Poultry-market. Votive pillars and hunting-trophies. Indirect
evidence of cannibalism. The chimpanzee in Central Africa,
Presents of chimpanzee skulls. New style of huts. The A-Banga.
Cultivation of manioc in Central Africa. The Treculia. Cam-wood
and muscat nuts. Conflict with natives. Shooting-match and sham
fight. Magic lucifers. Mutual interchange of blood. Botanical
excursion interrupted. Gyabir wounded. Modes of expressing pain.
Female slaves captured. Giant lichens. Tree-termites. Monbuttoo
frontier. Reception by Nembey. Northern limit of the oil-palm.
Imaginary alarm. Unexpected arrival of Khartoomers. Visit of
Bongwa and his wife. Cattle of the Maogoo. Cultivation of the
sugar-cane. Interview with Izingerria. Arrival at the Welle.
Condition of the Welle. Relations of the stream. Crossing the
river. Monbuttoo canoes. New impressions of the heart of Africa.
Arrival at Munza’s residence.
At sunrise, on the 6th of March, we took our departure from the abode
of Wando. For our security on the way, the caravan was attended by a
number of guides which the chieftain had placed at our disposal. Just
before starting, the intelligence arrived of the death of Nduppo, the
alienated and hostile brother of Wando. A party of armed men had been
despatched by Wando, and after a short conflict they had killed the
enemy. Nduppo’s wives and children had taken refuge in Mohammed’s
Seriba, where they met with a hospitable reception and were provided
with the residence and provisions that were necessary for their
support.
According to a custom which is generally recognised in Central Africa,
whenever a caravan mistakes its way and is obliged to retrace its
steps and return to a road from which it has deviated, a bough is
thrown across the wrong path and a furrow is scratched in the ground
by means of the feet, so that no succeeding caravans may fall into the
same error. This duty is entrusted to the people accompanying the
standard-bearer in the rear.
The route of the first day led us along the right bank of the Dyagbe,
past Wando’s tall conical huts, and through a gallery of picturesque
wood scenery. Having forded the stream which, plentifully supplied
with water, resolved itself into several channels, we rested on the
farther side amidst the outlying homesteads of the district. The
startled inmates made a momentary escape; but soon recovered from
their alarm, and returning to their dwellings commenced a brisk
business in selling poultry all along our line. The men alone,
however, brought their fowls, tied up in bundles, to the market; the
women kept themselves quite aloof. After a brook of smaller dimensions
had been crossed and some more groups of huts had been left behind,
the caravan arrived at a stream of considerable magnitude known as the
Billwey, but which so much resembled the Dyagbe in the shady character
of its banks that it might very easily be mistaken for it. Then ensued
two of the “gallery” paths, the first being quite small, the other
somewhat larger and known by the name of Mono. The district still
seemed to be fairly populous, and from all sides we were met by people
who came to us partly to offer their services as guides, and partly to
learn what particulars they could about the intentions of the caravan.
There was a coming and going which a European might compare to the
bustle of a general holiday at home.
Without stopping, however, we continued our progress, and by noon we
reached a brook called Diamvonoo, one of the gallery streams, of which
the banks were enclosed by dwellings. Here we halted close to the huts
of the superintendent of the place.
[Illustration: NIAM-NIAM HAMLET ON THE DIAMVONOO.]
[Sidenote: TOKENS OF CANNIBALISM.]
The Niam-niam residences seem never to fail in having some posts which
the natives erect for the purpose of displaying, in proof of their
bravery, whatever trophies of success they have gained either in
hunting or in war. To this practice, as established on the Diamvonoo,
my osteological collection is indebted for some considerable
additions. Attached to the projections of these memorial posts were
skulls of antelopes of many a species, skulls of little monkeys and of
great baboons, skulls of wild boars and of chimpanzees, and I must not
hesitate to add, skulls of men! These were in some cases quite entire,
whilst in others they were mere fragments. They were fastened to the
erections like the presents on a Christmas-tree, but instead of being
gifts for children, they were treasures for the comparative anatomist.
Too decisive to be misunderstood were the evidences of the propensity
to cannibalism which met our astonished gaze. Close to the huts,
amongst the pile of refuse, were human bones, which bore the
unquestionable tokens of having been subjected to the hatchet or the
knife; and all around upon the branches of the neighbouring trees were
hanging human feet and hands more than half shrivelled into a skeleton
condition, but being as yet only partially dry, and imperfectly
sheltered by the leaves, they polluted the atmosphere with a revolting
and intolerable stench. The prospect was not inviting, and the asylum
offered to travellers was far from tempting; but we did not suffer
ourselves to be discouraged, and made up our minds to be as
comfortable as we could in our little huts.
Without loss of time I betook myself naturally to the chase for
trophies, Mohammed entering with so much zeal into my pursuit after
the skulls of some of the chimpanzees, that he clambered up one of the
votive pillars. This drew upon us the eyes of the astonished natives,
and their amazement seemed to be especially directed to the
circumstance of our taking so much trouble into our own hands. “You
have plenty of slaves,” they said, “you are chieftains and have
authority; how is it that you are not ashamed to work for yourselves
in the way you do?” This, probably, was spoken in derision, or
probably in a measure as a reproach to us for appropriating what did
not belong to us. However, I put on the air of munificence, and set
matters all right by a prodigal distribution of copper rings.
Taking into account the large number of skulls of chimpanzees, more or
less perfect, which I saw in the hamlets on the Diamvonoo, I am sure
that I am quite justified in my impression that this spot must be one
of the centres from which these creatures circulate their kind. Upon
the Western African coasts the prevalence of the chimpanzee breed is
very considerable, extending from the Gambia down to Benguela. But in
the interior, on the other hand, the haunt of the chimpanzee hitherto
has been supposed to be limited to the country of the Niam-niam.
Previous to my arrival the Khartoom people had been the means of
securing some defective skins, which were sent to various museums, and
these were quite sufficient to confirm the fact of the existence of
chimpanzees in that quarter. But so great was the variety in age and
kind, so marked the difference in these beasts according as they came
from one district or another, that a whole series, it appeared, of
varying species had to be distinguished and arranged by means of
material which was totally inadequate for scientific classification.
Nearly all the specimens at hand were those of very young animals, and
no mammal is known which as it grows older is subject to more decided
changes in its external appearance than the anthropomorphic ape.
I am not speaking of Du Chaillu’s gorilla. This largest of all apes is
sufficiently known, and its specific stability is no longer a matter
of doubt. Its range, however, is apparently very limited, as hitherto
it has only been found in the delta of the Ogowai.
[Sidenote: TROGLODYTES NIGER.]
On the other hand the chimpanzee, as it exists far and wide in the
west of Africa, has, in consequence of its individual and collective
features, been divided into a long series of supposed species,
varieties, and races, about which the most skilled investigators in
this branch of natural history are by no means agreed. In one point
they seem to be unanimous, and all concur in recognising the
_Troglodytes niger_, E. Geoffr., as the progenitor or the normal type
of this series of anthropomorphic apes.
The chimpanzee of Central Africa, to judge from the specimens that
have found their way to European museums, differs in many respects
from the true _Troglodytes niger_, E. Geoffr., and may be accounted as
a separate race which in the lapse of time has developed itself, and
adapted its condition to subsistence in far out-lying regions.
Professor Giglioli, of Florence has classified it as a subsidiary kind
or sub-species, to which he has assigned my own name, because, in
1866, I was the first to bring any definite information about it. In a
work[47] elaborated with the utmost care he has collected every detail
that science offered to his hand. According to Giglioli the chimpanzee
of the Niam-niam countries was distinguished from the _Troglodytes
niger_ of Western Africa by the large capacity of its brain chamber,
which he thought could very probably not be matched by any other
species. We are indebted to Professor R. Hartmann, of Berlin, for a
monograph[48] which has collected into one view, and may be said to
exhaust, all the material which has hitherto been brought to bear upon
this topic. From a comparison of a very large number of specimens of
very various origin, he has come to the conclusion that the Niam-niam
chimpanzee has no such marked distinction as to isolate it in a
systematic sense, and that notwithstanding some subordinate
characteristics of race, it must still be reckoned as one amongst the
many forms of the _Troglodytes niger_.
In modern times there are no animals in creation which have attracted
a larger amount of attention from the scientific student of nature,
than these great quadrumani, which are stamped with such singular
resemblance to the human form as to have justified the epithet of
anthropomorphic. The most distinguished zoologists and anatomists have
devoted to them their best and undivided attention, and their industry
has resulted in the publication of splendid works in illustration of
their studies. The labours of Giglioli and Hartmann indicate a still
further advance in these strivings after truth. These inquiries cannot
fail to be as supremely interesting to man, as the crown of creation,
as the prospect of the ultimate solution of the problems of
ethnography still hidden in the heart of the continent of Africa, must
be to the civilised nations of Europe. But all investigation at
present only leads human intelligence to a confession of its
insufficiency; and nowhere is caution more to be advocated, nowhere is
premature judgment more to be deprecated, than in the attempt to
bridge over the mysterious chasm which separates man and beast.
Justly enough has Hartmann expressed his indignation against those
ephemeral writers and those _dilettanti_, who, incapable of scientific
research and unfurnished with scientific material, have ventured to
handle the topic of the “anthropomorphic apes.” These empty theorists,
when they circulate their baseless, or at least their unripe,
hypotheses, may perchance persuade themselves that they have mastered
the doctrine either of the elevation of the ape or the deterioration
of man; but in reality they have done nothing but aggravate the
bewilderment which already had turned the heads of a half-wise
generation.
[Sidenote: CHIMPANZEES.]
It was getting well onwards towards night, and by the red glare of the
pitch-torch which is the invariable resource for lighting the
Niam-niam huts, I was getting my supper, in the simplicity of the
primitive times of creation, off sweetened plantains and tapioca, when
I was interrupted by a visit from some of the natives who lived close
at hand. They had come to dispose of a collection of fine skulls of
the chimpanzee, and I effected the purchase by means of some large
copper rings. The people told me of the abundance of these creatures
in the adjacent woods, and related a number of the adventures which
had befallen them in their arduous attempts to capture them: they
promised, moreover, to bring me some further contributions for my
collection, but unfortunately I could not wait to receive them; we
could not prolong our stay because of the scarcity of provisions, and
we had to start betimes on the following morning. Altogether I made an
addition of about a dozen skulls to what I had previously secured, but
many interesting fragments I much regretted being obliged to leave
behind, having no alternative on account of my limited means of
transport.
It was not my good fortune to witness a chimpanzee hunt. This is
always an arduous undertaking, involving many difficulties. According
to the statements of the Niam-niam themselves the chase requires a
party of twenty or thirty resolute hunters, who have to ascend the
trees, which are some eighty feet high, and to clamber after the agile
and crafty brutes until they can drive them into the snares prepared
beforehand. Once entangled in a net, the beasts are without much
further difficulty killed by means of spears. However, in some cases
they will defend themselves savagely and with all the fury of despair.
Driven by the hunters into a corner, they were said to wrest the
lances from the men’s hands and to make good use of them against the
adversary. Nothing was more to be dreaded than being bitten by their
tremendous fangs, or getting into the grasp of their powerful arms.
Just as in the woods of the west, all manner of stories were rife as
to how they had carried off young girls, and how they defended their
plunder, and how they constructed wonderful nests upon the topmost
boughs of the trees—all these tales, of course, being but the purest
fabrications.
Amongst the Niam-niam, the chimpanzee is called “Ranya,” or
“Manjarooma;” in the Arabic of the Soudan, where long ago its
existence seems to have been known, it was included in the general
name of “Ba-ahm.” The life which the Ranya leads is very much like
what is led by the ourang-outang in Borneo, and is spent almost
entirely in the trees, the woods on the river-banks being the chief
resort of the animals. But in the populous Monbuttoo country, where
the woodlands have been thinned to permit the extensive cultivation of
plantains, the chimpanzees exhibit a great fear of man, and pass their
existence in comparative solitariness. Like the gorillas, they are not
found in herds, but either in pairs or even quite alone, and it is
only the young which occasionally may be seen in groups.
For three leagues we advanced on the next day towards the S.S.W.; and
this was the general direction, with little variation, by which we
continued our progress to the Monbuttoo. During this short interval we
crossed no less than five water-brooks, each of them bounded by its
“galleries,” and halted at last upon the right bank of a sixth which
was named the Assika. It was close to the quarters of a chief whose
name was Kollo. With the exception of a slight elevation lying to the
right, the whole surface of the land between the streams was level
steppe. The borders of these streams were all well-populated; the soil
was entirely under cultivation, and appeared to be very productive. We
found ourselves here amidst a tribe, differing widely in habits and
dialect from the Niam-niam, and which bore the semblance of being a
transition population allied to the Monbuttoo who occupied the
districts in our front.
[Sidenote: THE A-BANGA.]
This tribe is distinguished by the name of the A-Banga. They are said
to have come across the wide desert, which bounds the territories of
the two nations, and quite recently to have migrated into the lands of
the Niam-niam, submitting themselves voluntarily to the sway of Wando.
