74 
SHILL OOK. 
he answered, that he did it from a principle of duty to the king himself 
who had a right to see his son killed in a lawful and regular manner, 
which was by cutting his throat with a sword, and not in a more painful 
or ignominious way, which the malice of his enemies might possibly 
have inflicted. The king, he said, was very little concerned at the 
sight of his son’s death, but he was so very unwilling to die himself, 
that he often pressed the executioner to let him escape ; but finding 
his entreaties ineffectual, he submitted at last without resistance. 
On being asked whether he was not afraid of coming into the pre- 
sence of the king, considering the office he might possibly have to 
perform ? he replied, that he was not in the least afraid, on this 
account — that it was his duty to be with the king every morning, and 
very late in the evening ; that the king knew he had no hand in pro- 
moting his death ; but that when the matter was absolutely deter- 
mined, the rest w'as only an affair of decency ; and it would undoubt- 
edly be his own choice rather to fall by the hand of his own relation 
privately than by a hired assassin, an Arab, or a Christian slave, in 
the sight of the populace. 
On the death of any sovereign of this country, his eldest son succeeds ; 
on which as many of his brothers as can be found are apprehended, 
and put to death by the Sid' el Coom. Women are excluded from 
the sovereignty here, as well as at Abyssinia. The princesses of 
Sennaar, however, are worse off than those of Abyssinia, having no 
settled income, nor are they treated in any degree better than the 
^ daughters of private persons. The king is obliged, once in his life- 
time, to plough and sow a piece of ground, whence he is named 
Baady, “ the countryman, or peasant,” a title as common among the 
monarchs of Sennaar as Caesar was among the Romans. When the 
royal family marry Arab w omen, the white colour of the mother is com- 
municated to the child. This, we are told by Mr. Bruce, is invaria- 
bly the case when a negro man of Sennaar marries an Arab woman, 
and it holds equally good when an Arab man marries a negro woman ; 
and he likewise informs us, that he never saw one black Arab all the 
time that he was at Sennaar. 
The soil and climate of this country is extremely unfavourable both 
to man and beast. The men are strong, and remarkable for their 
size, but short-lived ; and there is such a mortality among the 
children, that were it not for a constant importation of slaves, the 
metropolis would be depopulated. The shortness of their lives, 
however, may perhaps be accounted for, from their indulging them- 
selves from their infancy in every kind of excess. 
The dress of the people of Sennaar consists only of a long shirt of 
blue cloth, which wraps them up from the under part of the neck to 
the feet. The men sometimes have a sash tied about their middle ; 
and both men and women go barefooted in the houses, whatever their 
rank may be. The floors of their apartments, especially those of the 
w^omen, are covered with Persian carpets. Both men and women 
anoint themselves at least once a day with camel’s grease mixed with 
civet, which they imagine softens their skin, and preserves it from 
cutaneous eruptions, of which they are so fearful, that they confine 
themselves to their houses; if they observe the smallest pimple on 
