In the second chapter of Part I we have met with subjected tribes in South Africa, such as Fengu, Makalahiri, etc., sometimes called slaves by our ethnographers[73].
Geoffroy speaks of settled tribes being in some way the vassals of the Larbas. The ksours are buildings in which the nomads preserve their corn, dates and wool; these stores are guarded by settled tribes, that permanently live there and receive one tenth of the preserved stock yearly. The nomads look upon all settled tribes as degenerate beings and inferiors[74]. Here we have to deal with a voluntary division of labour, rather than with subjection.
In Circassia, according to Bell, the serfs are prisoners of war and the ancient inhabitants of the country. The latter are perhaps the same peasants who, according to Klaproth, may not be sold apart from the land[75].
It is remarkable, that in Central Asia and Siberia we do not find a single instance of this subjection of tribes as such[76]. This is probably the reason why in these parts members of the tribe are so often employed as servants.
Where nearly all work is left to subjected tribes or castes, and the nobles do nothing but fight, there is not much use for slave labour. The nobles do not want slaves, because all work required by them is performed by their subjects.
We have now found a new cause, from which in some cases slaves are not wanted: the subjection of tribes as such, which serves as a substitute for slavery.
§ 2. Slavery among pastoral tribes.
Yet several pastoral tribes keep slaves; this has still to be [[281]]accounted for. We shall inquire first, whether the secondary causes we have found in the last paragraph are at work here.
1º. Condition of women. On the Pacific Coast of North America the men sometimes procure slaves, in order to relieve the women of a part of their task. There are some details on record suggestive of the same state of things among some pastoral tribes. Among the Circassians, Bahima and Beduan (pastoral tribes), Waganda, pirate-tribes of Mindanao and Sulu, Ossetes and Gallas (agricultural tribes depending largely on cattle for their subsistence), slaves are employed for household work. The same is the case with female slaves among the Larbas and Somal of the towns. Munzinger states that only few Beduan are rich enough to keep a female slave or a maid-servant; therefore in most families the preparing of food falls to the share of the wife, this being almost her only occupation[77]. Hence we may infer that among the Beduan, and probably among some other tribes, slaves are procured by the men for the benefit of the women.