68 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



prey, for they closed up ready to attack. But soon they 

 realised their mistake and then the tables were turned. 

 Panic struck them, and before we could get up to them many 

 of the canoes burst into flames and the Budumas, swimming 

 like otters underneath the water, disappeared into the reeds. 

 Much luck appeared to have attended their fishing of the 

 previous night, for on the sloping bank of an adjacent island 

 there was a huge mound of fish, nearly 4 ft. high, their shining 

 bodies glistening in the sun. The canoes were piled up with 

 dried fish, and underneath straw mats in their bottoms we 

 found four slave boys hidden, the victims of a traffic carried 

 on between the Budumas and Tubus. They were in a pitiable 

 condition that told of starvation and stripes, and we took 

 them back and released them at Kaddai. The Buduma 

 slave-marks consist of numerous small incisions on the 

 stomach, chest, and upper part of the forehead ; after the 

 cuts have been made they are seared with a red-hot cinder. 

 The Budumas are well known for their traffic in slaves. 

 The Tubus and Mobburs are their chief accomplices, selling 

 the boys to them for dollars which the latter get in return for 

 their dried fish at the Bornu markets. 



Owing to their elusive habits and mysterious surroundings 

 the people of Bornu regard these lake-dwellers as uncanny 

 and dreadful. Their island retreats are so secure among the 

 mazes of reeds that very little is known of them. Even the 

 great conquerors, Rabeh and Faderellah, who subdued all 

 the surrounding tribes, left the Budumas to themselves. 

 Consequently the shroud of mystery that envelops them is 

 embroidered with many weird fables. Mothers tell their 

 naughty children that they will sell them to the Budumas, 



