The Arabs Make Three Gashes Upon Each Cheek, And Rub The Wounds With
Salt And A Kind Of Porridge (Asida) To Produce Proud Flesh; Thus Every
Female Slave, Captured By The Slave-Hunters, Is Marked To Prove Her
Identity, And To Improve Her Charms.
Each tribe has its peculiar fashion
as to the position and form of the cicatrix.
The Latookas gash the temples and cheeks of their women, but do not
raise the scar above the surface, as is the custom of the Arabs.
Polygamy is, of course, the general custom; the number of a man's wives
depending entirely upon his wealth, precisely as would the number of his
horses in England. There is no such thing as love in these countries:
the feeling is not understood, nor does it exist in the shape in which
we understand it. Everything is practical, without a particle of
romance. Women are so far appreciated as they are valuable animals. They
grind the corn, fetch the water, gather firewood, cement the floors,
cook the food, and propagate the race; but they are mere servants, and
as such are valuable. The price of a good-looking, strong young wife,
who could carry a heavy jar of water, would be ten cows; thus a man,
rich in cattle, would be rich in domestic bliss, as he could command a
multiplicity of wives. However delightful may be a family of daughters
in England, they nevertheless are costly treasures; but in Latooka, and
throughout savage lands, they are exceedingly profitable. 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 the
source of wealth; the girls produce 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. I had now a vivid
exemplification of this theory.
One day, at about 3 P.M., the men of Ibrahim started upon some
mysterious errand, but returned equally mysterious at about midnight. On
the following morning I heard that they had intended to attack some
place upon the mountains, but they had heard that it was too powerful;
and as "discretion is the better part of valour," they had returned.
On the day following I heard that there had been some disaster, and that
the whole of Mahommed Her's party had been massacred. The natives seemed
very excited, and messenger succeeded messenger, all confirming the
account that Mahommed Her had attacked a village on the mountains, the
same that Ibrahim had intended to attack, and that the natives had
exterminated their whole party.
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