The Simple Rule
Of Proportion Will Suggest That If One Daughter Is Worth Ten Cows, Ten
Daughters Must Be Worth A Hundred; Therefore A Large Family Is A Source
Of Wealth:
The girls bring the cows, and the boys milk them.
All being
perfectly naked (I mean the girls and the boys), there is no expense,
and the children act as herdsmen to the flocks as in the patriarchal
times. A multiplicity of wives thus increases wealth by the increase of
family. I am afraid this practical state of affairs will be a strong
barrier to missionary enterprise.
A savage holds to his cows and his women, but especially to his COWS. In
a razzia fight he will seldom stand for the sake of his wives, but when
he does fight it is to save his cattle.
One day, soon after Bokke's visit, I heard that there had been some
disaster, and that the whole of Mahommed Her's party had been massacred.
On the following morning I sent ten of my men with a party of Ibrahim's
to Latome to make inquiries. They returned on the following afternoon,
bringing with them two wounded men. It appeared the Mahommed Her had
ordered his party of 110 armed men, in addition to 300 natives, to make
a razzia upon a certain village among the mountains for slaves and
cattle. They had succeeded in burning a village and in capturing a great
number of slaves. Having descended the pass, a native gave them the
route that would lead to the capture of a large herd of cattle that they
had not yet discovered. They once more ascended the mountain by a
different path, and arriving at the kraal they commenced driving off the
vast herd of cattle. The Latookas, who had not fought while their wives
and children were being carried into slavery, now fronted bravely
against the muskets to defend their herds, and charging the Turks they
drove them down the pass.
It was in vain that they fought; every bullet aimed at a Latooka struck
a rock, behind which the enemy was hidden. Rocks, stones, and lances
were hurled at them from all sides and from above. They were forced to
retreat. The retreat ended in a panic and precipitate flight. Hemmed in
on all sides, amid a shower of lances and stones thrown from the
mountain above, the Turks fled pell-mell down the rocky and precipitous
ravines. Mistaking their route, they came to a precipice from which
there was no retreat. The screaming and yelling savages closed round
them. Fighting was useless; the natives, under cover of the numerous
detached rocks, offered no mark for an aim, while the crowd of armed
savages thrust them forward with wild yells to the very verge of the
great precipice about five hundred feet below. Down they fell, hurled to
utter destruction by the mass of Latookas pressing onward! A few fought
to the last, but one and all were at length forced, by sheer pressure,
over the edge of the cliff, and met a just reward for their atrocities.
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