DEXTEROUS LAWGIVERS 259 consists of a feast on a slaughtered ox, and when married the girls immediately assume the palm-strip girdle, which is often made of string manufactured from the same finger-palm-leaf material.

The incredulity with which my monogamous peculiarity was received was consistent with the habits of the Nuers, who accumulate as large a collection of wives as their substitutes for pockets can afford. Naturally, when market value is so high, it is only the wealthy who get beyond two or three, while a Sheikh of importance will command a retinue of some fifty or sixty. As man is mortal and Sheikhs commonly well on in life, it is apparent that on the death of a Sheikh widows are liable to be thrown on the market in considerable numbers, and this fact was evidently, in the time of the ancient Nilotic lawgivers, recognized as a social problem necessary to be satisfied. So an expedient was hit upon for its solution, and Papa Nuer when lacking virility through extreme age, or lying sick unto death, appoints some one of his sons to act as husband to all his mothers but his own particular one, this coming into effect while Papa is still alive. What becomes of the unfortunate maternal parent who, in the nature of things, is left out in the cold does not appear, but, as the market is prevented from being overstocked, her case is no doubt easily absorbed. Now, Papa Shilluk is evidently not so far advanced in worldly wisdom as Papa Nuer, for he only ordains that the arrangement shall come into force after his death, and gets slyly knocked on 17—2