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Show LOVE IN THE ORIENT OURTSHIPS THAT GO ON UNDER MANY DIFFICULTIES. In Some Tribes Several Swalna Served Their Adored Ones Until the One Chosen From Among the Oth- ere Ha Been Designated. Some customs prevailing In certain farts of the Sudan have been entertainingly enter-tainingly described in a series of letters let-ters which an English traveler, a minister min-ister of education, has written to Ml wife who is visiting America. He came across certain tribes where the women, he says, "seem to have passed the limits of even American women," and he naively adds that but for the distance from Cairo and the wildness of the country he "would willingly will-ingly pass several months in the midst of these good folk in order to learn the meaning of virtue In both the ancient an-cient and the modern sense of the word. "One girl may have as many as from even to fifteen wooers, who court and flirt with her for a whole year la the sight of her parents. They not only visit her In the daytime, but remain re-main at night near her dwelling to mount guard outside her room, going so far even as to keep-'watch within her room in order to be at her service serv-ice in case she should awake. "If she asks for water, ai many calabashes of water are offered to her as there are lovers In attendance. Should she desire to pay calls on her fr'ends the whole of her lovers offer to carry her palanquin, and again it la the aspirants to her hand who undertake under-take to anoint her with butter every morning. The period of courtship lasts for a year, at the end of which period the beauty must make her choice. When she does so the unsuccessful un-successful wooers go away to repeat their performance with another girl." These maidens are black and, nominally nom-inally at least, Mohammedans, but in the matter of rights and liberties they have little to learn. The Shilluks of the White Nile, on the other hand, are as far as possible from being Mohammedans, Moham-medans, yet their women have similar simi-lar privileges. "With the Shilluks It is the women that rule the household, the young women themselves that choose their husbands and that, once married, as-lume as-lume the post of command. The strongest and most hot-headed man dare net beat his wife, for he would be looked down upon immediately and would be unable to find a second wife to succeed his first. No missionary effort ef-fort affects the Shilluk woman; it la practically Impossible to convert her either to Christianity or to Islamlsm, for she is the guardian and depository of the Shilluk traditions, religion and historical customs." Philadelphia la- |