842 



NIGRITIA. 



19. Infiabitants of JS/igritia. These are either negroes or Moors, as the mixed races of 

 Arabs are generally called. The Moors are gradually gaining an ascendency over the more 

 timid blacks. They resemble the mulattoes of the West Indies more than the Moors of 

 Barbary. Park describes them as having wild and staring eyes, like a " nation of lunatics." 

 The negroes, in the various tribes or nations, are more or less daik, but in general, they are 

 perfectly black. Though subject to few diseases, they do not attain to old age. In different 

 parts the African physiognomy is much diversified ; and the thick lips, and broad, flat nose, 

 often give place to features of the European cast. In various nations the faces, or limbs and 

 body, are tattooed, in lines made by gashes. 



20. Dress. The dress of the Moors is somewhat like that of Barbary, and the turban is 

 generally the mark of a Mahometan believer. The dress of the African nations is various ; 

 generally it is only a shirt or olher garment of cotton. Many people have but a strip of cover- 

 ing about the waist, and numbers have not even that. In Bornou turbans are worn, and the 

 women are exceedingly neat in their persons and dress. The following cut represents a Shou 

 man and woman. The Fellatahs and Bornouese are the most remarkable among the negroes. 



The latter are described as ugly, simple, 

 and good-natured, but utterly destitute of 

 intellectual culture ; only a few of the great 

 doctors can read the Koran ; a writer is held 

 in the highest estimation, but his only com- 

 positions are a few words written on scraps 

 of paper, to be worn as amulets. In the 

 absence of all refined pleasures, various rude 

 sports are pursued with eagerness, such as 

 boxing and wrestling ; gaming is also a favor- 

 ite sport. The Bornouese cavalry are cov- 

 ered with mail and iron plate, and their 

 horses are also cased in armor ; they are 

 armed with long spears, and are accompani- 

 ed to war by bowmen and spearmen on foot ; 

 the latter carry large wooden shields. 



The general dress in the Bornouese coun- 



wings, and others of every shade of color. Vegetation 

 offers the vine and wild fig tree, from the branches of 

 which the birds, with their varied and melodious warbling, 

 cheer and entertain the traveler. Vegetation is surpris- 

 ingly abundant and prolific ; a single grain of seed gen- 

 erally multipMes from fifty to sixty fold. 



" Cultivation is carried on at Dongolah by means of 

 small instruments, such as pickaxes, &c., but higher up 

 even these are unknown, the only utensil being a small 

 pointed stick, which serves to make holes in the earth 

 for the reception of the seed. The doura and cotton 

 grow with extraordinary rapidity, the plant of the latter 

 exceeding the height of a man ; while in Egypt, notwith- 

 standing the care bestowed on the cultivation of this 

 shrub, it is far from thriving as in Nigritia, where it is 

 evident, that the plantations will produce an excellent 

 result. 



" Notwithstanding so many gifts of nature, strange to 

 say, these people have, from the creation of our father 

 Adam, remained in a state of inaction. This misfortune 

 is owing to the circumstance, that no person has ever 

 thought of them ; but such is now no longer the case, for 

 by this very misfortune they have attracted the special 

 attention of his Highness, who has hastened to their as- 

 sistance as the prophet Elijah, and has consoled and de- 

 lighted a people, who have for ages vegetated in the 

 shadow of death. 



" His Highness considers the region of the Nile to be a 

 very fine country, out thinks that Nigritia will, in a hun- 

 dred years, appear like a new America. The beauty of 

 the country is wonderful ; the air is so pure and favorable, 

 that his Highness the Viceroy, who is seventy-one years 

 of age, appeared to have become as young as twenty 

 five." 



Shoua Man and Woman. 



" Before the departure from Cairo a message had arriv- 

 ed from his Excellency Ahmet Pasha, informing his High- 

 ness, that the king of Abyssinia had sent a letter with 

 presents, and that Ahmet Pasha had judged it right to 

 send in return other presents worthy of Egypt, and a 

 letter. 



In consequence of this intelligence his Highness had 

 ordered at Cairo further presents, more conformable to his 

 own grandeur and munificence, with the intention of 

 sending them to Abyssinia by that old faithful servant of 

 Egypt, Colonel Rustem Bey. Having on his arrival at 

 Cartoum made known his intention among the sheiks, 

 his Highness was much astonished to see them look at 

 each other and smile. The foreign; Vaissier, an old ser- 

 vant of Egypt, then said, 'The Abyssinians are savages, 

 and it would be exposing yourself to treat with them thus.' 



" These ensrineers were sent to visit the gold mines as 

 far as Houri Deheb, opposite Fasankor, near the banks 

 of the Nile. According to their report they found, that 

 the gold of these places is not inferior to that of higher 

 parts. 



" On the 17th day of Zilead and the eighth of his stay 

 at Fasankor, his Highness the Viceroy set out by the 

 shortest way, and found himself at his journey's end in 

 five hours. His tent was pitched immediately, and or- 

 ders were issued, that as at this place a palace, barracks, 

 houses, bazars, magazines, vineyards, and gardens were 

 forming, and the whole was being surrounded by walls, 

 to erect^a new city under the name of Mehemet Ali, every 

 one should be allowed to establish himself there freely. 

 This city was to be built in such a manner as to be un- 

 equaled by any other in Nigritia. 



" The mountains and valleys of Nigritia abound in all 

 kinds of curious animals. There are birds with four 



