Start for the interior. Flags of the Khartoomers. Comfortable
travelling with bearers. The African elephant. Parting from
Shol and Kurdyook. Disgusting wells in the district of the
Lao. Wide sandflats. Village of Take. Fatal accident. Arabian
protocol. Halt in the village of Kudy. Description of the
Dinka. Peculiarities of the race. Dyeing of the hair. Nudity.
“The Turkish lady.” Iron age. Weapons of the Dinka. “People
of the stick.” Weapons of defence. Domestic cleanliness.
_Cuisine._ Entertainment of the ladies. Snakes. Tobacco-smoking.
Construction of the huts. Dinka sheep, goats, and dogs.
Reverence for cattle. Degeneration of cows. Intestinal worms.
Deficiency of milk. Large murahs. Capabilities of the Dinka.
Warlike spirit. Treatment of enemies. Instance of parental
affection. Forest district of the Al-Waj. Arrival at Ghattas’s
chief Seriba.
It was not until the eighteenth day of our sojourn in the Meshera that
Ghattas’s second boat arrived, conveying the remainder of the
newly-enlisted mercenaries and a year’s provisions for the Seriba. The
agent on board was commissioned to procure for me from the interior
whatever porters were requisite for my progress. The shortest possible
time that must elapse before he could get to the Seriba and back was
eleven days; punctually at the end of that period he returned, and
placed at my disposal seventy bearers. Thus fortunately I had time
enough and to spare before the commencement of the rainy season to
start for the interior.
By the 25th of March all arrangements for setting out were complete,
and we were ready to turn our backs upon the damp air of the swamps
with its nightly plague of flies.
Several smaller companies having joined Ghattas’s expedition, the
number of our caravan was a little under five hundred. Of these the
armed men alone amounted to nearly two hundred; marching in single
file they formed a long column, and constituted a force with which we
might have crossed the largest State of Central Africa unmolested. Our
course for six days would be through a notoriously hostile country, so
that this protection was quite necessary; but the caravan, extending
fully half a mile, was of a magnitude to require great order and
circumspection. Each division had its banner, and to each was
appointed its proper place in the procession. The different companies
of the Khartoom merchants were distinguished by the colour of their
banners, all emblazoned by the star and crescent of Islam. Instead of
this, Ghattas, as a Christian, had a white flag, on which were worked
the crescent and a St. Andrew’s cross. This compromise between the
crescent and the true cross did not, however, exclude certain passages
from the Koran, relating to the conquest of unbelievers, and which
could not be permitted to be wanting on any Khartoom banner. The
handsome flag of my own boat was lying wrapped away in a box. I
confess I had no desire to make a display of it among savages, and in
a region where its meaning could not be comprehended; but even if I
had wished to exhibit it, I subsequently discovered that any attempt
to do so would have been quite a failure. No Nubians would on any
account have followed a flag which did not bear the crescent and the
passages from the Koran. The boats on the Nile, it is true, when they
carry or belong to Europeans, do not despise the European colours; but
in the heart of the negro country, where no Egyptian authority exists,
it is different, and consequently all European flags are worthless.
The banner of Islam is to them a talisman, and they would consider it
as sacrilege to replace it by the banner of any Christian country.
Even the trading expeditions conducted by European merchants from
Khartoom have conformed to this rule, and I have myself witnessed the
flag waving on the Rohl River at the last settlement maintained by the
brothers Poncet.
[Sidenote: TRANSPORT OF BAGGAGE.]
To a naturalist on his travels, the employment of men as a means of
transport appears the perfection of convenience. Apart from the
despatch and order in starting, and the regular continuous progress,
he enjoys the incalculable advantage of being able to reach his
baggage at any moment, and to open and close again without loss of
time any particular package. Any one who has ever experienced the
particular annoyances of camel-transport will be quite aware of the
comparative comfort of this mode of proceeding. A few asses
accompanied the caravan, and the governor of Ghattas’s Seriba had been
courteous enough to send me his own saddle-ass, but I preferred to
trust myself to my own legs. Riding a badly-saddled donkey is always
infinitely more fatiguing to me than any exertion which may be
requisite to keep up with the forced marches of the light-footed
Nubians; besides, I had other objects in view than mere progress: I
wished to observe and take notes of anything that came in my way, and
to collect plants and whatever else might be of interest. Thus
entirely on foot I began the wanderings which for two years and three
months I pursued over a distance of more than 2000 miles. Neither
camels nor asses, mules nor horses, teams of oxen nor palanquin-bearers
contributed their aid. The only animal available, by the help of which
Central Africa could be opened to civilisation, is exterminated by
fire and sword; the elephant is destroyed mainly for the purpose of
procuring for civilised nations an article wherewith to manufacture
toys and ornaments, and Europeans still persevere in setting the
savages a pernicious example in this respect.
There is sufficient evidence to show that the African elephant, which
at the present time appears to surpass the Indian species as much in
wild ferocity as in size, was formerly tamed and trained in the same
way as the elephant in India. Medals have come down to us which
portray the considerable differences between the two species. They
show the immense size of the ear of the African elephant, and prove
beyond a doubt that it was once employed as a domestic animal. The
state of torpor to which, since the fall of the Roman Empire, all the
nations of the northern part of Africa have been reduced, is
sufficient explanation why the worth of this animal should have been
suffered to fall into oblivion. The elephant takes as long as a man to
grow to maturity, and it could hardly be expected of the Arabs that
they should undertake the tedious task of its training; and certainly
it could not be expected of Turks, who have hardly patience to wait
for the fruits of one year’s growth, and who would like the world to
have been made so that they could pick up their guineas already coined
on the mountains. It would be no unfortunate event for Africa if some
of the European philanthropists, who now squander their homœpathic
charities on the welfare of the negroes, were to turn their sympathy a
little to the pitiable lot which has befallen the elephant. The
testimony of Burton in his ‘Nile Basin’ is, that not only might
elephants be made useful to man, but that they appear to possess an
instinct which is quite a match for the reason not only of the natives
of Africa, but of some other of the bipeds who visit its inhospitable
shores.
Extremely toilsome, I must own, were the first few hours of the march.
After being for months limited to the boat’s deck and to short
excursions from my little island, I now found myself forced to keep up
with the sharp pace of the negroes, which would be a matter of
difficulty to any one but a member of the Alpine Club. Towards
evening, after a two hours’ march, we made our first halt in Shol’s
village. Near the huts some giant Kigelia, in full flower, displayed
their purple tulip-like blossoms; they still stand as landmarks on the
spot, although the old Shol has gone to her rest and the last
fragments of her burnt huts have vanished. This Kigelia is common
throughout Africa, and is distinguished for its remarkable fruit, two
feet long, which hangs from the boughs like a string of sausages. The
leaf is somewhat similar to our walnut, and in its _tout ensemble_ the
tree may bear comparison with a majestic oak. Trees of such marked
peculiarity cannot do otherwise than make an impression on the memory
of every traveller in equatorial Africa.
