io6 THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 1. 4. xxi.

from blood-money or fines, is, nevertheless, alleged to have been

originally devised as a deterrent to quarrelsomeness; but this

explanation is unconvincing and the fee is charged irrespectively of

there having been a quarrel at all {e.g. if a man is murdered in his

sleep) and whichever party may have been to blame. If an Urun-

dulti were killed, his relatives, it was held by the Shartdis of whom I enquired, would pay the fee to his successor. Blood-money

is paid in the usual manner by the relatives of a murderer as com- pensation to the relatives of the murdered man, but in addition a

fine of six head of cattle has to be produced by the people of the

district {hdkora) in which the murderer resides and given to the Shartdi of the district of the murdered man. This is, no doubt,

correctly explained as a measure to deter evildoers by making it to

the interest of their neighbours to prevent them from offending.

A well-known feature of savage etiquette, that of the avoidance by a man of his mother-in-law and by a woman of her father-in-law

maintains in Darfur, as in Kordofan among the Arab nomads and

the sedentary population, and in the Gezira, if not universally in the northern Sudan. El Tunisi says of this subject^

:

Lorsqu'un individu est fiance a una fille, s'il frequentait precedemment

le pere et la mere de sa future, at si celle-ci frequentait aussi le pere et la mere du pretendant, les relations des daux families sent intarrompuas du jour meme da la demanda en mariage; ils se daviannent tous absolumant

etrangers. Alors, si la fiance apergoit da loin la pere ou la mere de sa

future, il prend un autre chamin que calui ou il les voit : la pere et la mere en font da mama a son egard. La filla evita egalamant la rencontre du para et da la mere de son futur epoux II est de regie, ainsi que nous

I'avons dit, que lorsqu'un individu est amoureux d'une jeune fille, et que

la mere da calle-ci a consanti a raccepter pour gendre, il ait soin d'evitar

la rencontre de sa future belle-mere, qui, a son tour, doit aussi evitar de

se trouvar face a face avec son futur gendre. Si done elle la voit venir de son cote, at qu'etant trop pres da lui alia na puissa pas ou na vauille pas s'eloigner assez vite, elle s'accroupit a terre, ramena un pan da sas vetamants sur sa teta, sa voile la figure, et reste ainsi cachee jusqu'a ce que I'amant de sa fille soit passe.

The above is still correct. In particular, it is taboo for a man to

eat with his mother-in-law, or a woman with her father-in-law. If

the parties were forced by circumstances to speak with one another

they would do so briefly and rapidly with bent heads.

There seems to be also some reluctance on the part of a man to speaking or eating with his father-in-law, but it is very slight and not

universal. He would even have qualms about speaking to the brothers

^ Voy. au Darfour, pp. 219, 236.