SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TRINELS,

Travels in Kordofan ; embracing a Description of that Province of Egypt, and some of the Bordering Countries, with a Review of the Present State of the Commerce in those Countries, of the Habits and Customs of the Inhabitants, as also an A,,- count of the Slave-hunts taking place under the Government of Mehemed Ali. By Ignatius Pallme. From Notes collected during a residence of nearly two years in Kordofan Madden and Co.

HISTORY,

A History of China, from the Earliest Records to the Treaty with Great Britain in 1842. By Thomas Thornton, Esq., Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. In two volumes. Vo!. I Men and Co. Flamm. The Mysterious Man; a Novel. By the Author of "Ben Bmdshawe, the Man without a Head." In three volumes Newby.

POETRY,

Poems, by Coventry Patmore Maros.

PALLME'S KORDOFAN.

Ma. IoNsTins PALLME is a Bohemian by birth, and a "commercial traveller" by vocation. Having several times "gone the journey" through Egypt, and even Soudan, he undertook, for some house in Cairo, a trip to Kordofan, an interior district of Africa lying to the West of Abyssynia, not very well defined in its boundaries, but having its central parts in about the 13th degree of North latitude and the 30th degree of East longitude. The object of the " jour- ney " was to ascertain if an agency could be advantageously es- tablished in the country, so as to pocket the profits of the native merchants ; and, partly in pursuit of this object, partly in con- sequence of the lawless state of society and the arbitrary power of its rulers, which seem to have rendered a move without leave- taking sometimes desirable, Mr. PALLME visited various parts of Kordofan and the neighbouring districts, mingling freely with the people, as all commercial travellers are wont to do, pleasantry towards probable customers being an important part of their business. Though not a scientific man or a great scholar, Mr. PALLME took notes of every thing he saw or heard worth notice ; and, at the recommendation of some savans, he has compiled this volume from his rough memorandums—for the publication is not properly a book of travels, but a memoir upon Kordofan. Of his adventures we learn nothing except now and then by an incidental allusion, although they seem to have been interesting from risk, privation, fatigue, sickness, and the newness of the country. Mr. PALLME has preferred condensing his experience into a notice of the country, with a description of the manners, customs, and cha- racters of the people, or more properly of the tribes. He has also given some account of the government, productions, trade, and commercial prospects,—the last we incline to think but slender, without a radical change in the character of the rulers, the people, the climate, and the soil.

For since the conquest by MEHEMED ALI, a monopoly has been established in the most extensive and available articles of export; whilst the delegated government is so rapacious and tyrannical, that there is even less security than in Egypt for natives enjoying the fruits of their industry ; an objection frequently urged in reply to our author, suggesting a more extended cultivation for the sake of better food and greater certainty in the supply. The people themselves, consisting of tribes of Negroes and so-called Arabs with frequent crosses, are ignorant, idle and stupid, and not very far removed from a state of nature. Their houses are built like those of the Negro tribes in general, with stakes driven in the form of a circle, the tops bent inwards and fastened in the centre, so as to resemble a bee-hive in form ; one small aperture suffices for door, window, and chimney ; the worldly goods consist of a few mats to sleep upon, a few earthen-ware utensils, and the common arms of savages ; the agriculture is in the lowest state ; the other useful arts only extend to the commonest weaving, and working in iron some simple weapons or implements ; whilst the costume of many tribes does not in point of quantity extend beyond the dress of Adam after the Fall. Some classes advance a grade beyond this state in point of house-comfort and costume ; but they are of Arab blood, and indeed act as merchants and transporters between this country and the more civilized states.

The Negro, wherever found without having benefited by contact with a superior race, is found in a similar state of backwardness, anarchy, and sloth. But the natural characteristics of Kordofan ate unfavourable to advances in civilization. Mr. PALLME describes the country as a species of desert thickly set with oases; but we rather conceive it to be one of those peculiar sandy soils that only require water to develop considerable fertility. During the rainy season and immediately after it, the land is covered with vegetation; but a short period of the dry season robs it of this blooming appear- ance: before it is over there is not a running stream or a pond in the country, and only one or two of the larger lakes retain a little foul water; the inhabitants depending solely upon their wells, which are bad, and not numerous. Hence, the obstacles to be overcome in rendering Kordofan productive are almost insuperable; for though artificial irrigation, as Mr. PALLME suggests, might work wonders, the difficulty would be to bring it into practice. The rains are so heavy as often to wash away the seed and cut the soil into deep channels; so that both reservoirs and canals must be built of more solid materials than appear readily attainable, were there either skill or industry to use them. Above all, the climate is deadly. Every European who has sojourned long in the country has died there, except our author, and he was at death's door more than once ; even to the natives it is very unwholesome, though aggravated, no doubt, by scanty, indigestible food, and bad water..

