42 
MIGRATION OF HUSBANDS. 
is considered by the Moors as preferable to leaving 
a few men behind, because these few would occasion 
quarrels amongst the women, and, besides, excite 
the jealousy of the absent husbands. 
Most of the men who go with us to Damerghou 
and forward to Tesaoua will find another wife 
and family in both these places. This is a regular 
emigration of males, not the accidental departure of 
fathers and husbands. These gentlemen pass half 
the year in Soudan and half in Aheer. The system 
does not appear to be advantageous to the increase 
of population : the wives of these birds of passage 
hardly bear two children a-piece. Indeed there are 
very few children in Tintalous. We have not yet 
sufficient data or experience for a conclusion on this 
part of statistics ; but, up to the present, all that we 
have seen in Africa during this journey exhibits it as 
singularly miserable and destitute of population. 
We can hear of no man, not. even a sultan with his 
fifty female slaves, having more than four or five 
children. As for the poor, one or two are all that 
they can bring up. 
Whence, then, comes the supply of slaves ? So 
far as this part of Africa is concerned I may ob- 
serve, in reply, that the annual number of slaves 
brought is exceedingly limited, amounting only to a 
few thousands. When we get nearer the western 
coast, we shall probably be able to account for the 
supplies of slaves which are transported across the 
Atlantic. 
