On March 27th We Said
Good-By And Started For The Bahr Salaam.
The next few days we spent in exploring the Salaam and Angrab rivers.
They are interesting examples of the
Destructive effect of water, that
has during the course of ages cut through and hollowed out, in the solid
rock, a succession of the most horrible precipices and caverns, in which
the maddened torrents, rushing from the lofty chain of mountains, boil
along until they meet the Atbara and assist to flood the Nile. No one
could explore these tremendous torrents, the Settite, Royan, Angrab,
Salaam, and Atbara, without at once comprehending their effect upon the
waters of the Nile. The magnificent chain of mountains from which they
flow is not a simple line of abrupt sides, but the precipitous slopes
are the walls of a vast plateau, that receives a prodigious rainfall in
June, July, August, and until the middle of September, the entire
drainage of which is carried away by the above-named channels to
inundate Lower Egypt.
I thoroughly explored the beautiful country of the Salaam and Angrab,
and on the 14th of April we pushed on for Gallabat, the frontier
market-town of Abyssinia.
We arrived at our old friend, the Atbara River, at the sharp angle as it
issues from the mountains. At this place it was in its infancy. The
noble Atbara, whose course we had tracked for hundreds of weary miles,
and whose tributaries we had so carefully examined, was here a
second-class mountain torrent, about equal to the Royan, and not to be
named in comparison with the Salaam or Angrab. The power of the Atbara
depended entirely upon the western drainage of the Abyssinian Alps; of
itself it was insignificant until aided by the great arteries of the
mountain-chain. The junction of the Salaam at once changed its
character, and the Settite or Taccazzy completed its importance as the
great river of Abyssinia, that has washed down the fertile soil of those
regions to create the Delta of Lower Egypt, and to perpetuate that Delta
by annual deposits, that ARE NOW FORMING A NEW EGYPT BENEATH THE WATERS
OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. We had seen the Atbara a bed of glaring sand - a
mere continuation of the burning desert that surrounded its
course - fringed by a belt of withered trees, like a monument sacred to
the memory of a dead river. We had seen the sudden rush of waters when,
in the still night, the mysterious stream had invaded the dry bed and
swept all before it like an awakened giant; we knew at that moment "the
rains were falling in Abyssinia," although the sky above us was without
a cloud. We had subsequently witnessed that tremendous rainfall, and
seen the Atbara at its grandest flood. We had traced each river and
crossed each tiny stream that fed the mighty Atbara from the
mountain-chain, and we now, after our long journey, forded the Atbara in
its infancy, hardly knee-deep, over its rocky bed of about sixty yards'
width, and camped in the little village of Toganai, on the rising ground
upon the opposite side. It was evening, and we sat upon an angarep among
the lovely hills that surrounded us, and looked down upon the Atbara for
the last time, as the sun sank behind the rugged mountain of Ras el Feel
(the elephant's head). Once more I thought of that wonderful river Nile,
that could flow forever through the exhausting deserts of sand, while
the Atbara, during the summer months, shrank to a dry skeleton, although
the powerful affluents, the Salaam and the Settite, never ceased to
flow; every drop of their waters was evaporated by the air and absorbed
by the desert sand in the bed of the Atbara, two hundred miles above its
junction with the Nile!
The Atbara exploration was completed, and I looked forward to the fresh
enterprise of exploring new rivers and lower latitudes, that should
unravel the mystery of the Nile!
CHAPTER XII.
Abyssinian slave-girls - Khartoum - The Soudan under Egyptian rule
- Slave-trade in the Soudan - The obstacles ahead.
A rapid march of sixteen miles brought us to Metemma or Gallabat. As we
descended the valley we perceived great crowds of people in and about
the town, which, in appearance, was merely a repetition of Katariff. It
was market-day, and as we descended the hill and arrived in the scene
below, with our nine camels heavily laden with the heads and horns of a
multitude of different beasts, from the gaping jaws of hippopotami to
the vicious-looking heads of rhinoceroses and buffaloes, while the skins
of lions and various antelopes were piled above masses of the
much-prized hide of the rhinoceros, we were beset by crowds of people,
who were curious to know whence so strange a party had come. We formed a
regular procession through the market, our Tokrooris feeling quite at
home among so many of their brethren.
While here I visited the establishments of the various slave merchants.
These were arranged under large tents formed of matting, and contained
many young girls of extreme beauty, ranging from nine to seventeen years
of age. These lovely captives, of a rich brown tint, with delicately
formed features, and eyes like those of the gazelle, were natives of the
Galla, on the borders of Abyssinia, from which country they were brought
by the Abyssinian traders to be sold for the Turkish harems. Although
beautiful, these girls are useless for hard labor; they quickly fade
away, and die unless kindly treated. They are the Venuses of that
country, and not only are their faces and figures perfection, but they
become extremely attached to those who show them kindness, and they make
good and faithful wives. There is something peculiarly captivating in
the natural grace and softness of these young beauties, whose hearts
quickly respond to those warmer feelings of love that are seldom known
among the sterner and coarser tribes.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 43 of 89
Words from 42802 to 43805
of 90207
