But it is in Darfour and Wadai that we find the primitive system in its fullest form. Wives are bought with cows, 20 of which with a male and female slave are the usual price of a wife, hence the Darfouris prefer daughters to sons. Hence the proverb that girls fill the stable, but boys empty it, which recalls the cow-winning maidens of Homer (παρθένοι ἀλφεσίβοιαι). There is absolutely no metal of any kind in Darfour, except that which is imported. Having no money, they accept certain articles as having a certain monetary value.
Facher was the first place in Darfour which had anything like a currency; it consisted of rings made of tin, which were employed in the purchase of every-day necessaries of life. These rings are called tarneih in Darfouris. There are two kinds, the heavy ring and the light ring; the light serves for buying the most trivial articles. For purchasing articles of value they have the toukkiyeh, a piece of cotton cloth six cubits long by one broad. There are two kinds of this stuff, chykeh and katkât. Four pieces of the former and 4½ pieces of the latter are worth a Spanish dollar. Buying and selling is also carried on by means of slaves: thus one says, “this horse is worth 2 or 3 sedâcy (a name given to a negro slave, who measures six spans from his ankle to the lower part of his ear)[74].” A sedaciyeh is a female negro slave of the same height. A sedâcy is worth 30 toukkiyeh, or six blue chauter, or 8 white chauter or six oxen, or 10 Spanish pillar dollars, the only coined money known in Darfour, where it is called abou medfa, i.e. cannon piece, the pillars being taken for cannons. The inhabitants of Kobeih employ beads for money, which are called harich. They are green and blue and circulate in strings of 100 each. This bead takes the place of the tin ring (tarneih) used at Facher in the purchase of cheap commodities. The harich as money is employed in numbers of from 5 to 100 beads (the string), from one string to ten and indefinitely further[75].
The toukkiyeh is worth in the markets mentioned 8 strings of harich. Thus a sedâcy is worth 240 strings. At Guerly and its environments the falgo or stick of salt almost as big as one’s finger is employed. This salt is obtained artificially, and when liquid is poured into little moulds of baked clay. This salt is sold by the falgo, not by weight, and one buys by 1, 2 or 3 falgo according to the value of the article.
At Conca tobacco is used as money. At Kergo, Ryl, and Chaigriyeh articles of moderate value are bought with hanks of cotton thread. These threads are ten ells long, and there are only 20 threads in each hank. For common articles raw cotton with the pods attached is given; it is not weighed but simply estimated by guess. At Noumleh onions are employed as money for common articles, and the rubat or hank of thread, and toukkiyeh for the more valuable, whilst the chauter and dollar are unknown.
At Ras-el-Fyk[76] the hoe (hachâchah) serves as currency. It is simply a plate of iron fitted with a socket. A handle is fitted into this socket, and one has an implement suited for chopping the weeds in the corn fields. Purchases of small value are made with the hoe from 1 to 20: above that amount the toukkiyeh is employed and likewise the chauter.
At Temourkeh they use as moneys cylindrical pieces of copper (called damleg) for articles of some value, whilst a kind of glass bead called chaddour is used for small articles. Near Ganz, the eastern part of Darfour, the principal article of exchange is the doukha for articles of moderate value. They give it by the handful, or by the double handful up to the amount of half a moda; whilst as elsewhere articles of value are bought by the toukkiyeh or dollar. In a very great number of places merchandise is exchanged against oxen; thus the horse is worth 10 to 20 oxen.
Accordingly while each district of Darfour has some peculiar form of currency for small change the higher currency is the same everywhere, the piece of cloth, the ox, the slave[77].
In the region of Wadai the same shrewd Arab tells us that cattle are kept by even the most barbarous tribes[78]. Thus the Fertyt tribe, who go in a state of almost complete nudity, and thus have no need of cloth, possess large herds of cattle, which are not branded, but each owner distinguishes his cattle by giving a peculiar shape to their horns as soon as they begin to grow. In the less barbarous communities of Wadai slaves and beads are employed as currency as well as cattle. The bead used is called the mansous. It is of yellow amber and of different sizes. Number 1 is so called because one string (containing 100 beads) weighs one rotl (pound) of 12 ounces; Number 2 because two strings weigh a rotl; Number 3 because 3 strings make a rotl and so on. The first is the most costly of all beads. Often a single bead of this sort (soumyt) is worth two slaves; if it is abundant each bead is worth a slave.