
-attempted to inquire into their origin. I attribute these murderous
-customs not to love of bloodshed, but simply to filial piety.
-
-The Dahoman, like the ancient Egyptian, holds this world to be his
-temporary lodging. His own home is Ku-to-men, or Deadman’s Land. It is
-not a place of rewards and punishments, but a Hades for ghosts, a
-region of shades, where the king will rule for ever and where the
-slave will always serve. The idea is ever present to the popular mind.
-When, for instance, sunshine accompanies rain the Dahoman says the
-spirits are marketing. In Brazil the fox is marrying; in England the
-devil is beating his wife.
-
-A deceased king cannot, therefore, be sent to Ku-to-men as a common
-negro. At his interment a small court must be slain――leopard-wives
-(that is to say, young and handsome wives), old wives, ministers,
-friends, soldiers, musicians, men and women. These are the grand
-customs, which may average one thousand to two thousand deaths. The
-annual customs, which we were now to witness, reinforce the ghostly
-court, and number from eighty to one hundred head.
-
-But destruction of life does not end here. All novelties, such as the
-arrival of an officer in uniform, must be reported to the dead by the
-living king. A captive or a criminal is summoned, and the message is
-given to him. He is made to swallow a bottle of rum, whose object is
-to keep him in a good humour, and his head is then and there struck
-off. Only on one occasion did the patient object to the journey,
-saying that he did not know the road to Ku-to-men. “You shall soon
-find it out!” cried the king, who at once decapitated the wretch
-without rum. If any portion of the message be forgotten, another
-victim must be despatched with it. A hard-hearted traveller calls this
-the postscript.
-
-A Dahoman king neglecting these funeral rites would have been looked
-upon as the most impious of men, and a powerful priesthood would soon
-have sent him to Ku-to-men on his own account. It may now be
-understood how hopeless was my mission. It may be compared, without
-disrespect, to memorialising the Vatican against masses for the dead.
-The king’s sole and necessary answer was _non possumus_.
-
-The “customs” began on December 28th, 1863, and ended on January 25th,
-1864. They were of two kinds. The first was performed by Gelele, king
-of the city; the second are in the name of Addo-Kpon, ruler of the
-“bush,” or country――also Gelele. The ruler of Dahomé was thus double,
-two persons in one, and each had his separate palace and property,
-mothers and ministers, Amazons, officers, and soldiers. I have
-conjectured that the reason of this strange organisation is that the
-“bush-king” may buy and sell, which the “city-king” holds to be below
-his dignity.
-
-The description of a single “custom” will suffice. About midday of
-December 28th, when summoned to the palace, we passed through the
-market-place, and we found the victim-shed finished and furnished.
-This building was a long, wall-less barn one hundred feet long, the
-roof was a thatch covered with a striped cloth on a blood-red ground
-and supported by tree trunks. On the west was a two-storied tower,
-sixty feet high, with four posts in front of each floor. There were on
-this occasion twenty victims sitting on stools, each before his post,
-with his arms around it and his wrists lashed together outside it. The
-confinement was not cruel; each had a slave to flap away the flies,
-all were fed four times a day, and they were released at night. The
-dress was a long white nightcap and a calico shirt with blue and
-crimson patches and bindings. A white man would have tried to escape;
-these negroes are led like black sheep to the slaughter. They marked
-time as the bands played, and they chatted together, apparently
-quizzing us. I may here remark that at my request the king released
-half of these men, and that not one of them took the trouble to thank
-me or to beg alms from me.
-
-Hardly were we seated when Gelele, protected by a gorgeous canopy
-umbrella, came forth from the palace with Amazons and courtiers in a
-dense, dark stream. Having visited his fetish gods, he greeted us and
-retired to his seat under the normal shed. As at Kana, his wives
-crowded together behind and the soldieresses ranged themselves in
-front. The ceremonies consisted of dancing, drumming, and distributing
-decorations――necklaces of red and yellow beads. There was fearful
-boasting about feats of past valour and bravery to come. About sunset
-the king suddenly approached us, and I thanked him for the spectacle.
-He then withdrew, and we lost no time in following his example.
-
-Nothing could be poorer than this display: any petty Indian rajah can
-command more wealth and splendour. All was barren barbarism, and the
-only “sensation” was produced by a score of human beings condemned to
-death and enjoying the death show.
-
-On the morrow I sent a message to the palace, officially objecting to
-be present at any human sacrifice, and declaring that if any murder
-took place before me I should retire to the coast. The reply was that
-few were to be executed, that the victims would only be malignant war
-captives and the worst of criminals, and that all should be killed at
-night. With this crumb of comfort I was compelled to rest satisfied.
-Hitherto gangs of victims cruelly gagged had been paraded before
-visitors, in whose hearing and often before whose sight the murders
-were committed. Something is gained by diminishing the demoralising
-prominence of these death scenes. It is not so long ago since it was
-determined that the “customs” of England should be performed within
-the prisons, and not further debase the mob of spectators.
-
-The catastrophe took place on what is called the “zan nya nyana,” or
-the evil night. At intervals we heard the boom of the death-drum
-announcing some horrible slaughter. It was reported that the king had
-with his own hand assisted the premier-executioner.
-
-On the next morning we were summoned to the palace, whose approach was
-a horror. Four corpses, habited in the criminal shirts and nightcaps,
-sat as though in life upon the usual dwarf stools. The seats were
-supported upon a two-storied scaffold made of four rough beams, two
-upright and two horizontal, and about forty feet high. On a similar
-but smaller erection hard by were two victims, one above the other.
-Between these substantial erections was a tall gallows of thin posts,
-from which a single victim dangled by his heels. Lastly, another
-framework of the same kind was planted close to our path, and attached
-to the cross-bar, with fine cords round the ankles and above the
-knees, hung two corpses side by side and head downwards. The bodies,
-though stiff, showed no signs of violence: the wretches had probably
-been stifled.
-
-At the south-eastern gate of the palace we found freshly severed heads
-in two batches of six each, surrounded by a raised rim of ashes. The
-clean-cut necks were turned upwards, and the features were not
-visible. Within the entrance were two more heads; all the bodies had
-been removed, so as not to offend the king.
-
-Thus on Gelele’s “evil night” twenty-three human beings had lost their
-lives. And this is but one act in the fatal drama called the
-“customs.” It is said that an equal number of women were slaughtered
-within the walls of the royal abode, and I had every reason to believe
-the report.
-
-I was kept waiting more than a month in this den of abominations
-before the king could enter upon public affairs. He was discontented
-with the presents sent from England, and he was preparing to attack a
-huge Nago city――Abeokuta――where, by-the-bye, he was signally defeated.
-
-When my last visit to him took place he stubbornly ignored, even in
-the least important matters, the wishes of H.M.’s Government. Filled
-with an exaggerated idea of his own importance, and flattered almost
-to madness by his courtiers, he proceeded to dictate his own terms.
-His next thought was an ignoble greed for presents. He bade me a
-friendly adieu, and asked me to visit him next year with an English
-carriage and horses, a large silk pavilion, and other such little
-gifts. I refused to promise, and I resolved not to put my head for the
-third time into the hyæna’s mouth. For although Gelele has never shed
-the blood of a white man, he might, at the bidding of his fetishers,
-send a new kind of messenger to Ku-to-men by means of a cup of coffee
-or a dish of meat. I was glad when I found myself safely back in the
-pestilential climate of Fernando Po.
-
-
-
-
-_A TRIP UP THE CONGO_
-
-1863
-
-
-
-
-_A TRIP UP THE CONGO_[7]
-
-1863
-
-
-Before starting on an exploration into any part of Africa (especially
-the West Coast), it is essential that the traveller should be properly
-equipped with the necessary kit both for the inward and outward man.
-Clothing, blankets, and waterproofs of every description; tea, coffee,
-and sugar if they be desirable; a few bottles of real genuine cognac
-if come-at-able, or some ten years’ old Jamaica rum if attainable.
-
-On the occasion of our starting from Fernando Po in August 1863, for
-the purpose of ascending the river Congo, our kit consisted of one
-bullock-trunk, one small portable canteen, one dressing-bag, two
-uniform-cases, one hat-box, one gun-case, one tin box, one deal case
-of bread, one package of tins of milk, one canteen of cooking
-utensils, one tin of green tea, one ditto coffee, one small box of
-medical comforts, etc., two striped bags, a white canvas bag
-containing newspapers, three guns, two walking sticks, one camp bed
-and mats, two revolvers, one simpiesometer, a pocket azimuth, an
-instrument case, one powder horn, one shot-bag and hunting ditto. At
-St. Paul de Loanda we added two cases of gin, and at Point Banana
-twelve pieces of siamois, or fancy cloths, twenty pieces riscados, or
-blue and white stripe, and ten pieces satin stripe, besides six
-thousand five hundred beads, china, and imitation corals. To all this
-we afterwards received at Embomma fifteen kegs of gunpowder and ten
-demijohns of rum.
-
-H.M.S. _Torch_ took us down to Loango Bay, and there Captain Smith
-transferred us on board the sloop-of-war _Zebra_, Captain Hoskins, who
-in his turn took us to St. Paul’s and put us in the hands of Captain
-Perry, of H.M.S. _Griffon_, and this latter vessel took us into the
-Congo; and forthwith we commenced a start up the river on August 31st,
-1863.
-
-The usual mode of ascending the river up as far as Embomma is by means
-of small fore and aft schooners, generally from twenty to forty tons
-measurement, which are heavily sparred and well supplied with canvas.
-Our gear was taken by the _Griffon’s_ boats and put on board the
-French schooner _Esperance_. We had a fine breeze that afternoon, and
-the _Esperance_ sailed up the river most gallantly. The party on board
-consisted of myself, Captain Perry, Mr. Bigley, and Monsieur Pisseaux,
-a Frenchman; besides William Dean, boatswain, my servant, four French
-native soldiers, and the schooner’s crew.
-
-_Wednesday, September 2nd._――We breakfasted at a Portuguese factory,
-and soon after breakfast we weighed anchor and sailed up the river,
-arriving betimes at Porto da Lentra. In the afternoon we left Porto da
-Lentra, and proceeded. Passed several villages on the port hand. Boat
-got ashore several times after dark. About nine o’clock the
-Missolongis hailed and asked who we were. When I answered, they said
-they would pay us a visit during the night. We prepared to give them a
-warm reception. During the night we rounded Point Devil, a most
-dangerous place for navigation. Anchored at 10.30 p.m.
-
-_Thursday, September 3rd._――Arrived at Embomma at 1.30 p.m. Embomma
-contained a French factory and several Portuguese establishments. At
-9.30 we got under weigh again, and in about an hour afterwards entered
-a part of the river where it assumes the appearance of an inland lake,
-some parts nearly two miles wide. The scenery here is varied, but
-principally hilly, the highest of the hills being about 1,500 feet
-above the level of the river. Here we met a native chief in his canoe.
-He came to levy contributions from us. His people, who were armed with
-guns and hatchets, made various warlike gestures and ordered us to
-stop. Monsieur Pisseaux being our guide and adviser, we were compelled
-to pay one bottle of rum and a piece of cloth twelve fathoms in
-length.
-
-Captain Perry shot a fish-eagle, which was considered a fine
-achievement, as very few of that species can be shot on account of
-their inclination to fly high in the air and to perch on the highest
-trees. About three o’clock we landed to rest, the scenery still
-bearing the same character, only perhaps the hills were a little
-higher than those we had passed. The grass was dry all over the hills
-(indeed, everywhere except close to the water’s edge); and little
-animal life being visible, the country had a very barren and desolate
-appearance. The trees were not of much consequence, and most of those
-we saw were stunted and leafless. The chief were the baobab, or monkey
-bread-fruit tree, the fan palm, or palmijra, a few palm-nut trees, and
-a species of large spreading tree well scattered over the water side.
-Its leaves were of a dark green colour, about the size of the lime
-leaf; its fruit, a long reddish plum, was said to be eaten by monkeys,
-and also to be fit for human food.
-
-Here was the farthest extent of Monsieur Pisseaux’s knowledge of the
-river, and, to our future sorrow, we landed in the banza, or district,
-of Nokki. We cooked some food on shore, and messengers were despatched
-with a bottle of gin to the king of Kayé.
-
-_Tuesday, September 8th._――We now left the river for the interior, and
-found the road excessively irksome and trying to our wind and legs;
-nothing but hills and dales, the descents and ascents very difficult,
-and stony withal, the soles of our feet receiving a most disagreeable
-grating on small quartz and schistus. Passing one or two fields of
-native beans, we arrived at the village of Kindemba.
-
-After resting here for a short time we again started, and ascended a
-hill some six or seven hundred feet in height, and came to another
-village, where we saw something like a large baracoon for slaves, but
-it turned out to be a fetish house for circumcised boys.
-
-Not many minutes’ walk from this was the village of Kayé. On entering
-it we were marched off to see the king. We found him seated in state,
-dressed in a motley garb of European manufacture: a white shirt with
-collar turned down, a crimson velvet loin-cloth, fringed with gold and
-tied round the waist by means of a belt, and a beautifully mounted
-sheath-knife stuck in the belt. The handle of the knife was made of
-nickel silver, and very showily ornamented with imitation emeralds and
-ruby garnets. Over all he wore a red beadle’s cloak, and on his head a
-helmet somewhat resembling those worn by English Life Guardsmen, but
-it was evidently of French manufacture. The king was very young,
-apparently not more than twenty years of age, very smooth-faced, and
-looked quite shy when he came _vis-à-vis_ with his illustrious
-visitors. When we were all seated, I on a chair, and the others on a
-covered table, the courtiers sat down on the ground at a respectful
-distance. The king’s old father was seated on the ground before his
-son.
-
-The king’s name was Sudikil, and that of his father Gidi Mavonga, both
-of them very bright specimens of their race. After some compliments,
-Sudikil received his presents――one piece of fine fancy cloth and a
-bottle of gin. The carriers received five bunches of beads. But it
-appeared that the king was not satisfied with his presents, and he
-would give us nothing to eat. Therefore my companions, Captain Perry,
-Dean, and Monsieur Pisseaux, at once started for the river to return
-to Embomma. I, however, remained, and engaged Nchama, a native who
-spoke African idiomatic Portuguese, to act as interpreter and
-go-between. I may here mention that our party when it first started
-from the river consisted of fifty-six persons, but it continued to
-augment until our arrival at Kayé, when it mounted up to one hundred
-and fifty. We were domiciled for the night in the house of Siko Chico
-Mpambo, a man who put himself up as a French interpreter, without even
-knowing one personal pronoun of that language. In the evening the
-rabble that pretended to have escorted our party down to the canoe
-returned and requested some gin, and I gave them a bottle. The prince
-likewise sent for a bottle, which he received.
