CHAP. VI. 
OF THE TIBBOO BORGOO. 
251 
Sultan's household slaves to demand that they should be given up ; 
these the Tibboo seized and put to death, considering them as 
nothing less than robbers. Aleiwa's people, however, succeeded in 
taking prisoners some of this tribe, cutting the throats of fifteen men 
and women, and making captive ISO young men and girls, with 200 
camels. I was induced to ask who were the aggressors in this case. 
" Oh ! the Tibboo assuredly, for they are Kaffirs and thieves : we 
only wanted 300 or 400 camels for the Sultan, and were at peace 
with them, and did not intend making any slaves ; therefore they 
ought not to have resisted us." 
The Tibboo of Borgoo are all Kaffirs, but are quiet inoffensive 
people, living in houses made of palm-leaf mats, called Eooshi, which 
are so closely woven, that the rain cannot penetrate them. I have 
seen huts of this description at Gatrone and Tegerry, and consider 
them superior to the Fezzan houses in general. Very little corn is 
cultivated in Bergoo, the inhabitants subsisting chiefly on dates, 
which grow there in immense quantities, of an inferior kind, and on 
the flesh of their sheep, goats, and camels : they have also a small 
]>reed of black cattle, but these are chiefly used for milking. The 
arms of these people I have spoken of in a former page. Their 
dress has very little variety ; and except the skins of animals they 
have only such coarse cloths as they sometimes obtain from their 
trading neighbours, Mhich they wear, having a piece before and 
another behind, hanging down as low as the knees. Boys and girls 
are entirely naked, and few of the men have any other covering 
than a leather wrapper round the loins ; all have the head bare. 
Marriage, according to the accounts of the Arabs, who vilify them 
in order to excuse their own cruelties, is unknown among them, and 
the women are in common : brothers and sisters Hve together, and 
confess it when asked. They have no knowledge of a God ; they 
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