222 BE TOs WE.

found, that it is impossible to doubt that they spring from the same root. It is, however, surprising to find the indisputable relationship between the language spoken here and the Madi language spoken to the south of the Bahr-el-Jebel, and it is impossible to avoid coming to the conclusion that all these small peoples and tribes originally dwelt far to the west, and were then driven towards the east by a migration of tribes from the west, to be at last driven asunder and scattered, as by a wedge, to the localities in which we find them to-day. That all these movements have caused changes in the language is only what might have been expected.

Althongh Dr. Schweinfurth accuses the Monbuttu women of being rather lascivious, it nevertheless appears that their attachment to their husbands and their sense of family ties are not thereby decreased. JI have mentioned that Gambari, the chief of the Monbuttu district of Kubbi, had been detained in Dem Suleiman, in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, on the charge of having made and sold eunuchs. Now, it is perfectly true that eunuchs were made and sold in Monbuttu, but it is just as certain that the offenders were two Danagla—Beshir Salah and Saleh Hakim-—.

and when they were accused of it, they tried, according to the usual custom here, to put the blame on “ Abd” (slave) Gambari. During his absence from his district, the greatest disorder prevailed; the opportunity was taken to rob and plunder in all directions, and to send whole convoys of slaves to the so-called mudirié, Gurguru, 2.e., the old district of Rol. Children were stolen from their parents, to be sold at last for a bottle of brandy or a pair of old trousers. All this is best proved by the number of Monbuttu (two hundred and fifty) whom J have already released and sent back to their homes.

At midday, the proper time for paying a visit, I was surprised by the arrival of a lady. Ungauna, Gambari’s chief wife, had come all the way from Monbuttu, intending to go to Lad6, to request me to liberate her husband. She had, however, heard upon the way that he was at liberty, and with me; she had therefore hurried here, through Makraka, to see him, and she now came to thank me. She was of middle height, rather stout, but although she was very dark, a yellow under-tone shone through her skin, and, ike all the Monbuttu, she had