Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/287

 persons. Although their king can put twenty thousand warriors on the battlefield, without counting the Negro troops of his vassals, he never abuses his power to make conquests. <A kind and peaceful people, the Legas allow the women great liberty, and permit their slaves to work in their own way. They themselves are laborious and enthusiastic agriculturists; they till the red soil of their fertile valleys, and in the evening sit before their huts smoking narghilehs, whose globe consists of a

pumpkin, or else chewing coffee berries, roasted with salt, butter, and onions. They pay no taxes to the king, but the tribes alternately cultivate and reap the fields set apart for the support of the royal family. The king decides upon the fines, when his subjects do not prefer to settle their disputes by the law of retaliation. The nation also recognises a high priest, who celebrates the sacred mysteries in a kinissa, a local name apparently derived from the term "kilissa," or church, used by the Christian populations of the eastern plateaux. The sacrificer, on killing an animal, always bathes his forehead in the blood, and allows it to dry on his cheeks in blackish clots. But their ancient religion seems to be on the decline, and the