Women Travelers on the Nile by Manley Deborah;

Author:Manley, Deborah;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Nubian Women, 1827

Wolfradine Minutoli

We began by visiting the charming Isle of Elephantina, covered with groves of palms, and a luxuriant vegetation. The complexion of the natives, after having passed through gradations of colour, was, at Syene, of a black and chocolate hue. The women of Nubia do not veil themselves with the same strictness as the Egyptians. The young girls wear a small apron, with leather fringes, and adorned with shells. They are very ingenuous and simple in their manners; and any infraction on the established laws is punished by the father of the family with the utmost rigour.

The Nubians grease their hair in a very disagreeable manner; they use for this purpose oil obtained from the plant called Palma Christi, which they cultivate with much care, and which we found growing round all their huts; they then divide their hair in an infinite number of small tresses, so tightly braided that they generally last for their whole life. Hence we may easily judge the neatness of the head-dress. Like the negresses, they have a taste for tinsel and glass beads.

When we landed on the island of Elephantina, the women and children flocked about us with a cordiality which we had not before met with: they eagerly brought us many little antiquities which they had found on the island, in exchange for which we gave them glass beads, knives, and small looking-glasses, for which they expressed their satisfaction by a thousand demonstrations of joy and gratitude.

The most perfect confidence was soon established between us; they chatted and laughed together, showing two rows of teeth as white as ivory. The figure of the young women appeared to me charming; their skin was as soft as satin, in spite of the burning sun to which they are constantly exposed. I believe that the oil with which they anoint their hair and part of their bodies, contributes to produce this effect. I had occasion to admire their courage, for I saw several of them cross the Nile sitting astride upon the stem of a date tree, with an oar in their hands, without appearing to be afraid of crocodiles; who, by seizing one of their legs, might easily have dragged them to the bottom.

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