A very similar migration, resulting in the partial blending of the two
people, seems to have occurred in the west, where the A-Madi,[49]
driven out by over-population, their product of roots and plantains,
which they obtained without toil, being inadequate for their support,
resorted to the Gangarra hills of Indimma. Some chance few of the
A-Madi were found intermixed with the A-Banga. Both of these could be
thoroughly identified with the Monbuttoo by their habits and mode of
life, but with regard to dialect, they would seem to have been much
influenced by their intermixture with the bordering population of the
Niam-niam. The last home which they occupied as a clan was the
populous province which the Monbuttoo king Munza now possesses to the
north of the Welle. As the greater part of the A-Banga are quite
capable of speaking the Zandey (or Niam-niam) dialect, I had no
difficulty by the aid of my interpreters in holding conversation with
them; beyond the Welle, however, there were very few with whom they
were able to converse.
The first hamlets of the A-Banga which we entered, made it at once
clear that they adopted quite a different style of building their huts
to what we had already seen. The conical form of the roofs, employed
as it is in nearly every other region of Central Africa, here began to
give place to the roof with a gable end which is universal farther
south. The square huts themselves were sometimes constructed with
posts and left open like sheds, and were sometimes enclosed by four
walls.
The dress and war equipment of the A-Banga are the same as those of
the Monbuttoo. The ears of both sexes are pierced so that a good thick
stick can easily be run through the aperture, and for this purpose the
concave portion of the ear is cut out. As a consequence of this custom
both the A-Banga and the Monbuttoo have acquired from the Nubians the
name of the Gurrugurroo (derived from the word gurgur which signifies
“bored”) to distinguish them from the Niam-niam, which is their term
to denote all cannibals. The A-Banga and Monbuttoo also practise
circumcision, whilst the Niam-niam abstain entirely from any
mutilation of the body.
[Illustration: An A-Banga.]
Turned up into a high chignon, the hair is worn by the women of the
A-Banga without any head-covering, the men commonly adopting the mode
of the Niam-niam, who wear a straw hat without a brim. Some of the
men, however, as in the accompanying portrait, make a compromise
between the Monbuttoo and Niam-niam fashion, wearing the hair in the
Monbuttoo style about the forehead and temples, and discarding the
chignon for the tufts worn by the Niam-niam. The small apron which
they wore was not, as with the Niam-niam, made of skin, but from the
bark of the Rokko fig-tree. The shields did not consist of the oval
wicker-work of rotang, but were four-cornered tables of wood of a
length sufficient to protect the entire body. In place of the trumbash
and Niam-niam lance, they carried the lances, scimitars, and bows and
arrows of the Monbuttoo. The women go all but entirely naked, wearing
nothing but a fragment of the bark of the fig-tree. Just under the
arms, in the same way as the Monbuttoo women, they bind a stout and
broad strip of some woven material, which when they sit upon their
benches and low stools hangs across their lap, and serves as well for
a girth in which to carry their little children.
[Sidenote: CULTIVATION OF MANIOC.]
In this intermediate district between the corn-lands and the lands in
which roots or fruits were cultivated, the fertility was very
wonderful, and the agricultural labour that was applied was very
great. Besides eleusine and maize there were many patches of
penicillaria: amongst earth-products I observed yams, helmia,
colocasia, manioc, and the sweet-potato; amongst various other
leguminous plants there grew the catyang or rawan-bean (_Vigna
sinensis_), the horse-bean (_Canavalia_), the voandzeia, and the
_Phasæolus lunatus_; the oily fruits included earth-nuts, sesame, and
hyptis; whilst there still remained room for Virginian tobacco, for
the sugar-cane, for the Rokko fig-tree, and for large numbers of
plantations of plantains (_Musa sapientium_).
Manioc plays an important part amongst the plants cultivated in this
region, both on account of the yield it gives and the small amount of
labour required in its cultivation. Here, as in Guiana and Brazil, it
seems to delight in a soil that is rather moist and somewhat shaded,
and accordingly the position which is usually chosen for its culture
is just on the border of the “galleries” on the open steppe. The end
of April, at the real commencement of the rainy season, is the best
time for planting it. The plant is of a leafy growth, it has hardly
any wood, and attains a height varying from three to six feet; the
mode of planting it consists simply of breaking off some pieces about
a span long, and burying them in the soil which has been superficially
broken up. It is quite unnecessary to trench it, since the soil is
naturally very light and loose, being composed principally of rotten
leaves. As the manioc is a year and a half or two years before it
produces strong tubers, it is customary to use the ground between the
rows, by planting, as is done elsewhere, various other crops, either
of maize, colocasia, or yams. One great advantage connected with the
manioc is the length of time for which the tubers may be left in the
earth after their full development: provided only the ants can be kept
from them, they will remain in good condition for two or three years;
consequently they do not require to be housed, and their culture
admits of leaving the granaries free for other provisions, in a way
quite different from most tubers, which would soon perish if suffered
to remain in the wet soil.
The gathering is nearly as simple a process as the planting. Each
single plant is pulled away from the loose earth, and the tubers are
allowed to remain attached. In quality and size they differ very
materially. As the death of our poor Bongo bearer had testified, some
of the varieties when eaten in a crude form are most poisonous, and
even when boiled they are very injurious unless the fibrous fringes
have been removed from the hearts. Scientific analysis has shown that
they contain a certain proportion of prussic acid, and there is no
doubt that their leaves when bruised emit the decided odour of bitter
almonds. The unwholesome kinds are generally of small growth, and as a
rule are of very woody texture. The finer and nutritious sorts grow as
large as a man’s arm, and being very tender may be eaten with no more
misgiving than the camanioc of Brazil, which is the form of the
vegetable for which a great partiality is shown by the Monbuttoo south
of the Welle.
No one can have travelled much in the tropics without being tolerably
acquainted with the mode commonly practised of dressing the manioc. I
will therefore only pause to mention that the method followed here of
getting rid of the poisonous matter does not consist so much in
expressing the juices as in cutting up the tubers into pieces, and
allowing them to remain in water for more than four-and-twenty hours;
the result is that they get a very tainted flavour, which, however,
disappears again in the process of drying. A long boiling finally
prepares the manioc for eating. The yield of starch, which is known as
South American tapioca, is estimated as one third of the weight of the
fresh tubers.
Very probably, I should think, manioc has found its way to this
extreme limit of its culture from Angola, by means of the intercourse
of the people with the states under the dominion of Miwata Yamvo, many
of whose customs appear to have been transferred to the Monbuttoo. But
in all the northern parts of the Nile region the cultivation of manioc
is still unknown, and although it has made its way into nearly all
countries on the coasts within the tropics, it has not advanced
towards Egypt as far as Nubia, or towards Arabia as far as Abyssinia.
Thoroughly authenticated, meanwhile, stands the fact that it was
originally planted by the Portuguese upon the western coasts, and
first of all in Angola. An inference may very fairly be deduced that
in this way various other plants, such as maize and tobacco, were
introduced into Africa, and only became naturalised at some date
subsequent to the discovery of America.
After scrutinising this district as fully as I could, I was surprised
never to find a single instance of the existence of the _Carica
papaya_, which has now for so long become indigenous to all the
maritime tropical countries of the world. Barth speaks of its
abundance in the states of Haussa, and other travellers in the tropics
have made frequent mention of its growth, but I do not remember
finding it in Egypt except as a garden curiosity, while in Nubia and
Abyssinia I never met with it at all. I was the first to introduce
tomatoes into the district of the Gazelle, and I have no doubt that
ere long they will be extensively grown even in the most central
localities of Africa. Cultivated so easily as they are, they
nevertheless seem to be utterly wanting throughout all the wild
districts that have been hitherto explored in the southern portion of
the continent.
On the 8th of March some ivory business on the part of Mohammed
entailed the break of a day in our continued march. The respite
afforded me an opportunity, which I readily embraced, of making a
botanising trip to the rich galleries of the woods on the Assika.
Bribed by a few copper rings, some natives willingly came with me and
were of infinite service in getting me the produce of some gigantic
trees which otherwise had been quite inaccessible. Amongst these trees
I may specially mention a Treculia, eighty feet high, known as the
“pushyoh,” one of the family of the Artocarpeæ. The great globular
fruit of this was larger than my head, and seemed to realise the wish
of the peasant in the fable where he longed for a tree which would
grow pumpkins. I stood and gazed with astonishment at the A-Banga, who
seemed to have all the nimbleness of monkeys. By taking hold of the
boughs of the smaller trees, and bending them down sideways, and
tearing down the long rope-like creepers, they contrived to climb the
tallest and the smoothest stems. Some of the trees were ten feet in
diameter at the base, and had a bark without a wrinkle; not
unfrequently they ran up to a height of some forty feet without
throwing out a single branch, standing, as it were, like the columns
of a thousand years in the piazzas of the Eternal City.
I had made some chain-shot, but neither by means of this nor by the
use of my heaviest single bullets could I succeed in getting any
specimens of the fruit which grew on the tops of the tallest trees; my
ordinary shot, however, sufficed to bring down some detached leaves,
from the examination of which I was able to form an opinion as to the
true scientific character of these giants of the wood. My proceedings
appeared to confirm the impression which the natives began to form
that I must be a leaf-eater.
Here on the Assika I found a kind of muscat-nut (_Myristica_), and
here too I gathered the first examples I had seen of the West African
cam-wood (_Pterolobium sandalinoides_), which after it has been
pulverised is commonly used as a favourite rouge for the skin of the
Niam-niam and Monbuttoo men. The women, in both districts alike, are
accustomed to stain themselves by preference with a black dye that is
extracted from the pulp of the Gardenia fruit, known as blippo. Here,
likewise, I again saw another of the notorious towering trees of
Africa, the mulberry-tree of Angola, which Welwitsch has asserted is
known to grow to a height of 130 feet.
[Sidenote: OPPOSITION.]
Reverting for a moment to what had transpired before, I may mention
that, on the preceding day, we had had our first disagreement with the
native population. Just before we reached the Assika we were about to
halt for a few minutes’ rest, when, although our caravan was
accompanied by Kollo and Bakinda, the chiefs of the district through
which we were pushing, the owner of the land came and began to inveigh
against us with the most abusive language, and, brandishing his spear
in defiance, opposed our intention to advance. He wanted to know what
right the Turks had to come spying out his place, and declared that he
would not submit to have them defile any of his quarters. An outbreak
seemed imminent; a mischievous combination was only too likely, when,
acting on Kollo’s advice, Mohammed managed to quiet the uproar. He
proceeded without further parley to set light to one of the straw huts
which was being used as a granary; and it would be impossible to
exaggerate the fright and amazement of the natives when they saw him
take the flaming fire out of his hand. One single lucifer match had
worked a miracle. There was no need of farther measures of reprisal
for our protection; when we reached the hamlets on the Assika we found
the natives quite amenable to our wishes, and ready to permit us to
instal ourselves amidst their dwellings.
In the evening Mohammed established a shooting match. The natives had
never been made familiar with the effect of our firearms, regarding
them only as clumsy lances, or, as they called them, great “iron
sticks,” and Mohammed felt it was desirable to inspire them with a
proper respect for the weapons. Selecting one of the thickest of the
wooden gates that, according to custom, swung in front of the huts, he
set it up for a target, and the general astonishment was unbounded
when it was discovered that out of fifty balls at a hundred paces, at
least ten had gone clean through the wood. The Bongo bearers were then
put through an exercise of feigning an attack. With wild outcry, and
still wilder boundings and jumpings, they rushed upon their imaginary
foe, representing, in their way, the light cavalry dashing in after
the prelude of the roar of the artillery. Then, to complete the
illusion of the spectacle, they seized huge clods of earth and great
clumps of grass, and so returned, a picture of troops laden with
spoil, to the position from which they had started. This was but a
sham fight; but a few weeks later, and the scene had to be re-enacted
in earnest.
The next movement of the caravan was towards the west. Twice there
were some brooks to cross, and after half a league we halted by the
Yuroo. We were now in a country with a large population, the whole
district being called Nabanda Yuroo, or the “villages of the Yuroo,”
as the names of the streams in this region always give their
designation to the land. The stream was shadowed in the usual way by
the thickly developed growth of the gallery foliage, and took a curve
in the form of a horse-shoe. Within the bend were scattered the
farmsteads surrounded by large groves of plantains of which the ripe
fruit had been already housed. The preparations that were set on foot
towards forming a camp without making use of the existing huts either
for the shelter of our baggage or for the reception of the superiors,
demonstrated at once that a residence here for some days was certainly
intended. The pretext alleged for the stay was to allow the
Mohammedans to solemnise the anniversary of their new year. The issue,
however, did not answer to the expectation.
[Sidenote: ENTERTAINING THE A-BANGA.]
I had here to exhibit myself to a larger number of curious eyes than
usual; but I was able to obtain the measurements of the skulls of some
of the A-Banga, whilst others were immortalised in my sketch-book. I
had also to provide for the entertainment of the people who came to
visit me, and in this respect was greatly assisted by my matches, as
the marvel of my being able to produce fire at my pleasure was an
inexhaustible source of interest. If ever I handed over a lucifer and
allowed them to light it themselves, their rapture surpassed all
bounds; they never failed to consider that the power of producing
flames resided in me, but their astonishment was very greatly
increased when they discovered that the faculty could be extended to
themselves. Giving the white man credit for being able to procure fire
or rain at his own free-will, they looked upon the performances as
miracles unparalleled since the dawn of creation. For myself, I sat
composedly apart, as though invested with some mysterious charm; but
to say the truth, I was rather bored by this conjuring, which was a
stale excitement to me, as it had now entered upon its second year of
performance. Still the wonder of the Africans seemed never to cease,
and they did not flag in their delight at the instantaneous flame.
