32 
S E N N A A R. 
The chief town, Kloeven, is a small but neat place. Lat. 
69. 30. N. long. 17. 0. E. 
SENKOV, or Zenkov, a small town in the interior of 
European Russia, in the government of Sloboosks-Ukraine; 
68 miles east-south-east of Charkov. 
SENLIS, a town in the north-east of France, department 
of the Oise, situated on a rising ground, in the middle of an 
extetisive forest, near the small river Nonette. It has 4300 in¬ 
habitants, and, being an old place, its streets are narrow, and 
its houses ill built. The cathedral is, however, admired 
for its architecture, and its steeple for its height. Senlis has 
some trade in corn, wine and wool, with manufactures, on 
a small scale, of cotton, coarse woollens, paper, lace and 
porcelain. Its quarries afford good stone for building. Here 
are two great yearly fairs; one in April, the other in Octo¬ 
ber; 30 miles north of Paris. 
SENNA, in Botany: see Cassia.—Senna, Bladder: 
see Colutea.—-Senna, Scorpion: see Coronilla. 
SENNA, a town of Diarbekir, in Asiatic Turkey. It is 
most romantically situated in the bosom of a deep valley, 
well cultivated, and interspersed with orchards of peach, 
apricot, pear, apple and cherry trees. It is a flourishing 
little town, containing a population of about 8000 souls, of 
which number 2000 are Jews, Armenians and Nestorians, 
who trade to Mosul, Bagdad and Ispahan. The country 
round is mountainous, inhabited by wandering tribes of 
Curds and Iliats; 80 miles south-south-east of Mosul. 
SENNAAR, a country of Eastern Africa, having Abys¬ 
sinia on the east and south, Darfur on the west, Dongola 
and the independent districts of Nubia on the north. A 
great part of Sennaar being nearly inclosed between the Nile 
and the Tacazze, formed what was called by the ancients the 
island of Meroe, the-central seat of the empire of ancient 
Ethiopia, which repeatedly conquered Egypt, and, accord¬ 
ing to some, perhaps fanciful traditions, communicated to 
that country many of its sciences and institutions. The an¬ 
cient history and revolutions of Ethiopia are involved, how¬ 
ever, in deep obscurity. In the early ages of the Christian 
era, this country, like the neighbouring one of Abyssinia, 
was converted to the Christian faith, which it appears even 
to have maintained down to the 12th century, and probably 
later; but the greater part of the inhabitants are now con¬ 
verted to the Mahometan religion, which they combine with 
the practices of Paganism, and with some remains of Chris¬ 
tian observances. The kingdom of Sennaar is not of high 
antiquity. It was founded in 1504, by a body of Shilluk 
negroes, who descended from their settlements in the upper 
part of the Bahr-el-Abiad, drove before them, or subjected, 
the Arab inhabitants, and have since reigned over Sennaar. 
The principle of the government is entirely despotic, to such 
a degree, that all the courtiers assume slave as the highest 
title of honour. On the accession of a new king, all his 
brothers who can be found, are, according to a custom pre¬ 
valent in these barbarous despotisms, immediately put to 
death. No female is allowed to reign, and the princesses, 
who are very numerous, meet with little more respect than 
any other of the female attendants. This absolute power, 
however, is tempered by a most extraordinary limitation, 
which is, that the king may lawfully be put to death by a 
council of the great officers, whenever they choose to decide 
that his reign is no longer for the public advantage. The 
execution of the sentence is entrusted to an officer called the 
sid-el-koom, who is a member of the monarch’s own family, 
master of his household, and carries on an intimate and con¬ 
fidential intercourse with the king, whose- days he is likely 
to be the instrument of bringing to a period. The fact ap¬ 
pears to be, that the hereditary kings have sunk into a spe¬ 
cies of state pageants, kept, up merely to amuse the people, 
and that the real power is now in the hands of the chief 
officers, particularly the commander of the forces. The 
troops of Sennaar, stationed immediately around the capital, 
consist of about 14,000, of a race of negroes called Nuba, 
from which is derived the general name of Nubia, applied to 
this region. The infantry are armed merely with a short 
javelin and a round shield, and appear to be by no means 
good troops; but the horse, amounting to 1800, though 
armed only with coats of mail and a broad Sclavonian 
sword, appeared to Mr. Bruce equal to any in the world. 
