CHAP. XV.] 
THE FEMALE CAPTIFES. 
405 
rebel chiefs, together with a number of inferior slaves, 
and a herd of goats that had fortunately escaped the 
search of Mahommed’s retreating party. Fowooka and 
Owine had escaped by crossing to the northern shore, 
but their power was irretrievably ruined, their villages 
plundered and burned, and their women and children 
captured. 
A number of old women had been taken in the 
general razzia; these could, not walk sufficiently fast 
to keep up with their victors during the return march, 
they had accordingly all been killed on the road as 
being cumbersome : in every case they were killed by 
being beaten on the back of the neck with a club. Such 
were the brutalities indulged in. 
On the following morning I went to visit the cap¬ 
tives ; the women were sitting in an open shed, appa¬ 
rently much dejected. I examined the hands of about 
fourteen, all of which were well shaped and beautifully 
soft, proving that they were women of high degree 
who never worked laboriously: they were for the most 
part remarkably good looking, of soft and pleasing- 
expression, dark brown complexion, fine noses, woolly 
hair, and good figures, precisely similar to the general 
style of women in Chopi and Unyoro. 
Among the captives was a woman with a most beau¬ 
tiful child, a boy about twelve months old; all these 
were slaves, and the greater number were in a most 
pitiable state, being perfectly unfit for labour, having 
been accustomed to luxury as the women of chiefs of 
high position. Curiously enough, the woman Bacheeta, 
who had accompanied us to visit these unfortunate 
captives, now recognised her former mistress, who was 
the wife of the murdered Sali; she had been captured 
with the wives and daughters of Rionga. Bacheeta 
immediately fell on her knees and crept towards her 
on all fours, precisely as the subjects of Kamrasi were 
accustomed to approach his throne. Sali had held as 
high a position as Fowooka, and had been treacherously 
killed by Kamrasi at M’rooli in the presence of Ba- 