The method of obtaining fire, practised alike by the natives of the
Nile lands and of the adjacent country in the Welle system, consists
simply in rubbing together two hard sticks at right angles to one
another till a spark is emitted. The hard twigs of the _Anona
senegalensis_ are usually selected for the purpose. Underneath them is
placed either a stone or something upon which a little pile of embers
has been laid; the friction of the upper piece of wood wears a hole in
the lower, and soon a spark is caught by the ashes, and is fanned into
a flame with some dry grass, which is swung to and fro to cause a
draught, the whole proceeding being to marvel which might well-nigh
eclipse the magic of my lucifer matches.
As we were now expecting a forced campaign of two days through the
wilderness, on the confines my servants had to apply their attention
to the provision of adequate supplies, as whatever we required would
have to be carried with us. To accomplish our plan satisfactorily we
were obliged to contract a treaty offensive and defensive with the
natives, and nothing would suffice for this but a mutual interchange
of blood. The circumstance led me for the first time to become a
witness of this barbarous, but truly African custom. The words of the
pledge are emphatic: “In peace we will hold together; in war we will
be a mutual defence.” Osman, one of my people who had come from
Berber, being a novice in the ranks of the Niam-niam campaigners,
became one of the most enthusiastic adherents to this pledge. In vain
I represented to him the unlawfulness of his conduct from a Mohammedan
point of view; I threatened that for the future he should be called a
heretic and an unbeliever, as bad as a Kaffir; but all to no purpose:
he became a blood-drinker by profession, and so obtained from me
whatever copper rings and beads were necessary for cementing the bonds
of the treaty.
The following day was devoted entirely to exploring the sylvan flora
around; to my heart’s desire could I now wander amidst the thickets on
the Yuroo, which would have been deemed inaccessible to any one but a
plant-hunter.
[Sidenote: HOSTILE ATTITUDE OF THE NATIVES.]
In the mould formed by the leaves which had decayed beside the stream
that parted itself into many a vein, I came across a number of drums,
stools, and other specimens of wood-work which the natives had buried
in the mud, in order to give them a permanent blackness. This too is
the way in which they prepare the reeds of which they weave their
shields and matting. The process of rapid superficial humifaction
which takes place here, is to be attributed doubtless to the
temperature being so much higher than in the temperate zones, where a
corresponding degree of decomposition would be the work of years.
Whilst botanising on the Assika we had more than once been taken by
surprise at arrows from some unknown hand having fallen very near us.
To bend down to pluck a remarkable plant, and to take up some
whistling arrow instead, is not a common experience, even in Africa.
The hostile and defiant attitude of the natives was too plainly
revealed to us, when on the 11th of March the elder of my Niam-niam
attendants, Gyabir, was shot in the muscle of his arm. Shrieking aloud
in alarm and agony, he flung down my valuable rifle, and betook
himself to flight. So dense was the thicket that I knew nothing of the
disaster till my other attendants came running up, and terror-stricken
began to shout, “They are coming! they are coming!” After this we
hurried back to the camp. I was very deeply concerned at the supposed
loss of my breech-loader, which I was accustomed to call my “cook,” so
serviceable had it been day after day, in bringing down guinea-fowl
and francolins for my table. By good fortune, however, one of the
Bongo folk had caught sight of the weapon, and soon brought it back to
me safe and sound.
Several of the Bongo bearers had also returned wounded more or less by
these insidious arrows; none of them were very severely injured, but
they came back howling in alarm. Each race seemed to have its own way
of giving vent to expressions of woe. The Niam-niam outcry for pain
that was sudden, was a sharp “Ow! ow!” but for a continued pain it
consisted of a prolonged “Akonn! akonn!” The Bongo cry was “Aoh!
aoh!”—that of the Dyoor was “Awai! awai!” For suffering of every
degree the Monbuttoo seem to have a word peculiar to themselves, and
on every occasion, however trivial, for a mere push or fall, they will
break out into a long-drawn wail of “Nangway! nangway!”
The arrows of the A-Banga and the Monbuttoo differ from those of other
tribes by being provided at the extremity of the shaft with two wings,
which are made either of hairs from the tail of the genet, or quite as
often of bits of plantain-leaves. In their points they correspond with
those of the Mittoo-Madi. The points are generally iron, but
occasionally they are made of wood which is almost as hard as iron.
The shafts consist of the firm reedy steppe-grass, and are of about
the thickness of a common lead-pencil. By a cruel refinement of skill
which might almost be styled diabolical, they contrive to place one of
the joints of the reed just below the barbs, with the design that the
arrow should break off short as soon as it has inflicted the wound,
making it a very difficult matter to extract the barbs from the flesh.
The usual method of extracting a lance-head is to take a knife and
make a sufficiently large incision in the wounded muscle for the barbs
to be withdrawn; but, in fact, the result generally is that very
jagged and troublesome wounds are inflicted.
[Sidenote: OUR WOMEN CAPTURED.]
No little excitement was stirred up in our encampment when Gyabir came
back wounded. I set to work and extracted the arrow by breaking off
the shaft, and drawing the head out on the side of the arm opposite to
that at which it had entered. All the evening, however, I was too much
occupied in my own pursuits to have time to devote to the
consultations of the Nubians. As night was drawing on there was a
fresh uproar, and the shrieks of women in alarm revealed that some
Job’s post of evil tidings had arrived. Three female slaves had gone
to the banks of the Yuroo to fetch water for the camp, and had been
discovered fatally wounded, whilst six others had disappeared and had
evidently fallen into the hands of the A-Banga. A state of war then
was manifestly declared; at once a fresh supply of cartridges was
distributed to the soldiers, the sentinel-watches were made doubly
strong, and a detachment of Farookh was told off and ordered to keep
vigilant guard all night. Water for the night was indispensable, and
in order to fetch it a number of women went down to the water-side,
carrying torches in their hands, and under the protection of a strong
escort who fired frequent shots into the bushes.
Mohammed proceeded on the following morning to distribute his force
into several companies, and as soon as it was daylight sent them
roaming over the environs, commissioned, if possible, to obtain some
hostages that might be exchanged for the missing slaves. They found,
however, that all the farmsteads had been deserted by their
inhabitants, and without accomplishing their purpose they returned to
the camp. All the huts and the plantain-groves were spared, but only
provisionally. In the event of a thorough rupture the natives in the
immediate neighbourhood had more to fear than the remoter people from
the indiscriminate revenge of the Nubians, and it was hoped that their
influence would avail to secure that the stolen women should be
restored. In fact, several of the local chiefs did come in the middle
of the day for the purpose of offering some explanation to Mohammed.
Mohammed made them clearly understand that unless by nightfall the
captives were delivered up every farm and every crop in the district
should stand in flames. The warning had its due effect; the
restitution was promptly made, and left us, free and contented to
prepare for our farther progress towards the south.
Ready enough we were next morning to turn our backs upon the
inhospitable quarters, and to postpone a regular warfare until the
date of our return, when a conflict seemed inevitable, and we should
have but a hostile reception to expect. The Bongo bearers had
meanwhile taken good care to replenish their stock of provisions by
laying hands on every granary they could, so as to be prepared for the
transit over the desert-country which lay between us and the friendly
territory of the Monbuttoo. We first passed over the Yuroo, and
shortly afterwards we crossed two other streams which flowed into it,
each full of water and with well-wooded banks. After marching on for
about two hours till we had passed the last cultivated fields of the
A-Banga, we arrived at a rivulet which watered an open steppe, and
finding some detached and spreading fig-trees, we made a halt and took
our morning meal. A very obvious sinking of the land had ensued since
our passage over the previous streams, the surface of the soil around
being once more marked by undulations.
Onward for two leagues we went over a level steppe which was all but
void of trees, occasionally passing over some sandy eminences which
had all the appearance of being the remnants of gneiss rocks
decomposed by the lapse of time. Comparatively a short period will
suffice to obliterate these remnants of rock as the formation of the
superficial iron-stone goes on. Altogether the region through which we
were passing now presented an aspect very different from the land we
were leaving behind, which had been very profusely intersected by a
very network of intricate watercourses all bounded by abundant woods.
Here the streams all irregular and undefined, twisted their ambiguous
way through marshy meadows, their banks being totally destitute of
woods; some occasional clumps of Scitaminea being the only plants to
be seen. They had to be crossed as best we could at the spots where
the herds of buffaloes had trodden down the slime into something of
solidity; but the black water was frequently as high as our necks,
whilst the mud beneath our feet seemed to have no bottom. Numerous
large frogs and a number of land crabs (_Telphusa Aubryi_) were
wallowing in the half-dry pools on the banks.
[Sidenote: A STORM.]
Especial precaution had to be taken here to protect the baggage and to
convey it across the swamps without injury. We had successfully
accomplished the passage of two of these difficult fords, when the
tokens of a gathering storm made us halt for the night upon the banks
of a third before we could venture to proceed. As expeditiously as
possible a tent was erected, into which as much baggage was stowed as
it could contain, but it was far from being spacious enough to shelter
the whole, so that for the greater part of the night the Nubians had
to protect it by piling over it great ricks of grass. An entire
deficiency of wood made it impossible to extemporize either huts or
sheds. The tumultuous confusion, the shouting and the running, the
rescuing here, the escaping there, and all amidst the crashing thunder
of the tropics, and in a torrent of rain that fell as though the very
sluices of the sky were open, conspired to form a study from which a
painter might conceive a picture of the Deluge. The meadow-stream by
which we were compelled to pass this luckless night had a direction
that was easterly, and therefore contrary to that of the rivers we had
previously passed; it flowed to join the Kahpily which may be
described as a river of the second magnitude, and which unites its
dashing flood with the more northerly of the two sources of the Welle,
the Keebaly and the Gadda.
Frightfully hungry after the disturbed vigil of the night, but yet
still fasting, we proceeded at dawn to take the mudbath which crossing
the stream involved. Some Bongo who were adepts at swimming had to go
in front and convey great masses of grass and Phrynia, which they let
down in the deepest parts to cover the sinking bottom. Going on in the
same southerly direction as on the day before, we passed along the
sunken ground, and after a while came to a brook which once again was
shaded by luxuriant gallery-woods. The path that led through the
thickets down to the main arm of the stream had been for so many feet
encroached upon by the water, which rose high in consequence of its
contracted channel, that the only means of progress was either along
the unstable trunks of fallen trees, or through puddles in which it
was hard to preserve one’s equilibrium. The narrow rift was cut out
from the entanglement of foliage, creepers, roots, and branches, as
neatly and smoothly as though it had been trimmed by a knife.
[Illustration: _Platycerium Elephantotis_, Schweinf. One-eighth of
natural size.]
Never before had I seen such wonderful masses of lichens, of which the
long grey garlands hung down in striking contrast to the deep green of
the foliage above. Just like the “barba espanola” of the forests of
the Mississippi, a gigantic form of our _Usnea florida_ here adorned
every tree. But a decoration stranger than all was afforded by the
Platycerium, which projected in couples, like elephant’s ears, from
the branches of the trees; it is one of the most characteristics of
all the gallery-flora of the region. Another species of the genus
which I had observed in other parts, the _Platycerium stemmaria_, with
its bifurcate leaves, here too finds a conspicuous place.
In these ancient woods, however, there is nothing that could more
attract the attention of the naturalist than the wonders of the world
of white ants. So assiduous are they in their industry and so
inexplicable in their work, that their proceedings might well-nigh
tempt a scientific student to take up his permanent abode near their
haunts. They construct their nests in a shape not dissimilar to
wine-casks, out of thousands and thousands of leaves, which they
cement together with a slimy clay, using a strong bough for the axis
of the whole, so that the entire fabric is suspended at a giddy
height.
This species of white ant (_Termes arborum_) had been already observed
by Smeathman in Western Africa. The partition their buildings using
wood-shavings and bits of bark, and in the same way as the forest-ants
they make several stories, and set apart nurseries and chambers for
the young.
Just as the bottle-gourd of the primeval wilderness offered to a
primitive people the first models for their earthenware, so have the
structures which the ants contrive from leaves furnished the natives
of Central Africa with the general design of all their basket-work.
Already I have referred to the corn-baskets of the Bongo as one of the
earliest illustrations of the fact that their weaving is but a
faithful copy of the building of the ants.
[Sidenote: REACHING THE MONBUTTOO FRONTIER.]
Coming next to a tract of brushwood, and then crossing two more
galleries, on which was displayed all the wild beauty of the virgin
forest, we arrived about midday at the stream which marks the boundary
of the kingdom to which we were directing our way. The passage across
this river occupied us more than half-an-hour, so intricate was the
labyrinth of the uprooted trees over which it was necessary to
clamber; and the way was made still more difficult by the thorny
interlacings of the Smilax and the obstructive jungles of the Rotang.
Whether open by chance or cleared by human hands, it was hard to
determine, but there were spaces in the gallery-woods which were
comparatively void of trees; over these was spread an abundant growth
of plantains, which had a look most perfectly in harmony with the
primitive wilderness around. Only on the fallen trees was it possible
to effect a passage amidst the confusion of the many channels; for the
network of the drooping creepers baffled every attempt to swim. At
length, however, all was accomplished, and we were greeted by a view
of the hospitable home of the Monbuttoo.
