LAND TENURE. 357 



soon give up all desire of returning to their tribal homes, and begin to despise their 

 kindred, regarding them as savages and ' infidels.' ' Here we are well cared for 

 by our kind father,' said some slaves of the Dinka nation from the country south of 

 Senâr ; *he clothes us, and when meal-time comes we sit under his roof and eat our 

 fill, and at night we have good bedding and shelter. When we desire it he gives 

 us money to go to the bazaar ; and what belongs to him belongs to us. We are of 

 his family. Why should we wish to return to the misery and incertitude of our 

 early life ? ' 



'•'Such appears to be the general feeling of those in servitude. They become, so 

 to speak, members of the household of their masters. They benefit largely by the 

 civilisation, such as it is, that surrounds them. They form ties and affections. They 

 marry and have children, and they become thoroughly identified with the country 

 and surroundings of those who own them. 



"The female slaves, if really they can be called so, seem to sit as high at their 

 dress tables as the lighter-coloured mistress whom they serve. Of ornaments they 

 have plenty, silver and gold coins being woven into their innumerable thinly-plaited 

 tresses. Amber, coral, and jasper necklaces fall in rows over their, when young, 

 statuesque bosoms, here, as is the custom of the country, left untrammelled by robe 

 or corset. 



"To sum up briefly, the curse of slavery is not the actual holding of slaves, but 

 the misery caused by the destruction of villages, the severing of family ties, and 

 the cruelties perpetrated in the work of capture. People are dragged miles and 

 miles without water, chained bj^ the neck ; in fact, the trails of the capturers may 

 be followed by the skeletons of the captives left on the line of route. Hence, what- 

 ever may be the kindness shown by the master to his bondman, all must rejoice 

 that the days of slavery seem at last to be numbered in all Mussulman countries 

 brought under European influences. The Government of the Khedive, rightly 

 influenced, is determined to stamp it out ; and the presence of English officers now 

 in the service of His Highness in the distant provinces of the Sudan will undoubt- 

 edly aid in effecting the extinction both of domestic slavery and of the slave 

 traffic throughout Eastern Africa." * 



Land Tenure. 



Thé administration of landed estates is also being modified through the inter- 

 vention of Europeans in the internal affairs of the country. According to the 

 strict letter of the Mussulman law the community of the faithful, represented by 

 the beit-el-mâl, or public treasury, is the sole owner of the land, which can only be 

 held temporarily by private persons such as mortgagees, who have come to inherit 

 it by custom rather than legal right. However, this principle has long fallen into 

 abeyance, and as in Europe, private proprietary rights have been established over a 

 large portion of the Egyptian territory. Since this revolution, which allows the 

 free exchange of land, its value has been greatly enhanced. The present 



* " With Hicks Pasha in the Sudan." 



