DAR-FU R. 



579 



Bar- fur. contain above 6000 inhabitants. There are numerous 

 v "" ""Y"""*' villages ; but the largest consist only of a few hundred 

 souls. Two thousand men are accounted a large army ; 

 and from all these considerations, Mr Browne calculates 

 the whole population of the empire as not exceeding 

 200,000. 

 Character. The people of Dar-fur are sufficiently cheerful in 

 their dispositions, and have little of that gravity of man- 

 ner, which Mahommedanism requires. They are re- 

 markably addicted to drunkenness ; but are unprovided 

 with any other fermented liquor than buza or merisi. 

 In this liquor, (though prohibited by the Sidtan, under 

 pain of death, on account of the quarrels and bloodshed 

 which often attend their excesses,) they often indulge 

 f.or.i sun-rise to sun-set, till each individual has swal- 

 lowed nearly two gallons ; but it is said to possess a 

 diuretic and diaphoretic quality, which prevents any in- 

 jurious consequences to their health from sucli intem- 

 perance. They are noted for thieving, tying, fraud, 

 and all the concomitants of these vices ; so that in mak- 

 ing a bargain, the parent and the child will mutually 

 glory in deceiving each other ; and no property is safe 

 in any place unless the owner be stronger than the 

 thief. They are libidinous to an extreme, are addicted 

 even to incestuous intercourse ; and practise their licen- 

 tious indulgences almost in open day, without any re- 

 straint or decency. They are not much attentive to 

 personal cleanliness ; and rarely either comb their hair, 

 or thorouglily wash their bodies. They are unacquaint- 

 ed with the use of soap, and are contented to polish the 

 skin with unguents. They have, however, a method 

 of cleaning their bodies, by means of a farinaceous paste, 

 which is applied with butter to the skin, and rubbed 

 continually till it become dry ; an operation which is 

 accounted one of the highest luxuries. They differ in 

 their figure from the negroes of the coast of Guinea; 

 their complexion is perfectly black, and their hair short 

 and woolly, but sometimes eight or ten inches in length, 

 which is esteemed a beauty. As soldiers, they are not 

 famed for skill or courage ; and in their campaigns, re- 

 liance is placed chiefly upon the Arabs, who accompany 

 them, but who are rather tributaries than subjects to 

 the Sultan. 

 Houses. -phe houses of the Furians are remarkably slight and 



simple in their structure. The wails are built of clay, 

 which the more wealthy cover with a kind of plaster, 

 and paint them white, red, or black. The roof consists 

 of light beams laid horizontally from one side to the 

 other, on which is spread a stratum of light wood or 

 coarse mats ; over these is laid a quantity of dried 

 horses or camels' dung; and the whole is finished with 

 a strong smooth coating of clay. Their apartments are 

 of three kinds ; the donga, generally about 20 feet by 

 12, having a door of a single plank secured by a pad- 

 lock, and thus forming the repository of all their pro- 

 perty ; the koumack, usually larger than the last men- 

 tioned, without a door, slightly thatched with the straw 

 of the maize, and appropriated, as the coolest place, to 

 sleeping and the reception of company ; the sufcteia, of 

 a round form, from 15 to 20 feet in diameter, and con- 

 structed like the preceding, and in this the women are 

 lodged and the food prepared. A ruhhuba is frequent-, 

 ly added, which is nothing more than a place sheltered 

 from the sun, where a company may sit and converse in 

 the open air. A house, containing two of each of these 

 three kinds of apartments, is considered as large and 

 commodious, and fit for the use of the wealthier mer- 

 chants ; but the village houses have generally nothing 

 more than one apartment, of the form of the sukleia. 



Every habitation is generally surrounded with'a thick Dar-fur. 

 hedge of dried branches of the acacia and other thorny ^—^y^" ' 

 trees, in order to secure the cattle, and prevent the 

 escape of the slaves ; and the houses are separated from 

 each other at such wide intervals, that often in an extent 

 of two miles in a line, not more than 100 distinct in- 

 closures are visible. 



The grain chiefly used by the Furians, is millet, Food, 

 which, when coarsely ground, is boiled in the form of 

 polenta, and eaten with fresh or sour milk, or more fre- 

 quently with a kind of sauce made of dried meat pound- 

 ed in a mortar, and boiled with onions, &c. The grain 

 is frequently eaten raw, and merely moistened with 

 water, without either grinding or baking. It is also 

 formed into thin cakes, called kissery, or sections ; but, 

 in whatever way it is used, the richer class generally 

 cause it to undergo a slight fermentation before it be 

 groufid, which gives it a pleasanter taste, together with 

 an inebriating and narcotic quality, and then form it 

 into a kind of paste, which will keep a long time, and is 

 prepared for use by the addition of a little water. 



Some of the principal manufactures are strong coarse Manufac- 

 cotton cloths, called tokeas, which form the covering of tares. 

 the lower classes ; and sacks for corn or water, made of 

 leather, which they are very dextrous in depriving of the 

 hair and tanning for the purpose. They also make a 

 kind of earthen ware, which they have the art of glaz- 

 ing ; and the Arabs weave wicker baskets of so close a 

 texture, as to hold mill?, water, buza, &c. 



Nothing resembling current coin is to be found in Coin, 

 the country ; and all commerce is carried on by simple 

 exchange. Sometimes, as a medium of exchange for 

 articles of little value, they make use of small tin rings, 

 beads, salt, &c. ; and this last mentioned substance they 

 procure by collecting and boiling the earth of those 

 places, where horses, asses, camels, and other animals 

 have been long stationary. 



The Furians take as many wives as they can support, Woirier, 

 but are not so watchful over the conduct of their wo- 

 men as the Egyptians, and most of the other Africans. 

 They do not retire at the approach of strangers, but 

 freely enter the houses even of the foreign traders, and 

 make their purchases at their leisure. They perform 

 most of the laborious offices, build the walls of the 

 houses, prepare the soil for the seed, sow, reap the corn, 

 grind and convert it into bread ; and it is not uncom- 

 mon to see a man on a journey mounted upon an ass, 

 while his wife is on foot behind him, carrying, perhaps, 

 a supply of provisions, or of culinary utensils ; yet the 

 husband is not despotic in the house, but the wife has 

 her full weight in the domestic economy. 



The people of tlris country are fond of dancing, and Miscel- 

 men and women often take this amusement promis- laneous 

 cuously. Each tribe has its appropriate dance, some of customs, 

 which are grave, others lascivious, and all of them con- • 

 sisting rather in violent efforts than in graceful attitudes. 

 The diseases most commonly observed among the peo- 

 ple of Dar-fur, are a kind of leprosy, which gives to the 

 skin and hair a white colour ; umbilical ruptures, ha:- 

 morrhoides, the guinea-worm, bilious complaints, and 

 the small-pox. The old women are the regular physi- 

 cians ; but their remedies are chiefly charms and ex- 

 orcisms, such as writing sentences of the Koran on a 

 board, and washing them off with water, which is given 

 to the patient to drink. Several vernacular dialects are 

 spoken in the country, but the Arabic is generally un- 

 derstood ; and the judicial proceedings are immediate- 

 ly translated from the one to the other by a public in- 

 terpreter. Among the customs peculiar to this country. 