[Sidenote: ACROSS THE DINKA LAND.]
Shol had come expressly from her island to take leave of us, and to
offer her hospitality to the caravan. Our course now lay in a
tolerably straight S.S.W. direction across the western district of the
extensive territory of the unsubdued Dinka. We rested occasionally in
the deserted villages and amidst the empty cattle-pens belonging to
the natives, who made their escape as we advanced. By their continual
cattle-stealing, the Nubians have caused all the Dinka tribes to
consider foreign interlopers as their bitter enemies; the intercourse,
therefore, with the settlements in the Bongo and Dyoor countries,
which are separated from the river by the Dinka district, can only be
maintained at the expense of keeping an adequate number of armed men
to protect the porters. Agriculture, although it is carried on to a
certain extent, is quite a secondary consideration. The Dinka often
possess large quantities of sheep and goats, but principally they are
breeders of cattle. The number of cattle in the country is astounding,
and seems as if it must be inexhaustible, even when it is remembered
that thousands are stolen annually by the Nubians. There are tracts of
grazing ground which take a whole day to cross; murahs are scattered
throughout the land like villages in Germany, and many of them would
contain 10,000 beasts, unless I err in my computation, which is made
by reckoning the pegs to which the animals are tethered.
Before I parted from my old friend Shol I had to make one more
offering of gratitude for the hospitality I had enjoyed; this
consisted of an amulet which I had to compose at Kurdyook’s request. I
wrote him as a testimonial a recommendation to any future visitor to
the country. The Nubians and true Arabs, in a way that is not seen in
Egypt, often wear round their neck and arms a number of ornamental
leather sheaths, which contain passages from the Koran; on being asked
what is inside they reply, “It is the name of God.” Such amulets are
even bound round the necks of horses and valuable asses. It would
never occur to a Nubian to ask a Frank for an amulet; they have their
Faki, who make a harvest of the business. But Kurdyook was no
Mohammedan; he was a pure, uncontaminated heathen, and Mohammedan
prejudice had no part in his superstition; in his eyes the white man
was a being of a higher order, and was accordingly in a position to
exercise greater authority over the invisible powers of fate than the
swarthy priest of Islam.
We now passed on through a country covered by farmsteads, repeatedly
crossing fields of sorghum-stubble. The stalks, fifteen feet in
length, which lay everywhere scattered on the ground, were a great
impediment to our progress. The corn here cultivated is the largest
form of the species; it takes nine months to ripen, and the stem in
consequence becomes so hard and woody that it is no more like our
European straw than their stubble-fields are like ours. At other
places at this season the nature of the ground generally offered no
hindrance, the clayey swamps being dry and hard as stone; the high
grass of the steppe trodden down by men and cattle, the woods
everywhere thin as in Southern Nubia, and consisting of isolated
thickets or scattered trees of no great size.
For the purpose of geographical investigation a journey in the rainy
season would be more advantageous, because it is only then that the
actual limit and importance of the periodical currents are to be
estimated. The term _periodical_, however, so frequently used in
connexion with the hydrographical conditions of Africa, perhaps hardly
gives a correct impression, since the brooks and streams which more or
less are dried up after the rainy seasons are over, still exercise
their influence on the conformation of the land, just as truly, if not
so obviously, as our perpetual rivers, which are permanently limited
to their proper channels. Many of the rivulets in this extensive level
have no apparent bed; for in proportion as the water decreases, the
bed by degrees resumes its aspect of being covered with grass; the
turf rapidly grows afresh as the water recedes, and, independently of
this, much of it is able to endure a flood of several months without
rotting or dying away. This is a circumstance which quite easily
explains the misconceptions to which various travellers in the dry
season have been liable, who have gone along without recognising any
river-beds at all. It is not in any way surprising that they have
crossed the beds of even considerable streams without perceiving in
them anything different to ordinary undulations of the ground, for
there is nothing to arrest the attention but the same uniform growth
of grass, the same dry stubble, the same scorched, trampled stalks.
Ten miles from the Meshera we reached the first watering-place in the
centre of the Lao district, an open cultivated plain, several miles in
extent, diversified with numerous farms and hamlets. Two fine
sycamores seemed to beckon from afar and invite us to the spot.
[Sidenote: HALT AT LAO.]
The water had to be drawn from a depth of fifteen feet, from wells
which contained nothing better than a stinking, impure pulp. These
wells are the residue of great pools formed in the rainy season, and
subsequently developing a wonderful abundance of animal life, although
they produce nothing in any way adapted for culinary purposes. Large
water-scorpions (_Belostoma_), beetles, and other creeping things that
are ever at home in stinking pools, whirl about in these muddy depths.
Here it is, apparently, that the Dinka cows and sheep renew annually
their progeny of intestinal worms (_Amphistoma_) and cercariæ, of
which the filthy beds are most prolific. Such was the drinking-water
of Lao.
The natives had imagined that we should pass the night at the well;
anxious, however, to take advantage of the coolness of the air, we
resolved, by a forced night-march, to get quickly over the district,
void of water, that lay before us. Marching on through the adjacent
farms we noticed old and young hurrying off into the adjacent
thickets, our arrival being unexpected. Many a smoking porridge-pot
had been forsaken, and now fell into the hands of the greedy bearers,
making them still more desirous of tarrying here for the night; but
the orders were peremptory which had been given to our people to push
forward without delay.
To the south the ground stretched uniformly for ten miles in sandy
plains bare of grass, pleasantly broken at intervals by bushy shrubs
and single trees. Onwards we went for five hours of the night over
moonlit sands, the imagination giving a weird aspect to all around.
The region strongly reminded me of the acacia-woods of Taka and
Gedaref in South Nubia, which are seen in crossing the forests at the
foot of the Abyssinian highlands. The character of the vegetation
approximates to that of Kordofan. The commonest trees are the
Seyal-acacia, hegelig, tamarind, Christ’s thorn, capparis, and that
remarkable thorn, the randia, the branches of which serve as models
for the pointed lances which the inhabitants of Central Africa employ.
One of the trees of Southern Kordofan finds here its southern limit:
this is the _Albizzia sericocephala_, a tree of moderate size, of
which the finely-articulated, mimosa-like leaf consists of from 5000
to 6000 particles; the thick clusters of blossom gleamed out from the
obscurity like snow, and the air was laden with their balmy fragrance.
Thus we wandered on as through a cultivated garden, our path as smooth
as if we were on gravelled walks. Reaching at length a considerable
village, we encamped on the deserted site of a large cattle-park. A
sudden storm of rain put the caravan into a commotion, and forced me
to retire with my bedding into one of the wretched huts, which are not
really dwellings, but are used for the nightly shelter of the
cow-herds. Imbedded a foot deep in fine white ashes, and enveloped in
a cloud of dust, I passed the remainder of the night, alternate
coughing and sneezing making all sleep simply impossible.
