Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/139

 of metal locomotion becomes difficult, while to look to the right or left the faabionable Shuli has to wheel his whole body half round. The costume is completed with red and white beads, and diverse amulets of silk, roots, teeth, horn, and the like. The women, however, wear nothing but a loin-cloth, a few glass trinkets, some decorative paintings, and a queue, like that of the Niam-Niam.

The Shuli, Lur, and Madi are distinguished from the neighbouring tribes by the consideration they pay to the women in all social matters. Young girls, living apart in huts reserved for the purpose, have the privilege of choosing their own husbands. They are never beaten, and the husband seldom takes any important step without consulting his wife, or receives any present without sharing it with her. The women are also exempt from field operations, and occupy themselves exclusively with household duties.

The national name, Shuli, recalling that of the Shilluks on the White Nile, points to a common origin of these tribes, a conclusion confirmed by the obvious affinity of their respective idioms. The Shuli, however, unlike their northern kindred, are a peaceful people, engaged chiefly in agricultural pursuits. They grow excellent tobacco, various kinds of vegetables, and large quantities of cereals and sesame. In the midst of their orchards they plant here and there certain fetish trees, loading the branches with the horns, teeth, and heads of animals captured in the chase. Like the Nyanza tribes, they also dedicate small shrines to the local genii, and never start on any enterprise without consulting the wizards. All travellers meet with a friendly welcome, and on their departure a goat is sacrificed by the wayside to avert all dangers on their homeward journey. Three days of the week are considered propitious, three ill-omened, and the seventh indifferent. But through their ignorance of these local superstitions strangers often become involved in serious troubles.

In the Shuli territory the Egyptians have established a few military posts placed at intervals of two or three days' march from each other, so as to overawe the whole land by a system of strategic routes. Wadelai, one of these stations, lies on the left bank of the Nile, at the confluence of a small tributary. But the most important place is Fatiko, founded by Baker, some 60 miles east of the river, between two affluents of the Asua, in a fertile district commanded by granite heights. One of these crags rises north of the fort about 300 feet above the plains, affording an extensive view of the whole region beyond the Nile. Fatiko, standing at an altitude of 4,000 feet above the sea, occupies the culminating point of the Shuli territory, whence the land falls in abrupt terraces north, west, and south. Lj-ing midway between Foweira, on the Somerset Nile, and Dufile, on the Bahr-el-Jebel, it is favourably placed for trading purposes, and exports much com and wax. Other large villages in the Shuli country are Fq/'elh (Fajuli), Fudihek, Fdrqjok and Obho, lying east and north of the Asua river.

The Madi, who occupy the right bank of the Nile north of the Shuli, resemble them in appearance, in their style of headdress and other usages, notably the respect paid to their women, who take part in their tribal deliberations. Although apparently of kindred stock, their language is quit© distinct from that of the Lur,