THE BEETAS. 225 



like a brother. A sheep or goat is killed and the blood received in a calabash, in 

 which all the assistants dip their hands and then embrace. Henceforth the stranger 

 is safe from all attack. The Bertas are great orators, and often hold councils, 

 where each one addresses the assembly in turn, seconded by an applauder, who 

 stands at his side. But he is never interrupted, as, more polite than the Westerns, 

 the Bertas always await the end of a speech before replying to the argument. 

 Excepting the northern districts, where all natives claim to be Mohammedans, the 

 religion of the Bertas is still mainly Animistic. At the period of the new moon 

 they dance by the light of the stars, and terminate these feasts with orgies. Their 

 amulets consist of certain roots, flowers, and the scarabeus, a species of beetle, 

 probably the (deuchus ^gyptorum. Thus Egyptian influence, after more than two 

 thousand years, still survives amongst these obscure peoples of the Upper Nile basin. 

 Like the Buruns and other tribes assimilated to the Arabs, they have also the 

 taramhish, a curved wooden " knuckle-duster," very similar in shape to the 

 boomerang. According to some authors they do not throw this weapon, like the 

 Australians, but carry it in the hand, using it when scaling the mountains to hook 

 on to the branches of the trees or projections in the rock. But the explorer Marno, 

 who has traversed these countries, states that he has seen the natives use as a 

 throwing-stick both the tarambish and the culdeba, a still more formidable iron 

 weapon, curved in the form of a sickle. Schuver confirms this statement, but 

 says that the Bertas cannot make the weapon return to the exact point whence it 

 was thrown. 



There are no towns properly so-called in the Berta country ; but their most 

 important village is Kirin, situated on the western slope of the mountains in a 

 basin of the Yavash or Yal, and consisting of large huts scattered among enormous 

 granite blocks. No other national assembly presents a more picturesque appear- 

 ance than that of Kirin — each rock has its own group of men in the most varied 

 attitudes, upright, lying down, sitting, or holding on to the crags. Many of the 

 Berta tribes have chiefs, who bear the title of king or meh, but their power is very 

 precarious. Directly the mek no longer pleases his subjects, the men and women 

 all collect together and tell him that they hate him, and that it is time for him to 

 die ; then they hang him to the nearest tree. If the king is prevented by sick- 

 ness from holding his daily court of justice, his influence becomes ill-omened 

 instead of being favourable, and the gallows rids the people of him. A wife when 

 unfaithful is always punished with death. 



To the north and north-west of the Bertas, the " no-man's-land " which 

 separates the Blue Nile from the Abyssinian plateaux of Agaumeder, is occupied 

 by numerou's tribes of divers origin, and here are spoken five distinct languages, 

 without including Arabic and Abj^ssinian. A sheikh residing at Kuha or Monkuis, 

 a village perched on a mountain, is apparently a sovereign ; but the people of 

 Kuba, the Gumus, the Sienetjos, the Kadalos, and the Berta immigrants, govern 

 themselves and are frequently at war with each other. Some of the Gumus live in 

 small independent or isolated groups, a space of a mile intervening between the 

 dwelling of each family. On grand occasions they all carry parasols of honour of 



15 — AF. 



