I30 



UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



Albert, on the other side of the Lur country. It is said that the 

 Soudanese in passing through enslaved a good many, and that 

 other Lendu followed voluntarily owing to famine. Many of the 

 Lendu are now paid Government labourers and are earning a 

 comfortable wage. That they are of a low type is shown by a 

 case I had to try at Kampala. A Soudanese soldier complained 

 that he had paid a large sum to a Lendu to get a Lendu 

 woman ; she had remained with him as wife and cook for a 

 few months and had then returned to her Lendu husband. It 

 must be remembered that to obtain a wife by purchase is the 



FRONT OF PROTESTANT CATHEDRAL ON NAMIREMBE HILL. 



universal rule, and not the exception in these countries ; it is 

 not slave-dealing in the accepted sense of the word, though it 

 is open to question whether it does not fall under the same 

 heading. A proof that it is not slave-buying is that the woman 

 knew she was still a free woman and had acted accordingly. 

 The Soudanese soldier was naturally very much disappointed 

 that his payment of purchase-money could not be accepted by 

 me as constituting any right whatever over the woman. 



The day of rest the Lendu community spend almost invari- 

 ably in dancing and jollification. A Lendu dance consists in 

 hopping more or less slowly in single file around the musicians. 

 The dancers free|uently daub and smear themselves wdth white 

 clay. Only small children don the national dress of leaves ; 