[Sidenote: VILLAGE OF TAKE.]
On the following day we had to march for five hours without a draught
of water, until a hospitable asylum was opened to us in a village of
Take. We were now in the district of the Rek, a locality which
formerly made a hitch in the traffic with the natives, before
Petherick broke a way to the south through the Dyoor and Bongo, and
opened a trade with the Niam-niam.
This Take was an old friend and ally of the Khartoomers, and had
attired himself in honour of the occasion in a figured calico shirt,
without regard to the prejudices of his countrymen, who despise all
clothing as effeminate. Near this village in 1858 there existed a
temporary establishment from in which the brothers Poncet started on
their elephant hunts the Dinka territory. They called the place
Mirakok, but Mirakok and its elephants are now alike unknown in this
land of the past, where (transient as a shower or a tide) all the
lives and deeds of men have been long forgotten. It has been a land
without chalk or stone, so that no permanent buildings could be
constructed; it has consequently only reared a people which have been
without chiefs, without traditions, without history. Detached
fan-palms (_Borassus_), 100 feet high, in default of anything more
lasting, mark the abode of Take, a shelter which was destined to have
its sad associations for the travellers.
Ghattas’s standard-bearer, a most courageous fellow and the best shot
among all our Nubians, killed himself on a hunting excursion, which he
had undertaken with me and my servant. I had contented myself with
bagging a lot of remarkably plump wild pigeons, but he was resolved to
get at some guinea-fowl; for this purpose he made his way into a
thicket, where, as he was loading his piece, it accidentally went off,
the charge entering his breast. This accident befell the one who was
supposed to be incomparably the most skilful of our party in handling
his weapons, and it may be imagined what was to be expected of the
rest. Blundering accidents and wounds were of perpetual occurrence, so
that I should only weary the reader by recounting them. The traveller
who has to march with these so-called soldiers must be content to know
that he could not anywhere more thoroughly be exposed to the danger of
being killed by a chance shot; and I do not exaggerate the truth when
I affirm that my life was over and over again seriously threatened.
The unfortunate Soliman, who was thus the victim of his own mischance,
was the man who had saved my servant Mohammed when he had his
encounter with the wild buffalo. Half the camp hastened to the
ill-fated spot, to be enabled to testify to the accidental death of
Soliman by his own hand. So quietly had he fallen that even my servant
Osman, who was near, ascertained quite casually that he was dead; a
dark mark, caused by the smoke from the powder, at the orifice of the
gaping wound, showed that his gun had gone off while he was holding
it. Sobbing and weeping, his friends and countrymen stood round his
body, and even the stony-hearted cattle-stealers seemed as if, after
all, they were not utterly devoid of all human emotion. One of them
was touched with a strange remorse, the reason of which I afterwards
discovered. It appeared that Soliman owed him a debt, which he
declared he had paid; on the previous day, while Soliman had been
emphatically persisting that the debt was discharged, his accuser, in
his rage, cursed him with the heaviest imprecation he could command:
“The dogs devour thee!” The disaster, therefore, was a manifest
punishment from heaven; the man would indeed gladly have never uttered
the curse, but yet he could not be reconciled with the dead. On the
very next day, as we were about to start, another man shattered the
upper part of his arm by carelessly taking his gun from a bush where
he had laid it.
We left the unlucky spot, and proceeded two miles further to the
village of Kudy, also an old friend of the Turks, as the Khartoomers
are everywhere termed by the natives. Here we made another halt, in
order to pass the day in slaughtering some cattle, in feasting on beef
and goat’s flesh, and in laying in a store of corn for our large party
of bearers.
[Sidenote: LEGAL AFFIDAVIT.]
Here also a kind of affidavit or protocol, strictly conformable to
Mohammedan rule, was taken of the previous day’s accident, in order to
be able to produce legal evidence at Khartoom, where the deceased
Soliman had left a wife and child. The chief part of this important
business was performed by the Faki, who accompanied the party as
private slave-dealers, enacting at the same time their legal character
as scribes. After the protocol was drawn up, it was sealed, according
to Oriental custom, by the agents who were present. This was not done
without great prolixity and circumstantial debate. The formality of
the document was curious; its opening words were: “Osman the agent
asks Osman the servant of the lord Musyu the question: Where is
Soliman?” Osman in his turn had to give an account of the accident:
“As we were hunting in the thicket, I heard a shot,” and so on. They
did not expect to be cross-examined; they did not look for even such
mild reproach as the king gave Hamlet when he inquired, “Where’s
Polonius?” but they considered it quite as well to keep up the
old-established form.
With Kudy I found a good opportunity of prosecuting my study of the
Dinka, which I had already taken up in earnest during my stay in the
Meshera. My relations with this strange pastoral people were,
throughout the two years which I spent in the interior, but rarely
discontinued. Dinka were my cow-herds, and Dinka provided me with all
the requirements of my _cuisine_ as long as I stayed in Ghattas’s
Seriba; and even in the remotest limits of my wanderings I had
dealings with them. I am only acquainted with the western branch of
this people, whose territory altogether extends over an area of from
60,000 to 70,000 square miles, of which the length is close upon 400
miles; my knowledge, however, is accurate enough to enable me from my
own observation to add much that is new to the descriptions which
previous travellers have given of this people.
Although individual tribes of the Dinka, with regard to height and
bodily size, stand pre-eminent in the scale of the human race, the
majority of this western branch of the nation rarely exceeds a middle
height. Of twenty-six representatives that were measured, the average
height was about 5 ft. 7 in. According to this, the average size of
the Dinka is inferior to that of the Kaffirs, but it exceeds that of
Englishmen.
[Sidenote: NEGRO PHYSIOGNOMY.]
In their figure they are like the _swamp-men_, if such an expression
may be allowed, presenting the same lankiness of limb which has been
already noticed as characteristic of the Shillooks and Nueir. The
upper part of the body appears shorter than among the less swarthy and
more robust races who inhabit the rocky hills of the interior. The
outline of their sinewy frame is very decidedly marked in the
horizontal, angular shoulders; a long neck, slightly contracted at the
base, corresponds with the head, which also gradually contracts
towards the top and back, and which is generally somewhat flat and
narrow. Ordinarily there is a strongly developed width of jaw.