-
-_Wednesday, September 9th._――Early in the morning we received a visit
-from Gidi Mavonga and his son King Sudikil. They examined all our
-travelling-gear, whilst my servant kept sentry at the door to prevent
-their escort from going into the house. This consisted of ten men,
-four of whom carried matchlocks. After about half an hour’s palaver,
-everything was handed over to Gidi, who promised to start for the
-Congo in three days, and, in consideration of receiving the said
-goods, bound himself to take us there, bring us back, and feed us by
-the way. This arrangement was a good one, as it secured the friendship
-of the old chief and prevented him and his people from robbing and
-poisoning us.
-
-We later received a visit from Tetu Mayella, king of an adjacent
-village called Neprat. He was accompanied by about twenty followers,
-all of whom came to us for the express purpose of getting some rum.
-Tetu Mayella wrangled for two hours with Gidi and another half-hour
-with Sudikil about a bottle of grog, and ultimately despatched Nchama
-to plead with me for him. I referred him back to Gidi Mavonga, and,
-after a further consultation, Tetu received one bottle of gin, in
-return for which he came personally and presented us with two fowls.
-This was a godsend, as the day before we had nothing to eat but a few
-pieces of dry bread, and water to wash it down. A pig was then
-slaughtered with great ceremony. The carcass was cut up and divided
-according to custom, the king getting the lion’s share, and the other
-personages an allowance in accordance with their rank. We made ready
-to retire to rest after eating a good bush dinner and drinking plenty
-of palm wine. Gidi Mavonga paid us a visit late in the evening, and
-final arrangements were made with him to proceed first to Yellalla, or
-the Congo Cataracts, and afterwards to St. Salvador, or Great Gongo
-City.
-
-_Thursday, September 10th._――The direction of the Yellalla Cataracts
-from the village of Kayé was east-north-east, and that of St.
-Salvador, or Congo, east-south-east. This morning we had dandelion
-coffee for the fourth time. It was a most excellent decoction, acting,
-when used judiciously, on the liver and kidneys. We found that the
-natives breakfasted on beans, ground nuts, fish, and beef when it can
-be had, and the second course is a good jorum of palm wine. At noon we
-began packing up, in order to start for Gidi Mavonga’s village. The
-natives of the Congo are divided into two classes only, the mfumo, or
-freeman, and the muleque, or slave. The mfumo marries amongst his own
-slaves, or, properly speaking, retainers, and the children born by him
-are in their turn mfumos, or freemen. The word slave is here quite
-improperly used, for the slave in reality is a freer man than the king
-himself. Everything the king possesses, except his wives, is literally
-at the disposal of the slave. Unquestionably the slave is the
-bodyguard of the mfumo, and, as regards work, he does what he likes,
-sleeps when he chooses, attends to his private affairs when he
-pleases, and if his master finds fault with his conduct, the chances
-are, if his own country be not too far away from the place of his
-thraldom, he will leave his master and make a bold effort to reach his
-native land.
-
-_Friday, September 11th._――Very early this morning we were astonished
-by hearing a yelling noise from a lot of women. To use a Scotch
-phrase, it was a regular “skirl.” It so happened that a woman was
-bearing a child, and these noises were made either to drown the pains
-of labour or to welcome the little stranger into his trouble. In any
-case, we pitied the poor sufferer in travail, for the screeching must
-have given her an awful headache.
-
-Gidi Mavonga came to take us to his village of Chingufu this morning.
-It was not a long journey, we found. Gidi’s house was a facsimile of
-the one we had left at Kayé: an oval building upheld by two upright
-posts, and the roof supported by a long stout beam laid on the top of,
-and tied to, the uprights. The hut boasted of three doors, one at each
-end and one at the side. Doubtless, fox-like, the suspicious native
-makes all these doors to serve as mediums of escape in case of war or
-a slave-hunt. There was a partition in the centre dividing the hut
-into two rooms, the first being a general room, and the second the
-_sanctum sanctorum_, accessible only to the husband and wife. The
-furniture was very simple, consisting of a native bed in each room.
-The walls and roof were composed of bamboos and grass very neatly tied
-together. There was no flooring but the clay bottom, and the whole
-looked very clean and simple.
-
-Gidi appeared to be a great worshipper of the native fetish Ibamba, or
-Nzamba, a variation of the devil. The natives called him Masjinga, and
-he is a house-god, usually keeping guard at the bedsides. The idol in
-Gidi’s hut was a peculiarly droll-looking object. He was an image
-about three feet in height, with his mouth wide open, his under lip
-hanging down, and the upper drawn up as if by some strong convulsions,
-his nose flat as Africa, and the nostrils very much inflated. His eyes
-were composed of pieces of looking-glass, and in his belly was
-inserted a penny mirror, but for what purpose we could not discover.
-On his head was an English billycock hat, and about his shoulders were
-hung different kinds of medicines, a calabash, and a knife. The face
-of this wonderful figure was part black, part red, and part white. On
-the walls of the house, and particularly about the bed, were hung
-medicines, spells, and potions of every description, supposed to be
-antidotes against every evil to which the human frame is subject;
-medicines to prevent gun-shots from taking effect, spells against
-ill-luck, potions to have wives and plenty of children, and, in fine,
-charms to protect against the wrath and subtlety of Nzamba.
-
-About midday we had a visit from some neighbouring chiefs, all gaily
-attired. They wore red nightcaps on their heads, and this was the only
-head-dress I ever saw adopted by the men on great occasions, Sudikil’s
-military helmet excepted. The women always went bareheaded. I had
-often wondered where in the wide universe old clothes went to after
-they are purchased by the Jews in London. The mystery was here solved,
-for I found kings wearing second-hand livery suits, with the coronet
-and crest of a marquis on the button, and princes disporting
-themselves in marines’ jackets of the last century, besides a variety
-of heterogeneous habiliments, such as old superfine black coats which
-had been worn threadbare, and pantaloons whose seats had become quite
-glazed from long service. All these had been cleaned and turned inside
-out by the Jews; and, although some would scarcely bear the tug of
-needle and thread, they were sent out to the west coast of Africa as
-bran-new garments, love of dress entirely blinding the natives to
-their defects. Our visitors were regaled with palm wine and a bottle
-of gin, and after laughing and talking for a long time they went away.
-
-About sunset we witnessed a native game, which certainly was one of
-the liveliest sights since our start up the river. A number of Gidi’s
-slaves assembled in a large open space between the houses, and,
-dividing themselves into two parties, began throwing a ball from one
-to another. Upwards of twenty were engaged in this game, and the fun
-consisted in the one side dodging about in all directions, and
-preventing its opponents from catching the ball by playing the game
-into each others’ hands. The ball was made of palm fibre tied round
-with a central fibre of the plantain leaf. After sunset there was a
-wild country-dance, which was kept up to a late hour.
-
-_Saturday, September 12th._――The chief Furano, who was expected from
-Embomma, arrived the next morning, and we started at once for the
-cataracts. After marching for a short time and passing two or three
-small villages, we commenced a descent in a north-easterly direction,
-and, journeying at a rapid pace for about three miles, we entered the
-village of Chinsawu, the residence of Prince Nelongo. Arrived at
-Nelongo’s, we were detained for about half an hour, waiting in the
-verandah of an empty house, after which we were honoured by the
-presence of the prince, who intimated his pleasure to us by asserting
-that unless the same presents as those given to Sudikil were given to
-him, it would be impossible for us to pass his place. This was
-preposterous, for we only stopped to breakfast here, whereas we were
-four or five days in the territory of Sudikil. It was remarkable that
-nearly all the people in this region, from the prince down to the
-smallest child, were diseased with the itch. We observed them lying on
-the ground from morning till night, with their skins so covered with
-dust that a hippopotamus was a clean beast when compared with these
-beings, who ranked in animate nature as lords of creation.
-
-We were comfortably housed at Nelongo’s village, but Gidi and Nelongo
-were palavering all day, hammer and tongs. I noticed at Nelongo’s
-village, as I did in other places on the banks and neighbourhood of
-the Congo, that all the children were afraid of the white man, for
-when any person attempted to bring them in proximity with me, the
-little brats howled as if Satan from the infernal regions had got hold
-of them. Most of the women were of the same texture as their progeny.
-
-_Sunday, September 13th._――After coffee this morning all the great
-folks assembled in front of our house and recommenced the
-half-finished palaver of last evening. Council present: myself, Gida
-Mavonga, Nelongo, Furano, Siko Npamba, and Interpreter Nchama. All
-ended in talk, and Nchama threatened to resign. The native idea of the
-riches possessed by a white man is fabulous. Nelongo refused to
-believe that we had not sufficient cloth with us to answer his most
-exorbitant demands. We had a respectable present for him; but that did
-not satisfy his avarice, and he wanted more than we had taken with us
-for the whole road. As there was another prince to consult in the
-matter, it was agreed, at my suggestion, that the whole of our gear
-should be submitted to examination. The expected prince arrived,
-carried on a hammock, and, after a heavy palaver and a great deal of
-yelling from the women, he went away; and then we had another visit
-from Nelongo, who made some very noisy demonstrations, but as the
-noise was conducted in the language of the country, we were not able
-to understand a single syllable. Suffice it to say that the whole
-affair ended by his receiving an additional supply of cotton, not from
-us, but from Gidi Mavonga. This Nelongo handed to one of his armed
-slaves, and then went away; but he returned again in about five
-minutes and intimated that the palaver was all right, which caused
-Gidi and his men to make demonstrations of approval by jumping up and
-running some paces from the house and attacking a supposed enemy. Then
-they returned to the house, Furano holding the supposed wounded head
-of Gidi Mavonga. But the truth must be told: the whole batch of the
-debaters had got drunk on a mixture of palm wine and Hollands. Hence
-the noise, which, however, I did not allow to affect me, for I assumed
-during the greater part of the row the most stoical silence, and
-pretended to go to sleep. These tactics were successful, and we were
-shortly afterwards informed that we could depart in peace.
-
-We were ready to start by twelve o’clock noon. The sun was very hot,
-and the thermometer stood at 90° in the shade; but we were glad to get
-out of a place which reminded us of Bedlam, and therefore set out in
-all haste, making a slight descent into a valley, and then ascending a
-peculiarly formed hill, the perpendicular height of which might be a
-hundred and fifty feet, and from whose summit we obtained a glorious
-view of the river, which was seen some eight hundred feet below us,
-flowing down rapidly and majestically to the sea. But the utter
-barrenness of the country in the vicinity of its banks carried away
-every association of fertility. This view of the country, however, is
-given at the end of the dry season, when almost every tree loses its
-leaves, and the green grass becomes withered and dried up.
-
-From this point we began a decline down hill which beggars
-description. We had not walked above a quarter of a mile before we
-arrived at a part of our road where, without the least exaggeration,
-the path, if such it could be called, was only two degrees from the
-perpendicular, and as slippery as ice, owing to the loose stones and
-dry grass that created a stumbling-block for the feet, and we had
-frequently to descend sitting instead of walking down. Alpine and
-Vesuvian mountaineers, do try the banks of the Congo.
-
-The distance from Nelongo’s village to the banks of the river was
-about five miles, and on reaching the water-side we found ourselves
-exactly at the junction of the Nomposo with the Congo River. The
-Nomposo, we were informed, extended all the way to St. Salvador, but
-was not navigable, even for canoes. There were some fishermen who
-followed their vocation at the mouth of this small river, whose
-services were soon brought into requisition to take us across the
-Nomposo and land us a little above its mouth, but on the bank of the
-great river. This landing was the place where the fishermen dried
-their fish, and was called Munyengi Asiko. Being heartily tired, we
-very gladly sat down, and ultimately got ourselves ready to pass the
-night in the open air, not for the first time. Just about sunset this
-evening we were visited by one of those nasty drizzling showers,
-commonly called a Scotch mist. In about an hour it increased to a
-smart shower; but, luckily, we were well provided with good waterproof
-sheets and coats, so that no harm happened to the gear or to
-ourselves.
-
-_Monday, September 14th._――Great excitement this morning, having on
-the previous night lost my tablets of daily memoranda. An offer of
-four fathoms of cloth was made to any person who would recover the
-same and return them to their owner. The whole batch of carriers and
-fishermen were instantly hard at work trying to find the missing
-tablets. After twenty minutes’ search they were found in Captain
-Tuckey’s book on the Congo.
-
-Another row amongst the natives. It appears that some two days
-previously a man had supplied another with two jars of palm wine upon
-condition of his receiving some fish in return. The unlucky fisherman,
-after drinking the wine, did not succeed in catching fish for two
-days, and consequently was unable to pay his debt. Hence the high
-words and brandishing of hatchets on the part of the wine merchant and
-his people. But that was all; no blows were struck, for the dog that
-barks very loud seldom bites.
-
-It is always advisable in travelling through Africa to keep guides and
-interpreters ignorant of your possessions, for they are sure to make
-some excuse or other to fleece you. This morning we had evidence of
-this. We had paid our guide everything that was necessary for the
-road, yet he sent the interpreter to ask us for a piece of fancy cloth
-which he knew I had. I had to grant his request, otherwise I might
-have had to give up the journey, for ten chances to one he would have
-left me in a huff.
-
-At eight o’clock we crossed the river, the time occupied being a
-quarter of an hour. We reached the village of Vivi after half an
-hour’s march; distance, one and a half miles. Nesalla was the name of
-the king at Vivi; he spoke Portuguese and dressed plainly. One of his
-attendants, however, wore a hussar’s jacket. Nesalla sent three
-bunches of plantains and seven fowls for the expedition. At twelve
-o’clock I washed, more or less in public, and, in the meantime, the
-women and children performed a grigri for goodness to be bestowed on
-their town and prince. One of the children beat on a long native drum,
-another performed on a native whistle attached to an image of
-Diabolus, and the women used their tongues very freely. It was a
-horrid din.
