290 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. XXX. 
of their handsome daughters for a wife, when he be- 
came half settled amongst them. 
I had also some interesting pagan intructors, 
among whom I will only mention Agid Biirku, a 
very handsome youth, but who had undergone the 
horrible process of castration. The abolition of this 
practice in the Mohammedan world ought to be the 
first object of Christian governments and mission- 
aries, not merely on account of the unnatural and 
desecrated state to which it reduces a human be- 
ing, but on account of the dreadful character of 
the operation itself, which, in these countries at 
least, is the reason why scarcely one in ten survives 
it. With extreme delight Agid Biirku dwelt upon 
the unconstrained nudity in which his countrymen 
indulged, and with great naivete described a custom 
of the pagans, which is identical with a custom of 
the civilized Europeans, but is an abomination in 
the eyes of every Mohammedan. He had wandered 
about a good deal in the southern provinces of 
Bagirmi and Wad ay, and gave me the first infor- 
mation about the interesting mountain-group near 
Kenga Mataya. 
But I must principally dwell upon my relations to 
the vizier el Haj Beshir ben Ahmed Tirab, upon 
whose benevolent disposition the whole success of 
the mission depended, as he ruled entirely the mind 
of the sheikh, who was more sparing of words, and 
less intelligent. 
Mohammed el Beshir, being the son of the most 
