210 



ANCIENT GOLD MINING IN THE SUDAN 



How the 

 mines were 

 worked 



" Under thi- 

 eve of the 

 overseer " 



the mills at which the women toiled ; the tables of the skilled Selangeus ; the furnace 

 of the "cook"; the pots in which he fused his gold; the slags therefrom, and even the 

 very charcoal of his fire ; all are there save the miserable wretches who wrought the task, 

 and of them there is no tale except the multitude of lowly mounds which mark the last 

 resting place of man and woman and child. 



Of these people Diodorus writes: "The Kings of Egypt condemn vast multitudes 

 to the mines who are notorious criminals, prisoners of war and persons convicted by 

 false accusation — the victims of resentment. And not only the individuals themselves, 

 but even whole families are doomed to this labour, with the view of punishing the guilty, 

 and profiting by their toil. The vast numbers employed are bound in fetters and 

 compelled to work day and night without intermission, and without hope of escape ; for 

 they set over them barbarian soldiers who speak a foreign language, so that there is no 

 possibility of conciliating them by persuasion or through familiar intercourse. No 

 attention is paid to their persons, they have not even a piece of rag to cover themselves ; 

 and so wretched is their condition that all who witness it deplore the excessive misery 

 they endure. No rest, no intermission from toil is given either to the sick or maimed ; 

 neither the weakness of age nor woman's infirmities are regarded ; all are driven to 

 their work with the lash, till at last, overcome with the intolerable weight of their 

 aflSictions, they die in the midst of their toil. So these unhappy creatures always 

 expect worse to come than they endure at the present, and long for death as preferable 

 to life." 



The following is a free translation from Midler's text of Agatharchides' description. 

 " The metal-bearing rocks which are called gold-bearing are intensely black, but among 

 them is produced a stone than which nothing is whiter. Of these mountains, those 

 which are rugged and have an altogether hard nature they burn with wood ; and when 

 they are softened by fire they experiment on them and cut the loosened stones into 

 small pieces with an iron chisel. 



" But the principal work is that of the artificer who is skilled in stones. This man 

 shows to the diggers the track of the metal, and apportions the whole work to the 

 needs of the wretched men in the following manner : — Those whole in strength and age 

 break the places where shines the white stone with iron cutting hammers. They use 

 not skill but brute force, and thus they drive in the rooks many galleries, not straight, 

 but branching in all directions like the roots of a tree, wherever the stone pregnant 

 with gold may diverge. 



" These men thus, w^ith candles bound on their foreheads, cut tlie rock, the white 

 stone showing the direction for their labours. Placing their bodies in every conceivable 

 position, they throw the fragments to the ground — not each one according to his strength, 

 but under the eye of the overseer who never ceases from blows. Then boys, creeping into 

 the galleries dug by the men, collect with great labour the stones w^hich have been broken 

 off and carry them out to the mouth of the mine. 



" Next, from these a crowed of old and sickly men take the stone and lay it before the 

 pounders. These are strong men of some thirty years of age, and they strenuously pound 

 the rock with an iron pestle in mortars cut out of stone, and reduce it until the largest 

 piece is no bigger than a pea. Then they measure out to others the pounded stone in the 

 same quantity as they have received it. 



" The next task is performed by women, who, alone or with their husbands or relations, 

 are placed in enclosures. Several mills are placed together in a line, and standing three 

 together at one handle, filthy and almost naked, the women lay to at the mills until the 