-
-About two o’clock Nesalla came with upwards of one hundred men and
-commenced a long palaver about our going on to Yellalla. Five or six
-persons spoke, and the conference lasted one hour. The conclusion
-showed that the cloth we had with us was not enough, and that the
-princes at Yellalla must get a different piece from that which was
-before the conference, and no division into two pieces must be made of
-it under any consideration whatever. As the whole affair was conducted
-in a most good-humoured manner, I agreed to the terms.
-
-In the evening the inhabitants of the village had a dance. Those who
-have witnessed the Spanish cachucha need scarcely be told what this
-dance was. The cachucha is a very good dance in its way; but the Congo
-dance beats it hollow, because it has more pith in it than the
-cachucha. The fun was kept up till a late hour, every one, both great
-and small, young and old, joining in it, so that in the end, what with
-palm wine and excitement, the people became quite unruly, and when
-they left off the babel of tongues was unbearable. They came to our
-quarters, aroused us out of our sleep by opening the door and very
-unceremoniously pulling our clothes from us. They wanted some sort of
-covering, and thinking we might be kind enough to let them have
-something, took the liberty of taking without asking. We could not,
-however, submit to this. We permitted old Gidi Mavonga to sleep in the
-house, and turned the rest out of doors.
-
-_Tuesday, September 15th._――Early this morning we started for the
-Banza Nculu. The scenery along the road was varied and picturesque.
-The first view we had of the river was from an eminence about a mile
-from Vivi on the road to the Banza Nculu. Here we had a view of the
-Congo as it was flowing onwards, and round about in all directions
-were hills and dales adding a panoramic beauty to the scene. We had to
-descend from the summit of the first hill and ascend a second one much
-higher than the first, and from here we again obtained views of the
-Congo. One, the lower view, appeared like a lake, apparently shut in
-on all sides by hills, whose lofty summits stretched far and wide on
-every side, and some of them peered to the height of above a thousand
-feet into the heavens. Proceeding onwards, we ascended a third
-eminence, but by this time we had lost sight of the river, and our
-path became more level for a short distance.
-
-We now commenced a gradual descent, but before doing so we obtained an
-open and extensive view of the valley that lay between us and the
-Banza Nculu. On descending into the valley, we found the soil a dark
-clay mould with fewer stones on it than on that of the country through
-which we had hitherto passed. It was certainly a fine sight to behold,
-and the best addition to the scene was the caravan which formed the
-expedition now disappearing down a valley, now rising to the top of
-one of the many hillocks with which the valley abounded. The fertility
-of the soil may be observed here from the fact of the grass growing to
-the height of ten or twelve feet, and here also the native beans grow
-to a greater height than did those we saw in other parts of the
-country. In the valley we crossed three streams of running water, all
-feeders of the big river; and considering that it was the latter end
-of the dry season, these streams all had a fair supply of water.
-
-We now arrived at the summit of the hill of the Banza Nculu, and as
-the three kings and three interpreters could not be seen at once, in
-consequence of their having first to settle some palaver about fish,
-we were compelled to bivouac under a large tree in the environs of
-Nculu until their highnesses might condescend to give us an audience.
-We breakfasted under the large tree, and were amused before and after
-breakfast by a number of urchins (say eight or ten) who had undergone
-the ceremony of circumcision, and who delighted in making a churring
-noise――a ch-u-r-r decidedly intended to frighten us into hysterics.
-But our nerves were stronger than they at first imagined, and I went
-up to them and complimented them on their performance. The dress of
-these youths was a crinoline made of palm leaves, extending from their
-armpits down to their knees, or a little below that. Their arms, neck,
-and face were chalked white, and one of them had on a mask
-representing a white man with whiskers. The performance of this mask
-was admirably wild and laughable.
-
-About two o’clock one of the three interpreters came to see us. He was
-dressed in a trade shirt and red nightcap, and was accompanied by a
-few men only, and had merely come to show us to a house.
-
-At half-past three we heard the beating of a drum and cone, and, on
-looking out at the door, saw a procession making its way to the house
-in which we were lodged. I was already seated at the door, and, the
-whole cavalcade coming up, they seated themselves around the front of
-the house in a semicircle. Altogether there might have been about two
-hundred and fifty persons, including all sexes and sizes. Three
-ministers belonging to the three kings were the principal personages,
-and had come as ambassadors for their masters. One of them had already
-given his opinion in a refusal to permit me to pass on to Sundi, and
-it now remained for the whole council to arrive at the ultimate
-decision of Yes or No. The first conference assembled and broke up in
-a very short time. The beginning appeared favourable, for the
-ministers retired amidst the noise of drum and cone. The latter is an
-iron musical instrument peculiar to the country, and when played
-sounds exactly like the triangle of the Ethiopian serenaders. When
-they had reached the palaver tree we heard a great yelling among the
-populace, which showed that they were satisfied. In a very short time
-they returned again to the house and waited till I had finished
-dinner, and then demanded the presents for themselves and their royal
-masters. As usual they were not satisfied; but we had no more to give
-them, and Furano, our interpreter, took one of the ministers into the
-house and showed him all our gear. A grunt from the minister announced
-to us that he saw it was impossible to get “blood out of a stone.”
-
-They went away, and the third conference took place at four o’clock.
-This was the Grand Council, and there were plenty who spoke, the
-upshot of the whole affair being that they ultimately demanded the
-moderate sum of £300 in cloth, beads, and liquor, giving us permission
-(on our agreeing to the foregoing terms) to go on to Sundi above the
-cataracts, a journey occupying only three days. “Impudence is better
-than modesty,” but we thought this was carrying impudence to a pitch.
-This sum was out of the question, and had we been possessed of enough
-to answer the demands of those bushmen, rather than acquiesce, we
-should certainly have preferred throwing the amount into the “Slough
-of Despond.”
-
-_Wednesday, September 16th._――This morning we went to view the rapids.
-We found that the Yellalla Rapids ran east-north-east and
-west-south-west, and might be said to be about a mile in length. They
-were assuredly very grand, although the natives led us to expect
-something grander still. Some fishermen were busy catching fish up and
-down the quieter part of the rapids, whilst the eagles and cranes were
-satisfying their hunger in the vicinity of the island of
-Sanga-chya-Malemba in the middle of the stream, some hundred yards
-from either side of the river’s banks.
-
-All day Gidi Mavonga was very stubborn and irritable, and wished to
-start at once for Vivi and return home; but as I had to put up some
-botanical specimens, to finish two sketches of this part of the
-country, and besides, having sore feet from walking, I would not hear
-of starting. Gidi therefore started, after repeated palavers, and
-called his muleks to follow him: some followed; others begged off, but
-to no purpose. Off he went, and after proceeding a short distance,
-returned, and in very strong words expressed himself an injured man.
-This was taking high ground; I therefore told the interpreter to tell
-Gidi that he might go away, and, at the same time, to inform him that
-he must send certain properties belonging to me which had been left at
-his banza, and that in future no further communication would be held
-with his place by any Englishman.
-
-Gidi said that the property belonged to him. I told him to take all,
-but, he might rely upon it, the kings who live close to the riverside
-would have to answer for the things. Whereupon Gidi at once gave way,
-and most submissively begged pardon, and matters were set right for a
-short time.
-
-_Saturday, September 19th._――We found ourselves back again at Gidi
-Mavonga’s village, paying off all the extra hands who accompanied us
-to the rapids. The pay was made in cloth, beads, and liquors.
-
-The heavy demands made by the bigwigs of Banza Nculu――_viz._ £300 for
-mere permission to pass to Sundi, beside the enormous expense of
-feeding ourselves and thirty-five followers――had compelled us to give
-up the project we had in view, especially as we had seen the principal
-rapids on the river――the rest of the falls, until reaching Sundi,
-being mere elevations, in themselves quite insignificant. My object
-had been to reach Sundi, and thence try to ascertain the course of the
-river, and to find out whether its source could be nearly reached by
-canoes, or entirely reached by carriers. But finding the demands of
-the chiefs beyond my power of compliance, I resolved to return. Our
-chief guide, Gidi Mavonga, was anxious to make a retrograde movement
-as quickly as possible, and urged upon us the necessity of packing up
-and starting after three o’clock on the afternoon of our return from
-visiting the rapids. But I declined to stir until the next morning,
-and after much trouble I gave him and his slaves one blanket cloth and
-a pair of razors, which quieted him a little. But it was soon evident
-that even this munificent gift merely banked up the fires of discord
-in the breasts of the savages, for the same dissatisfaction was
-observable even after we returned to their village. The day of
-settlement brought Gidi and his slaves to our temporary residence, and
-what followed beggared powers of description. What uproar! What
-threats! What runnings to and fro! All the devils in the infernal
-regions appeared to have infused a double portion of their diabolical
-influence into the bodies and souls of their willing disciples on that
-day of settlement, and when everybody’s fury had reached the climax of
-rage and insolence, old Gidi rushed into the house occupied by us,
-commenced turning all our gear upside down, and at last laid forcible
-hands upon a bale of merchandise.
-
-I therefore quietly informed the wild old man that he was carrying
-matters too far, asked the meaning of it, and took out a six-barrelled
-Colt’s revolver, and placed it at my feet ready for use in case of
-need. This had the desired effect, for Gidi, after taking a long,
-covetous look at the bale of merchandise, turned round and stared at
-the leveller of six men at my feet, and having balanced the
-difference, he slunk out in perfect silence, followed by his two
-myrmidons, who had accompanied their master into the house to carry
-away anything that their lord might select. Outside the slaves still
-clamoured, and at last induced their master to beard me again when I
-was writing.
-
-Thus for two days affairs progressed as hot as fire and as irritating
-as a wife’s bad temper, till at length, by some special interposition
-of Providence, we managed to make arrangements for some people to
-carry our gear down to the riverside, and for a canoe to take us to
-Embomma, one of the principal stations on the river.
-
-The preliminaries of this arrangement occupied two days, and on the
-morning of the third day we were ready to start by half-past five
-o’clock, but no carriers had as yet made their appearance, and after
-they did come, it was with the same infernal noise that we managed to
-start them with the loads. But the moment they were _en route_ they
-almost ran with the things, and shortly disappeared from our view. We
-followed as quickly as we could after them, and arriving at Kayé, a
-sentinel with a gun stopped us, and informed us that his Highness
-Prince Sudikil desired our presence. On reaching the house of our old
-landlord, we discovered the whole of our gear before his door, and the
-prince with his mother and some of his slaves standing in a circle
-round the things, whilst one disgusting-looking brute was about to
-open a box of beads. I at once walked up to the rascal and gave him a
-castigation with a stick. The fellow looked daggers; but on showing
-him a fine breech-loading Cooper’s rifle, he held down his head and
-slunk a little way back from the box and sat down.
-
-And now commenced a palaver between the prince and myself, the
-substance of which was that the prince wished to exact more presents
-from me, but this time by force. The armed slaves began to come up one
-by one, until they added a considerable number to the crowd. I told
-the prince that it was customary to give on the arrival but not on the
-departure of a stranger. But as his highness persisted in his
-inflexible determination to have something, I referred him to Mambuka
-Prata, a powerful chief at Embomma, and requested Sudikil to take and
-keep my signet ring until the case was settled by arbitration at
-head-quarters.
-
-At this suggestion the prince, his mother, some of the slaves, and
-even Nchama, our interpreter, commenced such a babel of tongues that
-we wished the whole bunch of them keeping company with Pharaoh at the
-bottom of the Red Sea. It was quite evident that they had perceived
-the absurdity and obstinacy of their covetous desires. The prince
-therefore walked away in a great rage, taking with him all his slaves,
-and nearly one-half of those who had brought our kit from his father’s
-house. Here, again, was another fix. We were standing pondering over
-the peculiar position in which we were placed, when luckily the few
-who remained at once resolved to carry each a double load, and this
-brought us to the waterside, and examining all our baggage, and seeing
-everything correct, I made a present of beads to the carriers and had
-breakfast.
-
-By 9.45 a.m. we set off for Embomma with thankfulness, where we
-arrived at 5 p.m. on the same day, having run down with the current,
-slightly assisted by paddles, a distance of forty-five miles in seven
-hours and a quarter.
-
-_Wednesday, September 23rd._――John Clarke, being engaged to go with us
-to St. Salvador, started this afternoon with Nchama to bring carriers
-from Mambuka Prata. Chief Mambuka Prata had a few trading huts close
-to the French factory, where he flew a black and white flag on trading
-occasions. The district of Embomma may extend about eight or ten miles
-in length, and throughout the whole of it villages of from ten to
-twenty houses may be seen standing in all directions, and sometimes
-several miles apart from one another. The king’s residence may consist
-of sixty houses, and it is generally at the royal villages that the
-traveller finds a home during his sojourn.
-
-_Thursday, September 24th._――At Embomma. This day’s proceedings have
-been more annoying than any that have preceded it. The two messengers,
-John Clarke and Nchama, who had been sent on a mission to Mambuka
-Prata, returned without having accomplished a single order in
-connection with the mission entrusted to them. Nchama returned about
-six o’clock in the morning, perfectly drunk, and incapable of giving a
-single word of explanation as to his whereabouts and doings. John
-Clarke returned in the afternoon, and gave rather a tame version of
-his proceedings. He said that Mambuka Prata, being annoyed at not
-receiving a coat promised him by Monsieur Pisseaux, would not send any
-carriers to take us on to St. Salvador. What a Frenchman’s conduct had
-to do with an Englishman’s affairs I could not conceive. He (Mambuka
-Prata) said the carriers would not be forthcoming until he received a
-book from the white man, or saw him himself. This last sounded like a
-falsehood, as there was not a soul in all Vinda who could read a
-single scrap, and, besides, our interpreters took with them a very
-good book in the shape of a demijohn of rum and a tenth of powder, but
-whether these had been delivered into the hands of the proper persons
-was a question. Nchama, having been severely reprimanded, repaired to
-his village, and did not make his appearance again until the day we
-left Embomma.
-
-_Friday, September 25th._――We left Embomma, and arrived in Porto da
-Lentra at 1.15 on the morning of Saturday, September 26th. On the way
-down the canoemen made several attempts to land at various villages,
-but were forced to proceed for fear of Colt’s revolvers. They did very
-well, and received six bottles of rum.
