THE WEAKER SEX. 229 



known as Khor Kirshambe. ~No khor except Khor Ginetti is 

 crossed all the way between Okkela and Bor, water being 

 scarce along the whole route. 



I could procure but little information about the Ber country 

 (Baker's Berri). The language, the frisure, the practice of 

 carrying two spears, the spears themselves, and the shields, 

 which I had an opportunity of seeing, are identical with those 

 of the Slnili country, so that Latiika must be considered as an 

 encroachment on it, running into it from the north-east or 

 north-north-east ; or it may be more correct to regard Latiika 

 as the remains of a primitive population afterwards inundated 

 by Shiili. The western frontier of the proper Latiika territory 

 is formed by Khor Loddo, for the Liria district, though both 

 languages are spoken in it, belongs to the Bari and not to the 

 Latiika. 



The warriors of Okkela are estimated at 120 men: eighty 

 young men, and forty who wear " helmets and ivory bracelets," 

 that is, men quite grown up, besides about twenty grey-headed 

 men, to whom no great respect is shown. I was told that each of 

 the men possessed only five or six wives, for cattle are scarce, 

 and sheep and lance-heads are not so cheap now as formerly. 

 The price of a strong full-grown girl was formerly, and is still, 

 where cows exist, twenty-two head of cattle ; here twenty sheep 

 or goats and forty iron lance-heads are considered an equivalent ; 

 in Laiida and the southern parts of the country forty molut (iron 

 hoes). The women can hardly be called the weaker sex here ; 

 they carry burdens that a man would shudder at. This is 

 strikingly the case in water- carrying ; the streams are often 

 far away from the villages, so that it takes hours to carry a 

 pitcher of water — a very large one, on account of the distance — 

 to the houses situated on the high hills. Cooking, carrying 

 supplies of meat from the forest, providing the family with 

 fruits of Borassus, procuring grass for housebuilding, manufac- 

 turing all kinds of pottery except pipe-bowls, weeding, and 

 harvesting, all devolve upon the women. Meat and porridge 

 constitute the staple food. I saw no vegetables eaten except 

 gourds and common purslane. The Borassus has been already 

 mentioned. 



There is a very extraordinary custom among the women here 



