332 
THE WIVES OF THE TOORKEES. 
been marked by circumcision. Grown -up women, 
generally the best-looking, were prevented from de- 
serting by having a few rings of solid iron tied be- 
tween each ankle, the links so short that, in fetching 
water from the stream, they could only advance a few 
inches at a time. There were about twenty women 
in this camp of the Unyoro race, distinguishable by 
all the lower incisors being extracted. Our Seedees 
could talk with them, and by this means obtain infor- 
mation for us. Some boys also, who were considered 
more trustworthy than the Nubians, were placed by 
them over their property of beads and ivory. No 
doubt they, as well as many other races, were destined 
for Cairo, and through them information regarding 
the Nile could at any time be obtained. 
The wives of these soldiers were natives of Bari, 
Madi, &c, and very industrious. They might be seen, 
in their only dress of a single petticoat, on their 
knees cleaning what was equivalent to our doorsteps, 
in the early morning, by covering the space with a 
preparation of cow-dung. They kept the interiors of 
the huts very clean, and employed themselves in 
grinding murwa, making beer, baking cakes, or tend- 
ing their infants. The women of the villages carried 
a small knife in their girdle, or stuck into the rings 
of iron worn above the elbow. This was a curious 
practice, but not so Amazonian-like as what was told 
us of a cannibal race nine marches to the north-west, 
where the women carry ten small knives with leather 
handles in each side of their girdle. These they hold 
by the tip of their blades, and throw them at their 
adversary. Our informant remarked, that after his 
party had obtained sufficient ivory, and wished to 