-
-We left Porto da Lentra for Point Banana at 4.15 on the morning of
-September 27th. We had exchanged our smaller but fine canoe for a
-large one, and started with six hands and captain, but had scarcely
-lost sight of Porto da Lentra when our canoemen went up a creek――they
-said to get extra clothing. We were detained more than half an hour
-waiting for them, until probably they had eaten their breakfast and
-drunk their palm wine. We got them to start with great difficulty; but
-at the very next creek they stopped again, and would have repeated the
-dose at other places had we not had recourse to our friends in need,
-the revolvers.
-
-At the creek one man jumped on shore and we pushed off again; but a
-few yards down we were hailed by a Missolongi canoe, the river-pirates
-of this part of the Congo. This third time our canoemen stopped; and
-we were obliged to face them with cocked revolvers and compel them to
-go on. Down we glided, assisted more by the current than by our men.
-Another creek, and the canoemen requested to stop again to eat, which
-request was positively refused.
-
-The river had been hitherto very calm, but at two o’clock the
-sea-breeze began to blow hard; the tide was also slightly against us,
-and this caused a swell in the river which wetted nearly all our
-things. I was surveying at the time, and, fearing that the instruments
-might get a soaking with salt water, I ordered the canoemen to put
-back and return to Point Banana by means of a creek on the right of
-the river. This appeared to the canoemen to be awfully hard work,
-although they had only to pull back for about a quarter of a mile. The
-Congoes are remarkable for their uselessness: they excel in eating,
-drinking, sleeping, and talking, in a word, in satisfying their
-sensual comforts, and what little sense they have is used for the
-purpose of annoying those with whom they come in contact. More than
-five times they were asked to make sail, and then gave a few strokes
-with their paddles, and stopped and chatted again, put the canoe
-broadside on to the billows, let her drift back, and again gave a few
-more strokes.
-
-In this way nearly an hour passed away, and we never reached the end
-of the quarter-mile. They began to complain that the way by the creek
-was too far, whilst just a short time before that they told us the
-creek was the nearest. They now declared that they could proceed no
-farther, and pulled the canoe in shore. Seeing that the whole bevy of
-them, from the captain to the small boy, were all drunk from drinking
-some rum they had brought with them, we could do nothing but submit to
-this state of things, anything being preferable to trusting the canoe
-with a lot of drunken hands, and getting ourselves and gear saturated
-with salt water.
-
-The crew were permitted to land. They lighted a fire, cooked, ate,
-drank, quarrelled, and went to sleep. The padron, or captain, took
-possession of the rum, and drank himself to sleep also; and when the
-wind abated a little and the water became calmer, we awakened the
-captain with difficulty, and he with greater difficulty his crew; but
-the tide had gone down, and the canoe was high and dry on the bank.
-All efforts to launch her into the water proved unavailing, especially
-as the rum was still hard at work, and what little sense the Congoes
-had was perfectly misapplied. In consequence we had to wait until the
-tide again served, which did not take place till two o’clock the
-following morning, when we tried again to start our hands, and with
-great delay and noise managed to reach Point Banana at 4.15 a.m.
-
-At six o’clock all our things were landed and comfortably housed
-within Monsieur Parrat’s factory. Thank God! we were now at a
-considerable distance from Yellalla and the triumvirate and avaricioua
-triple ministers of the Banza Nculu, far away from the Banza Vivi and
-its king, far away from the quarrelsome, covetous, gin-drinking,
-noisy, and licentious old Gidi Mavonga, far away from that senseless
-nincompoop the Prince Sudikil, and――praise be to Allah!――within hail
-of Her Majesty’s ship _Griffon_.
-
-
-     [7] This MS. consisted mainly of notes roughly jotted down
-     by Burton in a memorandum book. I have thought it best to
-     publish them as they stood, with no alterations except those
-     necessary to make the essay coherent and legible.――W. H. W.
-
-
-
-
-_THE INTERIOR OF BRAZIL_
-
-1867
-
-
-
-
-_THE INTERIOR OF BRAZIL_
-
-1867
-
-
-I had been in Brazil nearly two years, vegetating between Santos and
-São Paulo, varied by an occasional expedition afield or a trip to Rio
-de Janeiro, when I determined to put into action my long-cherished
-plan of prospecting the great and wealthy province of Minas Gerães in
-the interior, and then to go down the São Francisco, which is the
-Brazilian Mississippi, from Sabará to the sea, and to visit _en route_
-the Paulo Affonso rapids, the Niagara of Brazil. As my wife was very
-anxious to go, I took her with me.
-
-We left Rio on June 12th, 1867, and sailed across the incomparable
-Bay, and then ascended to Petropolis. From Petropolis we made our real
-start in a large char-à-banc, which held eight, in two and two, and
-which was drawn by four mules. The mules started off in fine style;
-being fresh and frisky they simply galloped along the mountain side.
-It is not necessary for me to describe the first part of the journey,
-which, for a few days, travelled along a well-known road, through a
-splendid district of wooded mountains, broad rivers, and boulders of
-rock; the vegetation was especially fine, even tropical. At Juiz de
-Fora we abandoned our char-à-banc for the coach, whereby we travelled
-to Barbacena, and here again we left the coach for the saddle, and
-followed the bridle-road, if indeed it could be called a road.
-
-I should weary if I were to describe the places we passed through
-until we came to Logão Duroda, where the railway was in process of
-making, and where they were just laying the first chain for the
-exploration of the mountains and for the prolongation of the Dom Pedro
-Secunda Railway. There was an inauguration ceremony, and my wife had
-the honour of giving the first blow to the stock and breaking a bottle
-of wine over it. After that we had a convivial gathering, and wound up
-with a dinner in the good old English fashion. Next day we started off
-again, and still riding through beautiful scenery, up and down
-mountains, through shallow rivers and bits of virgin forests, from day
-to day, we eventually arrived at Morro Velho, where we were most
-hospitably received by the superintendent of the São Goa d’el Rey
-Mining Company and Mrs. Gordon, and we spent some days in their most
-comfortable home. Morro Velho is the queen of the Minas Gerães mines,
-and a most interesting place, but, as we were going back to it, we
-determined to press on to Ouro Preto, which is the capital of the
-province, a most hilly town, for walking up and down the streets was
-as difficult as climbing up ladders. We stayed here two days, and then
-returned to Morro Velho. We had a long, muddy, rainy journey on the
-way back, slipping backward two steps for every one forward, but at
-last we arrived at the Gordons’ house again, and were warmly welcomed
-as before. Here we tarried for a fortnight, and thoroughly explored
-everything.
-
-Among other things we explored the mine, which had the reputation of
-being the largest, deepest, and richest gold-mine in Brazil. My wife
-determined to go with me, and Mrs. Gordon, who had never before
-ventured under grass, kindly consented to accompany her. Mr. Gordon
-and I went down first in a bucket, or kibble, which was suspended over
-the abyss. We found in it a rough wooden seat, comfortable enough. We
-were advised by the pitman not to look downwards, as the glimmer of
-the sparks and lights below was apt to cause giddiness and
-seasickness. I did look down and felt none the worse. We touched and
-tilted half over once against a cableway drum, but that was our only
-contretemps. I could not but wonder at the mighty timbering which met
-my eyes as it dilated in the darkness;――timber everywhere, all of the
-best and hardest wood. The mighty mass, it might hardly be said, was
-not without flaws, very palpable at second look. We made an easy
-descent down the shaft, and a bunch of lighted tow, tied to the bucket
-chain, showed us all its features. There was no “rattle his bones over
-the stones,” and the drop lasted fifteen minutes. At the bottom the
-kibble, or bucket, stood still, began to reel like a boat, and
-descended perpendicularly until we stepped out. Presently Mrs. Gordon
-and my wife, habited in brown holland trousers, belted blouses, and
-miners’ caps, came down, delighted with the kibble travelling. The men
-did everything to banish the ladies’ alarm, and spoke and cheered us
-as we passed. The mine was utterly new to me, and most unlike the
-dirty labyrinth of little clefts and filthy galleries down which I
-have often crawled like a low reptile; the height suggested a cavern
-or a huge stone-quarry.
-
-Candle burning, the usual test, detected nothing abnormal in the
-atmosphere; the ventilation was excellent. Of course, our feet were
-wiped, and, physically speaking, they wanted wiping; the floor was
-wet, the mud was slippery, and locomotion somewhat like an ascent of
-the Pyramids, although the ground was pretty level.
-
-It was a huge palace of darkness; the walls were either black as the
-grave, or reflected in the slender rays of light a watery surface, or
-were broken into monstrous projections, half revealing and half
-concealing cavernous recesses. Despite the lamps, the night pressed
-upon us, as it were, with a weight, and the only measure of distance
-was a spark here and there, glimmering like a single star. Distinctly
-nerve-testing was the gulf between the huge mountain sides, apparently
-threatening every moment to fall. Through this Inferno gnomes glided
-about in a ghostly fashion, half-naked figures enveloped by the mist.
-Here dark bodies hung by chains in what seemed frightful positions;
-there they swung like leopards from place to place; there they swarmed
-up loose ropes like troglodytes; there they moved over scaffolding,
-which even to look up at would make a nervous temperament dizzy.
-
-Our visit to the mine amply repaid us; it was a place
-
-     Where thoughts were many, and words were few.
-
-But the fact will remain on our mental retina as long as our brains
-will do their duty.
-
-After a fortnight at Morro Velho I prepared to go to Sabará, there to
-embark _en route_ to the coast. With a peculiar cat-like feeling I
-bade adieu to the Gordons, with whom we had found an English home in
-the Highlands of Brazil. My excellent compatriots, however,
-accompanied me to break the shock of departure; my wife also, though,
-as she had sprained her ankle badly, she was to return to Rio.
-
-It was a long ride from Morro Velho and a tiring one, and we were glad
-to enter the picturesque city of Sabará, where we found tolerable
-lodgings. Here I completed my preparations for descending the Rio das
-Velhas, and had to seek the aid of a store-keeper, who turned out to
-be an extortioner. That, perhaps, was only to be expected; but I may
-justly complain when, in addition to his extortionate charges, he sent
-me down the river, a river like the Mississippi, in a raft whose
-starboard canoe had a leak scarcely stopped up with Sabará clay.
-
-The next day we all walked down to the upper landing-place, where the
-ajojo, or raft, lay. I never saw such an old Noah’s ark, with its
-standing awning, a floating gipsy “pal,” some seven feet high and
-twenty-two long, and pitched like a tent upon two hollowed logs. The
-river, I thought, must indeed be safe if this article can get down
-without an accident.
-
-All the notables of the place witnessed the process of embarkation. A
-young English lady broke a bottle of wine with all possible grace upon
-the bows, and duly christened the craft the _Eliza_ and two pairs of
-slippers were thrown at my head. Many _vivas_ were given and returned,
-and all my party embarked for a trial trip of a couple of miles. When
-the fifteen souls came on board, they sank the raft some three palms,
-and deluged the upper platform, making the headman, or pilot, very
-nervous; already he began to predict swamping, “going down in a
-jiffey,” and being dashed to pieces by the rapids. We shot past a
-dangerous rock in mid-stream, and in a short time arrived at the
-little village of Santo Antonio da Roça Grande, where animals were
-waiting to carry home the non-voyagers, my wife included. They landed
-here, but stood as the setting sun sank behind the mountains and waved
-their farewells as they watched the raft turn the last corner and
-float off into the far mysterious unknown. I confess to having felt an
-unusual sense of loneliness as the kindly faces faded away in the
-distance, and, by way of distraction, I applied myself to a careful
-examination of my raft.
-
-  [Illustration:
-  SHOOTING THE RAPIDS ON THE RIO DAS VELHAS.        [_See Page 266._]
-
-The ajojo, or, as it is called in other places, the “balsa,” here
-represents the flat boat of the Mississippi. On the Rio das Velhas,
-however, it had not yet become an institution, and at that time I was
-the only traveller who had yet passed down by it from Sabará to the
-rapids of Paulo Affonso. I need not describe it in detail; I will only
-say that, though not of the safest description, it behaved itself,
-under all the circumstances, well.
-
-My crew numbered three――old Vieira and his sons. Two stood in the bows
-with poles, which they preferred as being easier to use than paddles.
-The paddles used in deep waters vary in shape every few hundred miles.
-The men were mere landlubbers; they felt, or affected to feel, nervous
-at every obstacle. They had been rowing all their lives, and yet they
-knew not how to back water; curious to say, this was everywhere the
-case down stream. They pulled with all their might for a few minutes
-when the river was rapid, so as to incur possible risks, and when the
-water was almost dead, they lay upon their oars and lazily allowed
-themselves to be floated down. Thus, during the working day, between 7
-a.m. and 5 p.m., very little way was made. They had no system, nor
-would they learn any. The only thing energetic about them was the way
-they performed upon the cow-horn, and with this they announced
-arrival, saluted those on the banks, and generally enjoyed the noise.
-
-My first stage was between Sabará and Santa Lusia. The stream was
-deeply encased; the reaches were short, and we seemed to run at the
-bluffs, where high ribs came down to the bed and cut the bottom into
-very small bends. The most troublesome feature was the shallow places
-where the bed broadened; we grounded with unpleasant regularity. This
-part also abounded in snags. The tortuous bed, never showing a mile
-ahead, prevented anything like waves, though the wind was in our
-teeth. At this time of year we saw the Old Squaw’s River at its worst;
-there was a minimum of water and a maximum of contrary wind. On the
-other hand, it was the “moon of flowers”; the poor second growth
-teemed with bunches of purple beauty, and the hill-tops were feathered
-by palms.
-
-At Jaguára the people cried, “You’ll never reach Trahiras,” deriding
-the _Eliza_. Indeed, we seemed likely to waste much time. However, we
-crept on surely, if slowly. As evening approached the weather waxed
-cool and clear, and the excessive evaporation gave the idea of great
-dryness; my books curled up, it was hardly possible to write, and it
-reminded me of the Persian Gulf, where water-colours cannot be used
-because the moisture is absorbed from the brush.
-
-The first view of Santa Lusia was very pleasing; a tall ridge about a
-mile from the stream was capped with two double-towered churches,
-divided by fine, large, whitewashed houses and rich vegetation, with
-palms straggling down to the water. Here I landed and made my way to
-the hotel, which was a most tumble-down hole, and after supper
-inspected Santa Lusia. It was formerly a centre of the gold diggings,
-but at this time possessed nothing of interest.