Altogether there is a general harmony pervading the whole figure, and
the scientific student will hardly fail to recognise the evidence that
nature has pursued a definite end in the development which here
exists. The Dinka must be reckoned amongst the darkest of races, but
the deep black of their complexion gives place to a manifest tint of
brown when the ashes are washed off with which they delight in rubbing
themselves. When they have smeared themselves with oil, or taken a
bath, their skin shines like dark bronze. The dull polish of chocolate
may be taken as descriptive of the brighter hue; this, however, is
seldom seen even when the ashes are cleared away, because the removal
of the dead scales of cuticle, which then takes place, is followed by
a greyish tint which spreads over the skin.
The blue tinge which has been attributed to the negro’s skin is
entirely a matter of imagination; it may be confidently asserted to be
solely the reflection of the sky. This result of reflection is
especially to be observed when we chance to see one of these swarthy
fellows standing at the aperture of his gloomy hut, which gets no
light but what enters by the door.
[Illustration: Profiles of the Dinka.]
Any apparent uniformity of physiognomy is all an illusion: it
originates more in the inexperience of the eye than in any positive
resemblance of feature. The three profiles of which illustrations are
given show a marked variety in form between nose and nose. Generally,
however, according to our conventional æsthetic notions, the men are
more comely than the women of the same age. Pleasant, not to say
ordinarily human features, are rare: hideous contortions, increased by
the grimaces to which the short eyebrows contribute by reducing the
shallow foreheads to a mere nothing, give the majority an expression
scarcely better than a baboon’s. Still there are exceptions, and with
regard to these it must at times be owned that they present a
regularity of feature with which no fault could be found.
The hair of the Dinka is nearly always very meagre; it is generally
closely shorn, except at the crown, where a tuft is left, which they
ornament with ostrich feathers, in imitation of a heron. The
helmet-shaped combs of the Shillooks are never seen, but tufts of
woolly locks are much in fashion. Occasionally, but not often, the
hair is plaited in fine braids, which run in parallel lines across the
head. The women wear their hair either closely shaven or as short as
possible.
The accompanying portrait represents what might be styled a Dinka
dandy, distinguished for unusually long hair. He must be classed as
belonging to that finer-formed race which has been mentioned. By
continual combing and stroking with hair-pins, the hair of the negro
loses much of its close curliness. Such was the case here: the hair,
six inches long, was trained up into points like tongues of flame, and
these, standing stiffly up all round his head, gave the man a fiendish
look, which was still further increased by its being dyed a foxy red.
This tint is the result of continual washing with cow-urine; a similar
effect can be produced by the application for a fortnight of a mixture
of dung and ashes. The beard never attains sufficient growth to be
worth their attention. Their razors are of the most primitive
description, consisting simply of carefully ground lance-tips.
[Illustration: A Dinka Dandy.]
[Sidenote: HAIR AND TEETH OF THE DINKA.]
Both sexes break off the lower incisor teeth, a custom which they
practise in common with the majority of the natives of the district of
the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The object of this hideous mutilation is hard to
determine; its effect appears in their inarticulate language, of which
I suppose we could not imitate the sound, unless we submitted to the
same ordeal. Some Africans file their incisor teeth to a point;
others, like the Batoka of the Upper Zambesi, break out those of the
upper jaw. The former of these practices appears comprehensible as
increasing their capability for defence in single combat; and the
latter is perhaps an imitation of their deified ruminants; but the
reason why the Dinka should absolutely disfigure their lower jaw is
quite beyond my comprehension. The African races have commonly been
reported as distinguished for their fine rows of teeth, and it was
accordingly a matter of surprise that bad teeth were so often
conspicuous. The aged on this account are little short of disgusting,
for the upper teeth, from the deficiency of opposition from the lower,
project far from the mouth and stick out like a finger-joint. So
marked is this peculiarity that some of the people have acquired from
the Nubians the _soubriquet_ of Abu-Senoon, father jut-tooth.
Men and women alike pierce their ears in several places, and insert
iron rings or little bars with iron tips. The women also bore the
upper lip and fit in an iron pin, running through a bead, a custom
which is common among the Nueir. Tattooing is only practised by the
men, and always consists of about ten radiating strokes, which
traverse forehead and temples, having for their centre the glabella,
or base of the nose: it is a symbol by which the Dinka are recognised
at once.
The observation of Barth,[14] that many heathen tribes consider
clothing more necessary for men than for women is not applicable to
the Dinka or any of the natives of the river plains. According to
Dinka notions of propriety, it is becoming for none but women to wear
any covering; any attire, even of the most moderate description, is
considered unworthy of the men. The Nubians, who are always called
Turks, do not certainly belong to the most carefully clothed of the
human race, yet the Dinka always term them _women_, a designation
which in this sense is quite common. I always appeared in a complete
suit of clothes, and my apparel accordingly gained for me the ironical
title of the “Turkish lady.”
[Sidenote: DINKA ORNAMENTS.]
On the other hand the women here are scrupulously clothed with two
aprons of untanned skin, which reach before and behind from the hips
to the ankles, and are trimmed round the edges with rows of beads,
small iron rings, and little bells. At that time, white beads, as
large as peas, with blue spots, called “Genetot ahdah” in the Khartoom
market, and others an inch in diameter, called “Barrad” or hailstones,
which were principally worn by the men as necklaces, were all the
rage, every other description being contemptuously rejected. In the
course of a few years the fashions in beads change, and the
store-houses in the Seribas of the Khartoomers get overstocked with
supplies that are old-fashioned, and are consequently worthless.
The Dinka live in a veritable iron age—that is to say, they live in
an age in which iron has still a high value; copper is not esteemed of
corresponding importance. The wives of some of the wealthy are often
laden with iron to such a degree that, without exaggeration, I may
affirm, that I have seen several carrying about with them close upon
half a hundredweight of these savage ornaments. The heavy rings with
which the women load their wrists and ankles, clank and resound like
the fetters of slaves. Free from any other domination, it is
remarkable of this people how, nevertheless, they are not free from
the fetters of fashion. The favourite ornaments of the men are massive
ivory rings, which they wear round the upper part of the arm; the rich
adorn themselves from elbows to wrists with a whole series of rings,
close together so as to touch. An adornment for the neck of less
distinguished character is formed of strings of plaited leather; the
bracelets are cut out of hippopotamus hide; and the tails of cows and
goats, in which every Dinka exquisite arrays himself, and with which
he trims his weapons, are in common use.
Since the Dinka cannot do much with his miserable crop of hair, he
turns his attention to caps and perukes in a way not unfrequent among
Africans. Whilst I was with Kudy I often saw those strange specimens
of head-gear which, in the shape of a Circassian chain-helmet, are
formed exclusively of large white bugle-beads, which in Khartoom are
called “muria.” This decoration is especially common amongst the
Nueir.[15] Another kind of head-dress is composed of ostrich feathers,
and forms a light and effectual protection from the sun.
According to the custom, which seems to belong to all Africa, as a
sign of grief the Dinka wear a cord round the neck; but amongst other
nations we shall have occasion to notice several additional tokens to
denote the loss of a member of a family.
