We Left Berber In The Evening At Sunset; We Were Mounted Upon
Donkeys, While Our Turkish Attendants Rode Upon Excellent
Dromedaries that belonged to their regiment of irregular cavalry.
As usual, when ready to start, Mahomet was the last; he
Had piled
a huge mass of bags and various luggage upon his donkey, that
almost obscured the animal, and he sat mounted upon this pinnacle
dressed in gorgeous clothes, with a brace of handsome pistols in
his belt, and his gun slung across his shoulders. Upon my
remonstrating with him upon the cruelty of thus overloading the
donkey, he flew into a fit of rage, and dismounting immediately,
he drew his pistols from his belt and dashed them upon the
ground; his gun shared the same fate, and heaving his weapons
upon the sand, he sullenly walked behind his donkey, which he
drove forward with the caravan.
We pushed forward at the usual rapid amble of the donkeys; and,
accompanied by Hadji Achmet upon his dromedary, with the
coffee-pot, &c. and a large Persian rug slung behind the saddle,
we quickly distanced the slower caravan under the charge of Hadji
Velli and the sullen Mahomet.
There was no difficulty in the route, as the sterile desert of
sand and pebbles was bounded by a fringe of bush amid mimosa that
marked the course of the Nile, to which our way lay parallel.
There was no object to attract particular attention, and no sound
but that of the bleating goats driven homeward by the Arab boys,
and the sharp cry of the desert sand grouse as they arrived in
flocks to drink in the welcome river. The flight of these birds
is extremely rapid, and is more like that of the pigeon than the
grouse; they inhabit the desert, but they travel great distances
both night and morning to water, as they invariably drink twice
a day. As they approach the river they utter the cry "Chuckow,
chuckow," in a loud clear note, and immediately after drinking
they return upon their long flight to the desert. There are
several varieties of the sand grouse. I have met with three, but
they are dry, tough, and worthless as game.
We slept in the desert about five miles from Berber, and on the
following day, after a scorching march of about twenty miles, we
arrived at the junction of the Atbara river with the Nile.
Throughout the route the barren sand stretched to the horizon on
the left, while on the right, within a mile of the Nile, the soil
was sufficiently rich to support a certain amount of
vegetation--chiefly dwarf mimosas and the Asclepias gigantea. The
latter I had frequently seen in Ceylon, where it is used
medicinally by the native doctors; but here it was ignored,
except for the produce of a beautiful silky down which is used
for stuffing cushions and pillows. This vegetable silk is
contained in a soft pod or bladder about the size of an orange.
Both the leaves and the stem of this plant emit a highly
poisonous milk, that exudes from the bark when cut or bruised;
the least drop of this will cause total blindness, if in contact
with the eye. I have seen several instances of acute ophthalmia
that have terminated in loss of sight from the accidental rubbing
of the eye with the hand when engaged in cutting firewood from
the asclepias. The wood is extremely light, and is frequently
tied into fagots and used by the Arabs as a support while
swimming, in lieu of cork. Although the poisonous qualities of
the plant cause it to be shunned by all other animals, it is
nevertheless greedily devoured by goats, who eat it unharmed.
It was about two hours after sunset when we arrived at the steep
bank of the Atbara river. Pushing through the fringe of young
dome palms that formed a thick covert upon the margin, we
cautiously descended the bank for about twenty-five feet, as the
bright glare of the river's bed deceived me by the resemblance to
water. We found a broad surface of white sand, which at that
season formed the dry bed of the river. Crossing this arid bottom
of about 400 yards in width, we unsaddled on the opposite side,
by a bed of water melons planted near a small pool of water. A
few of these we chopped in pieces for our tired donkeys, and we
shared in the cool and welcome luxury ourselves that was most
refreshing after the fatigue of the day's journey. Long before
our camels arrived, we had drunk our coffee and were sound asleep
upon the sandy bed of the Atbara.
At daybreak on the following morning, while the camels were being
loaded, I strolled to a small pool in the sand, tempted by a
couple of wild geese; these were sufficiently unsophisticated as
to allow me to approach within shot, and I bagged them both, and
secured our breakfast; they were the common Egyptian geese, which
are not very delicate eating. The donkeys being saddled, we at
once started with our attendant, Hadji Achmet, at about five
miles per hour, in advance of our slower caravan. The route was
upon the river's margin, due east, through a sandy copse of
thorny mimosas which fringed the river's course for about a
quarter of a mile on either side; beyond this all was desert.
The Atbara had a curious appearance; in no part was it less than
400 yards in width, while in many places this breadth was much
exceeded. The banks were from twenty-five to thirty feet deep:
these had evidently been over-flowed during floods, bnt at the
present time the river was dead; not only partially dry, but so
glaring was the sandy bed, that the reflection of the sun was
almost unbearable.
Great numbers of the dome palm (Hyphoene Thebaica, Mart.) grew
upon the banks; these trees are of great service to the Arab
tribes, who at this season of drought forsake the deserts and
flock upon the margin of the Atbara.
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