-
-The next morning was delicious, and the face of Nature was as calm as
-if it could show no other expression. The sword-like rays of the sun,
-radiating from the unseen centre before it arose in its splendour,
-soon dispersed the thin mists that slept tranquilly upon the cool
-river-bed. We shot the Ponte Grande de Santa Lusia to Cruvello and the
-backwoods. The bridge was the usual long, crooked affair, with twelve
-trusses, or trestles, in the water and many outside, showing that the
-floods are here extensive. The girders are rarely raised high enough,
-and an exceptional inundation sweeps them away, leaving bare poles
-bristling in the bed and dangerous piles under water.
-
-About two miles below Santa Lusia the water became deeper and the
-country changed. The right, or eastern, side was rough and hilly, with
-heights hugging the bed. Near the other bank the land was more level,
-and the soil showed a better complexion, by which both sugar-cane and
-timber profited. In another hour we sighted the first cotton
-plantation, and right well it looked. There was indeed a mine of
-neglected wealth in cotton and fish along, and in, this river, and the
-more I saw of it the richer I found it. The hills were clothed with
-thin brown-grey grass, looking in places as if they were frosty with
-hoar, and always profusely tasselled.
-
-Presently another bend showed certain white lines between the
-river-fringe of trees, and this was the abode of the friaresses. We
-made fast to a gap in the clay bank and landed. At first I was refused
-even coffee, and there was no inn. I therefore sent my card and letter
-to the reverend vicar, and he at once called upon me, ordered dinner,
-and took me off to see the lions, of which the most interesting was
-the sisterhood, or infirmary, of the friaresses before named. The
-reverend mother, rather a pretty person, received us at the door,
-kissed the padre’s hand, and led the way to the little college chapel,
-white and gold with frescoed ceiling. We visited the dormitories; the
-galleries were long, the room was large and airy. The infirmary
-contained one sister and four invalid girls. The thirty-six reverend
-women were dressed in white veils and petticoats, with black scapulars
-in front, and over all a blue cloak. I spent the night at this place
-on the raft; the moon and stars were unusually bright, and the night
-was delightfully clear and cool.
-
-We set out next morning at seven o’clock, and proceeded without much
-adventure all that day and night, finally arriving at Jaguára, at
-which hospitable place I spent pleasant days, whilst another crew was
-engaged and arrangments for my reaching Diamantina were being
-completed.
-
-After a week at Jaguára I embarked again. There was very little to
-record day by day of the voyage from Jaguára to Diamantina. The river
-was ever changing: sometimes we passed picturesque cliffs; sometimes
-we went through gorgeous forests; with masses of vegetation rolling
-and bulging down the bank; sometimes the currents changed into rapids,
-and the bed of the river was studded with islets of calcareous stone,
-dangerous during half-flood.
-
-The most dangerous experience was when we shot the rapids at Cachoeira
-Grande. People crowded down to the yellow bank to stare and to
-frighten us about them, and the dialogue was somewhat in this style:――
-
-“Do you know the rapids?” we inquired.
-
-“We know them!”
-
-“Will you pilot us?”
-
-“We will not pilot you!”
-
-“For money?”
-
-“Not for money!”
-
-“And why?”
-
-“Because we are afraid of them!”
-
-This was spoken as the juniors ran along the bank like ostriches or
-the natives of Ugogo.
-
-Luckily for us, for the Cachoeira Grande was no joke, we found, just
-before we came to the rapids, on the right bank a small crowd keeping
-holiday. The men carried guns in their hands, and wore pistols and
-daggers under their open jackets; the women were in full dress,
-brilliant as rainbows, with blood-red flowers in their glossy,
-crows’-wing hair. Of the dozen, not one was fairly white. Here we
-picked up a pilot or two who came on board. They were men of few
-words; they saluted us civilly and pushed off.
-
-The beginning of the end was the little rapid of the Saco Grande, or
-“Big Bend,” where the river bed, turning sharply from south-east to
-north-west, made parallel reaches. To avoid the rock-pier on the left
-we floated stern foremost down along the right bank, and managed the
-rapid with some difficulty. Presently we turned to the east-south-west,
-and faced the dreaded Cachoeira Grande, which is formed by another
-sharp bend in the bed, winding to the north-east. The obstacles were
-six very flat projections of dark stone on the right bank and four on
-the left, and cunning is required to spiral down between them. We
-began by passing the port of No. 1, then we made straight for No. 2 to
-the left; here, by pushing furiously up stream, the _Eliza_ was forced
-over to the right, was swung round by main force of arm, and was
-allowed to descend, well in hand, to within a few feet of No. 4, which
-rises right in the front. Finally, leaving this wrecker to starboard,
-we hit the usual triangle-head, with plenty of water breaking off both
-arms. The descent occupied sixteen minutes.
-
-After many congratulations our friends the pilots made a show of
-taking leave to do some important business, which proved on inquiry to
-mean “doing compliments.” As the dangers were not yet over, I produced
-a keg of restilo; it was tasted, and pronounced very hot in the mouth,
-and the Major――that is, myself――became so irresistible that they all
-swore they would accompany me to the Rio de São Francisco, or
-anywhere. The poles were twirled again and wielded with a will. We
-left to port broken water and an ugly stone, a hogsback; then we
-crossed to scrape acquaintance with a sunken mass in front.
-
-The end was the Cachoeira das Gallinhas, to which we presently came.
-We gave a wide berth to a rock well on the right bank and stuck to the
-left side. Here was a narrow gate, formed by two rock-piers projecting
-from the shores, and in such places “cordelling” was advisable. The
-men sprang into the water with loud cries, and pulled at the hawser
-till the current had put us in proper position. They then pushed off
-and sprang on board before we could make much way. The “Rapid of the
-Hens” occupied us nine minutes.
-
-A second dram of the “wild stuff” was then given and our friends the
-pilots blessed us fervently; they prayed for us, and unintelligibly
-invoked for us the protection of the Virgin and all the saints. They
-landed with abundant tripping and stumbling, carrying with them many
-dollars and a bottle of the much-prized restilo. I had every reason to
-be grateful to them, for they saved me an immense amount of trouble;
-but, shortly afterwards, reports of certain “little deaths,” in which
-they had been actively concerned, showed me that they were not exactly
-lambs.
-
-After this we proceeded easily down the river to Bom Successo, from
-which point I intended to visit Diamantina City. I had to land here
-and make my way to Diamantina on mule-back, not an easy journey,
-involving, as it did, a day and a night. Diamantina, or the Diamond
-City, was peculiarly situated, almost precipitous to the east and
-south-west, while the northern part was a continuation of the broken
-prairie-land. I stayed here as the guest of Sr. João Ribeiro, a
-diamond merchant, and wealthy and hospitable. I spent at this place
-three days and thoroughly inspected it. The impression left upon me
-was most agreeable; the men were the frankest, and the women the
-prettiest and most amiable, of any it had been my fortune to meet in
-Brazil; nothing could exceed their hospitality. I will not describe my
-visit to the diamond diggings, as I have done so fully elsewhere, and
-this brief sketch must be mainly devoted to my voyage down the river.
-I will only say that I found it most interesting, and, so far from the
-diamonds being exhausted, it seemed to me that they were only at the
-beginning of a supply which might be described as inexhaustible.
-
-On the eleventh day I returned to Bom Successo with great regret, and
-at 9.30 a.m. on September 7th I dismissed my trooper and his mules,
-and pushed out of the creek down the river towards Coroa do Gallo. I
-met with several small troubles, such as low sandbanks, snags, and
-stones, but managed to push through to the Coroa do Gallo, where I
-spent the night. The previous day had been burning hot, but when we
-set forth the weather had become temperate, and, indeed, on all this
-journey there was nothing much to complain of on account of the
-climate. We drifted on day after day through a soft and balmy
-atmosphere, disturbed ever and anon by gusts of wind and vapours;
-sometimes distant sheet lightning flashed from the mists massing
-around the horizon, the smoke of the prairie fires rose in columns,
-and they might have been mistaken for the fumes of a steamer by night.
-Those that were near glowed like live coals, whilst the more distant
-gleamed blue.
-
-I landed and stayed a day or two at Guaicuhy, but there was nothing
-very important to record. I was strongly advised to visit the rapids
-of the Pirapora, which are said to be, after the Casca d’Anta at the
-beginning and the Paulo Affonso at the end, the important feature upon
-the Rio de São Francisco. The word means a “fish leap,” and is applied
-to places on more than one Brazilian river. With a flush of joy I
-found myself upon this glorious stream of the future, whose dimensions
-here measure seven hundred feet. I had seen nothing to compare with it
-since my visit to the African Congo.
-
-Two new men were hired to guide us in the “tender” canoe, as we wished
-to shoot the rapids. We eyed curiously the contrasts of the new stream
-with that which we had lately left. Here the water was of a
-transparent green; the river seemed to break even from the stiff clay,
-which was in places caving in. After nine hours of hard work we
-doubled a wooded projection from the left bank, and sighted the
-Cachoeira of the Pirapora. The Pirapora differed from anything I had
-yet viewed; it was, in fact, partly a true fall, divided into two
-sections, and we trembled to think what the Paulo Affonso might be.
-Glad to stretch our cramped limbs, we landed on the right bank, and
-proceeded to inspect the rapids from above. The upper rapid, six feet
-high, seemed more formidable than the lower of about seven feet. Near
-the right bank these form true falls; they are also garnished by
-little ladders, miniature cascades rushing furiously down small,
-narrow, tortuous, channels, between the teeth of jagged stone-saws,
-and tumbling over dwarf buttresses. Thus the total height between the
-upper and the lower “smooths” is thirteen feet. Above the break the
-stream narrows to 1,800 feet, whilst below it broadens to 3,500 feet.
-During the dry weather the fair-way, if it may be so called, is a thin
-sheet of water near the western bank: no raft, however, can pass;
-canoes must be unladen and towed up. Without a good pilot there is
-imminent risk.
-
-A storm was gathering, and as we began the descent lightning flashed
-from the east and south, and from all the horizon, followed by low
-rumblings of thunder. Presently our cranky canoe was struck by the
-gale, one of the especial dangers of the São Francisco. The east wind
-was heard roaring from afar, and as it came down upon the stream,
-white waves rose after a few minutes, subsiding as easily when the
-gale had blown itself out. My men preferred the leeward bank, upon
-which the blast broke, leaving the water below comparatively dead, and
-thus they escaped the risk of falling trees. The surface of the
-central channel being now blocked by the furious wind, a backwater
-during our ascent bore us swiftly down. It was very dark at 7.30, when
-we landed and climbed the steep and slippery bank. The thunder growled
-angrily and heavy rain fell, fortunately upon a tight roof. This was
-the first wet weather that I had experienced since July 21st.
-
-The Pirapora had been on the São Francisco my terminus _ad quem_, and
-now it was _a quo_, the rest of the voyage being down stream. When we
-started in the morning the weather was still surly from the effects of
-last night’s scolding, but the air was transparent and clear; the
-books no longer curled with drought, and a dose from the quinine
-bottle was judged advisable. We were evidently at the break of the
-rainy season. It was noon before the _Eliza_ was poled off from the
-bank of the Guaicuhy, and turned head downwards into the great stream.
-We drifted on from day to day until we arrived at São Romao, a
-God-forgotten place, which I explored; but it was not particularly
-hospitable, so I returned at evening and spent the night on the
-_Eliza_, lighted the fire, drew down the awning, and kept out as much
-of the drifting rain and cold, shifting wind as possible. It was not
-easy to sleep for the babel of sounds, for the Romanenses were
-decidedly ill-behaved and uncivilised, and made night hideous with
-their orgies.
-
-We set out again next day, furling the awning, through the drenching
-rain. We had a day of wind and water, and then another of very hot
-sun, and so we went on to Januaria, where I met with frank and ready
-hospitality. After staying here a night, we took the water again, and
-proceeded through a small hurricane to Carunhanha, where also I was
-well received, but had to sleep on board the raft――another night of
-devilry. Cold wind from the north rushed through the hot air,
-precipitating a deluge in embryo; then the gale chopped round to the
-south, and produced another, and fiercer, down-pour. A treacherous
-lull, and all began again, the wind howling and screaming from the
-east. The thunder roared and the lightning flashed in all directions;
-the stream rose in wavelets, which washed over the _Eliza_, and shook
-her by the bumping of the “tender” canoe. We did not get much sleep
-that night.
-
-I will not further describe my voyage day after day in the _Eliza_.
-Suffice it to say, at Varzéa Redonda, a wretched village just before
-we came to the Paulo Affonso, I dismantled the _Eliza_ and paid off
-the crew. I was asked to stay on land, but, as I wished to see
-everything settled, I slept on board, and regretted my resolution. The
-night was furious, and the wind raised waves that nearly beat the old
-raft to pieces. My men, having reached the end of their work, had the
-usual boatman’s spree――hard drinking, extensive boasting, trials of
-strength, and quarrelling, intermixed with singing, shouting,
-extemporising verses, and ending in the snores and snorts of Bacchic
-sleep. I found them very troublesome; but the next morning they shed
-tears of contrition. I saw them disappear without regret; the only
-face, indeed, that I was sorry to part from was that of the good old
-pilot.
-
-The next step was to procure animals and men to take me to the Great
-Rapids. I had great difficulty in getting these, and when the party
-was made up it consisted of the worst men, the worst mules, and the
-worst equipments I had ever seen in Brazil. In two days and two nights
-I arrived at Paulo Affonso, the King of the Rapids.
-
-I shall never forget my first approach to it. In the distance we heard
-a deep, hollow sound, soft withal, like the rumbling of a distant
-storm, but it seemed to come from below the earth, as if we trod upon
-it. After another mile the ground appeared to tremble at the eternal
-thunder. A little later we came upon the rapids. Paulo Affonso has
-well been called the Niagara of Brazil.
