148 TRIBES BORDERING ON KORDOFAN, All, with peculiar consideration, has made him magistrate of this village, where he lives in very straitened circumstances. The Shilluks and Denky are easily distinguished from among a concourse of other nations, for they have oblong heads, and are more especially known by the want of the four lower incisor teeth, which are extracted when they are ten or twelve years of age, a kind of religious ceremony, as I was told, similar to that of circumcision or baptism. They are of muscular build, and very merry, but are not much prized as slaves, and are indeed always at a lower price than other captives in Kordofan and Sennaar. The chief reason of this discrepancy is that they are stupid, lazy, and childish, and cannot be confidently entrusted with any duty. They are to be seen running about all day long, or engaged in games which could only please children. They are very treacherous, and can never be left to themselves, but must, in fact, always be placed under the inspection of other slaves. Those only who leave home at a very early age form the exception to this rule. With such deficiences they are, consequently, only used for the very lowest class of labour, and treated not much better than beasts of burden. Mehemed Ali, who formed his first regiment of foot entirely of negroes, has latterly given orders not to enlist any more recruits from this tribe ; he found, indeed, that their services were not only of no avail, but that their excessive stupidity was likely to lead to