Since the western territories of the Dinka in the alluvial flats
nowhere produce any iron, their modes of manipulation of this metal
are not so highly developed as among some other tribes which will
subsequently come under our observation. Before the appearance of the
Khartoomers, the Dyoor, who had settled within the limits of the Bongo
and Dinka, in the vicinity of the soil which produced iron-ore, had
performed all the smith’s work which was required by the Dinka. At
that time these Dyoor seem to have been brought by the Dinka to a
similar state of vassalage as that in which they themselves now stand
to the Nubians. The Bongo, although their land produces iron, were far
too hostile to their neighbours to furnish them with a supply of iron
in the way of commerce. The Dinka themselves, being exclusively
occupied with their cattle-breeding, have no taste and find little
time for any arduous work of the smithy; hence it happens that
although their iron ornaments are numerous, the workmanship of them
all is of the most primitive character.
[Sidenote: DINKA WEAPONS.]
The most important weapon of the Dinka is the lance. Bows and arrows
are unknown: the instruments that some travellers have mistaken for
bows are only weapons of defence for parrying the blows of clubs. But
really their favourite weapons are clubs and sticks, which they cut
out of the hard wood of the Hegelig (_Balanites_), or from the native
ebony (_Diospyrus mespiliformis_). This mode of defence is ridiculed
by other nations, and the Niam-niam, with whom the Dinka have become
acquainted by accompanying the Khartoomers in their ivory expeditions,
deride them as “A-Tagbondo,” or stick-people.
[Illustration: Dinka Instruments for parrying club blows.]
Similar conditions of life in different regions, even among dissimilar
races, ever produce similar habits and tendencies. This is manifest in
the numerous customs which the Dinka possess in common with the
far-off Kaffirs. They have the same predilection for clubs and sticks,
and use a shield of the same long oval form, cut out of buffalo hide,
and which, in order to insure a firmer hold, is crossed by a stick,
secured by being passed through slits cut in the thick leather. But
the instruments for parrying club-blows depicted in the accompanying
illustration are quite peculiar to the Dinka. As far as I know, no
previous traveller has drawn attention to these strange contrivances
for defence. They are of two kinds. One consists of a neatly-carved
piece of wood, rather more than a yard long, with a hollow in the
centre for the protection of the hand: these are called “quayre.” The
other, which has been mistaken for a bow, is termed “dang,” of which
the substantial fibres seem peculiarly fitted for breaking the
violence of any blow.
Everywhere, beyond a question, domestic cleanliness and care in the
preparation of food are signs of a higher grade of external culture,
and answer to a certain degree of intellectual superiority. I have
travelled much in Europe, where the diversity of the external
conditions of life is greater than in any other quarter of the world;
I have had much opportunity of observation, and I am sure that I do
not err in the conclusion that I draw. Not the size of the houses, nor
the dimensions of the windows (for these are variously influenced by
climate), not the clothing (for Sards, Dalmatians, and Albanians,
incontestably the least civilised of Europeans, are the most
magnificently attired of all), but cleanliness and choice of food not
only at once disclose a real distinction between nation and nation,
but constitute a measure of the degrees of civilisation in individual
provinces and districts. Now both these qualities, I aver, are found
among the Dinka to a greater extent than elsewhere in Africa. First,
as to the food.
[Sidenote: DINKA MEALS.]
In culinary matters the Dinka are certainly superior to the Nubians,
and I should have little hesitation in pronouncing them even more
expert than either the Arabs or the Egyptians. Their farinaceous and
milk foods are in no way inferior to the most refined products of an
European _cuisine_. The reaping, threshing, and sifting of the sorghum
and penicillaria grain (the durra and dokhn of the Arabs) are brought
to perfection by their female slaves, who subsequently granulate the
meal like sago. In seasons of scarcity their talent for cooking has
led them to the discovery of various novelties in the way of food.
Like the tribes of Baghirmi, the Musgoo, and Adamawa, they make a
preparation, very much in the Indian fashion, from the farinaceous
germs of the Borassus palm. They extract all its native bitterness by
soaking and washing, and succeed in producing a fine meal, which is
purely white. The substance procured from these germinating seeds has
a look very similar to the root of the Florentine iris. They treat the
tubers of the Nymphæa in very much the same way, and render them quite
edible.
With the choice cookery corresponds also the decorum of their
behaviour at meals. They certainly, in this point, more resemble
ourselves than any Orientals. They do not all dip their hands at once
into the same dish, like the Turks and Arabs, but assist themselves
singly. A large dish of cooked farina is placed upon the ground,
around which the guests recline, each with his gourd-shell of milk,
or, better still, of butter, at his side; the first pours his milk
only on the part which he touches, and when he has taken enough, he
passes the dish to the next, and thus they eat in succession, but
quite separately. The Dinka repudiate the Oriental superstition that
envious looks can turn the food to poison, and have no fear of the
“evil eye.”
At times it greatly amused me to entertain Dinka ladies of rank in my
tent, in order to pay them the compliment of my admiration of their
perfection in the arts of cookery. On my folding table I laid out for
them some European dishes, and they sat on my chairs. I was astonished
at the readiness with which they fell into our mode of serving, for
they handled our spoons and forks as if they were perfectly accustomed
to them; but they nearly always carefully washed everything they had
used, and returned it to its place.
In the interior of their dwellings, the Dinka are as clean as the
Shillooks, sharing the same partiality for ashes as a bed. It ought to
be mentioned that the traveller in this part of Africa is rarely
troubled with vermin or fleas, which everywhere else, like desolation
and slavery, seem invariably to have followed the track of Islam. In
the Western Soudan the torments of the night are represented as
insupportable, so that the huts of the Hottentots are not worse. Among
the Dinka it is entirely different. The only disquietude to a stranger
in their houses arises from the snakes, which rustle in the straw
roofs, and disturb his rest. Snakes are the only creatures to which,
either Dinka or Shillooks pay any sort of reverence. The Dinka call
them their “brethren,” and look upon their slaughter as a crime. I was
informed by witnesses which I had no cause to distrust, that the
separate snakes are individually known to the householder, who calls
them by name, and treats them as domestic animals. Their abundance
here seemed to me very remarkable. Among the Bongo, on the other hand,
I spent six months before I saw a single specimen, and it appears to
be an established fact that, upon the whole, they are not generally
common in Tropical Africa. Perhaps the species which is most frequent
is the giant python (_Sebæ_). Those which inhabit the Dinka huts are,
as far as I could learn, not venomous; and, as evidence that they are
harmless, I cite the scientific names of the three species:
_Psammophis punctatus_, _Ps. sibilans_, and _Ahaetuella irregularis_.