-
-The quebrada, or gorge, is here two hundred and sixty feet deep; in
-the narrowest part it is choked to a minimum breadth of fifty-one
-feet. It is filled with what seems not water but froth and milk, a
-dashing and dazzling, a whirling and churning surfaceless mass, which
-gives a wondrous study of fluid in motion. Here the luminous whiteness
-of the chaotic foam-crests, hurled in billows and breakers against the
-blackness of the rock, is burst into flakes and spray that leap
-half-way up the immuring trough. Then the steam boils over and
-canopies the tremendous scene. In the stilly air of dull, warm grey,
-the mists surge up, deepening still more the dizzy fall that yawns
-under our feet.
-
-The general effect of the picture, and the same may be said of all
-great cataracts, is the realised idea of power――of power tremendous,
-inexorable, irresistible. The eye is spell-bound by the contrast of
-this impetuous motion, this wrathful, maddened haste to escape, with
-the frail stedfastness of the bits of rainbow, hovering above, with
-the “Table Rock,” so solid to the tread, and with the placid, settled
-stillness of the plain and hillocks, whose eternal homes seem to be
-here. Magic, I may observe, is in the atmosphere of Paulo Affonso; it
-is the natural expression of the glory and the majesty, the splendour
-and the glamour of the scene, which Greece would have peopled with
-shapes of beauty, and which in Germany would be haunted by choirs of
-flying sylphs and dancing Undines.
-
-I sat over the cataract until convinced it was not possible to become
-one with the waters; what at first seemed grand and sublime had at
-last a feeling of awe, too intense to be in any way enjoyable. The
-rest of the day I spent in camp, where the minor troubles of life soon
-asserted their power. The sand raised by the strong and steady
-trade-wind was troublesome, and the surface seething in the sun
-produced a constant drought. We were now at the head of the funnel,
-the vast ventilator which guides the gale to the Rio de São Francisco.
-At night the sky showed a fast-drifting scud, and an angry blast
-dispersed the gathering clouds of blood-thirsty mosquitos. Our lullaby
-was the music of Paulo Affonso.
-
-The next day I visited the falls again and explored them thoroughly,
-going down from the heights above to the base beneath, from which the
-finest view of the falls was to be obtained. It was a grand climax to
-my voyage down the São Francisco.
-
-My task was done; I won its reward, and my strength passed from me.
-Two days of tedious mountain riding led to the Porto das Piranhas, and
-from here I descended the lower Rio de São Francisco more leisurely,
-and, when that was done, I finally returned _viâ_ Rio de Janeiro to
-Santos (São Paulo), _alias_ the Wapping of the Far West, and took up
-my consular duties once again.
-
-
-
-
-_THROUGH SYRIA TO PALMYRA_
-
-1870
-
-
-
-
-_THROUGH SYRIA TO PALMYRA_
-
-1870
-
-
-I am “_partant pour la Syrie_,” and though it is comparatively near,
-we find the journey long. We take steamer to Alexandria, and there
-await the first vessel going northwards. We embark in a foreign
-steamer, much preferring the Russian, and after passing, perhaps
-without sighting, the base of the Nile Delta and the northern terminus
-of the Suez Canal, we run rapidly up the coast of the Holy Land. We
-are near enough to see certain of its features, and to feel a
-throbbing of the heart. Here is Ascalon, the “Bride of Syria,” still
-redolent of the days of the lion-hearted king and of the right royal
-Saláh-el-Din. There is Jaffa, the Joppa ever full of the memories of
-St. Peter. We touch there, but we may not land unless the sea is of
-the calmest. Now we steam along the site of Cæsarea, the busy city of
-Herod Agrippa, converted into the most silent waste of ruins that it
-has ever been our fate to look upon. There we cast anchor for a few
-days, at the second station, Hazfa, opposite St. Jean d’Acre, that
-“Key of Palestine” from the days of the Crusaders to the times of
-Bonaparte, Sir Sydney Smith, and Sir Charles Napier. From this point
-we swerve rapidly past the brown headland of Carmel, type of excellent
-beauty to the Hebrew poet, past the white Scala Tyrivrum, whose
-_promontorium album_ might be a fragment of the white cliffs of
-Albion, past the bright little town of Tyre, a phœnix rising a third
-time from its ashes, and past Sidon and Lebanon, memorial names
-engraved upon our childish hearts too deeply for time or change ever
-to erase them from the memory of the man. So memorial, indeed, are all
-these regions that the traveller must keep watch and ward upon
-himself, under penalty of suffering from what I may call “Holy Land on
-the brain.” The essence of it consists in seeing all things, not as
-they are, but as they ought to be; for instance, “hanging gardens” at
-Damascus, “Roman bridges” in Saracenic arches, and “beautiful blush
-marble” in limestone stained with oxide. It wrings the hearts of its
-friends when sighting the Plain of Esdraelon, and in gazing upon a
-certain mound it exclaims:
-
-     What hill is like to Tabor’s hill in beauty and in grace?
-
-This clairvoyance, or idealism, which makes men babble of green fields
-where only dust meets the eye of sense is by no means an obscure
-disorder of the brain; on the contrary, it is rather aggressive and
-violent, whilst writers of guides and handbooks appear abnormally
-exposed to it. Hence those who prepare for a pilgrimage to the Holy
-Land must temper information and description with many a grain of
-salt, or they will undergo no little disappointment. Ideal pleasures
-ever excel those of reality; but in this case there is an extra and
-inordinate supply of ideality.
-
-We disembark at the hopeless, wind-lashed roadstead of Beyrut, within
-the limits of the Land of Promise, but never yet included in the Land
-of Possession. The trim little harbour-town, seated upon its sloping
-amphitheatre, converted into “_Colossia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus_”
-must have been a local Pompeii in the fourth and fifth centuries, and
-its feminine bust was found associated with the medallions of
-Alexandria and Halicarnassus. During those ages the Roman and Egyptian
-galleys jostled one another in the inner port, which now looks like a
-dock; their palaces and villas covered the slopes with pillars and
-colonnades; paradises and gardens contrasted with proud fanes rising
-upon well-wooded and well-watered peaks around――fanes dedicated to
-gods and goddesses now remembered only by the classical dictionaries.
-In those days, students of philosophy and theology, of law and
-language, flocked to Berytus from the most distant lands. But the
-terrible earthquake of A.D. 551, which laid waste a pleasant site,
-seems to have been the turning-point of its destinies; the roadstead
-apparently became shallow, and, despite a noted miracle in the eighth
-century, Beyrut saw her glory depart for many a generation. At last,
-in the beginning of the nineteenth century, it had sunk to its lowest,
-and the petty port, placed under the unimportant Pashalate of Sidon,
-numbered barely five hundred souls.
-
-Sir Charles Napier, the sailor, changed all that. In the autumn of
-1840 he made Beyrut his headquarters, whence he and his gallant crews
-ranged the hill country around and blockaded the ports, till the
-career of Ibrahim Pasha was unfortunately cut short. Thereupon the hat
-began at once to take precedence of the turban, even of the green
-turban. The headquarters of the Pashalate were transferred from Sidon
-to Beyrut; European merchants established country houses; missionaries
-opened schools for both sexes; the different consular corps contended
-for the construction of roads and the abatement of nuisances; whilst
-the port was regularly visited by four lines of steamers. Briefly,
-Beyrut became the only Europeanised place in Syria, and she will
-probably remain so for many years.
-
-The old part of the city still retains some marks of Orientalism; the
-old part, with its alleys, wynds, and closes, its wretched lanes, its
-narrow and slippery thoroughfares, resembling unroofed sewers, is
-peculiarly sombre and Syrian, full of dead men’s bones and all
-uncleanliness. Nothing can be meaner than the Customs House, where
-millions of piastres annually change hands. Of the stately buildings
-which once adorned it no traces remain but three granite monolithic
-columns, still towering above modern misery. But the new town which
-surrounds the ancient archery is Levantine――that is to say, almost
-Italian; the points of difference being a scatter of minarets and a
-sprinkling of tropical vegetation, which tells you that you are
-somewhat nearer the sun. There are houses and hospitals large enough
-each to lodge its battalions; piano and bugle sounds catch the ear;
-the carriage is taking the place of the horse and the mule――here, as
-in South America, a sure sign of civilisation; and Orientalism is
-essentially at a discount. You must not think of Beyrut as an Eastern
-city.
-
-Life is easy and death is easier in these sub-tropical regions. Men do
-little during six days, and carefully rest on the seventh. For eight
-months they saunter through the tepid air of the Mediterranean
-seaboard; the other four are spent upon “the mountain” (_i.e._
-Lebanon), whose pure, light air is a tonic. The little world of Beyrut
-rises rather late, and its business hours are but before the noontide
-breakfast, for here, as amongst the classics, the meals are two per
-diem. They would be called by our grandfathers dinner and supper; we
-say breakfast and dinner. Then a little more work precedes a drive or
-a ride: the stroll is not unknown, the constitutional is. The evenings
-are spent either in a _café_ or in visits, where whist at times puts
-in an appearance, and a profound stillness, like that of Lime Street,
-City, begins to reign about 10 p.m. The theatre has not been imported,
-although an enterprising Syrian Christian――Moslems cannot originate
-such things――has, after a visit to Italy, written several comedies in
-the classical style, unfortunately adopting the French rhymed couplet.
-The tea party, the little music, and the _soirée dansante_, flourish
-in what the Beyrutines are pleased to call the “Paris of Syria.” The
-_jeunesse dorée_, in patent leather boots, “boiled shirts,” fold
-collars, white ties, and lemon-coloured gloves, loves to don the
-sables which the English gentleman affects. When he goes forth to make
-merry, he enters gloves in hand; he prefers round dances to square,
-and he imitates Europe very literally. But as the Romans kept up the
-time-honoured and homely eggs as the end of their richest banquets, so
-the “golden youth” of Beyrut prefers the ugly and unpleasant fez or
-tarbush. For the rest, young Syria’s ambition is to marry a European
-wife, and he does not always get the best of _that_ bargain.
-
-In these lands Society still preserves the fragmentary nature which
-belonged to the ancient world. Beyrut, the port, at the time whereof I
-write, is distant a single day’s ride from Damascus, the capital of
-Syria, yet there is no trace of sympathy between the two, and the
-inland say of the seaboard city:
-
-     Its sun cracks [wood or teak],
-     And its water is salt,
-     And its falls are cloud de Paris [dirty of lead].
-
-Again Damascus jeers:
-
-     Perish Beyrut, for the reason that her heat resembles Sakar [the
-       eighth hell].
-     No flowing of milk is found in her, though her sons are [stupid
-       as] cows.
-
-Whereto Beyrut retorts:
-
-     At Aleppo man is a dandy and vain,
-     At Shan [Damascus] he is niggard and mean,
-     And the Nizri [Egyptian] is simply a rascal.
-
-Whilst “the lying of Damascus” is an illustration in the mouth of
-every Beyrutine. We have a rhyme of the kind touching one――
-
-     Sir Vicary Gibbs,
-     The inventor of fibs.
-
-But Damascus says of herself, when describing a man who has became
-civilised: “He hath been Damascus’d.” These sharp sayings, indeed, are
-not confined to the capital and the port. As of old upon the
-Sorrentine Plains, to speak of no other place, every town had a
-nickname, a rhyme, or a tale attached to it, which “kinder ryled up”
-the inhabitants, so it is the case throughout modern Syria. Thus of
-Jerusalem men say, as of Meccah:
-
-     Her soil is sacred, her sons are soiled.
-
-Of Tiberias, a town built of basalt:
-
-     Her stones are black, and her people are Jews.
-
-Of the Naw’arinah, or people of the Auranitis (the great Hauran
-Valley), we are told that:
-
-     They thrice bewildered the Apostle of Allah [Mohammed].
-
-The modern inhabitants of ancient Heliopolis, where Burckhardt found
-the handsomest woman in Syria, is dubbed:
-
-     A Ba’albak bear.
-
-The Halbem village near Damascus is a standing joke with the witty
-citizens on account of the huge woollen turbans, the loud voice, and
-the peculiar dispositions of the people. They make “kass,” or
-lamp-wicks, for Damascus, and it is said that on one occasion, when
-their shaykh was imprisoned, they threatened, by withholding the
-supply, to keep the city in total darkness. Also, as a bride was being
-led home, mounted on an ass, when the doorway was found too low, the
-popular voice said that her head should be cut off, till some local
-wise man of Gotham suggested that she might dismount.
-
-Beyrut in my day was connected with Damascus by the only carriageable
-road in the Holy Land, which was supposed to boast of two others, the
-Jaffa-Jerusalem and the Alexandretto-Aleppo. These two, however, are
-utterly unfit for wheels, the reason being that they were laid out by
-native engineers and administered by the Turks, a nation that has
-succeeded in nothing but destruction. The distance is forty-seven and
-a half geographical miles, prolonged to sixty by the old road and to
-seventy-two by the new one.[8]
-
-We could travel to Damascus by night coach or by day diligence,
-preferring the latter, which enables us to see the land. At 4 a.m. we
-leave the harbour-town, and we shall reach our destination at 6 p.m.
-The section between the Mediterranean and Damascus, the sea and the
-Euphrates Desert, is an epitome of Syria, which has been described to
-be an epitome of the whole world; a volume might be easily written
-upon what is seen during that day’s journey. After a couple of miles
-through suburbs, cemeteries, and scattered villas, orchards of
-mulberry and olive, lanes hedged with prickly pear and dense clumps of
-young stone-pines, the road begins to ascend the westward, or
-maritime, slope of the Lebanon. It works gradually towards the left
-bank of the great gorge called Wady Hammánah, in one of whose hamlets
-Lamartine lived and wrote. After some twelve miles from the Beyrut
-Plain, we reach the watershed of the Jurd, or Highlands of the
-Lebanon. Here we are about 5,500 feet above sea-level, and feel
-immensely relieved, in fine weather at least, from the damp heat of
-the malarious seaboard, which robs the stranger of appetite and rest.
