We see that pastoral life is not so easy here as on the fertile plains of Central Asia. But the work that is most necessary here, and also most difficult, is the care for the security of the tribe and its possessions, or, as Geoffroy very appropriately expresses it, “c’est un peu toujours comme la guerre”. And this work cannot be left to slaves; else the slaves would become the masters of the tribe. Warriors are wanted here; labourers not so much.
We have now accounted for the non-existence of slavery among many pastoral tribes, and the little use of slave labour among pastoral tribes in general, by the principle laid down in the last paragraph, that, generally speaking, slaves are not wanted where subsistence depends upon capital.
In North-East Africa, however, there is one more cause at work, making slavery superfluous. This is the existence of a kind of substitute for slavery, viz. subjection of tribes as such. Pastoral tribes often levy tributes on agricultural tribes, to which they are superior in military strength; the latter cannot easily leave the lands they cultivate and seek a new country; if not too heavily oppressed, they will prefer paying a tribute. And to pastoral nomads the levying of a tax on agricultural tribes brings far more profit than the enslaving of individuals belonging to such tribes, whom they would have to employ either in pastoral labour, which they do not want, or in tilling the soil, which work the nomads would be unable to supervise. There are also pastoral tribes subjected by other pastoral nomads, the latter forming the nobility and the military part of society. Finally we find subjected tribes of hunters, smiths, [[277]]etc.; here we have sometimes rather to deal with a voluntary division of labour[66].
The Somal have several pariah castes. Among the Wer-Singellis in North Somaliland we find the following: 1º. Midgân, smiths and traders; these, by acquiring considerable wealth, sometimes win so much regard, that even a Somali noble deigns to marry his daughter to a Midgân. 2º. Tómal, who are employed by Somali nobles as servants, herdsmen and camel-drivers, and are also obliged to go to war. The noble Wer-Singelli carries sword and spear, whereas the Tomali uses bow and arrows; sometimes a Midgân girl is given him as a wife, but never the daughter of a noble Somali. The Tómal, however, belong to the tribe. 3º. Jibbir, who are very much despised. They have no fixed habitations; they roam in families over the country, from tribe to tribe, as jugglers and magic doctors. Everybody, for fear of sorcery, gives them food and presents, and in return receives from them amulets, made of stone and roots. They contract no marriage outside their own caste[67].
The Massai, true warriors and raiders, “keep a subjected tribe, the Wa-rombutta, who do their hunting and what meagre agriculture they indulge in. This tribe is insignificant in appearance, and although servile and subject to the Massai are not slaves; they present almost the appearance of dwarfs.” The Wandorobo too, according to Thomson, are regarded by the Massai as a kind of serfs, and treated accordingly; and Johnston calls them a helot race of hunters and smiths[68].
Among the Bogos “patronage results from military subjection or from the helpless state of separate immigrants with regard to a strong and closely united nation. As the nobles carefully trace their pedigrees, it is easy to find out the Tigres. Tigre means a man of Ethiopian extraction, who speaks the Tigre language. Some Tigre families, subjected from time immemorial, have immigrated together with the family of Gebre Terke [the legendary ancestor of the Bogos]. Others already lived in [[278]]the country, and unable to withstand the invasion, hastened to submit in order to be tolerated. The Bogos seem to have taken possession of the country in a very pacific and forbearing way, and unlike the Normans and other European invaders, do not interfere with the regulation of landed property, so that the ancient aborigines still own most of the land. The third class is composed of foreign families who, being for some reason unable to agree with their countrymen, settle in the country of the Bogos and place themselves under their protection, which still continually occurs. A member of the Boas family [i.e. of the Bogos nobility], however poor and weak, never becomes a Tigre; his origin is a guarantee of his independence. A Tigre, however mighty and rich, cannot become a Schmagilly [noble]; for the Tigres, who are a compound of various elements, cannot trace their origin so far back as the Schmagillies who pretend to spring all from the same ancestor. Moreover, the oppression is so slight, that a revolution is unimaginable”[69].
Among the Takue the state of the Tigres is the same as among the Bogos; formerly they brought beer to their lords; now they pay them a small tribute of corn and fat[70].
Marea Tigres have a harder lot. Two kinds of obligations are incumbent on them: towards their respective masters, and towards the nobility en bloc. Even the poorest noble never becomes a Tigre, and does not perform degrading work, such as for instance milking. The Tigre pays his master yearly 8 bottles of fat, a measure of corn, and every week a leathern bag with milk. Of every cow killed by a Tigre the master receives a considerable portion; a cow belonging to a Tigre, which dies a natural death, falls entirely to the master. As for the Tigres’ obligations towards the nobility as a whole, on several occasions they have to give up their cattle for the nobility. Among the Black Marea the Tigres own most of the land; among the Red Marea the greater part of the land is in the hands of impoverished nobles, who live chiefly upon the rent of their landed property. Another class are the Dokono, who are obliged to choose a patron and pay a tribute, but [[279]]are held in rather high esteem and often marry daughters of the nobles; they own land and herds and are much given to trading[71].
Among the Beni Amer the same distinction, of nobles and subjects, prevails. The latter are called Woréza. “We shall speak of master and servant,” says Munzinger “though the latter term does not quite answer the purpose. The state of things we are going to describe much resembles that which we have met with among the aristocrats of the Anseba; among the Beni Amer, however, the servant is a feoffee rather than a protégé. But as he derives his wealth from his master, to whom he owes what we may call interest, his state is one of much greater dependence.… Among the Beni Amer it is an ancient custom, that a lord distributes his wealth among his servants; e.g. if he receives 100 cows as his portion of the spoils of war, he does not add them to his herd, but leaves them to his servants as a present. When the servant marries, the lord presents him with a camel. In every emergency the servant applies to his lord, who helps him whenever possible. All these presents become the true property of the recipient; the servant may do with them as he likes, sell and even spend them; the lord may upbraid him for it, but legally has nothing to do with it. On the death of the servant the presents devolve upon his heirs. But the lord has a kind of usufruct of these presents; the servant provides him with fat and daily brings him a certain quantity of milk, i.e. he feeds the lord and his family. Often has the lord to wait for his supper till midnight, because the servant provides for himself first. The servant, moreover, has to provide the funeral sacrifice for his lord and for every member of the latter’s family; he leaves to the lord every sterile cow, and when he kills a beast he brings him the breast-piece. He stands by his lord in every emergency, and even assists him according to his means towards paying the tribute”. The servant is, so to speak, a tenant of his lord. As the Beni Amer are nomads, there is no land to distribute; the pasture has no owner; therefore the fief can only consist in movable property. As most of the wealth of the country is [[280]]in the hands of the servants, they have a decisive voice in every public council; they have to find out where the best pastures are, where the camp has to be erected[72].
Similar phenomena present themselves outside North-East Africa.