The men wear small white beads round their necks, which are said to come from Pamm, in the country of the Dinkas: they do not themselves slaughter any cattle, as we were told, but eat animals slain by others, or those that die a natural death. They have not a supreme master, or Sultan. Yesterday evening, we remarked a large circle of fires and solitary dhellèbs around us, denoting that the villages of the Nuèhrs were near at hand. I got to-day a curious head-dress, of leather and goats’ tails; we see here also those mussels (_Cypræa moneta_), which I have mentioned before, used as an ornament. We have never observed knives since we left Làkono’s country: spears seem to be used instead of them, and therefore we found them frequently worn away and useless, and not fastened by a nail to the shaft. Our black soldiers make use of the spears they have purchased, instead of knives; and, moreover, the Nubian two-edged knife, and that of Kordofàn, still retain the form of a spear. The bull, as the creator and support of the herds, must be honoured and esteemed here, for the rings worn by the tribes on the wrists, from hence to Berri, are everywhere decorated with little iron horns, and the natives imitate immediately the lowing of cattle, when we look at the rings. A very _charming_ custom of these tribes came to light during our barter with them. My servant Fadl had purchased articles, as he had often done before, and given some in exchange, when subsequently they demanded that the rings should be returned, which he would not consent to. A negro tore the flesh of his arm with a spear, so that the blood spurted out; but no sooner did he see this, than he spat upon the injured place, and begged pardon by gestures. The spitting in the hand is not perhaps meant, in the upper countries, as a mode of greeting or particular distinction, but rather as a kind of apology, or to exorcise the spirit of anger. Suliman Kashef was even fortunate enough to receive such a secretion on his head, as a sign of respect, which made him put on a grim countenance. The people seem generally to make use of this spitting custom for the purpose of exorcising evil spirits: we find something analogous to this in the so-called “evil eye” of the South of Europe, namely, of Italy and Greece. Our deserters, we learn, passed here only yesterday; the Nuèhrs would have robbed them, as the women told the little Dinkaui in my presence; but the latter shot some of the Nuèhrs (the women said _several_), and then crossed to the right side of the river. The Nuèhrs themselves had perhaps killed a few, but were frightened that we should take revenge, and pretended therefore that they had treated them peacefully. The poor men will have a great deal to suffer in their journey to their distant home.