Beaufort Republican. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1871-1873, 1873-08-14
A Story Of the African Desert.
The Vendetta Among the Arabians.

says correspondent, tudt uho 'enue0'"
is as popular among the Arabs as among
the Corsicans but such is really the
case. I have heard of instances in
which a family feud was kept up to the
fourth or fifth generation-kept up, in
fact, until one or other of the hostile
families was extinct. AS good Illus
tration of how the system works, 1 will
tell you a story with regard to the fam
ily Abade, which inhabits the land OF
Berber and rules over the Corsican pas
sage in the Nubian desert, between Ber-
ber and Koraskes
In the second decade, after the Turk
ish invasion of Soudan, about thirty-six
years ago, while the stern Mehemed Ali
still held the sceptre of Egypt with iron
hand, the Turkish Governor Abbas Aga
ruled in the province of Berber-a man
stern and just, as the treatment Of the
wild inhabitants of internal Africa and
the political condition of the newly con-
auered country at that time demanded.
Abbas Aga at one time undertook
journey Of inspection into the neighbor-
ing province of Taxa. The chief OF the
Ababdes, an Arabian named Chalifa,
took advantage of the absence OF the
ruler to restore his former sovereignty
in his own country. Heassembled 4, 600
cavalry. stormed the chief town Mu-
cherif. murdered the Turkish officials,
robbed the Treasury and declared him
self legitimate sovereign OF the coun-
try. .,
Abbas Aga was at Cos Redieb, with
400 soldiers and two cannon, when he
received information Of the insurrection.
He quickly returned with his escort
back to Berber, the chief town of which
the insurgents had meantime left, hav-
ing entrenched themselves at Gemneta,
close to the hill, behind wall. APbas
Aga hemmed them in, and shot them
down to the last man. Not q soul was
spared. Ten thousand spearsmen re-
mained dead on the spot, among the
rest the chief Chalifa. His brother,
Baraka, stepped into his place as chief
of the Ababde. Peace and order were
thus restored for some years, till Abbas
Aga died. On receiving the news of the
death of his faithful servant Mehemed
Ali ordered the brother ofthe deceased,
Suliman Aga, to go from Cairo to Ber-
Der to take possession of the property
and to bring the family that had been
left behind to Cairo. Suliman Aga came
to Berber, obtained possession OF the
property of his brother, and finally
brought his family, four boys, who had
scarcely passed infancy, and their
mother, through the Nubian desert
from Berber to Korosko. AS Suliman
Aga was the deputy of the great Mehe-
med Ali, and as besides he was entrust-
ed with the transport of the State chest,
he was accompanied by seventy or
eighty soldiers. The caravan road is in
the hands of the Ababde, and Baraka
collected there camels and men of his
stock. This journey was the last op-
portunity of avenging the blood of their
chief and their brethren on the blood
relations of the murderer. The deed of
vengeance arranged and resolved upon
was no secret.
About half way through the desert
the caravan encamped at midnight, in
the valley of Sair, and, being fatigued
by their journey, the travellers careless
lily gave themselves up to sleep. The
well known quietness and security OF
the desert may have been the cause why
Suliman Aga, Notwithstanding that he
had much money with him, was so i'm
prudent as to fix no sentries over the
camp. In this valley the hand of ven
geance was to strike. The Ababdes,
who, when travelling, are armed with
swords, fell upon their enemies while
they were still sleeping, at two o'clock
in the morning, and killed Suliman Aga,
together with ali his followers. In a
few minutes the eighty persons were
dead.
The young children and their mother
were spared, since the custom of the
vendetta can be exercised only on men.
The property of Abbas Aga and the
State chest fell into the hands of the
assassins. The children were brought
back to the banks of the Nile, and there
exposed to their fate, and the Arabians
disappeared with their plunder into the
interior of the desert. Thereupon the
memorable Mehmed Ali ordered the
Governor of Soudan, Ahmed Pasha, to
send the head of Baraka to him and to
extort the plundered heritage and the
State chest to the last farthing from the
family of Ababde.
Ahmed Pasha fitted out suitable ex-
pedition, with the order to pursue to
the last drop of his blood Baraka, who,
after the aforementioned affair, had
fed into the territory of the neighbor-
ing family, Bischarin. Baraka was en-
trapped and cut down, together with
his adherents. His head, as had been
ordered, was sent to Cairo. In his place
his nephew Hussein Chalifa, the favor
ite son of Chaifa mentioned above, be-
came chief of the Ababde. He had to
atone for the sins of his ancestors he
had to pay the indemnity for the plum
dered State Treasury, and the heritage
of the family of Abbas Aga. An agree
ment was entered into by which he was
bound to pay certain monthly sum to
the heirs for thirty years, and this Pc
riod of thirty years did not terminate
until tive years ago. The four children
who had been left in the desert were
brought to Egypt, and there reared.
When they were grown up, one OF the
brothers, Ahmed Abbas, returned to
Berber, and there obtained employment
from the government, at the same time