dollars each. My men look on in dismay at the happiness
of their neighbours : like
“ A Peri •weeping at the gate
Of Eden, stood disconsolate,”
so may they be seen regarding the adjoining paradise,
where meat is in profusion, sweetened by being stolen ;
but, alas! their cruel master does not permit them
these innocent enjoyments.
Eyerything may be obtained for cattle as payment
in this country. The natives are now hard at work
making zareebas (kraals) for the cattle stolen from their
own tribe and immediate neighbours, for the sake of
two or three bullocks as remuneration to be divided
among more than a hundred men. They are not deserving
of sympathy ; they are worse than vultures,
being devoid of harmony even in the same tribe. The
chiefs have no real control; and a small district, containing
four or five towns, club together and pillage the
neighbouring province. I t is not surprising that the
robber traders of the Nile turn this spirit of discord to
their own advantage, and league themselves with one
chief to rob another, whom they eventually plunder in
his turn. The natives say that sixty-five men and
women were killed in the attack upon Kayala. All
the Latookas consider it a great disgrace that the
Turks fired upon women. Among all tribes, from
Gondokoro to Obbo, a woman is respected, even in
time of war. Thus, they are employed as spies, and
become exceedingly dangerous; nevertheless, there is
a general understanding that no woman shall be killed.
The origin of this humane distinction arises, I imagine,
from their scarcity. Where polygamy is in force, women
should be too dear to k ill; the price of a girl being
from five to ten cows, her death is equal to the actual
loss of that number.
Fortunately for my party, who were not cattle lifters,
there was the usual abundance of game, and I could
always supply myself and people with delicious wild
ducks and geese. We never were tired of this light
food, as we varied their preparation. Sometimes I
was able to procure a goat, on which occasion a grand
dish was made, the paunch being arranged as a Scotch
i haggis ” of wild fowls’ livers and flesh minced, with
the usual additions. My garden was flourishing ; we
had onions, beans, melons, yams, lettuce, and radishes,
which had quickly responded to several invigorating *
showers; the temperature was 85° in the shade during
the hottest hours of the day, and 72° at night.
Salt is not procurable in Latooka; the natives
seldom use it, as it is excessively difficult to make it
in any quantity from the only two sources that will
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