100 horses came with Aleiwa, and 400 Arabs; nearly 1000 camels, and many captives, had died on the road, besides children: the death of the latter was not included, as they were not considered of any importance. I f a brutal Arab found a child in a plundered village, so young as to require milk, it was considered sufficient to try to keep the poor infant a day or two on dates and water mixed, and if it sickened, to throw it on the road side to die, or to be devoured by the jackals. A wretch of the Boowadie Arabs, endeavoured to laugh at an acknowledgment of his having followed this odious practice; and he was much astonished at my driving him out of the house in consequence. I could not in any instance find that these cowardly ruffians ever dared to attack an armed man, whilst they inflicted every species of cruelty on invalids, old people, and children. Mohammed el Lizari, a friend of ours and a principal Mamluke of Fezzan, was the actual commander of this expedition, though Aleiwa was the nominal one. This man was so disgusted at the scenes which he had witnessed, that he determined never again to accompany the Ghrazzie; indeed his having now done so was not with his own consent, but in consequence of an order from Mukni, which precluded all possibility of refusal. The Ghrazzie had been six months absent, during which time they had overrun Bergoo (of the Tibboo), Wajunga, and the southern part of the Bahr el Ghazal. In Bergoo their success; was not great, as the Tibboo were, warned of their approach, and had nimbly betaken, themselves to their native fastnesses in the rocks. Afraid to follow them, these wretches made themselves amends by firing at the poor Negroes, well aware that they had no guns with which to defend or revenge themselves., On the return of these people through Tibesty, with which country Mukni is at peace, they endeavoured to take a few of the Tibboo camels (in a friendly way,) and for that purpose sent three of the Sultan’s household slaves to demand that they should be given u p ; these the Tibboo seized and put to death, considering them as nothing less than robbers, A leiwa’s people, however, succeeded in faking prisoners someof this tribe, cutting the throats of fifteen men and women, and making captive 130 young men and girls, with 200 camels. I was induced to ask who were the aggressors in this case. “ Oh! the Tibboo assuredly, for they are Kaffirs and thieves: we only wanted 300 or 400 camels for the Sultan, and were at peace with them, and did not intend making any slaves; therefore they ought not to have resisted us.” The Tibboo of Borgoo are all Kaffirs, but are quiet inoffensive people, living in houses made of palm-leaf mats, called Booshi, which are so closely woven, that the rain cannot penetrate them. I have seen huts of this description at Gatrone and Tegerry, and consider them superior to the Fezzan houses in general. Very little corn is cultivated in Bergoo, the inhabitants subsisting .chiefly on dates, which grow there, in immense quantities, of an inferior kind, and on the flesh of their sheep, goats, and camels: they have also a small breed of black cattle, but these are chiefly used for milking. The arms of these people. I have -spoken of in a former page. Their- dress has very little variety; and except the skins of animals they have only such coarse cloths as they sometimes obtain from their trading neighbours, which they wear, having a piece before and another behind, hanging down as low as the knees. Boys and girls are entirely naked, and few of the men have any other covering than a leather wrapper round the loins; all have the head ‘bare. Marriage, according to the accounts of the Arabs, who vilify them in order to excuse their own cruelties, is unknown among them, and the women are in common : brothers and sisters live together, and confess it when asked. They have no knowledge of a God; they k k 2
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