After taking some brief repose on the frontier of the new country,
followed by troops of men and women, we proceeded to the residence of
Nembey, a local chieftain under King Degberra, who governs the eastern
half of the Monbuttoo, whilst the western portion belongs to Munza, a
sovereign who rules with a still more powerful sway. The abode of
Nembey was situated on a rivulet called the Kussumbo, which rolls on
its crystal waters in a deeply-hollowed channel to join the Kahpily.
Crossing the stream, we encamped upon some slightly undulated ground,
encompassed by low bushes, where we erected some grass-huts that
should be perfectly rain-proof. Immediately upon our arrival, Nembey
accompanied by a number of his wives, paid me a visit in my tent, and
brought me a present of poultry.
Mohammed Aboo Sammat was an old friend and ally of the western king
Munza, who was never otherwise than upon a footing of war with his
neighbor and rival Degberra. Little therefore could Mohammed have
expected in the way of welcome or hospitable reception from the king
of the Eastern Monbuttoo, if it had not chanced that his subordinate
officer had discovered the advantageous ivory trade which might be
opened with the strangers. This is the explanation which may be
offered of the courtesy of our reception, and which accounts for the
neighborhood all round being free from any peril as far as we were
concerned.
The woods on the Kussumbo I found to be an inexhaustible source of
botanical treasure. Conspicuous amongst many other examples of the
characteristic vegetation were the Raphia, the Elias, the bread-fruit
or Artocarpus, and a species of Trumpet-tree (_Cecropia_) which was
the first representative of the American genus that I had found in the
continent of Africa. The oil-palm (_Elias_) is here at the extreme
northern limit to which cultivation has ever transferred it, as it is
still utterly unknown in all the districts of the Nile. Not until we
crossed the Welle did we find it planted out in groves, and to judge
from appearances it had only been planted even there for purposes of
the experiment.
Upon the day following our arrival at the residence of Nembey, I
ventured out without any apprehension of harm into the semi-cultivated
plantain-grounds which ran for some miles along the river-banks,
passing as I went along series of farms and fields that were under
tillage, everywhere observing the women and children sitting in front
of their neatly-kept huts and attending to their household duties.
[Sidenote: AN ALARM.]
The sun was just sinking on the horizon, and we were still enveloped
in the thickets shrouded in masses of manioc and plantains, when the
report of firearms, volley after volley, coming from the camp, took us
by surprise, and induced us without delay to hurry back; such repeated
discharges, we could not help suspecting, must too surely betoken some
aggression on the part of the natives. We loaded our pieces, and
trying to follow the direction of the sound, we started off on our
return, but for a time we wandered vaguely about, hardly knowing how
to get free of the plantations; we at length managed to reach the
villages, from which the way was quite direct. Together with ourselves
streamed on a crowd of the residents, who came hurrying out, equipped
with their shields and lances, or with their bows and arrows. As we
approached the farms we heard the beating of the signal drums, and
everywhere at the doors of the huts we saw the women and children, all
eagerly bringing from the interior the necessary arms for their
husbands and fathers, who were waiting impatiently without. Not
knowing whether we were friends or foes, we pushed on all together
along the road. Helpless enough I felt myself, as burdened with my
heavy boots I tottered over the smooth tree-trunks which had been
thrown across the depth of the Kussumbo; behind and before were the
excited people, equipped with arms, as frantic as wild Indians, and
very naturally the thought rose to my mind, how completely, if they
chose, I was within their power.
It did not take long to get through the woodlands, and then again we
were out upon the open. One glance at the camps before us revealed the
mystery: the Nubians with their swarthy troops of bearers had been
doubled in number by the arrival of another company of merchant-people
from Khartoum, and in honor of the meeting the usual salvoes had been
fired. The new comers were the party belonging to Tuhamy, who was an
upper secretary in the divan of the Governor-General, by whose
authority I was empowered to claim the hospitality of all the Seribas.
To Mohammed’s soldiers the unlooked-for arrival of a number of their
countrymen was a welcome occurrence which they celebrated as a holiday
but to Mohammed himself the chance meeting was a vexation, from which
ultimately, as he foresaw, various unpleasantnesses arose. The
territories of Tuhamy’s people were situated on the lower Rohl, their
head Seriba is at a spot named Ronga, where they had been established
some years previously by the French adventurer, Malzac. They had come
directly by the way through the districts of the Mittoo and the Madi;
and at the Diamvonoo, (where I had made so large a collection of the
skulls of the chimpanzees) they had had such a vigorous conflict with
the Niam-niam that for two days they were obliged to defend themselves
behind an extemporized abattis against the hostilities of Wando, and
had not escaped without some loss of life on their side. Suspecting no
mischief, they had arrived at the place just at the moment that our
caravan had hurried away to escape the general conflict that seemed
imminent, and accordingly, they had found the natives all up in arms
and ready for immediate action.
[Sidenote: VISIT TO BONGWA.]
At midnight a heavy rain set in, which lasted till the morning; and in
the uncertainty as to what the weather would be, our departure was
delayed long beyond the ordinary hour and we were even at last obliged
to start in a thick and drizzling mist. Despite the wet, Tuhamy’s
party had gone on in the early morning. We were all anxious about
keeping our powder dry; but, for my part, I must own I was more
concerned about the safety of my collection, which had been gathered
and preserved with so much trouble. A halt was made for an hour in one
of the farmsteads on our way and the large open sheds belonging to the
local superintendent were of infinite service in providing immediate
shelter for the baggage. Our route crossed four streams, all flowing
to the south, after which we arrived at the Mazoroody, on the banks of
which the line of farms belonging to Bongwa extended a considerable
way. Bongwa was a chieftain subject to pay tribute equally to Munza
and to Degberra, as his possessions were contiguous to those of both
these rival kings. We crossed the river, which was approached by an
extensive steppe, which terminated in a declivity that led us
downwards for well-nigh 200 feet, and then halting, we proceeded to
erect our camp by constructing a number of huts in the best way we
could out of the masses of sodden grass.
[Illustration: Bongwa’s Wife.]
Accompanied by his wife, Bongwa paid us a visit to camp, and allowed
me the unusual honor of taking a sketch both of himself and his better
half. The old lady took her seat upon a Monbuttoo bench, wearing
nothing else than the singular band, like a saddle-girth, across her
lap, in the general fashion of all the women of the country. Like
nearly all her race, she had a skin several shades lighter than her
husband’s, being something of the color of half-roasted coffee. She
exhibited singular tattooing, which appeared to consist of two
distinct characters. One of these ran in lines over the shoulders and
bosom, just where our ladies wear their lace collars; it was made of a
number of points pricked in with a needle, and forming a pattern
terminating on the shoulders and breast in large crosses. The other
was a pattern traced over the whole stomach, standing out in such
relief that I presume it must have been done by a hot iron; it
consisted of figures set in a square frames, and looked somewhat like
the tracery which is sculptured on cornices and old arches. Bodkins of
ivory projected from her towering chignon, which was surmounted by a
plate as large as a dollar, fastened on by a comb with five teeth
manufactured of porcupine-quills.
[Sidenote: BONGWA’S WIFE.]
Since Madame Bongwa only intended to pay me a short visit, she did not
appear _en grande tenue_; the picture, therefore, necessarily failed
in the black figures which, for full dress were painted on her ample
flanks, and which would have given a double interest to the likeness.
As a token of my recognition of the steadiness with which she sat
during my artistic labors, I permitted her (and this was the greatest
the privilege I could afford any of the natives) to put her fingers
through my hair, which to her eye was so astonishingly long and sleek.
The first hours of the following morning were spent in making
purchases from the natives of a supply of yams and sweet-potatoes; the
day, consequently, was somewhat advanced before we could make a start.
The strips of grassland, void of trees, into which the numerous
rivulets parcel out the district, were here peculiarly narrow; in the
course of a single league, we passed over no less than three different
streams, and then came to another, the Bumba, which we had to go over
twice. Whenever we came to thickets, the Raphia or wine-palm was sure
to be prominent, and put every other plant into the shade. Its noble
branches are used by the Monbuttoo for making their stools and the
seats which they erect upon the roofs of their huts.
A very populous district was soon reached, known as the district of
Eddeedy, who being within Munza’s kingdom was tributary to Izingerria,
Munza’s viceroy and brother. At this spot, we came again into contact
with the party of Tuhamy, which had encamped upon the river Bumba. We
had for so long been unaccustomed to the sight that the prospect of
grazing cattle came upon us almost as a surprise. At first we were
under the impression that Tuhamy’s people must have brought the oxen
with them, but the manifest deviation of the beasts from the Dinka
type set us to inquire whence they had come. They were of a thicker
and shorter build than those we had seen, having a different formation
of the skull and very prominent humps. We were informed that they had
been a present from King Munza to Eddeedy. Munza himself had some
years previously received a large herd of them from the powerful ruler
of some people in the south-east, with whom he had concluded an
amicable alliance. The tribe who were thus referred to were called by
my interpreter the Maogoo, and I imagined that through this word I
could get some perception of what Sir Samuel Baker meant when he spoke
of the land beyond Lake Mwootan as Ulegga, and its inhabitants as the
Malegga.
Taking now a more southerly direction, the road led us over three
different streams, which flowed to the west to join the Bumba. On the
fourth stream from the Bumba was situated the mbanga of Izingerria. It
was somewhat late in the afternoon before we made our imposing
entrance, and then we found both sides of the roadway lined with
crowds of astonished folks who had come to gaze at our troop. The
officials appeared in full state, their hats adorned with waving
plumes: they had come attended by their shield-bearers, and had
ordered their indispensable benches to be brought with them, that they
might receive us at their ease and observe the unusual spectacle we
presented with as much convenience as possible.
[Illustration: ENTRY TO IZINGERRIA’S MBANGA.]
We took up our encampment on the steppe just beyond the stream which
divided us from the circle of huts, which was arranged around an open
area, and allotted to the wives and soldiers of the prince. The plots
that had been cleared near the little river were for the most part
planted with sugar-canes. The canes grew to the size of a man’s arm,
but I think they were generally very woody and less soft in their
texture than those which grew in Egypt. Except for chewing, the
natives seem to have no object in growing them, and have no notion of
expressing or boiling the sap, for otherwise, they would not have been
so surprised as they were at the bits of loaf-sugar which we gave them
by way of putting their experience to the test. The plants thrive very
well in the plantations, which are amply irrigated by the numerous
ducts of the various streams, and, indeed, they grow in a half-wild
condition. Had the natives only a better disposition for industry and
a freer scope for traffic, there is no estimating what might be the
value of the production which is here so bountifully bestowed.
[Sidenote: A VISIT TO IZINGERRIA.]
In company with Mohammed I visited Izingerria in his dwelling in the
later hours of the evening, and found him sitting on his bench in the
open space, surrounded by about a dozen of his satraps. Having been
made acquainted with the custom of the country that all officials, all
heads of families, and indeed all persons of any distinction, whenever
they pay a visit, take with them their slaves to carry their benches,
because it is considered unseemly to sit, like Turks or Arabs, upon
the ground, I gave orders that some of my people should, on these
occasions, invariably accompany me and carry my cane chair. We took
our seats opposite Izingerria, and by the assistance of one of the
natives, who could talk to my Niam-niam interpreter, I contrived to
keep up, despite the labor of a double translation, some mutual
interchange of thought till the night was far advanced. Of hospitable
entertainment there was not a word; perhaps it was considered
inconsistent with the dignity of a formal interview, but there was not
even the offer of the usually elusive beer. The consumption of
tobacco, however, was quite unrestrained. I could not help observing,
without being quite able to account for the circumstance, that my
cigars did not in the least appear to attract any notice on the part
of the natives, although they were accustomed to smoke their tobacco
exclusively through pipes, and were as entirely unacquainted either
with the habits of chewing tobacco or of taking snuff as any other of
the African negroes who have not been contaminated in these respects
by intercourse with Mohammedans and Christians.
The Monbuttoo use pipes of a primitive, but really of a very
serviceable description, which they make from the mid-rib of a
plantain-leaf. The upper classes, however, not unfrequently have a
metal tube, some five feet long, made by their smiths. The lower
extremity of the pipe is plugged up, and an opening is made in the
side near the end, into which is inserted a plantain-leaf, twisted up
and filled with tobacco. This extemporised bowl is changed as often as
requisite, sometimes every few minutes, by the slaves who are kept in
attendance. The only tobacco which is known here is the Virginian (_N.
tabacum_, L.). With much relish I smoked a pipe of this construction,
which was altogether a novelty to me, and I found that it was a
contrivance that modified the rankness of the tobacco almost as
perfectly as if it had been inhaled through the water-reservoir of a
narghileh.
At length the attainment of my cherished hopes seemed close at hand.
The prospect was held out that on the 19th of March we might expect to
arrive at the Welle. The way to the river led us due south, and we
went onwards through almost uninterrupted groves of plantains, from
which the huts, constructed of bark and rotang very skilfully sewn
together, ever and again peeped out. A march of scarcely two leagues
brought us to the bank of the noble river, which rolled its deep dark
flood majestically to the west, in its general aspect suggesting a
resemblance to the Blue Nile. For me it was a thrilling moment that
can never fade from my memory. My sensations must have been like Mungo
Park’s on the 20th of July, 1796, when for the first time he planted
his foot upon the shore of the mysterious Niger, and answered once for
all the great geographical question of his day—as to whether its
waters rolled to the east or to the west.
