Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/145

 enclosures. The Niarabaru hunt this huge pachyderm in a totally different manner from the other tribes. A man concealed amongst the foliage of a tree waits till the beaters have driven the animal under the branch where he is stationed, lance in hand; then the iron head, from 26 to 30 inches long, plunges to the shoulders into the elephant's back, generally producing a mortal wound. Besides being skilful hunters, the Niambara also carefully cultivate their orchards and fields, have beehives roimd their huts, and as smiths rival the Bari of Belenián. One of the chief villages bears the name of the tribe. It is situated 2,000 feet above the sea, in a valley surrounded by high hills, joining by a lateral branch the mountain range which skirts the Nile from Mugi to Dufilé. The pyramid-shaped Ku-Gu peaks rise above the grassy plains of the Niambara, and mineral springs, used alike by natives and the Arab dealers, burst forth in many parts gf the country.

Of all the peoples living on the banks of the Bahr-el-Jebel, the Denka or Dinka, also called Jeng and Jangheh, occupy the most extensive domain. Their territory may be estimated at about 40,000 square miles, and their tribes or separate clans are counted by the dozen. The best known are, naturally, those which, come in contact with the traders, such as the Tuich, the Bor, the Kij or Kitch, and Eliab on the Nile, and the Waj, Rek, and Afoj to the west, on the Bahr-el-Ghazal tributaries. Other Denka communities are also settled on the right bank of the Bahr-el-Abiad, below the Sobat confluence. But although occupying the route necessarily followed by all travellers ascending the Upper Nile or penetrating to the Congo basin, the Denka have in no way altered their mode of life under the influence of foreign civilisation. They have remained free on their plains or marshes, buying next to nothing from the Arab merchants, the milk of their herds, the fruits of their orchards, and the seeds and vegetables of their fields sufficing for all their wants. On the right bank of the Nile, in the country of the tribe of the same name, stands Bor, a fort built by the Egyptian Government to overawe the Denka. Like the Bari, the Denka have also been visited by Italian and Austrian Catholic missionaries, who had settled themselves at Panom or Fautentum, below Bor in the Kij country, on the left bank of the Nile; but they were forced to quit this establishment of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce, Heiligen Kreutz), on account of the epidemics that ravaged the mission. Nor did their proselytising labours produce any results beyond the collection of vocabularies and translations that they brought back from the Denka country.

The Mohammedan missionaries have also had little success amongst the Nilotic peoples, who have remained nature-worshippers, like most of the other Central African peoples.

Like the Bari, who speak an allied language, the Denka are ashamed to wear clothes, the women alone attaching hides to their girdle. They do not however despise ornaments, wearing iron rings on the arms, ankles, and ears, placing ostrich feathers on the crown of the head, tattooing the face to distinguish