Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/289

 THE BERTAS. 225 like a brother. A shoep or goat is killed and the blood received in a calabash, in which all the assistantfl dip their hands and then embrace. Henceforth the stranger is safe from all attack. The Bertas are great orators, and often hold councils, where each one addresses the assembly in turn, seconded by an applauder, who stands at his side. But he is never interrupted, as, more polite than the Westerns, the Bertas always await the end of a speech before replying to the argument. Excepting the northern districts, where all natives claim to be Mohammedans, the religion of the Bertas is still mainly Animistic. At the period of the new moon they dance by the light of the stars, and terminate these feasts with orgies. Their amulets consist of certain roots, flowers, and the scarabeus, a species of beetle, probably the ateuchus ^gyptoritm. Thus Egyptian influence, after more than two thousand years, still survives amongst these obscure peoples of the Upper Nile basin. Like the Buruns and other tribes assimilated to the Arabs, they have also the iaramhUh, a curved wooden " knuckle-duster," very similar in shape to the boomerang. According to some authors they do not throw this weapon, like the Australians, but carry it in the hand, using it when scaling the mountains to hook on to the branches of the trees or projections in the rock. But the explorer Marno, who has traversed these countries, states that he has seen the natives use as a throwing-stick both the tarambish and the culdeba, a still more formidable iron weapon, curved in the form of a sickle. Schuver confirms this statement, but says that the Bertas cannot make the weajx)n return to the exact point whence it was thrown. There are no towns properly 8o-calle<l in the Berta country ; but their most important village is Kirin, situated on the western slope of the mountains in a basin of the Yavash or Yal, and consisting of large huts scattered among enormous granite blocks. No other national assembly presents a more picturesque appear- ance than that of Kirin — each rock has its own group of men in the most varied attitudes, upright, lying down, sitting, or holding on to the crags. Many of the Berta tribes have chiefs, who bear the title of king or mek^ but their power is very precarious. Directly the mek no longer pleases his subjects, the men and women all collect together and tell him that they hate him, and that it is time for him to die ; then thoy hang him to the nearest tree. If the king is prevente<l by sick- ness from holding his daily court of justice, his influence becomes ill-omened instead of being favourable, and the gallows rids the people of him. A wife when unfaithful is always punished with death. To the north and north-west of the Bertas, the " no-man's-land " which separates the Blue Nile from the Abyssinian plateaux of Agaumeder, is occupied by numerous tribes of divers origin, and here are spoken five distinct languages, without including Arabic and Abyssinian. A sheikh residing at Knha or MonkniSt a village perched on a mountain, is apparently a sovereign ; but the people of Kuba, the Gumus, the Sienetjos, the Kadalos, and the Berta immigrants, govern themselves and are frequently at war with each other. Some of the Gumus live in small independent or isolated groups, a space of a mile intervening between the dwelling of each family. On grand occasions they all carry parasols of honour of 15— AF.