The Dinka are far more particular than any other tribe in the choice
of their animal food. There are many creeping things, which are not
rejected by the Bongo and Niam-niam, which they loathe with the utmost
disgust. Crocodiles, iguanas, frogs, crabs, and mice they never touch;
but, connoisseurs of what is good, they use turtles for making soup.
It is scarcely necessary to say that the accounts of the cannibalism
of the Niam-niam excite as much horror amongst them as amongst
ourselves. Nothing, likewise, is more repulsive to them than dog’s
flesh, which is enjoyed by the Mittoo—a fact which justifies us in
the supposition that that tribe is addicted to cannibalism. Dinka, as
well as Bongo, have declared to me in the most decided manner, that
they would rather die of hunger than eat the flesh of a dog. But a
delicious morsel to the Dinka is the wild cat of the steppes, which is
often found in this part of Africa, and is the origin of our domestic
cat, to which it bears no slight resemblance. But more delicious than
all they esteem the hare; and in order to illustrate their
appreciation of it, a Dinka, to whom I was talking, naïvely asked me
whether I knew what a Dinka did when he managed to kill a hare on the
steppe by a lucky blow of his club? “He makes a fire,” he added, “and
roasts his game and eats it quietly, without saying anything about it
at home.”
Even before they had any intercourse with Mohammedan countries, a love
of tobacco-smoking had been one of the traits of the Dinka, who use
the same huge pipe-bowls as we have already observed amongst the
Shillooks. A strong stem opens into a small calabash, which serves as
a mouth-piece, and is filled with fine bast, to intercept the narcotic
oils. Denarcotinizing, as it is termed, is quite an old African
invention. Here, where tobacco does not grow at all plentifully, the
process answers a double purpose, for, by taking off the top of the
pipe, the bast can be removed, and, impregnated as it is with tobacco
oil, it is subsequently chewed. The smoking apparatus is so ponderous
that every one is obliged to sit down while he smokes.
[Sidenote: DINKA DWELLINGS.]
The Dinka dwellings consist of small groups of huts clustered in
farmsteads over the cultivated plains. Villages in a proper sense
there are none; but the cattle of separate districts are united in a
large park, which the Khartoomers call a “murah.”[16] The accompanying
drawing represents a Dinka farm surrounded by sorghum fields. Of the
three huts, the one in the centre, with a double porchway, is set
apart for the head of the family; that on the left is for the women;
whilst the largest and most imposing hut on the right is a hospital
for sick cows, which require, to be separated from the throngs in the
murah that they may receive proper attention. Under an awning in the
centre of the huts is the fireplace for the cooking, sheltered from
the wind by a semicircular screen of clay. The goats are kept within a
small thorn fence, so that the daily supply of milk may be always at
hand.
As a rule the huts of the Dinka are spacious, and more durable than
those of other tribes who build their dwellings in the same conical
form. They are not unfrequently 40 feet in diameter; their foundations
are composed of a mixture of clay and chopped straw, and the supports
of the roof are made of branches of acacia and other hard woods. Not
content with supporting these with a single central prop, the Dinka
erect a trunk with its spreading branches in the middle. The roof is
contrived out of layers of cut straw. These buildings endure for eight
or ten years, and decay at length mainly through being worm-eaten. The
huts of the Bongo, on the contrary, are built up much more rapidly,
but rarely last as much as three years.
[Illustration: Sectional View, showing construction of Dinka Hut.]
The principal plants that are here cultivated are sorghum and
penicillaria, three kinds of beans, earth-nuts (_Arachis_), earth-peas
(_Voandzeia subterranea_), sesame, yams, and Virginian tobacco; but we
shall have a more ample opportunity of entering into the details of
these crops when we speak of the Bongo, who cultivate nearly the same
products of the soil.
[Sidenote: DINKA CATTLE.]
The domestic animals are oxen, sheep, goats, and dogs; poultry was
never to be seen, and the cause of its absence is inexplicable. The
cattle belong to the Zebu race, and are smaller than those of the
Baggara and Hassanieh; they have a hump, their horns are slender, the
fore part of the body prevailing so in size as to resemble an
antelope. As to colour, the majority are nearly white, but it would be
incorrect to say that either the speckled or the striped, the tawny or
the brown, are wanting. The Dinka have separate expressions to denote
every shade of colour of the breed, and, indeed, their vocabulary for
all that relates to cattle and cattle-breeding is more copious than
that of any European tongue.
[Illustration: Dinka Bull.]
The sheep are of a peculiar breed, which is unique amongst the Dinka,
Nueir, and Shillooks; farther on in the interior of the equatorial
districts it is not known. Its chief characteristic consists of a
shaggy appendage to the shoulders, breast, and neck, like a mane,
whilst on the rest of the body, and on the meagre tail, the hair is
quite short. This mantle of hair gives them an appearance like
diminutive buffaloes, whilst their plump bodies and short legs
increase the resemblance. Generally white, they are occasionally brown
or spotted, and in some rare cases I have seen them of quite a reddish
hue.[17] Like the pastoral people of Southern Africa, the Dinka have
acquired the art of splitting the horns in their early growth, so as
to increase their number at will.
[Illustration: Dinka Sheep.]
The continual dampness of the pasture, especially throughout the rainy
season, favours the development of revolting intestinal vermes, and
the rain-pools in the dry months become most prolific as
breeding-places for Cercariæ. I have frequently seen sheep suffering
under disease, their ailment arising from their liver and gall-ducts
being choked up by these worms. The distoma, which is a denizen of
every zone and extends even to Greenland, is found here an inch long.
The race of goats bred by the Dinka does not differ materially from
the Ethiopian form, which we have already noticed[18] among the
Bedouins of Nubia; its only distinction is being somewhat larger; in
appearance it is always meagre, and its prevailing colour is that of a
young grey colt, occasionally inclining to a dark iron-grey.
[Illustration: Dinka Goat.]
[Sidenote: DINKA DOG.]
The dogs closely resemble the common village curs of Nubia, a cross
between the greyhound of the Nubian steppes and the pariah of the
streets of Cairo. It is not unusual for their colour to be brown, but
by far the larger number are a tawny yellow.
