Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-03-06

tive sources for information concern
ing them, and II the caves in question
are used as fortresses today by those
dusky races which have been COM
batting with the utmost tenacity the
advance of the white man, with
Christianity and western civilization
in his train, there Is no reason why
they should not have in ancient times
been likewise arranged for worship,
and for the celebration of the rites
of those wonderful religions Of years
ago, to which the world Is indebted
for such noble ruins as those Of Mem
phis, at Philae, at Thebes and else
where along the valley Of the Nile.
Rahama Zobehr celebrated in his
day as the slave king Of central Afri-
ca and who died not long ago at a
very advanced age at Geili, his es-
tate not far from Khartum, is de-
scribed by Lady Lugard. when she
saw him in captivity at Gibraltar, as
having waxed eloquent on the subject
of those wonderful cavern Businesses
and about the temples which they con-
tain. Now the wife of General Sir
Frederick Lugard, governor general
of British Nigeria, she was at the
time when she saw him at the Rock,
still Miss Flora Shaw, is acknowledg-
ed to be one of the cleverest writer's
on African subjects on the staff of the
London Times, in which paper she
published an extremely interesting ac-
count Of her interview with Zobehr.
My acquaintance with Zobehr ante
dated hers by many years. 1 first met
him at Cairo during the closing
months OF the reign of Khedive Is
Mail, and then renewed my amicable
intercourses with him in the summer
and winter months of 1SS4-S5, until
he was deported from Egypt as state
prisoner to Gibraltar. He was very
fond of talking to visitors, seemed
eager not only to set himself right
in their eyes but also to interest them,
and 1 recall on a number Of occasions
his expatiating on these alleged cav
ern temples in the western Soudon,
especially when I happened to be ac-
companied by any friend interested
in Egyptology.
Zobehr was one of the most extra
ordinary and interesting figures it has
ever been my lot to encounter, and 1t
Is amazing that so little, relatively
speaking, should have been written
about him, since his career would
furnish themes in abundance both to
the novelist and the short story writ
er. Belonging to the Jaalin tribe and
member of a family claiming descent
from Abbas, the uncle Of the prophet,
he set forth as far back as in 1850
from Khartum as a young fellow OF
90 to seek his fortune among the Ne |
groid Arab ivory dealers and slave
hunters in the district Of the White |
Nile and the Bahr-elGhazel, and Is
years later had succeeded in establish |
ing himself as sovereign Of a great
central African empire, with force
of many thousands Of we'll trained, |
well armed soldiers whom he used
alike for slave rsiding purposes, for
conquest and for defense.
Indeed, from 1860 to 1875, he was
the principal source Of supply to the
slave trade, sending forth immense
caravans of this form Of African pro-
duce to Tripoli for dispatch via
Tobruk on the Mediterranean to va
rious Turkish ports, to the slave marts
of Morocco and of Tunis, and to the
east coast for transport by sea to
Arabia, and via the Persian Gul to
the Nominations of the Shah. The
German traveller Shwelnfurth, who
visited him in one of his strongholds
in the Kordofan in 1871, gives In his
book dealing with central Africa, a
most wonderful portrayal of the very
barbaric splendor of his court, Of the
soldiers and guards in armor and car
rying two handed swords and arrayed
from the Saracen foes Of st. Louis; of
the lions fastened to either side of
his throne by silver chains; Of the
wealth of gold, Of silver and Of ivory