DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0063
44 TRAVELS IN EGYPT, NUBIA,
this grove, the mixture of the cupolas, Saracenic walls, and
turrets of the tombs, either simply whitewashed or rudely
coloured, with the thick foliage of the trees, presents a sin-
gular and interesting scene, and attracted my attention more
than any thing modern I had seen in Egypt.
Siout is the intermediate mart between Sennaar, Darfour,
and Cairo: caravans of Gelabs, or slave merchants, are con-
stantly arriving. The fate of one that had just escaped, with
its remnants, from the desert, after having lost four thousand
animals, including men, women, children, horses, camels, &c,
from having mistaken the tract, had excited a momentary
interest about the time of my arrival at Siout: yet, with all
this loss, I was offered a young well formed negress, about
seventeen years old, for the trifling sum of rather more than
fifteen pounds sterling. The way in which slaves of both
sexes arc exposed must shock the feelings of an European
unused to such scenes. The Gelab, like a horse-dealer, exa-
mined, pointed out, and made me remark what he called the
good points of the girl in question. The poor wretch, thus ex-
posed, pouted and cried during the ceremony; was checked,
encouraged, and abused, according to her behaviour. The
Gelabs of Sennaar who attended were mild looking men ;
tall and slender; their dress, a long woollen shirt, fastened
at the shoulder, in the manner of a Roman toga; their hair
hung very thick, in matted plaits, to the poll of the neck, like
this grove, the mixture of the cupolas, Saracenic walls, and
turrets of the tombs, either simply whitewashed or rudely
coloured, with the thick foliage of the trees, presents a sin-
gular and interesting scene, and attracted my attention more
than any thing modern I had seen in Egypt.
Siout is the intermediate mart between Sennaar, Darfour,
and Cairo: caravans of Gelabs, or slave merchants, are con-
stantly arriving. The fate of one that had just escaped, with
its remnants, from the desert, after having lost four thousand
animals, including men, women, children, horses, camels, &c,
from having mistaken the tract, had excited a momentary
interest about the time of my arrival at Siout: yet, with all
this loss, I was offered a young well formed negress, about
seventeen years old, for the trifling sum of rather more than
fifteen pounds sterling. The way in which slaves of both
sexes arc exposed must shock the feelings of an European
unused to such scenes. The Gelab, like a horse-dealer, exa-
mined, pointed out, and made me remark what he called the
good points of the girl in question. The poor wretch, thus ex-
posed, pouted and cried during the ceremony; was checked,
encouraged, and abused, according to her behaviour. The
Gelabs of Sennaar who attended were mild looking men ;
tall and slender; their dress, a long woollen shirt, fastened
at the shoulder, in the manner of a Roman toga; their hair
hung very thick, in matted plaits, to the poll of the neck, like