[Sidenote: THE WELLE.]
Here, then, I was upon the very bank of the river, attesting the
western flow of the water, about which the contradictions and
inconsistencies of the Nubians had kept up my unflagging interest ever
since we set out from Khartoum. Whoever has any acquaintance with the
indistinctness that ever attaches to the statements of those who would
attempt to describe in Arabic the up-current of the down-current of a
river will readily comprehend the eagerness with which I yearned to
catch the first glance of the waters of which the rippling sound, as
they washed their stony banks, came through the bushes to my a
strained and listening ear. If the river should flow to the east, why
then it solved the problem, hitherto inexplicable, of the fulness of
the water in Lake Mwootan; but if, as was far more likely, it should
go towards the west, then beyond a doubt it was independent altogether
of the Nile system. A moment more and the question was set at rest.
Westerly was the direction of the stream, which consequently did not
belong to the Nile at all; it was in all likelihood not less than 180
miles distant from the most western coast of Lake Mwootan, and at the
numerous rapids which are formed in its upper course it rises almost
to the level of the lake, even if it does not attain a still higher
altitude.[50]
Very similar as I have said it looked in some respects to the Blue
Nile at Khartoum, the Welle had here a breadth of 800 feet, and at
this period of the year, when its waters were at their lowest, it had
a depth varying from twelve to fifteen feet. The banks, like the
“guefs” of the Nile, rose about twenty feet above the level of the
stream and appeared to consist almost exclusively of alluvial clay and
some layers of blended sand and mica; but as far as I could
investigate the exposed face of the river-wall, I could see neither
pebbles nor drift, and only occasionally were the scanty remains of
shells to be detected.
Here, as well as on the upper part of the main stream, named the
Keebaly, which we subsequently crossed, no inundation of the country
seems ever to occur, although the land sank with rather a sudden fall
for 100 feet down to the wood-encircled bank of the river.
There was nothing remarkable about the rate at which the water flowed:
on the northern bank it passed at about fifty-five or sixty feet a
minute; so that the volume of water that rolled by would be about
10,000 cubic feet a second, but supposing the rate of the stream to be
invariable, this volume would be nearly doubled at the season when the
river was at its fullest height. The Welle is formed about twelve
miles above this spot by the union of the Gadda and the Keebaly. About
three weeks later (on the 13th of April) the Gadda was about 155 feet
wide and two to three feet deep, whilst the Keebaly, which is the main
stream, was 325 wide and at least twelve feet deep. Of the two streams
just above the junction, the rate of flow was fifty-seven feet and
seventy-five feet respectively. Fourteen miles above its point of
confluence with the Gadda, the Keebaly forms a series of rapids
flowing over innumerable crags of gneiss, making a labyrinth of little
islands which are known as Kissangah, and which part the stream into
many minor channels that after they are re-united reach across in a
distance of 1000 to 1200 feet from shore to shore.
I made all the inquiries I possibly could about the condition and
fluctuations of the river from the interpreters who were attached to
the expedition, and ascertained that the water was actually at this
date at its lowest level. The first an indication that I had of any
rise or increase in the stream was when I crossed it again a little
higher up, towards the east, in the middle of April; and to judge from
what was pointed out to me then on the river-banks, I should
conjecture that the period of the highest water would be about two
months later.
The Welle had all the tokens of being a mountain stream of which the
source was at no remote distance, and to a certainty was not in a
latitude much to the south of that of the spot where we were crossing.
The colour of the flood at this time of the year corresponded very
remarkably with the cloudy waters of the Bahr-el-Azrek, and it is
probable that when it is at its height it has that look of
coffee-and-milk which the river presents at Khartoom. Moreover, there
is an additional proof indicating that the river has its origin in
some mountain region at no great distance, which is furnished by the
fact of so many considerable streams (such as the Keebaly, the Gadda,
the Kahpilly, the Nomayo, and the Nalobey) all having their channels
uniting in what is comparatively a very limited area. The result of
all my varied inquiries seemed to demonstrate most satisfactorily that
to the south-west of Munza’s residence the land takes a decided rise;
and the existence of certain detached groups of hills, which according
to the declarations of the natives are at no very great distance,
serves to confirm my belief as to the orographical character of the
country. The hills and isolated mountains to which I refer would be, I
imagine, none other than the western fringe of the “Blue Mountains,”
which Baker observed from the farther side of Lake Mwootan (the Albert
Nyanza), and of which (as he saw them on the north-western confines of
the lake), he reckoned that the height must be 8000 feet.
From this spot also the position of the abodes of the tribe of the
Maogoo was pointed out to me, and it lay between the S.E. and E.S.E.
It was to me a very remarkable thing how accurately the natives of
Africa, by the indication of the finger, would point to any particular
locality; they were also equally skilful in telling the hour of the
day by the height of the sun, and I rarely detected an error of much
more than half an hour in their representations. In wide open plains
like the deserts of Nubia, where the journeys are made for many miles
consecutively without the least variation in direction, the precision
of their estimate reaches such singular correctness, that if a lance
is laid upon the ground the path to which it points will lead, with
scarcely a hair’s-breadth deviation, to the destination required, and
the road thus indicated will accord perfectly with any direct route
that may be marked upon the map. Many years ago Bruce of Kinnaird
alluded to a circumstance of this kind in his travels through the
Nubian desert; and during my wanderings between the Nile and the Red
Sea I had various opportunities of satisfying myself of the truth of
what he states.
Taking into calculation the geographical configuration of this part of
Africa, and relying not so much upon the representations of previous
European travellers as upon the information obtained along the wide
tract that extends from Lake Tsad to Kordofan and south of that line,
it may be asserted that the Welle belongs to the system of the Shary.
That the Welle has any connection with the Gazelle, and so ultimately
with the Nile, is contradicted not merely by the general belief, but
by the authenticated statements of the inhabitants who dwell upon its
borders; and more than this, it is totally inconsistent with the fact
that the Welle is a stream vastly greater than the Gazelle in the
volume of its waters; for while both alike were at their lowest ebb on
the 27th of April, 1863, Petherick has placed it upon record that the
Gazelle had but 3042 cubic feet of water to roll on, in comparison to
10,000 feet, which was the volume, every second, of the Welle.
Perhaps I may seem to lay greater stress upon the information which I
gained by my inquiries, than a rigorous critic, who knows what an
ambiguous country I was traversing, may be inclined to think is fair.
But let me invite his attention to the following statement. Although
the entire eastern portion of the Niam-niam country from Mofio to
Kanna has been repeatedly visited by companies from Khartoom, and I
have been repeatedly brought into contact with those who have taken
part in the expeditions, I have never come across but one single
individual who has represented that there is connection anywhere
between the Welle and the Gazelle; and in addition to this, the
Monbuttoo and the Niam-niam, with an agreement that is undeviating,
all represent that the Welle holds on its course to the N.E. as far as
they could follow it for days and days together, till it widens so
vastly that the trees on its banks are not visible, and that at last
there is nothing but water and sky. This representation would imply
that the river issues in some inland lake. They have, moreover, their
tales to tell of the inhabitants of the country on the lower part of
the river, as to how they dress in white, and like the Nubians kneel
upon the ground and say their prayers. Clearly, therefore, these
residents are Mohammedans, and the direction and the distance of their
abode would seem to corroborate an impression that they must be the
inhabitants of some southern parts of Baghirmy.
As I have spoken of the Welle in comparison with the Gazelle, I may
now be permitted to bring it into contrast with the Shary, so far at
least as the lower course of this river has been explored. According
to the testimony of Major Denham, who made his observations on the
24th of June, 1824, the width of the Shary at its mouth was about half
a mile, while its stream had a velocity of something under three miles
an hour. This would indicate a stream three times as strong as that of
the Welle, and if the average depth of the waters as they flow into
Lake Tsad be reckoned at ten feet it would give a volume of 85,000
cubic feet a second, whereas at the very highest reckoning the volume
of the Welle is not above 20,000 cubic feet.
On the other hand the eastern main branch of the Shary at Mele, where
it was measured by Barth on the 18th of March, 1852, had a breadth of
1800 feet, and in mid-channel it had a depth of fifteen feet, while it
was specially recorded as rolling on with a velocity of some three
miles an hour, which, however, in a way that we should not have
expected, Barth says did not make him reckon the stream as
particularly strong.
That the Shary, so early as the month of March, should show an
increase in the mass of its waters, would appear to indicate that
according to theory it must be augmented by some other rivers coming
from more southern latitudes than the Welle. It is a positive fact
that there are no other streams of the least account that could
possibly flow into it from the arid steppes of Darfoor and Wadai on
the north; the land there has no springs, and consumes for itself
whatever it receives from the clouds above. If then the Welle flows
neither into the Gazelle nor yet into the Shary, it might perhaps be
asked whether it is not a tributary to the ample waters of the Benue,
which Barth found at Yola, on the 18th of July, 1851, to be 1200 feet
in width, having an average depth of 11 feet, and a periodic change of
50 feet between the highest and lowest level of its stream; but then
there would still remain the further question as to what, in that
case, must be the source of the Shary, and whence it comes; and this
is a question that decides for itself the full value of the
counter-evidence.
It is a matter of especial interest to recollect that Barth would
appear already to have announced the existence of the Welle under the
name of the river of Kubanda. The people that he had about him were
natives of Darfoor, who had been accustomed to carry on their
expeditions for plunder ever since the year 1834. In fact he assigns
the position of the river of Kubanda to the latitude of 3° N., and
affixes a note to his account of it stating that “a tree, called the
Kumba, is said to grow upon its banks.” Now, Kumba is the Niam-niam
for the abundant Malaghetta pepper (_Xylopia æthiopica_), which has
communicated its name to the Pepper Coast, and in the middle ages was
a spice much valued and known as Habb-el-Selim (Selim’s grains), and
had probably been brought into the market by the people of Morocco,
long before black pepper was known at all. I satisfied myself that at
present this pepper is known to the Foorians as a product of the
distant south.
[Sidenote: MONBUTTOO CANOES.]
The transport of the caravan across the great river was by no means an
easy matter; by the aid, however, of the ferrymen whom Munza had
provided, it was accomplished so vigorously that in the course of
three hours our last man had been carried over. The passage was
effected by large canoes which were hewn out of a single trunk of a
tree, and which, alike in shape and solidity, were superior to what we
had hitherto seen. Some of them were not less than thirty feet long
and four feet broad, and sufficiently spacious to convey both horses
and bullocks. So ample are their dimensions that there is no risk of
their being upset, nor did they lurch in the least degree as we got
into them. They were made with both ends running horizontally out into
a beak, and the border lines were ornamented with carved figures. As
the current was not very strong, it was found sufficient to have two
boatmen, who squatted down at each extremity of the canoe; their
paddles were about five feet long, and tapered down towards the end in
the shape of a narrow shovel, and to say the truth, the boatmen used
them very much in shovel-fashion.
I had seen the teak canoes on the Red Sea which are called “Hoory” in
Arabic, and are of a build imported from India, and many of the canoes
which are in use at Suakim and Djidda, but none of these were
comparable, either with respect to size or elegance, with the canoes
of the Monbuttoo. It is remarkable that on the lower course of the
Shary there are no ferry-boats in use except such as are made out of a
number of planks fitted and fastened together; the conclusion from
this would appear to be obvious: either that there are no fine trees
to be felled in that country, similar to those on the borders of the
Welle, or that between the source and mouth of the Shary there are
impediments to navigation which are insuperable. In the distance of
about 1000 miles to Lake Tsad from the point of our passage, the
stream would have fallen more than 1450 feet.
Our encampment was formed about half-a-league to the south of the
river; it was encircled by the dwellings of the Monbuttoo, who had
spread themselves over the declivity of a steep woody ravine. The
groves in this locality yielded me every day fresh trophies in my
raids upon the vegetable domains of Nature, whilst at nightfall the
natives came trooping in and enlisted my curious interest. Ambassadors
deputed by King Munza came to bring me his official recognition, and
were charged at the same time to render to him what information they
could about the doings and intentions of the wonderful stranger. As
the messengers sent by the king were sufficiently versed in the Zandey
dialect to hold conversation in it, I was enabled to make them
understand the object of my visit to their country, and to all
appearances they were thoroughly satisfied by my explanation.
We were still at a little distance from the point which we had
determined must be the limit of our progress for this year; we had,
however, but one day’s rest to make, and then we should proceed to
make our entry into Munza’s quarters. A fresh world of novelty seemed
to be awaiting us in this remote region, the very kernel of the
continent, equally distant from the Indian Ocean and from the
Atlantic. Everything was new. The bright and clear complexion of the
natives, their singular garb, their artistic furniture, the
convenience of their orderly houses, and finally, the savage etiquette
of the pompous court, all struck me with fresh surprise and ever
renewed the feeling of astonishment. There was, moreover, an
exuberance of strange and unexpected vegetation; whilst plantations,
sugar-canes, and oil-palms were everywhere to be seen in plentiful
luxuriance. Truly, I now found myself in the heart of Africa,
realising to the letter the fascinating dreams of my early youth.
