240 THE LIFE OF WOMEN SPARED IN WAR. [chap. ix. 
the purpose of purchasing the daughters of the natives 
for slaves under the name of wives, whom they will 
eventually sell in Khartoum for from twenty to thirty, 
dollars each. My men look on in dismay at the hap¬ 
piness of their neighbours : like 
“ A Peri weeping at the gate 
Of Eden, stood disconsolate,” 
so may they be seen regarding the adjoining paradise, 
where meat is in profusion, sweetened by being stolen ; 
but, alas ! their cruel master does not permit them 
these innocent enjoyments. 
. Everything may be obtained for cattle as payment 
in this country. The natives are now hard at work 
making zareebas (kraals) for the cattle stolen from their 
own tribe and immediate neighbours, for the sake of 
two or three bullocks as remuneration to be divided 
among more than a hundred men. They are not de¬ 
serving of sympathy; they are worse than vultures, 
being devoid of harmony even in the same tribe. The 
chiefs have no real control; and a small district, con¬ 
taining four or five towns, club together and pillage the 
neighbouring province. It is not surprising that the 
robber traders of the Nile turn this spirit of discord to 
their own advantage, and league themselves with one 
chief to rob another, whom they eventually plunder in 
his turn. The natives say that sixty-five men and 
women were killed in the attack upon Kayala. All 
the Latookas consider it a great disgrace that the 
Turks fired upon women. Among all tribes, from 
Gondokoro to Obbo, a woman is respected, even in 
time of war. Thus, they are employed as spies, and 
become exceedingly dangerous; nevertheless, there is 
a general understanding that no woman shall be killed. 
The origin of this humane distinction arises, I imagine, 
from their scarcity. Where polygamy is in force, women 
should be too dear to kill; the price of a girl being 
from five to ten cows, her death is equal to the actual 
loss of that number. 