Every idea and thought of the Dinka is how to acquire and maintain
cattle: a kind of reverence would seem to be paid to them; even their
offal is considered of high importance; the dung, which is burnt to
ashes for sleeping in and for smearing their persons, and the urine,
which is used for washing and as a substitute for salt, are their
daily requisites. It must be owned that it is hard to reconcile this
latter usage with our ideas of cleanliness. A cow is never
slaughtered, but when sick it is segregated from the rest, and
carefully tended in the large huts built for the purpose. Only those
that die naturally or by an accident are used as food. All this, which
exists amongst most of the pastoral tribes of Africa, may perchance
appear to be a lingering remnant of an exploded cattle-worship; but I
may draw attention to the fact that the Dinka are by no means
disinclined to partake of any feast of their flesh, provided that the
slaughtered animal was not their own property. It is thus more the
delight of actual possession, than any superstitious estimate, that
makes the cow to them an object of reverence. Indescribable is the
grief when either death or rapine has robbed a Dinka of his cattle. He
is prepared to redeem their loss by the heaviest sacrifices, for they
are dearer to him than wife or child. A dead cow is not, however,
wantonly buried; the negro is not sentimental enough for that; such an
occurrence is soon bruited abroad, and the neighbours institute a
carousal, which is quite an epoch in their monotonous life. The
bereaved owner himself is, however, too much afflicted at the loss to
be able to touch a morsel of the carcase of his departed beast. Not
unfrequently in their sorrow the Dinka remain for days silent and
abstracted, as though their trouble were too heavy for them to bear.
The only domestic animal which is slaughtered amongst them is the
goat, which scarcely represents the thirtieth part of the value of a
cow. A heifer has three times the value, and a cow that has calved
double the value of a steer. In common with the other tribes of this
part of Africa they use rather a singular method of butchering their
cattle, proceeding, whenever it is practicable, by the way of making a
violent stab in the nape of the neck by means of a spear. This causes
immediate death, and is a method which gives but little trouble.
[Sidenote: DEGENERATION OF CATTLE.]
It is not difficult to understand how people like the Dinka should
make their whole delight to centre in having thriving cattle-farms,
but to us their profitless practice of emasculation must remain
incomprehensible. The herdsmen cut their bulls and bucks with the mere
intention of feasting their eyes upon a development of fat which is
always obnoxious to the stomach. Almost the third part of their bulls
are submitted to the knife, and the same proportion of their goats and
rams, and even their dogs, with the design of rendering them more
agile, more, enduring, and fitter for the chase; this also being the
reason why their ears and tails are clipped. Ask the Dinka what good
they get from their possessions of oxen, and they have ever the answer
ready that it is quite enough if they get fat and look nice. Such is
the way in which they express their satisfaction and their pride.
The failure of the beard amongst the male cattle so treated is a topic
that suggests some observations. In spite of the anxiety and care
which the Dinka bestow upon their herds, there is no mistake about the
degeneration of the race. The way in which I chiefly account for this
is that there is not enough crossing of breeds—in fact, that there is
almost a total exclusion of any strange stock. I should say that
hardly one in a hundred of the beasts is capable of either bearing a
burden or going a journey, a purpose, however, to which none of the
negroes of the Upper Nile ever seem to put them. But nothing is more
remarkable than the entire absence of fat which characterises them; a
single pound of fat could not be obtained from a whole ox; and not
only does this deficiency extend to the parts that are ordinarily
plump and fleshy, but the spinal marrow itself is so utterly dry that
in a stewpan it runs off like white of egg, without depositing a
particle of grease. Eye-witnesses have assured me that Miss Tinné,
during her residence here, although she had whole herds at her
command, could never get her supply of pomade replenished.
Again the cattle of the Dinka are not provided with salt in any form
whatever, which may in a measure account for the degenerating; it may
explain the prevalence, all but universal, of the worms known as
“kyatt,” which cover the first stomach or paunch, of nearly all their
cattle. These worms in Europe are included in the genus of the
Amphistoma; they are like an oval bag, something under half an inch
long, and generally as red as port wine.
[Illustration: “Kyatt” Worm.]
The sheep and he-goats that are left are quite devoid of fat; their
flesh when it is cooked has an odious soapy flavour, and is altogether
more repulsive than the rankest roast antelope.
As an illustration of the degree to which the Dinka devote all their
attention to cattle-breeding, and find their chief delight in it, it
may be mentioned that the great amusement of the children is to mould
goats and bullocks out of clay. Travellers have related the same fact
about the children of the Makololo; and, for my part, I could not help
having a kind of satisfaction when I saw these first efforts at
sculpture in a land where there are no pictures and no images of
deities.
[Illustration: DINKA CATTLE-PARK.]
The accompanying illustration is designed to exhibit something of the
daily routine of the Dinka. It represents one of those murahs or
cattle-parks, of which I have seen hundreds. It depicts the scene at
about five o’clock in the afternoon. In the foreground there are
specimens of the cattle of the country. The men in charge are busied
in collecting up into heaps the dung that has been exposed during the
day to be dried in the sun. Clouds of reeking vapour fill the murah
throughout the night and drive away the pestiferous insects. The herds
have just been driven to their quarters, and each animal is fastened
by a leather collar to its own wooden peg. Towards the left, on a pile
of ashes, sit the owners of this section of the murah. The ashes which
are produced in the course of a year raise the level of the entire
estate. Semicircular huts erected on the hillocks afford the owners
temporary accommodation when they quit their homes some miles away and
come to feast their eyes upon the goodly spectacle of their wealth.
[Sidenote: DINKA POPULATION.]
The milking is performed in the morning hours. Truly miserable is the
yield, and the most prolific of the cows does not give as much as one
of our ordinary goats. This deficiency of milk is another witness of
the deterioration of the breed, and no one would believe the quantity
of milk it takes to produce a single pound of butter. The dew hardly
goes off before ten o’clock, and it is not until that hour that the
herds are driven out. It is quite rare for a murah to hold less than
2000 beasts, and some, as I have mentioned, are capable of holding
10,000. Upon an average I should reckon that for every head of the
population there would be found at least three of cattle; of course,
there is no lack of the poor and the destitute, and these obviously
are the slaves and dependents of the rich. So large are the numbers of
the Dinka, and so extensive their territory, that it must be expected
that they will long perpetuate their existence amongst the promiscuous
inhabitants of Africa. So far as regards their race, their line of
life, and their customs, they have all the material of national unity;
but where they fail is that their tribes not only make war upon each
other, but submit to be enlisted as the instruments of treachery by
intruders from outside. That the Khartoomers have not been able
hitherto to make good their footing upon Dinka soil is due more to a
general resistance to external control than to any internal condition
of concord. Every attempt to bring this people into subjection has
been quite a failure, and not at all the easy matter it proved with
the Bongo and some other communities. The southern people are
emphatically agricultural, for the most part devoted to peaceful
pursuits, and so they are wanting in that kind of organisation which
could unite them into a formidable body for mutual resistance. The
marked peculiarity of the Dinka, as well as their adherence to all
their wonted habits, renders them thoroughly useless as far as regards
the slave traffic. Although the people of Khartoom for fifteen years
or more have traversed their country, they have never been able in any
way to make use of the material which might be afforded by a regulated
commercial intercourse.