-The view, too, is charming: a glimpse of sparkling sea, a well-wooded
-sandstone region, and a long perspective of blue and purple chain and
-peak, cut and torn by valley, gorge, and ravine, scarring both flanks
-of the prism. Looking eastward, we sight for the first time that
-peculiar basaltic bed which gives rise to the Jordan, the Orontes, and
-the Litani (a river of Tyre). It appears to be a volcanic depression
-sunk in the once single range of secondary limestone, and splitting it
-into two parallel chains, the Libanus and the Anti-Libanus. Viewed
-from above it is a Spanish viga, a plain of wondrous wealth and
-fertility, whilst the surface appears smooth as a lake. It is,
-however, in places dangerously swampy, and though raised some 2,500 to
-3,000 feet above sea-level, it is an unwholesome and aguish site,
-alternately very hot and very cold, curiously damp and distressingly
-dry. And the same may be said of Damascus, which has to the east the
-scorching desert, and to the west mountains, mostly snowy: it is no
-wonder that the old author called it the “windy.” But the climate of
-Damascus is complicated by perhaps the worst and hardest water in
-Syria, by the exceeding uncleanliness of the place, and by the habits
-of the population. To say that man can exist there at all speaks
-volumes in his favour.
-
-Rapidly we run down the eastern, or landward, counterslope of the
-Lebanon, remembering the anti-Jacobin couplet:
-
-     And down thy slopes romantic Ashdown glides
-     The Derby dilly carrying six insides.
-
-Before its lowest folds we find the fifth station, Shtóra; here, as it
-is now 10 a.m., we breakfast. We at once realise what will be the bill
-of fare in the interior. Bread? perhaps. Potatoes? possibly. Beef or
-veal? impossible. Pig? ridiculous. Little, in fact, but lean kid and
-lamb, mutton, and fowls whose breast-bones pierce their skins. Wine?
-yes――dear and bad. Beer or porter, seltzer or soda? decidedly no. In
-the winter game is to be had, woodcock and wild duck, hares and
-gazelles; but the diet is held to be heating and bilious. Vegetables,
-however, are plentiful, and, during the season, fruit is abundant,
-with the usual drawback in half-civilised lands: wall fruit is all but
-unknown, and, with the exception of the excellent grapes and the
-unwholesome apricots, each kind lasts only a few days.
-
-After breakfast we spin by a straight road――such as old Normandy knew
-and modern Canada still knows――the breadth of the valley. It is laid
-out in little fields, copiously irrigated. The little villages which
-stud the plain are, like those of Egypt, not of Syria, built on
-mounds, and black with clay plastered over the wicker-work. Every mile
-or so has some classical ruin: on our right a Báal temple; to our left
-Chalcis ad Belum; whilst six hours of slow riding northwards, or up
-the valley, place you at immortal Báalbak, which the Greeks still call
-Heliopolis.
-
-A rising plane and a bend to the right land us at the first of the
-Anti-Libanus. Instead of ascending and descending this range, as we
-did with the Lebanon prism, we thread a ravine called by the Druzes
-the Valley of Silk, from their favourite article of plunder. An easy
-up-slope leads to Sahlat Judaydah, the dwarf plateau about 3,600 feet
-high, where the watershed changes from west to east; farther on to the
-wild gorge Wady el Karn (“of the Thorn”), so called from its rich
-ribbings and the wreathing and winding of the bed. We find a stiff
-climb or a long zigzag at the Akabat el Tin (the Steep of Lime).
-
-The descent of the steep ends with the Daurat el Billau (Zigzag of the
-Camel Thorn), and thence we fall into the Sahrat el Dimas, so called
-from a village which may have borrowed a name from the penitent thief.
-This Sahara has been described with prodigious exaggeration in order
-to set off by contrast the charms of the so-termed “sublime Gorge of
-Abana,” to which it leads. Measuring some ten kilometres, it is
-undoubtedly a rough bit of ground, dry as dust in the summer, and in
-winter swept by raving winds and piled with sleet and snow. At its
-eastern end the Sahara at once dips into a deep, lateral gorge, which
-feeds, after rains, the Barada Valley, and here we remark that curious
-contrast of intense fertility with utter, hopeless barrenness which
-characterises inner Spain. Life is in that thick line of the darkest
-and densest evergreen, which, smiling under the fierce and fiery
-sun-glare, threads the side of the valley, in the wholesome perfume of
-the wild plants, and in the gush and murmur of waters making endless
-music. Death is represented by the dull grey formation standing up in
-tombstones, by the sterile yellow lime-rock, and by the chalk,
-blinding white; and the proportion of good to bad is as one to twenty.
-This verdure is, the Arabs say, a cooling to the eye of the beholder;
-it is like the aspect of the celadon-coloured sea that beats upon the
-torrid West African shores. With the author of that charming book
-“Eothen,” “you float along (for the delight is as the delight of
-bathing) through green, wavy fields and down into the cool verdure of
-groves and gardens, and you quench hot eyes in shade as though in
-deep, rushing waters.”
-
-The beginning of the end is at the tenth and last station, El Hamah,
-meaning the Head of the Valley, and we halt here for a cup of coffee.
-The next place of note is Dummar; here we cross the Barada torrent.
-This place is, despite its low site and hot and cold air, a favourite
-for villas; and certain wealthy Damascus usurers have here built large
-piles, as remarkable for the barbarity of their outer frescoes as for
-the tawdry decoration of the interior. The witty Damasceines call them
-“traps,” because they are periodically let to high officials for other
-considerations than hire. And now, with its slate-coloured stream,
-garnished with weirs on our right, the valley becomes broader and more
-important; the upper cliff’s are tunnelled into cut caves, Troglodyte
-dwellings and sepulchres of the ancients; seven veins at high levels
-and at low levels branch off from the main artery; and, after passing
-a natural gateway formed by two shield-like masses of rock, we suspect
-that Damascus is before us.
-
-The first sight of Damascus was once famous in travel. But then men
-rode on horseback, and turned, a little beyond Damascus, sharply to
-the left of the present line. They took what was evidently the old
-Roman road, and which is still, on account of its being a short cut,
-affected by muleteers. Now it is nothing but an ugly climb up
-sheet-rock and rolling stones, with bars and holes dug by the armed
-hoof of many a generation. They then passed through El Zaarub (the
-Spout); this is the old way, sunk some ten feet deep in the rock till
-it resembles an uncovered tunnel, and polished like glass by the
-traffic and transit of ages. At its mouth you suddenly turn a corner
-and see Damascus lying in panorama, a few hundred feet below you. “A
-flint set in emeralds” is the Damascus citizen’s description of what
-El Islam calls, and miscalls, the “smile of the Prophet” (Mohammed).
-Like Stambul, it is beautiful from afar, as it is foul and sore
-within, morally and physically. The eye at once distinguishes a long
-head, the northern suburb “El Salituzzah”; a central nucleus,
-crescent-shaped and fronting the bed of the Barada; and a long tail,
-or southern suburb, “El Maydan.” These three centres of whitewashed
-dwellings and skyline, fretted with dome and minaret, are surrounded
-and backed by a mass of evergreen orchard, whose outlines are sharply
-defined by irrigation, whilst beyond the scatter of outlying villages,
-glare the sunburnt yellow and the parched rich brown of the desert,
-whose light blue hillocks define the eastern horizon.
-
-The prosaic approach by the French road shows little beyond ruins and
-graveyards: Damascus outside is a mass of graveyards, the “Great” and
-“Little Camps” of Constantinople, only without their cypresses; whilst
-within it is all graveyards and ruins, mixed with crowded and steaming
-bazaars. This world of graves reminds one of Job’s forlorn man
-dwelling “in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth,
-which are ready to become heaps.” The Barada in olden times had its
-stone embankment; the walls are now in ruins. On our right is a ruined
-bridge once leading to a large coffee-house, both also in ruins. As we
-advance we pass other ruins. But though it was prophesied that
-Damascus should be a “ruinous heap,” her position forbids
-annihilation. The second of Biblical cities, she has been destroyed
-again and again; her houses have been levelled with the ground, and
-the Tartar has played hockey with the hearts of her sons. Still she
-sits upon the eastern folds of the Anti-Libanus and on her
-gold-rolling river, boldly overlooking the desert at her base.
-Damascus, not Rome, deserves, if any does, to be entitled the Eternal
-City.
-
-I passed twenty-three months (October 1st, 1869, to August 20th,
-1871), on and off, at this most picturesque and unpleasant of
-residences. It was then in the transitional state, neither of Asia nor
-of Europe. To one who had long lived in the outer East, a return to
-such an ambiguous state of things was utterly disenchanting. Hassan,
-digging or delving in long beard and long clothes, looks more like an
-overgrown baby than the romantic being which your fancies paint him.
-Fatima, with a coloured kerchief (not a nose-bag) over her face,
-possibly spotted for greater hideousness, with Marseilles gloves and
-French bottines of yellow satin, trimmed with fringe and bugles,
-protruding from the white calico which might be her winding-sheet, is
-an absurdity: she reminded me of sundry “kings” on the West African
-shore, whose toilet consists of a bright bandanna and a chimney-pot
-hat, of the largest dimensions, coloured the liveliest sky-blue.
-
-The first steps to be taken at Damascus were to pay and receive
-visits, to find a house, to hire servants, to buy horses, and, in
-fact, to settle ourselves. It proved no easy matter. Certain persons
-had amused themselves with spreading a report that my pilgrimage to
-Meccah had aroused Moslem fanaticism, and perhaps might cost me my
-life. They, as well as I, knew far better, so I was not surprised at
-the kind and even friendly reception given to me by Emir Abdel Kadir,
-of Algerine fame, and by the Dean of the great Cathedral el Amahi, the
-late Shaykh Abdahah el Halati. And I remember with satisfaction that,
-to the hour of my quitting Damascus, the Moslems never showed for me
-any but the most cordial feeling.
-
-Other British consuls had been of a stay-at-home disposition, seeing
-nothing beyond the length of their noses. I was of a roving one, and
-determined to see all I could, and penetrate to the inner heart of
-Syria. To be shut up in Damascus was to be in prison; the breath of
-the desert was liberty. I soon wandered afield. One of my earliest
-excursions was to Palmyra. Until the spring of 1870 a traveller
-visiting Syria for the express purpose, perhaps, of seeing Palmyra,
-“Tadmor in the Wilderness,” after being kept waiting for months at
-Damascus, had to return disappointed. Only the rich could afford the
-large Bedouin escort, for which even six thousand francs and more have
-been demanded. Add to this the difficulties, hardships, and dangers of
-the journey, the heat of the arid desert, want of water, chances of
-attack, the long forced marches by night and hiding by day, ending
-with a shabby halt of forty-eight hours at a place for which so many
-sacrifices had been made, and where a fortnight is the minimum
-required.
-
-Since the beginning of the last century the Porte has had in view a
-military occupation of the caravan route between Damascus and the
-Euphrates. “The Turk will catch up your best hare on the back of a
-lame donkey,” say the Arabs, little thinking what high praise they
-award to the conquering race. The _cordon militaire_ was to extend
-from Damascus, _viâ_ Jayrud, Karyatayn, Palmyra, and Sukhnah, to Daye
-on the great rim. The wells were to be commanded by block houses, the
-roads to be cleared by movable columns, and thus the plundering
-Bedouin, who refuse all allegiance to the Sultan, would be kept,
-perforce, in the dan, or desert, between the easternmost offsets of
-the Anti-Libanus and the pitch uplands of Nijd. This project was
-apparently rescued from the fate of good intentions by Osman Bey, a
-Hungarian officer who had served the Porte since 1848. He moved from
-Hamah with a body of some 1,600 men――enough to cut his way through
-half the vermin in Araby the Unblest. Presently, after occupying
-Palmyra, building barracks, and restoring the old Druze Castle, he
-proceeded eastward to Sukhnah, whence he could communicate with the
-force expected to march westward from Baghdad. The welcome
-intelligence was hailed with joy: Palmyra, so long excluded from the
-Oriental tour, lay open to the European traveller; half a step had
-been taken towards a Euphrates Valley Railway; at Damascus men
-congratulated themselves upon the new line of frontier, which was
-naturally expected to strengthen and to extend the limits of Syria;
-and the merchant rejoiced to learn that his caravan would be no longer
-liable to wholesale plunder.
-
-A fair vision, doomed soon to fade! After six months or so of
-occupation, Osman Bey, whose men were half starving, became tired of
-Palmyra, and was recalled to Damascus. The garrison was reduced to two
-hundred men under a captain, whose only friend was the raki bottle,
-and the last I saw of the garrison was his orderly riding into Hauran,
-with the huge, empty demijohns dangling at his saddle-bow. The Bedouin
-waxed brave, and, in the spring of 1871, I was obliged to send
-travellers to Palmyra by a long circuit, _viâ_ the north and the
-north-west.[9]
-
-A certain official business compelled me to visit Karyatayn, which is
-within jurisdiction of Damascus, and my wife resolved to accompany me.
-In this little enterprise I was warmly seconded by the Vicomte de
-Perrochel, a French traveller and author, who had twice visited
-Damascus in the hope of reaching Tadmor, and by M. Ionine, my Russian
-colleague. The Governor-General, the Field Marshal commanding the army
-of Syria, and other high officials, lent us their best aid. We engaged
-a pair of dragomen, six servants, a cook, and eight muleteers; twelve
-mules and eight baggage-asses to carry tents and canteen, baggage and
-provisions; and we rode our own horses, being wrongly persuaded not to
-take donkeys――on long marches they would have been a pleasant change.
-We were peculiarly unfortunate in the choice of head dragoman, a
-certain Anton Wardi, who had Italianised his name to Riza. Originally
-a donkey-boy at Beyrut, he made, by “skinning” sundry travellers, some
-80,000 francs in ten years. He was utterly spoiled by his French
-friends, M. de Sauley and M. de Perrochel; he had also dragomaned the
-then Princess Amadeo, who, in return for his mean conduct, had
-promised him, and afterwards sent him, greatly to the disgust of every
-Italian gentleman, the Order of the Rose. This “native gentleman,” the
-type of the ignoble _petit bourgeois_ of Syria, had been trusted
-without any contract having been made. He charged us a hundred francs
-per diem, and the others each fifty francs and forty francs. When the
-bill was produced for settlement, it proved to be a long list of _des
-extras_: everything was _un extra_; two bottles of cognac, reported
-broken, appeared as _des extras_; even the water-camels were _des
-extras_. The fact was, he had allowed, when galloping about the
-country, some francs to fall from his pocket, and he resolved that
-_les extras_ should replace them.
