Identifier: fireswordinsuda00slat (find matches)
Title: Fire and sword in the Sudan : a personal narrative of fighting and serving the Dervishes, 1879-1895
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Slatin, Rudolf Carl
Artist: Robert Talbot Kelly
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Arnold
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ng branches of an enormousheglik-tree, and on a spot kept beautifully clean andsprinkled with fine sand, the Bedeyat beseech an unknowngod to direct them in their undertakings, and to protectthem from danger. They have also religious feasts atuncertain dates, when they ascend the hills, and on theextreme summits, which are whitewashed, they offer sac-rifices of animals. They are a fine, stalwart race, verydark in colour, with straight features, a thin nose andsmall mouth, and resemble Arabs more than Negroes.The women are famed for their long flowing hair, andthere are some great beauties amongst them, as one oftenfinds amongst the free Arab tribes. They generally wearskins of animals round their waists and loins; but thehigher class and their women dress in long flowing robesmade of white Darfur cotton cloth. Their food is veryplain. Corn does not grow in their country, and is almostunknown to them. They take the seeds of the wildpumpkin, which grows there in abundance, and they soak
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Bedayat praying to the Sacred Tree. THE GOVERNMENT OF DARFUR. II5 them in wooden vessels made from the bark of trees.After taking the outer shells off, they leave the seeds to steepuntil they lose their bitterness, and then, straining them offand mixing them with dates, they grind them into a sortof flour, which is cooked with meat, and forms the prin-cipal food of the country. They have also most strange customs as regards inherit-ance and succession. The cemeteries are generally situatedat some distance from the villages; and when a father dies,the body is taken by all the relatives to be buried. Theceremony over, on a given signal they all rush togetherat the top of their speed to the deceaseds house; and hewho arrives first and fixes his spear or arrow in it is con-sidered the rightful heir, and not only becomes possessorof all the cattle, but also of his fathers wives and otherwomen, with the exception of his own mother. He is atperfect liberty to marry them if he wishes, or he c

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