The Bongo and the Niam-niam are alike greedy of bits of clothing, but
the Dinka are utterly indifferent to anything of the sort. The women,
on account of their proficiency in housekeeping, play a large part in
the Khartoom slave-trade, but they give their masters infinitely more
trouble than the slaves of any other race. The men that were captured,
in days now gone by, were one and all converted into soldiers by the
Government, and, even to this date, so large a majority of the
dark-skinned troops of Egypt consists of men of the Dinka, that their
well-formed persons, their tall stature, and their innate courage,
would be missed very considerably from the ranks. Adam Pasha, who at
the time of my visit had the military command in the Soudan, was
himself a Dinka by birth.
I must be allowed to pass lightly over, as an equivocal topic, the
religion of a people whose dialect I was unable adequately to master.
It seems to me like a desert of mirages, or as a playground, where the
children of fancy enjoy their sport. The creed of the Dinka apparently
centres itself upon the institution to which they give the name of the
Cogyoor, and which embraces a society of necromancers and jugglers by
profession. Other travellers have recorded a variety of marvels about
their sleight of hand, their ventriloquism, their conjurations, and
their familiarity with the ghosts of the dead; but of these I shall
defer all I have to say till I come by-and-by to speak generally about
casting out devils.
[Sidenote: DINKA CHARACTER.]
Before we leave the Dinka we must not omit to recall their virtues, in
order that we may fairly estimate the charge that has been laid
against them of cruelty in war. It is affirmed that they are pitiless
and unrelenting in fight, that they are never known to give quarter,
and revel in wild dances around the bodies of their slaughtered foes:
a whole village will take their share in the orgies which one of the
community will start, whenever, either by lance or club, he has
prostrated an antagonist. But, for my part, I am ready to certify that
there are Dinka whose tenderness and compassion are beyond a question.
One of the Bongo related to me, as a matter of his own experience,
that he had been severely wounded upon an expedition which the Nubians
had set on foot against the Dinka to steal their cattle: he had laid
himself down just outside a Dinka’s house, and the owner had not
simply protected him against all his prosecutors, who considered
themselves amply justified in proceeding to every extreme of
vengeance, but kept him till he had regained his health: not content
with that, he provided him with an escort back, and did not abandon
him till he was safe and sound again amongst his own people.
Notwithstanding, then, that certain instances may be alleged which
seem to demonstrate that the character of the Dinka is unfeeling,
these cases never refer to such as are bound by the ties of kindred.
Parents do not desert their children, nor are brothers faithless to
brothers, but are ever prompt to render whatever aid is possible. The
accusation is quite unjustifiable that family affection, in our sense,
is at a low ebb among them. In the spring of 1871, whilst I was
staying in the Seriba of Kurshook Ali on the Dyoor, I witnessed a
circumstance which I may relate as a singular corroboration of my
opinion. A Dinka man, who had been one of the bearers who had carried
my stores from the Meshera, was about to return to his own home in the
territory of Ghattas, but he had been attacked by the guinea-worm, and
his feet were so swollen that it was with the utmost difficulty that
he could proceed a step, and he was obliged to remain behind alone.
Everything was excessively scarce and dear, and he was glad to subsist
on a few handfuls of durra and on what scraps we gave him from our
meals; in this way he dragged on, and, with a little patience, would
have been all right: however, he was not suffered to wait long; his
father appeared to fetch him. This old man had brought neither cart
nor donkey, but he set out and carried away the great strapping
fellow, who was six feet high, for a distance of fifteen or sixteen
leagues, on his own shoulders. This incident was regarded by the other
natives as a mere matter of course.
In what I have said, I have attempted to describe the leading features
in the life of the Dinka, being desirous to exhibit such details as
may allow a correct judgment to be formed of the true relations which
exist between the Khartoomers and this people, who are at once so
pastoral and yet so prepared for war.
Here, at the village of Kudy, our caravan had accomplished about half
its journey, which was altogether a little over 90 miles. It was on
the afternoon of the 28th of March that we started afresh towards
Ghattas’s Seriba, immediately after the gun accident which I have
related. On account of their late liberal diet, our bearers did not
advance with their usual alacrity. We proceeded for three hours, and
at a well called Pamog, 20 feet deep, we halted for the night.
On the next day our route led through forests, and we entered upon the
territory of the Al-Waj. The inhabitants regarded us as enemies, and,
seizing their bows and arrows, left their dwellings and, like
frightened game, flocked to the adjacent woods. According to our Dinka
interpreters, the Al-Waj do not belong to the Dinka race, but form an
enclave, or isolated community, of unknown origin. As we entered the
wood, for the purpose of botanising, the savages were continually
starting up before us, causing no little uneasiness to my companions,
who suspected a flight of arrows from every thicket. To say the truth,
the natives had been so hardly treated that it could not be expected
of them to meet their oppressors very hospitably.
[Sidenote: ARRIVAL AT GHATTAS’S SERIBA.]
We should have proceeded far more quickly, but that we were under the
necessity at every halt to send to a distance all round to procure a
fresh supply of corn for our numerous party. This continually caused
the delay of several hours, as the farms were often very desolate and
ill supplied. The Al-Waj district is an almost unbroken forest in the
midst of open flats. Throughout the rainy season it is hardly better
than one vast puddle. The vestiges of elephants are frequent at all
times; and both right and left were giraffes trotting over the rugged
grass and wagging their tall heads. The appearance of giraffes when
they are running is very extraordinary, and, as they are seen through
the grey twilight of the morning, they have a look half spectral and
half grotesque; they seem to nod and bow like figures in the
ill-managed drops of a second-class theatre.
After leaving the village of the Al-Waj we proceeded for three leagues
through the forest, and found ourselves again on the extensive steppe.
At noon on the following day we reached the district of the Dyuihr, a
clay flat, devoid of trees. The Khartoomers cannot pronounce the
native names correctly, and call this people the Dyeraweel. The large
villages were now deserted, the population, on account of the scarcity
of water and pasturage, having gone to the river-banks. For two nights
we sacrificed our rest and hurried onwards by forced marches. It was
just before sunrise that we reached the first rocky irregularity in
the soil, a general ascent in the ground being quite perceptible.
Bush-forests now took the place of the steppes, which we had long
found to be but scantily relieved by thickets. A luxuriant foliage
revealed itself, presenting one of those striking _limits of
vegetation_ which are so rarely to be met with in Africa. From this
interesting locality I proceeded for another three leagues, thus
accomplishing the preliminary object of my journey. I was in the chief
Seriba of Ghattas, which for some months to come I proposed to make my
head-quarters.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Barth, vol. ii. p. 475.
[15] In Wood’s ‘Natural History of Man,’ p. 522, there is
an accurate illustration of these ornaments.
[16] The derivation of “murah” would seem to be from “rah,”
rest, “merah,” a resting-place for cows, or “menah,” a
resting-place for camels.
[17] The illustration gives a likeness of a Dinka sheep,
which must not, however, be confounded with the maned sheep
of Morocco.
[18] Vide Chap. I., p. 33.