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The Pasha pursued his march to the province of Shageia, where Malek Shouus, the principal among the Shageia chiefs, had collected the whole force of the republic of the brigands with a determination to risk another battle.
The country of Shageia, possessed by the brigands, was the best cultivated we had seen this side of Assuan; the water-wheels, so far as we have passed their country, being frequently within half a stone's throw of each other. They obliged the peasants to work hard to raise food and forage to ml the magazines of their castles, which are seen here and there all over this country. 8th of Rebi.
The enemy were posted on the side of this mountain and among the durra in the open ground between the mountain and the river; so that their rear was secured by the mountain, and their right covered by a strong castle at the foot of its extremity lying off from the river. Malek Shouus, Malek Zibarra, and the other chiefs of Shageia, and their immediate followers, composed the cavalry of the enemy.
All the people sleep upon bedsteads, as they do also in Dongola and Shageia: these bedsteads are composed of an oblong frame of wood, standing on four short legs, the sides of the frame supporting a close network of leathern thongs, on which the person sleeps; it is elastic and comfortable.
They also had met a party of fifteen armed men, who informed them that they belonged to this country, but had been compelled to quit it, and fly, by the brigands of Shageia, who had infested and ravaged the country, but had returned on hearing that the Pasha Ismael had defeated and expelled these robbers, and had invited every fugitive peasant to return home, giving them assurance of future safety and protection.
He bears the title of Malek, as do all the distinguished chiefs of Berber, Shageia, and Dongola. Their dignity is hereditary, generally passing from father to son. I have noticed that the families of the Maleks exceed the common people in respect of stature and stoutness. The Malek, in whose house I lodged, a man about 60 years of age, was near seven feet high, and very stout.
In consequence of the result of this affair, all the country between the place of combat and Shageia, i.e. the country occupied by the castles and immediate subjects of the Maleks of Shageia, submitted and were pardoned.
By the middle of the afternoon we had arrived at a place on the left bank of the river that had been, a few days ago, the scene of a battle between the Pasha and the brigands of Shageia.
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