SINGULAR CONJUGAL CUSTOM. 325 saniyehs own no camels, and this was probably a caravan from Khartoum, bound for Kordofan. In some places the people brought donkeys laden with water-skins, which they filled from the river. I noticed, occasionally, a small patch of beans, but nothing that looked like a regular system of cultivation. The Hassaniyehs are yellow, with straight features, and resemble the Fellahs of Lower Egypt more than any other Central- African tribe. Those whom we saw at a distance from the villages retreated with signs of fear as my vessel approached the shore. Dr. Peney, the Medical Inspector of Soudan, described to me, while in Khartoum, some singular customs of these Arabs. The rights of women, it appears, are recognized among them more thoroughly than among any. other savage people in the world. When a woman is married, her father states that one fourth of her life thenceforth is reserved for her own use, and the husband is obliged to respect this reservation. Every fourth day she is released from the marriage vow, and if she loves some one else better than her husband, he can dwell in her tent that day, obliging the husband himself to retire. Their hospitality is such, moreover, that if a stranger visits one of their settlements they furnish him, for four days, with a tent and a wife. They should add a family of children, and then their hospitality would be complete. No reproach whatever attaches to the woman, on account of this temporary connection. The Hassaniyeh, in other respects, are not more immoral than other tribes, and these customs appear to be connected with their religious faith.

After passing Tura (the terminus of a short caravan route of four days to Obeid, the capital of Kordofan), a mountain range, some .distance from the river, appeared on the right