In many books of travels and geography the Shilluks are described as cannibals, but this report is erroneous, and all intelligence which I have been able to collect from the Djelabi on this point agrees in proving this assertion to be utterly false, for they have never even heard the slightest rumour corroborative of this absurd report. On my flight from Kordofan, I heard on my arrival at Tara, on the White River, that an European was residing at the chief town of the Shilluk, with a strong escort, to catch eight hippopotami for Mehemed Ali, and to prepare their skins, to stuff them, in fact, as specimens for a museum. I immediately set out on my journey from Tara, and after a long march of two tedious days on a camel, reached the scene of action, where I certainly found the hippopotamus hunters; but the European, whose name was Bartolo, had left a few days before my arrival, for Khartoom, on the eastern shore. During my sojourn among the Shilluks, I assisted at a hippopotamus hunt; five had been already killed, but they were so carelessly dissected, that I felt sure they would not keep for any length of time; in fact, they very soon spoiled, and are now lying quite useless at Cairo. On this occasion, I had an opportunity of becoming more intimately acquainted with the Shilluks, as far in fact as my residence among them would permit it. I found that they are in their own country, quite as idle as they are in captivity abroad; they may be seen loitering about, but never by any chance at work. During the hot season they do not sleep in their huts, but in the open air, old and young congregating together like a herd of cattle. The Shilluks walk about in a state of complete nudity, and only when they are married cover their loins with a strip of cotton-stuff. The majority of them wear merely a piece of calico of the size of a hand to cover their nakedness. Their women are very ill-used. The cause of this ill-treatment is, generally, superstition: thus, if the husband whilst hunting miss his aim with his spear, or tread a thorn into his foot, his wife must bear the blame; he accuses her of having at the moment of his disaster, been unfaithful, and there is no help for her, she must undergo chastisement. If the adultery be proved, and a complaint be made to the Sheikh, she receives three strokes on the head with a crooked stick, one in the centre and one at either side of the head, such unmerciful blows indeed, that the blood instantly gushes forth. These punishments are of very frequent occurrence, for adultery is not uncommon among the Shilluks.[44] (...)