Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/336

 266 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. received, the result of the war was still uncertain. In any case Islam, whilst spreading from Kordoflln towards the surrounding countries, is far from having accomplished its mission in Kordofan itself, where numerous practices forbidden by the Prophet are still observed. For the natives the principal difference between paganism and Mohammedanism is that, in the former case, the amulet is a morsel of horn or rag, whilst in the latter it consists of a pouch enclosing a verse from the Koran or a prayer written by a fakih. Social Usages. Temporary marriages are practised throughout Kordofan ; even at El-Obeid the custom of the " fourth free," which is specially attributed to the Hassanieh, is said to exist amongst several families of other tribes. Polyandry, regulated for each of the husbands by a partial purchase of the women, would appear to be an extremely common institution. Amongst the Ghodiats of the plains and the Joama Arabs, no young girl has the right to marry till she has presented her brother or uncle with a child, the son of an unknown father, destined to serve as a slave to the head of the family. Amongst other tribes, the women belong only to the strongest or to the one who can endure the most. A day is fixed for the young men who dispute for the possession of the girl to assemble before the old men and the women armed with kurbashes, and those who bear the greatest number of blows without flinching are judged worthy to obtain the prize. At other times two of the rivals lie prostrate on the groimd, one to the right the other to the left of the young girl, who, her elbows armed with knives, rests with all the weight of her body on the naked thighs of the young men. He who submits the most gallantly to these fearful wounds becomes the fortunate husband, and the wife's first care is to staimch the fearful gash that she has made. Several other customs bear witness to the barbarous energy of these "Arabs" of Kordofan and Dar-F6r. Often when an old man feels his end approaching he quits the dwelling-place ^^^thout telling his friends, makes his religious ablutions in the desert sand, excavates a pit, and wrapping himself in his shroud, lies down with his feet turned towards ^lecca. He looks to the sun and then, veiling his face, waits till the evening breeze shall blow the sand over his grave. Perhaps the hyaDnas commence to gnaw his limbs before he has breathed his last ; but he will die without complaining, for the object of his existence is accomplished. Topography — El-Obe!d. El- Ohc'id, or Lohe'it as it is called by all the natives, capital of the province of Kordof&n, and the first Mahdi's residence till the beginning of 1885, •occupies precisely a situation which presents all the conditions necessary for the establish- ment of a large city. Should it be again destroyed, as it was in 1821 at the period of the arrival of the Turks, it would spring up on the same site or in the