306 FKOM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



branding with Rabeh's sign, so frequently found through- 

 out Bornu, is on the same lines as tribal marks which 

 distinguish the people of one tribe from another, only 

 Rabeh's mark denoted that all tribes were one in his eyes, 

 that is to say, his subjects by right of conquest. 



The tribal mark of the Kanembus is three vertical cuts 

 on each cheek and seven on the forehead, the middle 

 one extending down to the bridge of the nose. Tribal 

 marks were originally intended as a means of identifica- 

 tion when slave-raids were common and women and children 

 in danger of being kidnapped by robber bands, just as we 

 brand cattle that we may the more easily recover them 

 from a neighbour's herd into which they have strayed. 

 But now there is little significance attached to them, though 

 habit has created a fashion out of them, and in the 

 eyes of a tribesman the face of a woman is expressionless 

 without them. To-day one finds many women with 

 additional marks self-imposed. I remember being puzzled 

 the fijst time I saw a woman thus altered, and when I asked 

 why she was different in this respect from the rest of her 

 people, she answered that she wished to be more beautiful. 

 The Kanembu women are particularly friendly, always 

 greeting the traveller with smiles and a " Lalli lalU, wissi 

 wissi," which means, " How are you, I hope you are well." 



Though the Kanembus are now able to live in peace and 

 pursue their pastoral calHng for the most part unmolested, 

 they are not yet altogether " out of the wood " ; in a very 

 literal sense, for, when in the dry season they drive their 

 herds down to the Lake, they take them through thick bush 

 all the way to screen themselves and avoid the open ground 



