42 
JOCTIAN AND HIS WIFE. 
[chap. I. 
Jan . 13 tli .— Stopped near a village on the right hank 
in company with Koorshid Aga’s two diahbiahs. The 
natives came down to the boats—they are something 
superlative in the way of savages ; the men as naked 
as they came into the world ; their bodies rubbed with 
ashes, and their hair stained red by a plaister of ashes 
and cow’s urine. These fellows are the most un- 
earthly-looking devils I ever saw—there is no other 
expression for them. The unmarried women are also 
entirely naked; the married have a fringe made of 
grass around their loins. The men wear heavy coils 
of beads about their necks, two heavy - bracelets of 
ivory on the upper portion of the arms, copper 
rings upon the wrists, and a horrible kind of bracelet 
of massive iron armed with spikes about an inch in 
length, like leopard’s claws, which they use for a 
similar purpose. The chief of the Nuehr village 
Joctian, with his wife and daughter, paid me a visit, 
and asked for all they saw in the shape of beads and 
bracelets, but declined a knife as useless. They went 
away delighted with their presents. The women per¬ 
forate the upper lip, and wear an ornament about four 
inches long of beads upon an iron wire; this projects 
like the horn of a rhinoceros ; they are very ugly. The 
men are tall and powerful, armed with lances. They 
carry pipes that contain nearly a quarter of a pound 
of tobacco, in which they smoke simple charcoal should 
the loved tobacco fail. The carbonic acid gas of the 
charcoal produces a slight feeling of intoxication, 
which is the effect desired. Koorshid Aga returned 
them a girl from Khartoum who had been captured 
by a slave-hunter; this delighted the people, and 
they immediately brought an ox as an offering. The 
“Clumsy’s” yard broke in two pieces, thus I was obliged 
to seek a dry spot for the necessary repairs. I left the 
village Nuehr Eliab, and in the evening lowered the 
“ Clumsy’s ” yard; taking her in tow, we are, this 
moment, 8.30 P.M., slowly sailing through clouds of 
mosquitoes looking out for a landing-place in this 
