My Tokrooris had never been idle
during the time they had been in my service, but they were at
work in the camp during every spare minute, either employed in
making sandals from elephant's or buffalo's hide, or whips and
bracelets from the rhinoceros' skin, which they cleverly
polished. Upon our arrival at Gallabat, they had at least a
camel-load of all kinds of articles they had manufactured. On the
following morning I found them sitting in the market-place,
having established stalls, at which they were selling all the
various trophies of their expedition--fat, hides, whips, sandals,
bracelets, &c.
The district inhabited by the Tokrooris is about forty miles in
length, including a population of about twenty thousand.
Throughout the country, they have cultivated cotton to a
considerable extent, notwithstanding the double taxes enforced by
both Abyssinians and Egyptians, and their gardens are kept with
extreme neatness. Although of the negro type, the Tokrooris have
not the flat nose; the lips are full, but not to be compared with
those of the negroes of West Africa; neither is the jaw
prognathous. The men are extremely independent in manner. They
are armed with lances of various patterns; their favourite weapon
is a horrible instrument barbed with a diabolical intention, as
it can neither be withdrawn nor pushed completely through the
body, but, if once in the flesh, there it must remain.
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