New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-21

A. the vefacIty VI Nv ..
d'se's 'I s.h;ur up the flag again and presenting
i..n miss il continually, and have not YET
h~ sm my vexation. The flag Of ones
reee': !. ,.ver dearer to him than when it is his
eouasy -, and protector in foreign lands.
n.I,, the whole forenoon we sailed at the
80, ar seven miles an hour, in the center OF
-. :. liver whose breadth varies from two to three
=. The shores no longer presented the same
- Level as yesterday. They were banks OF
= so;l ten or twelve feet in hight, and covered
- s,re.ts of the gum-bcaring mimosa, under
's;.h rev thickets Of dense green shrub, mixed
"a cactus and suphorbia. The gum is tree
- twenty to thirty feet in hight, with thick
- and spreading branches, and no Italian oak
:" .h.stput presents greater variety of pictur-
~. forms to the painters eye. The foliage is
aim. allowing the manifold articulations Of the
,,shs and twigs to be seen through it. 1t is
80 abundant on the Kordofan side, and the
cater proportion of the gum annually exported
Egypt comes from that country. The broad
!. n the river and the wild luxuriance Of the
tuuous forests that girdle it, give this part of
course an air Of majesty, which recalls the Mis-
,.sippi to my mind. There is not = single feature
,ich resembles Egypt.
Toward noon we reached the more thckly pop
ed districts of the Hassanyeh. The town of
las, on the east, and Tura, on the west, not
y distant from each other, were the first saw
ace leaving khartoum. They are merely Gus
an of koknis, or the straw huts OF the nauves'
MIN in circular form, with conical roof OF mat
,;os the smoke escaping through an opening in the
80 Al both these places, as well as at othe
;r,. along the river the natives have ferries, and
snpeared to be busy in transporting men, camels
end goods from one bank to the other. On ac-
.o,nt of the breadth of the river the passage il
,,,g and the boatnen ease their labor by making
al, Of their cotton nantes, which they fasten
70 two upright sticks The shores were crowded
with herds Of sheep and goats, and saw near Da-
mas large drove of camels which were waiting an
ocportunity to cross. | noticed, occasionally,
.o.ll patch Of beans, but nothing that looked like
. yeeular system of cultivation. The Hassaniyehs
:, yellow. with straight features, and resemble
Fellahs Of Lower Egypt more than any other
utral. African tribe. Those whom we saw at a
d;stsnce from the villages retreated with signs of
.,ear az nv vessel approached the shore. DIR.
Penne, the Medical Inspector of Soudan, who IN
the course Of nine years has made himrelf thor
ourhly ACQUAINTED with the country, described to
me, while in Khartoum, some singular customs of
these Arabs. The rights of women, it appears,
are recognized among them more thoroughly than
among any other savage people in the world.
When woman is married, her father reserves one
fourth of her life thenceforth for her own use, and
the husband is obliged to respect this reservation.
Every fourth day she is released from the mar
riage vow, and if she loves some one else better
than her husband, he can dwell in her tent that
day, obiging the husband himself to retire. Their
hospitality is such, moreover, that If stranger
visits one of their settlements they furnish him,
for four days, with house and wife. They
should add family of children, and then their hos
pitalty would be complete. No reproach what
ever attaches to the woman, on account Of this
temporary connection The Hassaniyeh in other
respects, are not more immoral than other tribes,
and these customs appear to be connected in some
way with their religious faith.
caravan route Of four days to Obeid the capital of
Kordsian,) mountain range, some distance from
the river, appeared on the right bank. The peaks
were broken and conical in form, and their pale
violet hue showed with fine effect behind the dark
line Of the gum forests. With every hour of our
progress, the vegetation grew more rank and lux
uriant. On the eastern bank the gum gave place
to the towering mimosa, which rose in dense
rampant from the waters edge and filled the air
with the fragrance of its blossoms. Myrads
wild geese, ducks, cranes storks, herons and ibise
sat on the narrow beaches of sand or crcled in the
air with hoarse clang and croaking. Among them
saw more than one specimen Of that rare and
curious water-brd, whose large, horny bill curves
upward instead of downward, SO that it appears to
have been put on the wrong way. As ne eats
nothing but small fish, which he swallows with his
head under water, this is not such great in
Convenience as one would suppose. The bars
which occasionally made out into the current
served as resting place for croc0dlles, which now
begin to appear in companies of ten or fifteen, and
Tho forests were filed with legons of apes, which
leaped chattering down from the branches to look
at us. A whole family of them sat on the bank
for some time, watching us, and when we fright
ened them away by our shouts, it was amusing to
see a mother pick up her infant ape, and scamper
If with it under her arm. The wild fowl were
astonshingly tame, and many of them so fat that
they seemed scarcely able to fly. Here and there,
"ng the shore, large broods of The young were
ing their first essays in swimming. The boat
.-ea took great delight in menacing the old birds
VIII pieces of wood, in order to make them dive
s'der water. There were some superb white
'.@nes, with rosy tngc along the edges of their
ags, and saw two more Of the crested king
yns.
AFTER passing the island of Tshebeshi, the river,
via h still retains it's great breadth, is bordered
" aswampy growth of reeds. 1t is filed with
1amsrous low islands, covered with trees, mostly
'ead, and with waste, white branches which have