[Sidenote: CHARMS OF THE MONBUTTOO LAND.]
Nothing could be more charming than that last day’s march which
brought us to the limit of our wanderings. The twelve miles which led
to Munza’s palace were miles enriched by such beauty as might be
worthy of Paradise. They left an impression upon my memory which can
never fade. The plantain-groves harmonised so perfectly with the
clustering oil-palms that nothing could surpass the perfection of the
scene; whilst the ferns that adorned the countless stems in the
background of the landscape enhanced the charms of the tropical
groves. A fresh and invigorating atmosphere contributed to the
enjoyment of it all, refreshing water and grateful shade being never
far away. In front of the native dwellings towered the splendid figs,
of which the spreading crowns defied the passage of the burning sun.
Anon, we passed amidst jungles of Raphia, alongside brooks crammed
full of reeds, or through galleries where the Pandanus thrived, the
road taking us uphill and downhill in alternate undulation. No less
than twelve of these brooklets did we pass upon our way, some lying in
depressions of one hundred feet, and some sunk as much as two hundred
feet below the summits of their bounding walls of verdant vegetation,
and there were two upheaved and rounded hills of gneiss, rising to an
altitude of some 300 feet, along the flanks of which we wound our
path. On either hand there was an almost unbroken series of the
idyllic homes of the people, who hurried to their gates, and offered
us the choicest products of their happy clime.
Beside the streamlet which was last but one of all we passed, we made
our final halt in the shadow of a large assembly-ground that we might
take our repast of plantains and baked manioc. The crowds of bearers
made their camp around the stem of a colossal _Cordia abyssinica_
which stood upon the open space in front of the abode of the local
chief, and reminded me of the Abyssinian villages, where this tree is
specially cultivated. Von Beuermann has mentioned that he observed
this tree in Kanem rendering the same service as the lindens of the
German villages, and forming a cool and shady resort to which the
residents might betake themselves for recreation. These trees, with
their goodly coronets of spreading foliage, are the survivors from
generations that are gone, and form a comely ornament in well-nigh all
the villages of the Monbuttoo.
And then, at last, conspicuous amidst the massy depths of green, we
espied the palace of the king. We had reached a broad valley, circled
by plantations, and shadowed by some gigantic trees which had survived
the decay of the ancient wilderness; through the lowest part meandered
a transparent brook. We did not descend into the hollow, but halting
on the hither side we chose a station clear of trees, and proceeded
without delay to fix our camp. We enjoyed a view in front of a sloping
area, void of grass, enlivened with an endless multiplicity of huts,
of which the roofs of some were like ordinary sheds, and those of
others of a conical form. And there, surmounting all, with extensive
courts broad and imposing, unlike anything we had seen since we left
the edifices of Cairo, upreared itself the spacious pile of King
Munza’s dwelling.
[Sidenote: ARRIVAL AT KING MUNZA’S PALACE.]
The order for the halt was no sooner given than the bearers set about
their wonted work, and labouring with their knives and hatchets soon
procured from the jungles by the brook the supply of material
sufficient for our architectural needs. Rapidly as ever our encampment
was reared: hardly an hour elapsed before our place of sojourn was in
order, with a gorgeous landscape opening in its front, and this time
in view of the royal abode of an African monarch. My own tent, which
began to exhibit only too plainly the tokens of being somewhat
weather-beaten by repeated exposure, was located in the very midst of
the lines of our grass-huts: not now was it erected, as often it had
been, upon the bare rock of a desolate wilderness, but in the centre
of a scene of surpassing beauty: for the first time I had it decorated
with my flag, which waved proudly above it in honour of our arrival at
the court of so distinguished and powerful a prince.
The natives lost no time in crowding in and endeavouring to obtain an
interview. But it suited my inclination to withdraw myself for a time.
I remained in the retirement of my tent simply because I was weary of
these interviews, which always necessitated my permitting either my
head to be handled, in order to convince them that the long straight
hair was really my own, or my bosom (like Wallenstein’s when he
fronted his murderers) to be bared that they might admire its
whiteness. I was thus induced to remain under shelter, and meanwhile
the Monbuttoo magnates waited patiently or impatiently without; they
had brought their benches, which they placed close to my quarters, but
I continued obstinate in my determination to be undisturbed, resolved
to reserve all my strength and energy for the following day, when I
should have to exhibit the marvel of my existence before King Munza
himself.
FOOTNOTES:
[47] ‘Troglodytes Schweinfurthii Gigl. in Studii
Craniologici sui Cimpanze.’ Genova, 1872.
[48] Reichert’s and Du Bois Raymond’s ‘Archiv.’ Berlin,
1872.
[49] The A-Madi must not be confounded with the Madi of the
Mittoo, nor with the Madi south of Gondokoro. In the native
dialect “a” is only a plural form: _e.g._, “ango” means a
dog; “a-ango,” dogs.
[50] The measurements are given in the sketch-map in Vol.
II.
END OF VOL. I.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
INDEX.
A-BANGA, tribe of, i. 522;
entertaining, i. 531;
their arrows, i. 534;
trophy of their heads, ii. 176, 178;
great body of, ii. 180.
Aboo Guroon, i. 185;
repulsed by Tikkiboh, ii. 95;
visit to, ii. 287;
his death, ii. 308.
Aboo Maaref, i. 242.
Aboo Odfa, a natural monument, i. 37.
Aboo Sammat, i. 99;
his liberality, i. 333, 417;
his hospitality, i. 351;
his speech, i. 397;
his territory, i. 465;
wounded, ii. 171;
present from, ii. 277;
attacked, ii. 285.
Abrey (cold cup), i. 373.
Acacin, _spirocarpa_, i. 59;
_verugata_, i. 76;
_fistula_, i. 97.
_Adenia venenata_, i. 135.
Adimokoo the Akka, ii. 127;
his war-dance, ii. 129.
Agar, i. 225.
Ahmed, i. 434;
his death, ii. 230.
Ahmed Aga, ii. 357, 360, 369.
Akka, their country, ii. 84;
their height, complexion, and hair, ii. 140;
appearance, ii. 141;
their hands, skull, and eyes, ii. 142;
ears and lips, ii. 143;
dialect, ii. 144;
their treatment by the Monbuttoo, ii. 145.
_Albizzia serico-cephalus_, i. 144.
Algiers, ii. 435.
Allagabo the Bongo, ii. 205, 460, 487.
Aloe, not found in Egypt, i. 105;
with green blossom, ii. 203.
Alwaj district, i. 171.
Ambatch (Herminiera), i. 61;
canoes, i. 77.
Amomum, i. 468.
Analogy of rivers, i. 113.
Anonaceæ, i. 497.
_Anona Senegalensis_, i. 222.
Antelopes: _megaloceras_, i. 63;
_madoqua_, i. 188, 243; ii. 464;
_caama_, i. 195, 427;
_leucotis_, i. 196, 241, 457; ii. 233, 445;
_leucophæa_, i. 216;
_nigra_, i. 242;
_grimmia_, i. 243;
_arundinacea_, ii. 446;
_ellipsiprymna_, i. 338;
_oreas_, i. 359, ii. 248;
antelope chased by hyæna, ii. 205.
Ant-hills, i. 349; ii. 196.
Anthocleista, i. 470.
Antinori, Marquis, i. 185; ii. 80.
Ants, invasion of, ii. 227.
Apostrophe to the Nile, i. 187.
Arab nicknames, i. 82.
Arabs, true, i. 28.
Arash Kol, Mt., i. 57.
Arbab, marriage of, i. 40.
Arslan, my sheep dog, i. 56;
stung by bees, i. 74;
his death, i. 217.
Assika, the river, ii. 183.
Atoborroo, i. 457.
Awoory, i. 377.
BABUCKUR, raid on, ii. 222;
persecution of, ii. 257;
their women, ii. 258;
value as slaves, ii. 419.
Baginze, Mt., ii. 212;
its position, ii. 213;
vegetation, ii. 214.
Baggara, i. 66;
Rizegat, ii. 341, 395.
Bahr-el-Arab, its mouth, i. 122;
identity with the Bahr-el-Homr, ii. 370;
its importance, ii. 392.
Bahr-el-Ghazal, compared to the Havel, i. 115;
its importance, i. 123, 125.
(_Vide_ Gazelle.)
Bahr-el-Kooroo, ii. 353.
Baker, Sir Samuel: encounter with natives, i. 30;
his opinion of soil by the White Nile, i. 56;
suppression of slave expedition from Fashoda, i. 83;
hindered at the grass barrier, i. 106;
loss of pack-ass, i. 135;
praise of Lepidosiren, i. 136;
living on Melochia, ii. 197;
book of travels, i. 320; ii. 198;
condemns eleusine, i. 492;
statement about Lake Mwootan, ii. 162;
peremptory measures, ii. 410, 429;
indignation against, ii. 485.
_Balæniceps rex_, i. 117; ii. 472.
Bamboos (_bambusa_), i. 183;
in blossom, i. 237;
jungles, ii. 251, 253.
Bastard-gemsbock, i. 216.
Beads, i. 203, 502; ii. 235.
Beans, i. 249; ii. 254.
Bear-baboons, i. 198.
Bearers, desertion of, i. 184;
feeding them, i. 461, 475;
consideration shown to them, i. 477;
an exhausted bearer, i. 433;
three of them murdered, ii. 220.
Bedouins, town, i. 28.
Beery, the river, ii. 377.
Bees: attacked by a swarm, i. 73;
suffering from their stings, i. 75.
Bees’ wax, ii. 167.
Behnky, name for Niam-niam chieftains, ii. 22.
Bellanda, i. 200.
Berber, i. 38;
return to, ii. 485.
Bet-el-Gellahba, ii. 394.
Bishareen, i. 28;
their sheep and goats, i. 32;
ugliness of the women, i. 36.
Blessing, the missionary, ii. 482.
Blippo (_Gardenia malleifera_), i. 440;
used by Monbuttoo, ii. 104.
Boar, wild, i. 363.
Bodumoh, the river, ii. 202.
BONGO: festival of, i. 183;
their country, i. 257;
vassalage, i. 259;
population, i. 260;
complexion, i. 261;
stature, i. 263;
skull and hair, i. 264;
agriculture, i. 266;
smoking, i. 269;
goats, i. 270;
dogs, i. 271;
hunting, i. 272;
money, i. 279;
ornaments, i. 279;
graves, i. 285, 303;
music, i. 287;
weapons, i. 299;
games, i. 300;
fear of ghosts, i. 305;
belief in witches, i. 307;
singing, i. 309;
dialect, i. 311;
sauces, i. 462;
concert, ii. 404;
value as slaves, ii. 419;
chief, executed, ii. 457.
Bongwa, the chieftain, i. 543;
his wife, i. 544;
return to, ii. 153.
Boroo (or borru), ii. 32, 181.
“Bride of the Fish,” i. 16.
Bruce, the traveller, i. 113.
Buffalo, attack of a wild, i. 64;
frantic herd of them, i. 70;
African species, i. 193;
alarmed by, ii. 259;
herd of them, ii. 265;
calf killed, ii. 347.
Bunza, son of Munza, ii. 57.
Bushbock killed, ii. 255.
Bushmen, ii. 139.
Butterflies, i. 197.
Butter tree, i. 220.
CALAMUS, hedge of, i. 468.
Calotropis, ii. 343.
Cannibalism: traces of, i. 517;
amongst Niam-niam, ii. 17, 224;
amongst Monbuttoo, ii. 93.
Caraïb (_Bucerosia_), i. 22.
Caroob, i. 191.
Carpodiuus, i. 192.
Cat, wild (_Felis Maniculata_), i. 320.
Cattle-diseases, ii. 280.
Cattle-raids on Dinka, i. 227; ii. 465.
Caves of Kulongo, i. 234.
Charcoal, ignorance of, i. 208.
Chimpanzees: abundance in Wando’s district, i. 497, 518;
mode of catching, i. 521.
Chinese hand-barrows, ii. 307.
Christianity and slave-trade, ii. 432.
Christ’s thorn (_Zizyphus Baclei_), i. 360.
Cogyvor, or wizards, i. 331.
Cola-nut, ii. 49.
Coldest day, ii. 304.
Colocasia, i. 445.
Copper: taken as exchange, i. 502;
known to Monbuttoo, ii. 109;
ornaments, ii. 110;
goods obtained for, ii. 362;
mines, ii. 372.
_Cordia abyssinica_, i. 558.
Crocodiles, ii. 336.
Cussonia, ii. 212.
Cyanite, ii. 47.
DAL KURDYOOK, a Dinka chief, ii. 466.
Damury, ii. 345.
Damvo, ii. 212.
Dangabor, Bongo ornament, i. 282.
Dangadduloo, i. 372.
Dapper, ii. 136.
Dar Aboo Dinga river, ii. 390.
Dar Ferteet, district of, ii. 365, 430.
Darfoor, refuge for outlaws, i. 383;
route to, ii. 371;
its copper-mines, ii. 372.
Defafang, an extinct volcano, i. 69.
Dehms, ii. 355, 365;
Dehm Nduggo, ii. 360;
Dehm Gudyoo, ii. 380;
Dehm Bekeer, ii. 387.
