DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0155
146
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
graceful, possessing what would be called in civil-
ized life an uncommon degree of gentility ; his face
is rather dark, though far removed from African
blackness ; his features are long and aquiline, de-
cidedly resembling the Roman; the expression
of his face mild, amiable, and approaching to mel-
ancholy. I remember to have thought, when read-
ing Sir Walter Scott's Crusaders, that the metamor-
phosis of Kenneth into a Nubian was strained and
improbable, as I did not then understand the shades
of difference in the features and complexion of the
inhabitants of Africa; but observation has shown
me that it was my own ignorance that deceived
me ; and in this, as in other descriptions of Eastern
scenes, I have been forced to admire the great and
intimate knowledge of details possessed by the
unequalled novelist, and his truth and liveliness of
description.
The inhabitants of Nubia, like all who come un-
der the rod of the pacha, suffer the accumulated
ills of poverty. Happily, they live in a country
where their wants are few ; the sun warms them,
and the palm-tree feeds and clothes them. The
use of firearms is almost unknown, and their wea-
pons are still the spear and shield, as in ages
long past. In the upper part of Nubia the men
and women go entirely naked, except a piece of
leather about six inches wide, cut in strings, and
tied about their loins ; and even here, on the con-
fines of Egypt, at least one half of the Nubians ap-
pear in the same costume.
I do not know what has made me introduce these
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
graceful, possessing what would be called in civil-
ized life an uncommon degree of gentility ; his face
is rather dark, though far removed from African
blackness ; his features are long and aquiline, de-
cidedly resembling the Roman; the expression
of his face mild, amiable, and approaching to mel-
ancholy. I remember to have thought, when read-
ing Sir Walter Scott's Crusaders, that the metamor-
phosis of Kenneth into a Nubian was strained and
improbable, as I did not then understand the shades
of difference in the features and complexion of the
inhabitants of Africa; but observation has shown
me that it was my own ignorance that deceived
me ; and in this, as in other descriptions of Eastern
scenes, I have been forced to admire the great and
intimate knowledge of details possessed by the
unequalled novelist, and his truth and liveliness of
description.
The inhabitants of Nubia, like all who come un-
der the rod of the pacha, suffer the accumulated
ills of poverty. Happily, they live in a country
where their wants are few ; the sun warms them,
and the palm-tree feeds and clothes them. The
use of firearms is almost unknown, and their wea-
pons are still the spear and shield, as in ages
long past. In the upper part of Nubia the men
and women go entirely naked, except a piece of
leather about six inches wide, cut in strings, and
tied about their loins ; and even here, on the con-
fines of Egypt, at least one half of the Nubians ap-
pear in the same costume.
I do not know what has made me introduce these