CHAPTER III.
PASTORAL TRIBES.
§ 1. Capital and labour among pastoral tribes.
The number of these tribes is not large, as they are found in a few parts of the world only. Moreover, the descriptions available to us were in many cases too incomplete to justify any inference as to their having or not having slaves.
The clear cases noticed by us are the following.
| Positive cases. Arabia: | Aeneze Bedouins, | |
| Larbas. | 2 | |
| Caucasus: | Circassians, | |
| Kabards. | 2 | |
| Bantu tribes: | Ovaherero, | |
| Bahima. | 2 | |
| Hamitic group: | Beduan, | |
| Beni Amer, | ||
| Somal, | ||
| Danakil. | 4 | |
| 10 | ||
| Negative cases. India: | Todas. | 1 |
| Central Asia: | Kazak Kirghiz, | |
| Altaians, | ||
| Turkomans. | 3 | |
| Siberia: | Samoyedes, | |
| Tunguz, | ||
| Yakuts, | ||
| nomadic Koryakes. | 4[[263]] | |
| Bantu tribes: | Ama-Xosa, | |
| Ama-Zulu, | ||
| some divisions of the Mundombe. | 3 | |
| Hamatic group: | Massai. | 1 |
| 12 |
We see that there are almost as many positive as negative cases. So those theorists are wrong, who hold that the taming of animals naturally leads to the taming of men[1].
It might, however, be that the non-existence of slavery in our negative cases were due to a special, external cause, viz. that these tribes were so inclosed between more powerful nations as not to be able to procure slaves, though slaves would be of much use to them. A brief survey of the political state of these tribes shows that they are not all in this position. The Kazak Kirghiz, in Levchine’s time, kidnapped slaves whom they sold abroad. The Massai are very warlike and adopt captives. The Turkomans are “the intermediate agents for carrying on the slave-trade”[2]. The Ama-Xosa and Ama-Zulu are also very warlike[3]. We see that there are some pastoral tribes that, though able to procure slaves, do not keep any. The non-existence of slavery among them must be due to other, more internal, causes.
It might also be that our positive cases were exceptions to a general rule. For many pastoral tribes, though subsisting mainly by cattle-breeding, carry on agriculture besides. If these only kept slaves, and employed them chiefly in work connected with agriculture, slavery would prove foreign to pastoral nomadism as such; for then these tribes would only keep slaves in their quality as agriculturists.