-
-We altogether regretted the assistance of Mohammed, Shaykh of the
-Mezrab tribe, who had systematically fleeced travellers for a score of
-years. He demanded two napoleons a head for his wretched camels,
-sending a score when only one was wanted; like all other chiefs, he
-would not guarantee his protégés, either in purse or person, against
-enemies, but only against his own friends; he allowed them but two
-days at Palmyra; he made them march twenty, instead of fifteen, hours
-between Karyatayn and their destination; he concealed the fact that
-there are wells the whole way, in order to make them hire camels and
-buy water-skins; and, besides harassing them with night marches, he
-organised sham attacks, in order to make them duly appreciate his
-protection. I rejoice to say that Mohammed’s occupation has since
-gone; his miserable tribe was three times plundered within eighteen
-months, and, instead of fighting, he fell back upon the desert. May
-thus end all who oppose their petty interests to the general good――all
-that would shut roads instead of opening them! With a view of keeping
-up his title to escort travellers, he sent with us a clansman upon a
-well-bred mare and armed with the honourable spear. But M. de
-Perrochel hired the mare; the crestfallen man was put upon a
-baggage-mare, and the poor spear was carried by a lame donkey.
-
-Armed to the teeth, we set out in a chorus of groans and with general
-prognostications of evil. Ours was the first party since M. Dubois
-d’Angus was dangerously wounded, stripped, and turned out to die of
-hunger, thirst, and cold, because he could not salary the inevitable
-Bedouin. It would, doubtless, have been the interest of many and the
-delight of more to see us return in the scantiest of costumes;
-consequently a false report generally flew abroad that we had been
-pursued and plundered by the Bedouin.
-
-The first night was passed under canvas near a ruined khan in the
-fifth valley plain east of the Syrian metropolis. The weather became
-unusually cold the next morning when we left the foggy lowland and
-turned to the north-east in order to cross the ridgy line of hills,
-which, offsetting from the Anti-Libanus, runs from Damascus toward the
-desert, and afterwards sweeps round to Palmyra. The line of travel was
-a break in the ridge. Then, gently descending, we fell into a northern
-depression, a section of that extensive valley in the Anti-Libanus,
-which, under a variety of names, runs nearly straight north-east (more
-exactly, 60°), to Palmyra. Nothing can be simpler than the geography
-of the country. The traveller cannot lose his way in the Palmyra
-Valley without crossing the high and rugged mountains which hem it in
-on both sides, and, if he is attacked by raiders, he can easily take
-refuge, and laugh at the Arab goatees. During the time of our journey
-the miserable little robber clans Shitai and Ghiyas had completely
-closed the country five hours’ riding to the east of Damascus, whilst
-the Sorbai and the Anergah bandits were making the Merj a battlefield
-and were threatening to burn down the peaceful villages. Even as we
-crossed the pass we were saddened by the report that a troop of
-Bedouin had the day before murdered a wretched peasant within easy
-sight of Damascus. This state of things was a national scandal to the
-Porte, which, of course, was never allowed to know the truth.
-
-We resolved to advance slowly, to examine every object, and to follow
-the most indirect paths. Hence our march to Palmyra occupied eight
-days; we returned, however, in four with horses that called loudly for
-a week’s rest. The regular stations are as follows:――
-
-                                        Hours.
-     1. Damascus to Jayrud                 9
-     2. Jayrud to Karyatayn            10-11
-     3. Karyatayn to Agu el Waah           8
-     4. Agu el Waah to Palmyra             9
-
-On the second day we dismissed our escort, one officer and two
-privates of irregular cavalry, who were worse than useless, and we
-slept at the house of Daas Agha, hereditary Chief of Jayrud. A noted
-sabre, and able to bring one hundred and fifty lances into the field,
-he was systematically neglected by the authorities, because supposed
-to be friendly with foreigners. Shortly after my departure he
-barbarously tortured two wretched Arabs, throwing them into a pit full
-of fire, and practising upon them with his revolver. Thereupon he was
-at once taken into prime favour, and received a command.
-
-Daas Agha escorted us from Jayrud with ten of his kinsmen mounted upon
-their best mares. In the upland valley we suffered severely from cold,
-and the sleety sou’wester which cut our faces on the return was a
-caution.
-
-At Karyatayn, which we reached on the fifth day, Osman Bey, who was
-waiting for rations, money, transport, in fact, everything, offered us
-the most friendly welcome, and I gave official protection to Shaykh
-Faris, in connection with the English post at Baghdad. The former
-detached with us eighty bayonets of regulars and twenty-five sabres of
-Irregulars, commanded by two officers. This body presently put to
-flight anything in the way of Bedouin; a war party of two thousand men
-would not have attacked us; and I really believe that a band of thirty
-Englishmen armed with carbines and revolvers could sweep clean the
-Desert of the Euphrates from end to end.
-
-At Karyatayn we hired seventeen camels to carry water. This would have
-been a complete waste of money had we gone, like other travellers, by
-the Darb el Sultain, or High Way. Some three hours’ ride to the right,
-or south, of the road amongst the hills bounding the Palmyra Valley is
-a fine cistern (Ibex Fountain), where water is never wanting. There
-is, however, a still more direct road _viâ_ the remains of an aqueduct
-and a river in the desert. This short cut from Karyatayn to Palmyra
-may be covered in twenty-four hours of camel walking, fifteen of horse
-walking, and twelve by dromedary or hard gallop. Travellers would
-start at 6.30 or 7 a.m., and encamp after being out from twelve to
-thirteen hours; but this includes breakfast and sundry halts,
-sometimes to inspect figures, real or imaginary, in the distance, at
-other times to indulge in a “spurt” after a gazelle or a wild boar.
-
-We chose, however, the little-known Baghdad, or eastern, road. The
-next day we rested at a large deserted khan, and on the eighth we made
-our entrance into Palmyra, where we were hospitably received by Shaykh
-Faris. Our muleteers, for the convenience of their cattle, pitched
-their tents close to, and east of, the so-called Grand Colonnade, a
-malarious and unwholesome site. They should have encamped amongst the
-trees at a threshing-floor near three palms. Travellers may be
-strongly advised not to lodge in the native village, whose mud huts,
-like wasps’ nests, are all huddled within the ancient Temple of the
-Sun, or they may suffer from fever or ophthalmia. The water of Tadmor
-is sulphurous, like Harrogate, the climate is unhealthy, and the
-people are ragged and sickly. May there, as in most parts of the
-northern hemisphere, is the best travelling-season, and in any but a
-phenomenal year the traveller need not fear to encounter, as we did,
-ice and snow, siroccos and furious sou’westers.
-
-If asked whether Palmyra is worth all this trouble, I should reply
-“No” and “Yes.” No, if you merely go there, stay two days, and return,
-especially after sighting noble Báalbak. Certainly not for the Grand
-Colonnade of weather-beaten limestone, by a stretch of courtesy called
-marble, which, rain-washed and earthquake-shaken, looks like a system
-of galleries. Not for the Temple of the Sun, the building of a Roman
-emperor, a second-rate affair, an architectural evidence of Rome’s
-declining days. Yes, if you would study the site and the environs,
-which are interesting and only partially explored, make excavations,
-and collect coins and relics, which may be bought for a song.
-
-The site of Palmyra is very interesting; she stands between the
-mountains and the sea; like Damascus, she sits upon the eastern slope
-of the Anti-Libanus, facing the wilderness, but unhappily she has a
-dry torrent bed, the Wady el Sayl, instead of a rushing Barada. She is
-built upon the shore cape, where the sandy sea breaks upon its nearest
-headlands. This sea is the mysterious Wilderness of the Euphrates,
-whose ships are camels, whose yachts are high-bred mares, and whose
-cock-boats are mules and asses. She is on the very threshold of the
-mountains, which the wild cavalry cannot scour, as they do the level
-plain. And her position is such that we have not heard the last of the
-Tadmor, or, as the Arabs call her, Tudmur. Nor will it be difficult to
-revive her. A large tract can be placed under cultivation, where there
-shall be protection for life and property; old wells exist in the
-ruins; foresting the highlands to the north and west will cause rain;
-and the aqueducts in the old days may easily be repaired.
-
-I am unwilling to indulge in a description of the modern ruin of the
-great old depôt, which has employed so many pens. But very little has
-been said concerning the old tomb-towers, which have taken at Palmyra
-the place of Egyptian pyramids. Here, as elsewhere in ancient Syria,
-sepulture was extramural, and every settlement was approached by one
-or more Viâ Appia, much resembling that of ancient Rome. At Palmyra
-there are, or, rather, were, notably two: one (south-west) upon the
-high road to Damascus; the other, north-west of the official or
-monumental city, formed, doubtless, the main approach from Hauran and
-Hamah. The two are lined on both sides with those interesting
-monuments, whose squat, solid forms of gloomy and unsquared sandstone
-contrast remarkably with the bastard classical and Roman architecture,
-meretricious in all its details, and glittering from afar in white
-limestone. Inscriptions in the Palmyrian character prove that they
-date from about A.D. 2 and 102; but they have evidently been restored,
-and this perhaps fixes the latest restoration. It is highly probable
-that the heathen method of burial declined under the Roman rule,
-especially after A.D. 130, when the Great Half-way House again changed
-its name to Adrianopolis. Still, vestiges of the old custom are found
-in the Hauran and in the Druze Mountain west of the great valley,
-extending deep into the second century, when, it is believed,
-Gassanides of Damascus had abandoned their heathen faith for
-Christianity. I found in the tombs, or cells, fragments of mummies,
-and these, it is suspected, were the first ever brought to England.
-Almost all the skulls contained date-stones, more or less, and a peach
-stone and an apricot stone were found under similar circumstances. At
-Shathah we picked up in the mummy-towers almond shells with the sharp
-ends cut off and forming baby cups.
-
-There are three tomb-towers at Palmyra still standing, and perhaps
-likely to yield good results. The people call them Kasr el Zaynah
-(Pretty Palace), Kasr el Azin (Palace of the Maiden), and Kasr el Arus
-(Palace of the Bride). They number four and five stories, but the
-staircases, which run up the thickness of the walls, are broken, and
-so are the monolithic slabs which form the lower floors. Explorers,
-therefore, must take with them ropes and hooks, ladders which will
-reach to eighty feet, planks to act as bridges, and a short crowbar.
-We had none of these requirements, nor could the wretched village
-provide them. I have little doubt that the upper stories would be
-found to contain bones, coins, and pottery, perhaps entire mummies.
-
-The shortness of our visit allowed me only a day and a half to try the
-fortune of excavation at Palmyra. It was easy to hire a considerable
-number of labourers at two and a half piastres a head per diem――say
-6_d._――when in other places the wages would be at least double.
-Operations began (April 15th) at the group of tomb-towers bearing
-west-south-west from the great Temple of the Sun: I chose this group
-because it appeared the oldest of the series. The fellahs, or
-peasants, know it as Kusin Ahi Sayl (Palaces of the Father of a
-Torrent); and they stare when told that these massive buildings are
-not royal residences but tombs. Here the tombs in the several stages
-were easily cleared out by my forty-five coolies, who had nothing but
-diminutive picks and bars, grain-lugs and body-cloths, which they
-converted into buckets for removing sand and rubbish. But these cells
-and those of the adjoining ruins had before been ransacked, and they
-supplied nothing beyond skulls, bones, and shreds of mummy cloth,
-whose dyes were remarkably brilliant.
-
-The hands were then applied to an adjoining mound: it offered a
-tempting resemblance to the undulations of ground which cover the
-complicated chambered catacombs already laid open, and into one of
-which, some years ago, a camel fell, the roof having given way. After
-reaching a stratum of snow-white gypsum, which appeared to be
-artificial, though all hands agreed that it was not, we gave up the
-task, as time pressed so hard. The third attempt laid open the
-foundation of a house, and showed us the well, or rain-cistern,
-shaped, as such reservoirs are still in the Holy Land, like a
-soda-water bottle. The fourth trial was more successful; during our
-absence the workmen came upon two oval slabs of soft limestone, each
-with its kit-cat in high relief. One was a man with straight features,
-short, curly beard, and hair disposed, as appears to have been the
-fashion for both sexes, in three circular rolls. The other was a
-feminine bust, with features of a type so exaggerated as to resemble
-the negro. A third and similar work of art was brought up, but the
-head had been removed. It would be hard to explain the excitement
-caused by these wonderful discoveries; report flew abroad that gold
-images of life-size had been dug up, and the least disposed to
-exaggeration declared that chests full of gold coins and ingots had
-fallen to our lot.
-
-On the next morning we left Palmyra, and, after a hard gallop which
-lasted for the best part of four days, we found ourselves, not much
-the worse for wear, once more at Damascus.
-
-
-     [8] Burton writes of Syria in 1870. The journey from Beyrut
-     to Damascus has now been made easy by the opening of the
-     railway. The line rises some four thousand feet, crosses two
-     ranges of mountains on the Lebanon, and passes through some
-     beautiful scenery. After traversing the Plain of Bakaa
-     through the Anti-Lebanon, the railway enters the Yahfâfeh,
-     continuing to Sûk Wady Barada, the ancient Abila, where is
-     seen the rock-cut aqueducts made by Zenobia to convey the
-     water of the Abana to Palmyra; then, passing the beautiful
-     fountain of Fijeh and the remains of an old temple, the
-     train follows the River Abana until it arrives at
-     Damascus.――W. H. W.
-
-     [9] The journey from Damascus to Palmyra can now be made in
-     five days _viâ_ Mareau Said and Niah――the pleasantest route,
-     passing by much water, and averaging six to seven hours
-     riding a day. But Palmyra is still under the care of
-     rapacious shayks, and great care has to be observed in
-     arranging for a tour to that city of grand ruins. Things are
-     a little better than they were in Burton’s day, but there is
-     still danger.――W. H. W.
-
-
-
-
-_Printed by Hasell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Note:
-
-Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
-this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the
-end of the chapter. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and
-abbreviations were added. Duplicate words at line endings or page
-breaks were removed.
-
-Inconsistent hyphenation and misspelled words were not changed.
-
-At the end of the phrase “They took up comfortable positions on the
-cut-throat em,” the last portion of the word beginning with “em” is
-not printed in the original; “embankment” is assumed.
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS IN THREE CONTINENTS ***
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the
-United States without permission and without paying copyright
-royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
-the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
-of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
-copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
-easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
-of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
-Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
-do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
-by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
-license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country other than the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
-  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
-  you are located before using this eBook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that:
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
-the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
-forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org
-
-Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
-Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
-to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website
-and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without
-widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.