Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/150

 They are also skilled tillers and gardeners, and each hut has in its vicinity an enclosure, where the vegetable beds, three feet high and very narrow, are so disposed that they can be cultivated without bending the back. The old Muru custom of all property being in common has not yet been completely replaced by private ownership. The beer prepared by the women belongs to everybody ; it is placed in a public building, every thirsty native or traveller drinking at pleasure, but never taking it away or abusing the privilege, drunkenness being quite unknown. In fine weather all the people in the village, men and women, dine together, served by the children. Politeness is one qi the virtues most sedulously cultivated by the Muru; the women are respected, and those amongst them who practise medicine, with much more success and intelligence than the men, are always escorted back to their own dwellings by the head of the family they have honoured with a visit. The education of the children is looked upon as the chief duty of the tribe. Boys and girls are trained to bow to and keep silence before their elders; they learn gymnastics, dancing, mimicry, practise games of strength and skill, accustom themselves to the use of arms, and make of their father a target for their blunt arrows. They are taken away and left in the woods, then watched from a distance to see how they find their way back to the village. Their education is completed by travel. At the age of ten the children leave the paternal roof on visits to distant friends of the same or other nations, thus making their " tour of the world," in order to become acquainted with the manners and customs of foreign lands. When the young women get tired of travel their brothers bring them home, then again set off on their ramblings. They also seek foreign wives, chiefly amongst the Niam-bara, exogamy being the rule in the Muru nation, although unknown amongst the Bari. "When the young Muru finds a girl that takes his fancy, he approaches her and attaches a wreath of foliage to her wrist; if she retains this ornament the young man may hope, and the negotiations for the marriage are forthwith begun between the respective parents.

The chief station of the Muru is the village of Madi (A-Jiladi), on the left bank of the Yei, and on the caravan route between Lado and Dem Suleiman, in the midst of vast sesame and millet-fields. It is one of the centres of traffic between the Nile basin and the Monbuttu country. The official reports record how many hundredweights of ivory are purchased by the Egyptian officials, but make no mention of a more important commercial article, namely, the slaves captured from the peaceful tribes of the country. Till recently Madi also forwarded a large number of eunuchs to the towns of the lower Nile and Arabia. It is stated that the slave-dealers always tried to capture and mutilate those chiefs who did not readily countenance their traffic in human flesh. Hence it is not astonishing that the sight of a " Turk " terrifies the blacks of these regions; the children on seeing a stranger scamper away with cries of terror.

The river Rol, which under divers names flows parallel to the Ye'i, and which at last runs out in the Nile marshes above the cataracts, flows through the territory of numerous tribes, such as the Abukaya, the Lori, the Lesi, the Belli, and the Jiri, which possess no political cohesion. In the country of the Agar, a branch of the