Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/765

 THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 739

The cloathing of the Agows is all of hides, which they foften and manufacture in a method peculiar to themfelves, and this they wear in the rainy feafon, when the weather is cold, for here the rainy feafons are of long duration, and vio- lent, which flill increafes the nearer you approach the Line, for the reafons I have already ailigned. The younger fort are chiefly naked, the married women carrying their chil- dren about with them upon their backs ; their cloathing is like a fhirt down to their feet, and girded with a belt or girdle about their middle ; the lower part of it refembles a large double petticoat, one ply of which they turn back over their moulders, fattening it with a broach, or fkewer, , acrofs their bread before, and carry their children in it be- hind. The women are generally thin, and, like the men,, below the middle fize. There is no fuch thing as barren- nefs known among them. They begin to bear children be- fore eleven ; they marry generally about that age, and are marriageable two years before : they clofe child-bearing before they are thirty, though there are fe vera! inilances to > the contrary. .

Dengui, Sacala, Dengla, and 'Geeffi, are all called by the name of Ancafha, and their tribute is paid in honey. Qua- quera and Azena pay honey likewife ; Banja, honey and gold ; Metakel, gold ; Zeegam, gold. There comes from Dengla a particular kind of fheep, called Macoot, which are faid to be of a breed brought from the fouthward of the i ine ; but neither fheep, butter, nor flaves make part of their tribute, being referved for prefents to the king and great men.

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