Sennaar has three governments which are tributary to it. 
One is Kordofan, situated between Sennaar and Darfur, to 
which latter ocuntry it is occasionally subjected. To the 
south of this is Fazuclo, a mountainous territory, affording 
a large supply of Gold and slaves, the staples of interior 
Africa. The government of Sennaar, on conquering this 
territory, continued its Mek or sovereign in the capacity of 
governor. The third government is that of El Acie, or 
Alleis, on the Bahr-el-Abiad, and including the original 
country of the Shilluk. The inhabitants are all fishermen, 
and possess a vast number of boats, with large fleets of which 
they made their successful invasion in 1504. 
The territory of Sennaar for several miles from the banks 
of the river, is of very remarkable fertility. At the time 
also of the rains, which take place about the end of August 
and the beginning of September, it assumes a most delightful 
appearance, resembling the pleasantest parts of Holland. 
The corn springs up, covers the ground, makes the whole 
appear a level green track, interspersed with great lakes of 
water, and ornamental at certain intervals with groups of 
villages, the conical tops of the houses presenting at a dis¬ 
tance the appearance of small encampments. The Nile 
flows through this immense plain above a mile broad, full 
to the very brim, but never overflowing. Soon after, how¬ 
ever, the rains cease; the dhourra then ripens, the leaves 
turn yellow and rot, the lakes putrify, smell and are full of 
vermin ; all the beauty disappears, and bare scorched Nubia 
returns, with all its terrors of poisonous winds and moving 
sands, glowing and ventilated with sultry blasts. 
The dress of the people of Sennaar is extremely simple. 
A long shirt of blue Surat cloth, called marowty, covers them 
from the lower part of the neck down to the feet. The neck 
itself, however, is left open, which alone distinguishes the 
dress of the men from that of the women, who button this 
shirt round the neck. The men sometimes tie a sash round 
the middle; and both sexes, even of the better ranks, go 
through the house barefooted. The apartments, particularly 
those of the females, have the floor covered with Persian 
carpets. In going out, they wear sandals, and a kind of 
wooden patten, very neatly ornamented with shells. With 
a view to coolness, they have buckets of water thrown upon 
them in the middle of the day. In order to preserve them¬ 
selves from cutaneous eruptions, of which they entertain a 
peculiar dread, they anoint themselves daily with camel’s 
grease mixed with civet : and, for the same reason, 
though they put on every day a clean shirt, they lie all 
night upon one dipt in grease, which forms their only 
covering, their couch being merely a bull’s hide tanned, and 
very much softened by this constant greasing, though it 
occasions a smell from which nothing can free them. The 
principal diet of the poor consists of bread and flour made 
of millet. The rich make it into a pudding toasted before 
the fire, with milk and butter; besides which they eat beef, 
partly roasted and partly raw. Their horned cattle are the 
largest and fattest in the world ; but camel’s flesh is the 
meat chiefly sold in the market. The liver of the animal, 
and the spare rib, are always eaten raw. Hog’s flesh is not 
sold in the market, but is eaten publicly by the people in 
general, and secretly by those who pretend to be Maho¬ 
metans. The diseases prevalent at Sennaar are the dysen¬ 
tery and the bloody flux, frequently accompanied by inter¬ 
mitting fever, for which bark is found a sovereign cure. 
Epilepsies and schirrous livers are likewise very frequent. 
Those who live much in camps, or in quarters distant from 
rivers, have more or less the gravel, occasioned probably 
by the use of well water; but at Sennaar this malady is 
rare. The elephantiasis is not known, nor is the small-pox 
endemial. 
Sennaar produces within itself few commodities fit for 
trade; and that which it carries on consists chiefly in-ex¬ 
changing 
