Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/149

 they call "brothers; "to kill these reptiles is considered a great crime. Schweinfurth was told that pet serpents are kept in every house, which recognise the members of the family and answer to their names.

The large river Yei, which rises in the "Blue Mountains" near the Madi country and the Upper Nile, and which, after describing a westward bend through some marshy tracts, joins the Nile below Gaba Chambeh and the Bahr-ez-Zaruf bifurcation, traverses the lands of the Eakuak, Fajellu, and Kederu tribes, most of whom are related to the Bari and Denka. But amongst the tribes of this basin there is at least one, that of the Iddio, or Makruka, who are entirely distinct in speech, appearance, and usages. They belong to the powerful A-Zandeh or Niam-Niam nation, whose domain stretches chiefly south-west into the Congo basin. The Mukruka (Makanika), or " Cannibals," fully deserve their name, as is attested by Schweinfurth and other European explorers. But taken all in all they are decidedly superior to the surrounding Negro tribes. They are of a reddish black colour, with less flat nose and less prominent cheek-bones, and the facial angle more developed than those of their neighbours. The hair is long and almost silky, and by means of berries and various vegetable substances built up into the most fantastic forms. They do not yield the palm even to the Madi in this respect. They do not extract the incisors like the surrounding Negro tribes, but alone of all non-Mussulmun peoples practise circumcision. They are accordingly regarded as a kind of Mohammedans, although they do not recognise Islam, and this semi-religious brotherhood is one of the reasons why the Egyptian governors choose them to recruit their troops ; but the chief cause is the terror inspired in the other tribes by their courage and reputed cannibalism. The dealers traversing the country had often to fight not only the Makraka men, but the women as well. These Niam-Niam are skilful agriculturists and possess a considerable variety of plants. Although their territory is of small extent, it ranks from its material prosperity as the first amongst the surrounding nations, and one of the administrative departments established by the Eg^'ptian Government is named after these people, although also comprising many other nationalities. The most widespread nation in the Yeï basin above the Denka country are the Muru, one of whose communities, carefully studied by Felkin, bears the name of Madi, like the large tribe on the banks of the Bahr-el-Jebel. Differing little from the Bari and Denka in usages, the Muru also go naked, seldom wearing any ornaments except iron rings. Their distinctive tribal sign consists of two tattoo-marks on the forehead. The stones heaped round their graves have the same form as the dolmens of Brittany. Owing to their physical strength, the Muru are employed as porters throughout the whole region of the Upper Nile tributaries.