In a work of this kind, the first and most important question my

can it be depended upon? Mr. PALLME makes no pretension to science, and touches but slightly on scientific subjects. One great value of scientific training, however, is the habit of reflection and observation it forms, and which is available in other things besides the particular science. In this faculty Mr. PALLME must be more deficient than he seems; whence we infer that he has probably bad some assistance in writing the book. He also possesses the imaginative quality we are apt to attribute to Frenchtnen ; which may further cause a little improvement upon nature. With these qualifications, we believe the book to be accurate. His descrip- tions are true-looking, and correspond in their general features with what we know of adjacent regions and remoter places inhabited by similar races. There is the further inference of trustworthiness, that what be describes from his own observation sometimes really contradicts what he has heard. From the communications of a certain fakeer and others, he gives a scrt of history of the country as far back as this gentleman of seventy-eight could remember ; and the description of its condition previous to the conquest by the Egyptian Viceroy carries one up to the golden age, when the poorest women wore "rings on their fingers and rings on their toes "; which have long since vanished under the touch of the 'Turkish alchemists. This is likely to be true, for we learn that some adjacent barbarians, who procure gold-dust, do not under- stand its value in exchange : it is also true enough that the dele- gated government, insufficiently controlled, is severe and searching in extortion ; but still it is a government, which we cannot conceive existed before. We also learn that the conquest has brought some material improvements into the country—the example of a better kind of buildings, furniture, and dress. The officers of MEHEMET Am have also been the means of introducing some vege- tables and grain, with the example of a better style of cultivation ; and foreign commerce must have received some stimulus from the conquest, however unprincipled and cruel in itself. Before that period, the only grain was a very inferior kind of millet, made into a bread after the following fashion ; which is still the prin- cipal food of the natives.

BREAD-MAKING IN KORDOFAN.

The dokn having been ground on a atone to flour, is put into an earthen pot, and convened, by means of water, into &thin paste. A fire is now lighted under an earthen-disti, (or under an iron-plate, called doga,) which stands on three stones : when the dish is heated, it is greased with butter, and the paste is spread upon it in the shape and size of an ordinary cake. The one side being baked, the bread is turned, and the dish again greased with butter. These cakes are about the thickness of a finger, and for Europeans very indigestible : they distend the stomach, indeed, awfully; an effect produced by the corn, partly because the husks are not separated from the flour, partly because the bread is not well baked. now who are more wealthy. coneume.a'better kiod of bread, which has also a more pleasant flavour ; the flour is purified, and the paste more fluid; it is sPread upon the dish by meitos of a small brush, but otherwise prepared in the same manner as the former variety. Much time is required to bake the necessary quantity for the consumption of the house. More than one hour is spent in making bread enough of the latter description to serve two persons at dinner. Fresh bread must, therefore, be prepared every day ; and it is always made by the women ; for, as there is no mill in Kordofan, every one is obliged to grind the quantity of flour necessary for his 'Consumption daily. This is done, as I have already observed, by female slaves.

HARVEST HOME.

