This people exceeds in indulgences with women, and pays little regard to restraint or decency. The form of the houses already described secures no great secrecy to what is carried on within them, yet even the concealment which is thus offered, is not always sought. The shade of a tree, or long grass, is the sole temple required for the sacrifices to the primæval deity. In the course of licentious indulgence father and daughter, son and mother are sometimes mingled. The relations of brother and sister are exchanged for closer intercourse; and in the adjoining state, (Bergoo,) the example of the monarch countenances the infraction of a positive precept, as well of Islamism, as of the other rules of faith, which have taken their tincture from the Mosaic dispensation. But however unbridled their appetites in other respects may be, pæderasty, so common in Asia and the North of Africa, is in Soudân little known or practised. The situation, character, and treatment of women is not exactly similar, either to that which marks the manners of Asia, and other parts of Africa, or to that which is established in Europe. In contradistinction to the women of Egypt, in Soudân, when a stranger enters the house, one of the more modest indeed retires, but she is contented to retire to a small distance, and passes and repasses executing the business of the house in the presence of the men. In Egypt, a veil is invariably the guardian of real or affected modesty. In Dar-Fûr none attempt to conceal their faces but the wives of the great, whose rank demands some affectation of decency—who from satiety of indulgence become coquets, or whose vanity induces them to expect that concealment will ensnare the inexperienced with the hope of youth which has ceased to recommend them, or beauty by which they could never boast to be adorned. The middle and inferior rank are always contented with the slight covering of a cotton cloth, wrapped round the waist, and occasionally another of the same form, materials, and size, and equally loose, artlessly thrown over the shoulders. They never eat with the men, but shew no hesitation at being present when the men eat and drink. The most modest of them will enter the house, not only of a man and a stranger, but of the traders of Egypt, and make their bargains at leisure. On such occasions, any indelicate freedom on the part of the merchant is treated with peculiar indulgence. The husband is by no means remarkable for jealousy, and provided he have reason to suppose that his complaisance will be attended with any solid advantage, will readily yield his place to a stranger. Nothing can shock the feelings of an Egyptian more than to see his wife in conversation with another man in public. For similar conduct, individuals of that nation have been known to inflict the last punishment. A liberty of this kind has no such effect on a Fûrian. _Defendit numerus, junctæque in umbone phalanges._