1. 4. XXI. THE NON-ARAB RACES OF DARFUR 107

and sisters of his wife's mother, though none to fraternizing with

those of his wife.

The wife would have a distinct reluctance to conversing with her

mother-in-law or with the brothers and sisters of her husband's

father. This superstition is common both to the Arab and the non- Arab population, though its observance is often slack. The only

explanation I have heard vouchsafed is that of "the respect due to

the parents of one's spouse." A father and a paternal uncle is almost

the same thing among the non-Arab tribes and the latter is spoken

of as a "lesser father^."

It is often in connection with this curious belief that one sees by

the roadside, generally by a rough stony track leading to a well, a

little cairn, or several cairns, made chiefly of stones, but with pieces

of cow-dung and sticks added. These are called " Um Bull" in

northern Darfur and denote a mishap of some sort. The usual mishap is a meeting between son-in-law and mother-in-law, one

going to and the other coming from the wells. The former, in this

case, would at once crouch down on his hams, with hands on the ground before him, till his mother-in-law had passed, and then make

a little heap of stones on the site. Similarly, a cairn is begun if one

trips in walking or breaks wind by accident^, and subsequent passers- by occasionally add a stone to the heap "for luck." The idea seems

to be that an evil spirit must haunt the spot and cause the mishap, and the stones are either intended to "keep him under" or, as the

addition of cow-dung and sticks suggest, to placate him by a small

emblematical (not to say invidiously perfunctory) offering.

Circumcision of males was universal in Darfur in el Tunisi's

time: the circumcision of females, either partial or entire, was not uncommon, but the Fur proper did not practise it^.

* Among the Bishan'n "A man may not speak to, or come in contact with, his mother-in-law, though his first child should, if possible, be born in her house. After two or three children have been born he gives her a present and may then speak to her. A man may speak to his father-in-law, but will never eat with him,

i.e. out of the same dish at the same time" (Prof. Seligman, "Note on Bisharin," Man, June, 1915). An interesting article on this widespread superstition, common

to Africa, America, Australia and the Oceanic Isles, though not to Asia or Europe, was published by Andrew Lang in the Morning Post of March 8, 1912. For the custom among the 'Ababda see Belzoni (Narrative..., pp. 304-313), and for the same among the Rubataband Kababish see Crowfoot, Sudan Notes and R., Apr. 19 18,

p. 128, and Harvard Afr. Stud. 11, 126, respectively. Cp. Roscoe, Baganda, p. 129.

^ This last was the explanation I heard given at Gebel Katul (N. Kordofan)

in 1910.

' Voy. au Darfour, pp. 216, 217. Cp. Browne, pp. 347 et seq.: he adds, con- cerning excision, " In Dar-F<lr many women, particularly among the Arabs never undergo excision.... Thirteen or fourteen young females underwent ^ja^la- [excision]

in an house where I was."