Deloo antelopes, i. 245.
Depopulation of Africa, ii. 437.
Deraggo, i. 399.
Dialect: Dyoor, i. 200;
Bongo, i. 311;
Niam-niam, ii. 31;
Monbuttoo, ii. 102;
Akka, ii. 144;
Golo, ii. 350;
Kredy, ii. 368;
Sehre, ii. 396.
DINKA: territory, i. 148;
physical peculiarities, i. 149;
ornaments, i. 153;
weapons, i. 155;
cookery, i. 157;
houses, i. 159;
domestic animals, i. 160;
population, i. 167;
character, i. 169;
soil, i. 180.
Displacement of Nile vegetation, i. 69.
Djee, the river, ii. 388, 395.
Doggoroo, the river, i. 327; ii. 268.
Doggudoo (or Dokkuttoo), i. 367.
Dome-palms (_Hyphæne thebaica_), ii. 185.
Doomookoo, i. 240.
Dracænæ, i. 21.
Dualism of vegetation, i. 223, 505.
Ducks, i. 120.
Dueme, village on the White Nile, i. 59.
Duggoo, i. 343.
Dugwara, i. 389.
Duisberg, German vice-consul at Khartoom, i. 42, 45; ii. 482.
Dumburre, ii. 407.
Dyafer, Pasha, Governor-general of Khartoom, i. 44; ii. 479, 483.
Dyagbe, the river, i. 516.
Dyoor, the river, mouth of, i. 124;
old bed of, i. 125;
dimensions of, i. 186; ii. 283, 312;
fishing in, ii. 451.
DYOOR, nation; name and dialect, i. 200;
complexion and ornaments, i. 201;
women, i. 202;
slimness, i. 204;
spears and spades, i. 205;
iron-smelting, i. 206;
smelting-furnaces, i. 207;
huts, i. 209;
hunting snares, i. 211;
character, i. 211;
clay-floors, i. 212;
affection, i. 212.
EARTH-NUTS, i. 250.
Eclipse of sun, i. 11.
Egyptians, their troops, ii. 357;
their apathy, ii. 435.
Elephants: African contrasted with Indian, i. 139;
traces of, i. 457;
hunted by Niam-niam, ii. 25;
present of a young elephant, ii. 277.
Eleusine-corn, i. 248, 448, 492;
beer made from, ii. 13.
El-Sett (the grass barrier), i. 107.
El-Usher, ii. 343.
Encephalartus, i. 448; ii. 375.
Ensete (wild plantain), ii. 215.
_Entada scandens_, ii. 62.
_Eriodendron anfractuosum_, ii. 351.
Erkoweet, a summer retreat from Sunkin, i. 25.
Euphorbiæ, i. 21;
candelabra, i. 120.
Extract of meat, ii. 69, 234.
FAKI, grave of a, ii. 292;
reverence for Fakis, ii. 324;
Fakis as slave-dealers, ii. 413.
Fan, analogy with Niam-niam, ii. 19.
Fanatical priest from Kano, i. 30;
an offended, ii. 342.
Fanekama, ii. 479.
Farookh (black soldiers), ii. 182, 421.
Fashoda, limit of Egyptian government, i. 78;
return to, ii. 479.
Ferns, i. 507.
Fever, immunity from, i. 128;
deaths from, ii. 486.
Fig-trees of Monbuttoo, ii. 88;
gigantic tree in Bongo land, ii. 343;
in Seriba Moody, ii. 405.
Fire, alarm of, i. 316; ii. 461;
in Seriba, ii. 290.
Flags, i. 138.
Flies on the Gazelle, i. 115.
Fulbe, affinity of Monbuttoo with, ii. 101.
Funguses, i. 267.
GADDA, the river, ii. 251.
Gallery-forests, i. 504;
vegetation of, i. 506.
Garden, my, i. 213.
Gazelle, the river (Bahr-el-Ghazal), i. 112, 113, 123, 126; ii. 473.
Geer, the Seriba, i. 181, 230; ii. 460.
Geese, on the White Nile, i. 54.
Gellahbas (slave-dealers), i. 228; ii. 356, 360, 365, 412, 417.
Ghattas, choice of, i. 45;
contract with, i. 48;
a bird named, i. 115;
his Seribas, ii. 270, 289.
Ghetty, the river, ii. 336.
Gimsah, sulphur works at, i. 12.
Giraffes, i. 182.
Gnats, i. 115.
Gneiss-hills, i. 536; ii. 387.
Goat-suckers (_Cosmetornis Spekii Sclatei_), i. 357.
Goggo, i. 394.
Gourds, i. 252; ii. 269.
Government contract, i. 6;
troops, ii. 305.
Grass, i. 229.
Grass-barrier (El-Sett), i. 105.
Grass-huts, ii. 226.
Greenstone prevalent, i. 32.
Gresse, the river, ii. 380.
Gudyoo, Dehm, ii. 379.
Guinea-fowl, i. 460.
Guinea-hog, ii. 78.
Gumango, the hill, i. 446;
chasm, ii. 346.
Gum-arabic, i. 97.
Gun-accident, i. 88;
narrow escape from, i. 474, 497.
Gyabir, the interpreter, i. 513;
shot in the arm, i. 533;
his cowardice, ii. 284.
HABBABKUM, i. 65.
_Haliëtos vocifer_, i. 96.
Hartebeests, i. 195; ii. 231, 259, 263, 463.
Hassanieh—their cattle, i. 58;
their dogs, i. 59.
Hegelig (Balanites), i. 66.
Hellali, the swindler, ii. 266, 330, 356, 364.
Herminiera (ambatch), i. 61.
Heuglin, Theodor von, i. 129; ii. 337, 339, 344.
Hexabolus (Anonacea), i. 432.
Hibiscus, i. 253.
Hippopotamuses—in the White Nile, i. 56;
in the Keebaly, ii. 159;
in the Dyoor, ii. 314;
their fat, ii. 316;
one dying, ii. 473.
Hoo, the river, i. 456; ii. 200, 225.
Humboldt Institution, grant from, i. 4.
Humboldtia (Kobbo-tree), i. 451.
Hussīen, my Nubian servant, i. 416.
Huts, of the Dyoor, i. 209;
grass, ii. 226.
Hyæna-dogs (_Canis pictus_), ii. 274.
Hyæna-woman, i. 307; ii. 475.
Hyæna chasing an antelope, ii. 205.
Hydrographical law as affecting riverbanks, i. 54.
Hyptis, i. 250.
IBBA, the river (the Upper Tondy), i. 435.
Ibrahim Effendi, ii. 363.
Idrees (Ghattas’s plenipotentiary), i. 178;
his negligence, ii. 297.
Idrees, Wod Defter, ii. 349.
Indimma, ii. 239.
Inglery, Mohammed Aboo Sammat’s trumpeter, i. 490.
Islamism, ii. 434.
Islands of Sixth Cataract, i. 40.
Ismail Pasha, _bon mot_ of, i. 113.
Issoo, the Upper Tondy, ii. 210.
Ivory, trade in Khartoom, i. 46;
traffic unimportant, i. 175;
Europeans in ivory trade, i. 177;
cost of, i. 503.
Izingerria—visit to, i. 547.
JACKALS, i. 236.
Jewish school, i. 330.
KAHPILY, the river, ii. 155.
Kamrasi, inquiries for, ii. 67.
Kanna, ambassadors from, ii. 55;
march to, ii. 240.
Karra, the magic tuber, ii. 399.
Keebaly, the river, ii. 151;
its rapids, ii. 158;
its identity with the Upper Shary, ii. 161.
Khalil, i. 188; ii. 302, 318, 409, 453.
Khareef, i. 324.
Khartoom: merchants of, i. 5;
arrival at, i. 42;
reception in, i. 44;
ivory trade of, i. 46;
ship-building at, i. 51;
return to, ii. 481.
Khaya-tree, i. 188.
Kher, Mohammed, i. 71.
Khor-el-Renuem, ii. 353.
Kigelin, i. 140.
Kilnoky, i. 231.
Kishy, bridge over the river, ii. 203.
Kissere (Arab bread), i. 249; ii. 252.
Kites, ii. 231.
Kobbe-trees (Humboldtia), i. 431.
Kokkorokoo, the tree, i. 469.
_Kosaria palmata_, i. 220.
Krapf, ii. 138.
KREDY: their appearance, ii. 367;
boundaries, ii. 368;
huts, ii. 375;
corn-magazines, ii. 376.
Kubby, ii. 157.
Kudy, village of, i. 170; ii. 466.
Kulongo, i. 233.
Kurbatches, ii. 317.
Kurdyook, Shol’s husband, i. 133; ii. 469.
Kurragera, southern limit of Aboo Sammat’s territory, i. 395.
Kurkur, ii. 273.
Kurshook Ali, the Sandjak, ii. 265;
his death, ii. 282.
Kussumbo, woods on the, i. 541; ii. 154.
Kyatt worm, i. 166.
Kyt, _cul-de-sac_ on the Gazelle, i. 124, 127; ii. 471.
LAO, its water, i. 143; ii. 467.
Lassav (_Capparis galeata_), i. 23.
Lavargue, French vice-consul at Berber, i. 39;
his death, ii. 486.
Leopard killed, ii. 255.
Lepidosiren, i. 135.
Le Saint, i. 129.
Leucotis antelopes, i. 196.
“L’homme à queue” told on the Nile, i. 68; ii. 2.
Lightning, women killed by, i. 317.
Lindukoo, last stream of Nile-system, i. 486, 493;
cataract on, i. 491; ii. 191.
Lions: limited in number, i. 361;
carrying off a soldier, i. 367;
track of a, ii. 156;
one shot, ii. 311.
Livingstone, Dr., i. 504; ii. 99, 186.
Lizards (_Agama colonorum_), i. 322.
Lollo, the river, ii. 477.
Longo, dirt in, ii. 340.
Loobah woman, i. 409.
MADIKAMM, ii. 201.
Madoqua antelopes, i. 244.
Maia Signora, i. 107; ii. 474.
Maize, i. 248;
preparation by Niam-niam, ii. 16;
in Mbomo’s district, ii. 254.
Mabzac, i. 337.
Manatus, in the Keebaly, ii. 160.
Mandeb (_Mimosa aspirata_), i. 61.
Manioc, bearer poisoned by, i. 476;
its cultivation, i. 525.
Manzilly, the brook, i. 458.
Maogoo, cattle from the, i. 546; ii. 69;
probable identity with the Malegga, ii. 85.
Marshes, mode of crossing, i. 498.
Matamma, on the Nile, i. 39.
Mbahly: nickname for Aboo Sammat, i. 481;
Munza’s inquiries for, ii. 38;
his challenge, ii. 177.
Mbarik-pah, the leaf-eater, i. 513; ii. 202.
Mbomo, the Seriba, ii. 247, 253.
Mbrwole, the river, i. 496; ii. 188, 189.
Mehemet Ali, ii. 431.
Menagerie, a, ii. 278.
Merdyan’s Seriba, ii. 204.
Meshera, i. 48;
arrival at the, i. 124;
the mode of anchoring in, i. 130;
start from the, i. 137;
embarkation from the, ii. 469.
Mice, i. 273.
Mimosa, stranding on a, ii. 260.
Minstrels, a Niam-niam, i. 445; ii. 30, 241.
Mirakok, i. 145.
MITTOO: tour in their country, i. 367;
language, i. 403;
fertility of soil, i. 405;
ornaments, i. 411;
bearers, i. 419;
value as slaves, ii. 419.
Mofio, ii. 389, 417.
Molmul, the river, ii. 273, 301.
Momvoo: goats of the, ii. 69;
their country, ii. 83.
MONBUTTOO: pipes, i. 548;
canoes, i. 555;
charm of country, i. 557;
halls, ii. 42;
their curiosity, ii. 53, 59;
women, ii. 60, 91;
reports of territory, ii. 81, 82;
government, ii. 86;
scenery, ii. 86;
produce, ii. 87;
hunting, ii. 89;
cannibalism, ii. 92;
potentates, ii. 96;
complexion, ii. 100;
dialect, ii. 102;
coiffure, ii. 106;
weapons, ii. 107, 111;
smelting, ii. 108;
tools, ii. 112;
benches, ii. 113;
shields and seat-rests, ii. 115;
water-bottles, ii. 116;
basket-work and musical instruments, ii. 117;
architecture, ii. 118;
religion, ii. 120.
Money, iron, i. 279.
Mongolongbo, valley of, i. 429.
Mongono, ii. 348.
Monkeys, i. 488.
Morokoh, the river, ii. 251.
Mummery, Munza’s brother, ii. 72, 74;
his body-guard of Akka, ii. 131.
Mundo, of the Bongo, i. 241; ii. 258.
Mundo in Zileï Mountains, ii. 210.
Mungala, Niam-niam game, ii. 28.
Muntass Bey, Governor of Suakin, i. 24.
Munza: messengers from, i. 556;
view of his palace, i. 558;
his friendship for Mohammed, ii. 37;
summons to, ii. 39;
waiting for, ii. 41;
his ornamental weapons, ii. 43, 94;
his costume and appearance, ii. 45;
presents for, ii. 47;
his mode of smoking, ii. 48;
his oration, ii. 51;
his present to me, ii. 52;
his sister, ii. 58;
his wives, ii. 58;
his castle, ii. 63;
his arsenal, ii. 64;
his dance, ii. 75;
his sleeping apartments, ii. 77;
visits from, ii. 77;
his dish, ii. 79;
his harem, ii. 96;
his household, ii. 97;
his wardrobe, ii. 98.