As SOOn as the-harvest is concluded and the stubble is quite dry, the natives proceed to-burn the remaining herbage. This occupation offers a very singular spectacle. The grass is in part collected into heaps, and old and young congregate around them to witness the exhibition ahich ensues: the .pile is ignited, and a dense smoke issues from it. Disturbed by the fumes, and frightened by the noise of the multitude, thousands of locusts, which had lain concealed in the grass, fly up, but are quickly seized upon by the bystanders, impaled and roasted, and offered for sale in the market-place, at the price of five for one pars or hassasch : they constitute a favourite dish with the natives, by whom they are greedily devoured. After this act of purification, the place again presents itself to view in all its nakedness, and many other matters come to light, which bad hitherto been hidden by the grass: bones of men and .animals lie scattered about in all the roads, for no one thinks it worth his -trouble to inter them. The cause of this barbarity will be readily understood -when it is known that, as soon as a slave dies, a rope is bound round his foot, by which he is dragged out of the but with as little ceremony as a dead beast, and scraped into the sand anywhere, or even left to decompose in the grass until the hyroas come to gnaw his bones in the night; the remains are de- 'rowed in the morning by the dogs, two or more of which may not unfrequently be seen fighting over a human arm or foot. The lumina are really in some -respects a blessing to these countries : they are, in fact, the scavengers, consume ,all the dead bodies and garbage, and thus prevent the air from being poisoned with miasmata and nauseous vapours. A fallen animal is treated in the same manner as a dead slave : it is thrown on to the neighbours' territory, and is likewise devoured in the night by the beasts of prey ; whilst the remainder is enjoyed during the day by the hungry dogs, in company with greedy vultures, eagles, and other rapacious birds. The places of sepulture are not held sacred by these uninvited guests ; for the dead bodies being generally very superficially covered over with earth, they are disinterred at night by the hytenas and ravenous dogs, and totally consumed, or the remains are left exposed in the

lsigh-roads. RELIGIOUS NOTIONS OF THE NUBAS.

The Nuba Negroes are for the most part Heathens, and only very few of 'them profess the Mahommedan faith. Their ideas of religion in general are very limited, and they observe scarcely any ceremonies of worship. They be- Akre, indeed, in a Superior Being, but it ranks below the moon ; and hence it COMM'S that the end of the lunar month is especially kept holy. Many of them, again, imagine that the sun, which produces the rain, is the Superior Being, be- cause nothing can grow without rain. They can accurately determine the -period when the rainy season will begin, and count from the commencement of each month. They are not idolators, but are by no means free from super- _Nation ; for before entering upon any undertaking or business, they wait for certain omina, according to which' they regulate their actions. If, for example, an 'owl perch upon a house in the night, and utter its m06101°17 note, they consider it a certain sign that one of the inhabitants will shortly die. A raven =likes a still longer impression upon these simple beings.

Slavery obtains in Kordofan, as throughout Africa ; slaves form- ingittilkied, the grand staple of the country: Slaves do nearly all .thrirdit'; the army of MEHEMET Au is recruited from captured

sieves; if a village is behind-hand in contributions the taxes are taken Out in slaves ; the elave-raised army itself is paid in slaves,— a grand bunt into the adjacent districts, according to M. PALLMR, taking place every year fo provide against pay-day, when a por- tion of the captives are delivered to the expedition ; and a hero in discharge of his arrears sometimes has a part-share of a father, mother, or sister, handed over to him. The pressure of the res angusta domi, and the rules of the service, however, put aside na- tural affection, and the unlucky mortal is sold by his kinsman. - In these countries, as throughout the East, slavery appears in a mild form - which perhaps is always the case where the slave is not em- ployed in producing for mercantile profit. The mode of procuring the slaves, however, is of a fearful character, not merely involving war and violence, but keeping the whole continent in a disor- ganized state. The account of the Pacha's slave-hunts, that MT. PALLME furnished to Dr. MADDEN and the Anti-Slavery Society, is here reprinted ; and, whether it be that our author was stimulated by his task to aggravate the horrible, or whether the account may have received some artistical touches after it left his hands, the fact is, that these chapters have the most inconsistent and made-up air of any thing its his book. Yet bad as they are, it will be found that a regular and business-like proceeding is better on the whole than the expeditions where ambition, passion, and religious zeal predominate. The crusade desaribed by Major HARRIS in his late volumes on Abyssynia displays far more of gratuitous horrors; MajOI DENHAM'S sketch of the defeated razzia against the Felatahs gave promise of more had it been successful; and the attempts of small piratical bands produce still more fearful suffering in propor- tion to the numbers engaged. Wherever there was a chance of succeeding, Meeenter Am's commander proposed terms, which when acceded to ended in a proceeding very like the Continental conscription.