426 THE NATIVE MANUSCRIPTS iv.d7.ccxc.

magnificent specimen of an Arab that I have ever seen. Although upwards of eighty years of age, he was as erect as a lance, and did not appear more than between fifty and sixty; he was of Herculean stature, about six feet three inches high, with immensely broad shoulders and chest ; a remarkably arched nose ; eyes like an eagle, beneath large, shaggy, but perfectly white eyebrows; a snow-white beard of great thickness descended below the middle of his breast. . . As a desert patriarch he was superb, the very per-

fection of all that the imagination could paint, if we would personify

Abraham at the head of his people" {Nile Tributaries..., p. iii).

ccxcii Kanbal was a Shaiki. Werne says of him (1840): "Even now, though dead, Kamball still lives in the people's mouths: they have a great number of songs about him, in which he is described, on account of his cruelty and savage deeds, constantly wandering round, without grave, rest, or peace, as the punishment of his crimes. He was shot in the back, most likely by the soldiers of Achmed Pascha, in a fight between them and the

Schaigies of Melek Hammet" (Werne, p. 177).

Werne himself, however, speaks of Kanbal as "a distinguished soldier, an honest man, and general favourite, and from his generosity to the poor,

ever in debt." He was extraordinarily brave and much valued by Ahmad Pasha. "After his death the Pascha himself took charge of his infant son, had him educated, and allows him 500 piastres a month" (p. 179). This son was the lately deceased Bashir Bey Kanbal who was "mudwin of Arabs " in Kordofan.

" Hatnmef" is the same as Ahmad walad el Mek. He did not submit to the Turkish government but fled for the Abyssinian border. The Pasha took

Kanbal's Shai'ki'a in pursuit and rode himself with them from Berber to Abu Haraz, where " Hammet" was captured: he was not however put to death. ccxciv It was this expedition which Werne accompanied. Its object

was primarily to collect tribute from the Hadendoa. "I need money, much money — want it most badly," said Ahmad Pasha to Werne. He also hoped to open up the Abyssinian trade routes and conquer that country (Werne, p. 8). He took with him about 10,000 regulars, and about the same number of irregulars and camp-followers (Werne, p. 197). The expedition was conducted in a perfectly haphazard manner but the Halanka and

Hadendoa submitted eventually and the town of Kassala was founded

(see Deherain, pp. 108-110; Lepsius, Letters, p. 200; Werne passim; and Budge, Vol. II, pp. 214-217).

ccxcv This Mustafa Bey is the man mentioned as Governor of the Gezira of Sennar in para. CCLXXXI. As we see from the next paragraph and para, cccxiv the control of the two (Khartoum and the Gezira) was generally vested in one man.

ccxcviii The seven provinces, according to Budge (11, 217), were Fazoghli, Sennar, Khartoum, Kassala, Berber, Dongola and Kordofdn.

ccxcix "Reformer" is "munazam" (^.^JsU*). It is not certain from the text and the context whether the author intends to say that Menekli Pasha was made Governor-General {Hakimddr) as were his predecessors and successors, or that an experiment was being made in decentralization, which was abandoned as a failure and tried again in 1856 (see para, cccxiv).