your women are adored by the men, and you are
satisfied with' one wife, either young or old ; now I
will explain our customs. I have four wives; as one
has become old, I have replaced her with a young
one ; here they all are” (he now marked four strokes
upon the sand with his stick). “ This one carries
water; that grinds the corn; this makes the
bread ; the last does not do much, as she is the
youngest, and my favourite; and if they neglect
their work, they get a taste of this!” (shaking a
long and tolerably thick stick.) “ Now, that’s the
difference between our establishments; yours is well
adapted for your country, and ours is the best plan
for our own.”
I would not contradict the sheik; the English
great-eoat was not the garment for the scorching
Soudan, and English ideas were equally unsuited to
the climate and requirements of the people. The
girls were utterly ignorant, and the Arabs had never
heard of a woman who could read and write; they
were generally pretty when young, but they rapidly
grew old after childbirth. Numbers of young girls
and women were accustomed to bathe perfectly
naked in the river just before our tent; I employed
them to catch small fish for baits; and for hours
they would amuse themselves in this way, screaming
with excitement and fun, and chasing the small
fry with their long cloths in lieu of nets; their
figures were generally well shaped, but both men
and women fed off in the development of the legs.