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Updated: June 6, 2025
The Latookas gash the temples and cheeks of their women, but do not raise the scar above the surface, as is the custom of the Arabs. Polygamy is, of course, the general custom, the number of a man's wives depending entirely upon his wealth, precisely as would the number of his horses in England.
My wife was dangerously ill with bilious fever, and was unable to stand, and I endeavoured to persuade the traders' party to postpone their departure for a few days. They would not hear of such a proposal; they had so irritated the Latookas that they feared an attack, and their captain, or vakeel, Ibrahim, had ordered them immediately to vacate the country. This was a most awkward position for me.
We accordingly dismounted, and turning the horses to graze we took possession of a tree at some distance, under which a number of Latookas were already sitting. Not being very particular as to our society, we sat down and waited for the arrival of our party. The natives were entirely naked, and precisely the same as the Bari.
Mistaking their road, they came to a precipice from which there was no retreat. The screaming and yelling savages closed round them. All was useless; not an enemy could they shoot, while the savages thrust them forward with wild yells to the very verge of a precipice five hundred feet high. Over it they were driven, hurled to destruction by the mass of Latookas pressing onward.
The Latookas, who had not fought while their wives and children were being carried into slavery, now fronted bravely against the muskets to defend their herds, and charging the Turks they drove them down the pass. It was in vain that they fought; every bullet aimed at a Latooka struck a rock, behind which the enemy was hidden.
Bad as the pass was, we had hope before us, as the Latookas explained that beyond this spot there was level and unbroken ground the whole way to Latooka. Could we only clear Ellyria before the Turks, I had no fear for the present; but at the very moment when success depended upon speed we were thus baffled by the difficulties of the ground.
The actual change takes place suddenly on arrival in Latooka, and this is accounted for by an admixture with the Gallas. The Latookas are a fine, frank, and warlike race. Far from being the morose set of savages that I had hitherto seen, they were excessively merry, and always ready for either a laugh or a fight.
Bad as the pass was, we had hope before us, as the Latookas explained that beyond this spot there was level and unbroken ground the whole way to Latooka. Could we only clear Ellyria before the Turks I had no fear for the present; but at the very moment when success depended upon speed, we were thus baffled by the difficulties of the ground.
So well had all my saddles and pads been arranged at Khartoum, that although we had marched seven days with exceedingly heavy loads, not one of the animals had a sore back. The donkeys were exceedingly fresh, but they had acquired a most disgusting habit. The Latookas are remarkably clean in their towns, and nothing unclean is permitted within the stockade or fence.
The animals were loaded, and we moved slowly forward at 4.30 P.M. We had just started with the Bari guide that I had engaged at Belignan, when we were suddenly joined by two of the Latookas whom I had seen when at Gondokoro and to whom I had been very civil. It appeared that these follows, who were acting as porters to the Turks, had been beaten, and had therefore absconded and joined me.
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