Travels of an Arab merchant in Soudan (the Black Kingdoms of Central Africa)Tūnisī, Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar
History
Travels of an Arab merchant in Soudan (the Black Kingdoms of Central Africa)
Tūnisī, Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar
Darfur (Sudan) -- Description and travel; Wadai (Sultanate) -- Description and travel
The Forian women make a kind of kahl with native antimony, but they
do not put it inside the eye as in Egypt, but use it externally. They
also colour therewith the eyelids of their lovers or their affianced,
and for this reason many boys are seen thus adorned. It is the custom
for a lover to receive some object of dress from his mistress, which
he wears with pride, and never separates from. If any misfortune
happen to him, he exclaims, by way of consolation,—“No matter,
I am the brother (that is, the lover) of such a one.” Under
similar circumstances his mistress consoles herself by similar words.
Jealousy is rare among the Forians. If a man find any one with
his daughter or his sister, he rather rejoices than otherwise,
foreseeing a marriage. When the form of a young Forian girl begins
to develope, she is placed in a hut apart, where she sleeps alone,
and he who loves her comes to see her when he pleases, and passes
the time with her. Many unmarried girls bring forth children;
and this is not considered shameful, even if an incest has taken
place. The offspring, in these cases, is put down to the account
of a maternal uncle; and, if it be a girl, the uncle profits by
the dowry which the husband receives. It is impossible to prevent
this intercourse of men and women. A father sometimes, if he be
poor, is mobbed, or even killed, if he endeavours to preserve his
daughter’s chastity; and even rich people find it difficult to
succeed in this. Whatever be the care taken, some lover will find
his way in, disguised as a woman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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