Murhaga, ii. 424.
_Musa sapientium_, i. 447.
Mvolo, district of, i. 384;
animals in, i. 387.
Mwata Yanvo, ii. 99.
NABAMBISSO, the river, ii. 193.
Nalengbe, Munza’s sister, ii. 58, 95.
Names of places, i. 194.
Ndoruma, ii. 309.
Nduppo, Wando’s brother, i. 478;
his death, i. 517.
Nembey, visit from, i. 540;
arrival at, ii. 153.
_Neophron pileatus_, i. 97.
Ngama, i. 411.
Nganye, a Niam-niam chieftain, i. 436;
visit to, i. 431;
his family, i. 450;
stay with, ii. 243.
Ngoly, i. 428; ii. 263.
Ngudoroo, the river, ii. 388.
Ngulfala, distillery in, i. 238; ii. 403.
NIAM-NIAM: first sight of, i. 189;
start to their country, i. 416;
their huts, i. 449;
their chiefs, i. 467;
modesty of the women, i. 471;
morning toilette, i. 491;
names of, ii. 3;
their country, ii. 3;
their appearance, ii. 5;
clothing, ii. 6;
head-gear, ii. 7;
decorations, ii. 8;
trumbashes, ii. 9;
weapons, ii. 10;
hunting and agriculture, ii. 12;
beer, ii. 13;
pipes, ii. 14;
dogs, ii. 15, 241;
architecture, ii. 20;
chieftains, ii. 21;
emblems of war, ii. 23;
handicraft, ii. 25;
greetings, ii. 27;
marriages and conjugal affection, ii. 28;
music, ii. 29;
dialect, ii. 31;
auguries, ii. 32;
superstition and treatment of dead, ii. 34;
attack by, ii. 236;
value as slaves, ii. 419.
Nile-boats, crowded, i. 50; ii. 478.
Nilometer, proposed, i. 41.
No, Lake, i. 111, 112.
Nsewne, the Akka, ii. 132;
his love of mischief, ii. 144.
NUBIANS: their pitiable condition, i. 41;
their superstitions, i. 49; ii. 322;
how to deal with them, i. 421;
their inconsistency, ii. 165;
their dislike to pure water, ii. 275;
soldiers, i. 176.
Nueir, district of the, i. 117;
their habits, i. 119.
Nyemata, Mount, i. 67.
Nyitti, i. 251.
_Nymphæa stellata and N. lotus_, i. 114.
O-BONGO, ii. 135.
Oil palm, ii. 89;
oil from, ii. 92.
O-mareg, summer retreat from Suakin, i. 31.
Ombet (dragon-tree), i. 22.
Ori, Dr., letter to Antinori, ii. 80;
his death, ii. 486.
Oysters, river, ii. 452.
PAPYRUS, i. 109;
at the Kyt, i. 126.
Parkia-trees, ii. 339.
Parley with Niam-niam chiefs, ii. 169.
_Parra africanus_, i. 136.
Parrots, grey, ii. 9.
Peneeo, the behnky, i. 436.
Penicillaria, i. 248.
Pepper, cayenne, i. 253;
malaghetta, i. 468;
Ashantee, ii. 382.
Petherick, i. 127.
Piaggia, his visit to the Niam-niam, i. 434, 504;
inquiries about, i. 480; ii. 56;
his lake, ii. 65.
Pillen-wasp (_Eumenes tinctor_), i. 321.
Plantains, i. 198; ii. 87, 88.
_Platycerium elephantotis_, i. 538.
_Plotus melanogaster_, i. 114.
_Polopterus bichir_, i. 135, 232.
Poncet, the brothers, contract with the government, i. 382;
their settlement, i. 393.
Pongo, the river, ii. 344.
Popukky grass, i. 437, 447.
Port Rek, i. 125; ii. 467.
Posts, memorial, i. 517.
Pushyoh, a Treculia, i. 528.
Pygmies: my incredulity about, i. 68;
exchange a dog for a pygmy, ii. 67;
stories about, ii. 153.
(_Vide_ Akka.)
_Python Sebæ_, killed near Fashoda, i. 83;
and antelope killed together, i. 364.
QUININE, i. 128;
value of, i. 323.
RAINFALL, ii. 281.
_Raphia vinifera_, i. 199;
used for building, ii. 42.
Rats, ii. 405.
Red Sea, voyage on, i. 11;
heat on, i. 15;
nights on, i. 18.
Reed-rats, ii. 384;
hunting, ii. 408, 446.
Reggo, i. 392.
Rek, Port, i. 125; ii. 467.
Rhinoceros-bird (_Tetmoceras abyssinicus_), ii. 205.
Rice, i. 247.
Riharn, my cook, i. 60, 486; ii. 204.
Rikkete, Wando’s brother, i. 479;
entertaining, i. 486;
visit to, i. 487;
his wives, i. 489.
Roah, the river, i. 367.
Rock rabbits, i. 385.
Rohl, the river, i. 376, 401.
Rokko-coats of Monbuttoo, ii. 104.
Rokooba, ii. 289.
Roway, salt-works at, i. 16.
Rye, the river, i. 448.
SABBY (Seriba), i. 337, 340; ii. 264.
Sablook, i. 40.
Salt-works at Cape Roway, i. 16.
Sarcocephalus, i. 192.
Schweinfurthia, i. 35.
Scorbutic attack, ii. 381.
Scorpions, ii. 456.
Seebehr Rahama, ii. 329;
his Seriba, ii. 354;
his court, ii. 361;
departure from, ii. 374.
Sehre, ii. 395, 397, 401.
Seriba, i. 47;
Ghattas’s, i. 172;
destruction of a, i. 225;
law, i. 226;
controllers of, ii. 426;
Shereefee’s, i. 340.
Sesame, i. 229.
Seyleb (_Sanseviera_), i. 22.
Shary, identity with the Welle, i. 553.
Shekka, ii. 370.
Shereefee, his Seriba Duggoo, i. 343;
his Seriba Dogguddoo, i. 344;
dearth in his Seribas. ii. 267;
attacks Mohammed, ii. 85;
shielded by the Aga, ii. 358.
SHILLOOKS: first sight of, i. 72;
statistics, i. 85;
their villages, i. 87;
their animals, i. 91;
pursuit by, i. 101;
market, i. 101; ii. 471.
Shipbuilding in Khartoom, i. 51.
Shol, the Dinka queen, i. 141;
her riches and influence, i. 131;
her appearance, i. 132;
presents to, i. 134;
her death, ii. 338;
remains of her huts, ii. 469.
Shoosh-grass (_Panicum turgidum_), i. 53.
Short rations, ii. 196.
Singat, i. 24.
Skins, abundance of, i. 481.
Skulls, purchase of, ii. 54;
in Berlin Museum, ii. 32.
Slaves crowded in boats, i. 50; ii. 478;
as payment to soldiers, i. 175;
dying of starvation, i. 346;
feeding a caravan of, i. 368;
complaints of female, i. 390;
cruelty to, ii. 414;
price of, ii. 418;
comparative value of, ii. 419;
number of, ii. 420;
as soldiers, ii. 421;
private, ii. 422;
employed in husbandry, ii. 425;
treatment in Egypt, ii. 436;
on board the Nile boat, ii. 470;
at Wod Shellay, ii. 480;
confiscation of, ii. 483.
Slave-dealer from Tunis, i. 189.
Slave-trade: independent of ivory trade, i. 46;
population of Bongo-land diminished by, i. 260;
tacitly acknowledged, i. 381;
all enterprises involved in, i. 383;
flourishing in 1870 and 1871, ii. 410;
sources of, ii. 428;
abolition of, ii. 433;
measures taken in Fanekama against, ii. 478.
Slave-traders: iniquity of, i. 190;
rendezvous at Shekka for, ii. 370;
goods bartered by, ii. 411;
description of, ii. 412;
risks incurred by, ii. 415;
hospitality shown to, ii. 416;
classes of, ii. 417.
Smelting-furnaces: of the Dyoor, i. 207;
of the Bongo, i. 208, 278.
Sobat, the river, i. 100.
_Soirée musicale_ of the Bongo, i. 354.
Soldiers: Nubian, i. 176;
black, i. 483.
Soliman, son of Kurshook Ali, ii. 452.
Solar phenomenon, i. 326.
Solongoh, ii. 389.
Sorghum, i. 245; ii. 252.
Sources of slave-trade, ii. 428.
Sparmannia, ii. 200.
Speke, i. 113, 319; ii. 126.
_Spiro streptus_, i. 214.
Squirrels (_Sciurus leucumbrinus_), i. 387.
Steps counted in walking, ii. 300.
Sterculia, ii. 393.
Steudner, Dr., i. 129;
death of, ii. 337.
Suæda (samphire), i. 17.
Suakin, sea-route to, i. 10;
excursion from, i. 19;
return to, ii. 488.
Suez, blunders in telegram, i. 7;
scenes in governor’s divan, i. 8, 9;
canal, i. 10.
Sugar-canes, i. 547.
Sulphur-works at Gimsah, i. 12.
Sun, eclipse of, i. 11.
Suppression of slave-trade, suggestions for, ii. 439.
Surroor, Aboo Sammat’s lieutenant, i. 465;
his mbanga, i. 470;
speaks Arabic, i. 473.
Swamp-men, i. 119.
Sway, the river, identical with the Dyoor, i. 453;
crossing the, ii. 228.
Swords, ii. 457.
TAKE, village of, i. 145; ii. 467.
Telegram, i. 7; ii. 482.
Terminalia, i. 426.
Thibaud, ii. 482.
Tikkitikki, ii. 133;
parting from friends, ii. 149;
successful shooting, ii. 278, 450;
illness and death, ii. 486.
Tinné, Miss, fatality of expedition, i. 129;
her headquarters, ii. 332;
her mother, ii. 338.
Tobacco, i. 160, 214, 254, 269; ii. 14, 87.
Tokkuls, i. 178.
Tombo, king, i. 480.
Tondy, the river, i. 181;
passage over, i. 336;
suspension-bridge over, ii. 43, 44;
crossing the, ii. 269.
Transport, means of, i. 139; ii. 305;
suggestion for, ii. 307.
Travelling costume, i. 425.
_Troglodytes niger_, i. 519.
Trumbash, i. 441; ii. 9.
Trumpet-tree, ii. 157.
Tubers, i. 250, 268, 445.
Tudyee, the river, i. 366, 426.
Tuhamy, arrival of, i. 542;
his Seriba, ii. 201, 209.
Turks, ii. 359.
_Urostigma Kotschyana_, ii. 88;
bast of, ii. 102.
_Usnea_ (beard-moss), i. 26.
Uzze, the river, i. 477.
VALISNERIA, in the Gazelle, i. 123.
Vasel, ii. 485.
Vayssière, the French hunter, i. 185.
Vegetation of Nile displaced by civilization, i. 69.
Viceroy, _bon mot_ of, i. 113;
small power of, ii. 441.
_Victoria regia_, attempt to naturalize, i. 121.
Vine, wild, ii. 234.
_Vivera genetta_, i. 490.
WANDO: animosity of, i. 482;
river of, i. 496;
Mohammed’s interview with, i. 501, 504;
his nonchalance, i. 505;
his present of food, i. 511;
his augury, ii. 33, 49.
Watches, ii. 299.
Water, bad, ii. 400.
—— -birds, ii. 315.
—— -lilies, i. 114.
—— -plants, i. 121.
—— -shed of Nile, i. 494.
Welle, the river, i. 548, 554.
White-ants: their hills, i. 120;
of the trees, i. 539;
as food, ii. 197.
White Nile, embarkation on, i. 49.
Widow-ducks, i. 121.
Wild boar shot, i. 363.
Wod Shellay, i. 56; ii. 480.
Wounds, Mittoo treatment of, i. 371;
by arrows, ii. 279;
Dyoor treatment of, ii. 334.
Wow, the Seriba, i. 91.
Wow, the river, i. 190; ii. 333.
YABO, i. 476.
Yabongo, i. 476; ii. 193.
Yams, i. 250.
Yanga’s grave, i. 285.
Yolo-antelopes, ii. 446.
Yubbo, the river, i. 478; ii. 192.
Yumma, Kurshook Ali’s Vokeel, ii. 384, 389.
Yuroo, i. 531.
ZAWA-TREES, i. 447; ii. 200.
Zebra-ichneumon, i. 358.
Zileï Mountains, ii. 210.
Transcriber’s Note:
This book was written in a period when many words had not become
standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling
variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been
left unchanged unless indicated below.
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the
end of the chapter. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards,
upside down, missing, or partially printed letters and punctuatios,
were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and
abbreviations were added. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left
unchanged. Misspelled words were not corrected.
In the List of Illustrations, Dinka Village shown as facing page
159, instead is displayed as the frontispiece.
The following were changed:
Odd-numbered page headers were converted to sidenotes.
Printer’s notes were removed from captions identifying the facing page
number of full-page illustrations.
The index, contained in Volume 2, was added to this volume as a
convenience to readers.