225 
of Edinburgh, Session 1884-85. 
consideration is shown towards women when they are old, as well 
as towards aged men. Widows have a large amount of sympathy 
shown them, their female friends going daily to lament with them 
after the death of their husbands. If good-looking, however, they 
usually marry again in a month or two’s time. When women die 
they are buried without prayers. On the whole, the women make 
fairly good mothers, but indifferent wives ; one cannot, however, 
say that the men make much better husbands. 
Festivals . — The oldest festival which the Fors possess appears to 
he that of “sowing the seed.” In the days when the sultan of 
Darfur lived in great pomp, it was carried out on a very large 
scale, and even now it still obtains and is observed by the chiefs of 
all the For districts. It is a kind of consecration ceremony, and is 
performed now in the following manner : — As soon as the ground 
is ready to receive the seed, a day is set apart for the ceremony, and 
messages are sent by the chiefs to all the surrounding villages, 
inviting the presence of the people to take part in it. They all 
assemble by midday, when beer is partaken of under the shade of 
trees. A small company of virgins, the most beautiful that can be 
found, are each provided with an ornamental wickerwork basket 
containing seed; these baskets are covered with fresh green leaves, 
and sometimes decorated with flowers. A procession is then 
formed ; the virgins, carrying the baskets on their heads, lead the 
way ; next come the musicians, and after them a group of unmarried 
young men and women dancing; then the chief, decked out in his 
best, generally riding on a horse, and accompanied by a few 
puggees (this only in recent times) and magicians. He is followed 
by the heads of the villages, and afterwards by the villagers them- 
selves, and the rear of the cavalcade is formed by the women, 
carrying on their heads large pots of beer and all manner of 
provisions. They proceed some distance, and halt in a forest 
glade, in which a small piece of ground has been cleared and 
prepared for sowing. Here halt is made, a prayer is offered to 
Molu asking him to take care of the seed, and to supply them with 
plenty of rain, in order that they may have an abundant harvest. 
Each of the virgins then makes a hole in the ground and plants one 
seed. Then the chief plants a seed, after which all the people 
follow suit in order of their respective ranks, the virgins having first 
