198 A VISIT TO THE MONBUTTU.

his neck in the presence of Arabs, but the latter have exerted no palpable influence on the physical and moral condition of the people generally. There is not even any progress visible in the implements of wood and iron used for the cultivation of the soil, and yet I repeatedly came across saws, files, &. The fault, then, probably lies on the part of those who have been too idle to teach the people. I have no doubt at all that, with very little trouble, one could make the Monbuttu into exceedingly clever workmen; but this can only be accomphshed by men who do not hold work to be degrading, not by those who, though acquainted with the art of weaving, allow the cotton to rot in the fields, and prefer to clothe themselves, like the Negroes, in bark cloth or skins. JI would also mention another excellent point about the Monbuttu, which is, that drunkenness seems to me to prevail less among them than elsewhere; unfortunately, they have learnt the secret of the manufacture of brandy, but I have not seen any drunkenness.

It would be an injustice not to refer to the fair sex, who play such an important ré/e in Monbuttu, and are the cause of all the misfortune from which the country suffers. At the very beginning of the invasion, the intruders seem to have found pleasure in the daughters of the land, and those at least who remained in the country married there according to the native customs, after paying a small price for their brides. The first dissensions arose as a result of this intermarriage, some of the invaders wishing to take their wives out of the country ; and the war against Munza, which cost him his life, and created an entirely new state of affairs in Monbuttu, was undertaken on account of a woman whom Munza refused to give to an Arab. “As far as I had opportunity of seeing and getting to know Monbuttu women, I always found them very decent in their behaviour. Their dress certainly would hardly be permissible for church-going; but, for the rest, they are said to be affectionate and teachable, and therefore favourites with the Arabs. <A surprising number of them have light yellow, almost Egyptian, colour of skin; these are not pathological ‘phenomena, like the albinos, but perfectly normal individuals, with a light fundamental pigment. Such women are particularly admired, and I must confess that their appear-