244 



SOJIE TRIBAL CUSTOMS IN TUBIK RELATION TO 5IEDICINE AND MORALS 



Method of 

 mutilation 



Mutilation not 



necessarily 



discreditable 



consent in the lirst place, to consult the oracle or Benga (vidt' j>a(je2i52}. As soon as the 



answer was propitious, he gathered three or four others and proceeded with them to 



track down the offender, who, when caught, was placed with his back against a large 



tree trunk, his arms and legs being strained backwards, passed round its circumference 



and secured from behind, in this way the body lay well forward (vide Fig. 63). With one 



sweep of a knife the mutilator then 



removed the entire genitalia, next 



the upper lip, and then both ears 



in part or entirely (sometimes, they 



say, the poor wretch was blinded at 



the same time), finally both hands 



were severed through the wrist 



joints and with this the bonds 



slipped off and the victim full 



forward on his face unconscious. 



The pain, shock and loss of 

 blood resulting from such fiendish 

 torture, must have been so great, 

 that it is hard to conceive how any 

 could survive it, yet many have. 

 I met several, and gathered these 

 details from two who, however, 

 cited ten instances of death result- 

 ing amongst cases they could recall 

 by name. 



These two men, Babinia, a 

 Bagaro, and Tiknia, a Zandeh {vide 

 Figs. 64 and 65), were saved by friends 

 who followed in the track of the 

 mutilators, and dressing their 

 wounds with wood-ash and green 

 leaves, staunched the bleeding and 

 carried them to the nearest 

 village.' 



Various modifications of this 

 mutilation exist — the ears, the lip or both being frequently spared. The hands and 

 genitalia are, however, always removed in any such case, since it is rightly deemed that 

 a man so treated would, were his hands spared, be a most desjjerate enemy. 



Mutilated men are looked upon with no disrespect by their fellows. They usually 

 marry, as is the custom amongst well-to-do Mohammedan eunuchs, and, like them, are 

 often given posts of responsibility for which they are particularly suited in the inenaije 

 of Sultans and iinjjortant chiefs. One such, Bopora by name, I found holding such a 

 position in Sultan Yango's household (vide Fig. 66). 



These men have a peculiarly helpless, and, when the upper lip is removed, cringing 

 and effeminate look which is far from pleasant. They become by practice very capable 

 with their dismembered arms. 



^^^te 



MurlLA'i ION 

 -showing LLe positiou of a victim secured for mutilatioo 



' Tikma appealed at the time to the late Major Boulnois (then Governor of the Bahr-El-Ghazal) and 

 received compensation in the form of a wife who has since raised a family to him. 



