Note 100 — Chapter III · PASTORAL TRIBES.

We have explained why pastoral tribes have no great use for slave labour. We have also mentioned some motives that may induce such tribes to keep slaves. But the fact has not yet been accounted for, that some pastoral tribes keep slaves and others do not. Whence this difference? It has been shown that slavery does not only exist among pastoral tribes that till the soil to a limited extent. Among all pastoral tribes subsistence is dependent on capital. Wealth, too, exists among all these tribes100; and we cannot see why slaves, as a luxury, would be wanted by one such tribe more than by another. As slaves are sometimes employed as warriors, we might be inclined to suppose that slavery exists among all warlike tribes, and among these only. But there are several pastoral tribes which, though very warlike, do not keep slaves: Kazak Kirghiz, Turkomans, Massai, and some pastoral nomads of South Africa.