Note 24 — Chapter III · PASTORAL TRIBES.

The Beni Amer have two kinds of slaves, newly-purchased and native-born. “Their condition differs so much, that only the former may properly be called slaves; the latter are rather serfs. The newly-purchased slave is treated like every Mohammedan slave, he may be sold and does not yet belong to the family. The native-born slave has only the name, not the state of a slave; this appears from his being allowed to intermarry with the Woreza (subjected class). The children born of such a marriage are considered free, as they descend from a free mother. In Barka the Kishendoa, i.e. native-born slaves, who inhabit a camp of tents of their own, are governed by a chief who is one of their own number, and intermarry with the Woreza. Native-born slaves may live where they like and have the same right of inheritance as freemen; only if such a slave leaves no relatives does the master succeed to his goods.… In the blood-feud too the native-born slave is in a peculiar condition. If a newly-purchased slave is killed, his price is restored to his owner; for such a slave is looked upon as an article of trade. The native-born slave, however, belongs to the family; therefore his blood requires blood; he is avenged by his relatives if there are such, and otherwise by his master; if this is not practicable because the murderer is a man of power, the matter is hushed up; but a compensation is never given”24.