2 1 8 EXTRACTION OF THE FRONT TEETH. [CHAP. v.
the extremity, which gives it a wriggling motion, indescribably
ludicrous during conversation.
I cannot understand for what reason all the White
Nile tribes extract the four front teeth of the lower
jaw. Were the meat of the country tender, the loss
o teeth might be a trifle; but I have usually found
that even a good set of grinders are sometimes puzzled
to go through the operation needful to a Latooka beefsteak.
I t is difficult to explain real beauty; a defect in
one country is a desideratum in another; scars upon the
face are, in Europe, a blemish; but here and in the Arab
countries no beauty can be perfect until the cheeks
or temples have been gashed, The Arabs make three
gashes upon each cheek, and rub the wounds with
salt and a kind of porridge (aslda) 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 cicatrice.
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 J 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
c h a p . v.] THE VALUE OF WIVES. 219
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.