Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/153

 The Bongo are perhaps one of the most kindly, gentle, and industriouH people of Africa. They are not possessed of the extraordinary passion for cattle which characterises the Bari and Denka, but occupy themselves mostly with agriculture, men and women alike preparing the soil and cultivating their plants with the greatest care. The fertile red soil yields abundant crops of tobacco, sesame, durra, and other alimentary plants; but in spite of this variety of vegetable products, including wild roots and mushrooms, the Bongo despise no flesh, fresh or putrid, excepting that of the dog. They drive away the vulture to regale themselves on the remains of its meal of carrion, eat with relish the worms found in the entrails of the ox, devour scorpions, termite larvae, and all creeping and crawling insects. As amongst other tribes, earth-eating is also very common amongst them. The Bongo are the most skilled of African smiths, supplying the Denka with their arms and ornaments. They build ingenious furnaces to direct a current of air across the iron ore, and manufacture with the aid of very simple tools articles equal in finish to the products of the European workshops. Like the Logone people of the Tsad basin, they have introduced the use of round pieces of this metal as money. They are also skilful builders and carvers, erecting substantial dwellings with circular ledges, which serve as terraces or balconies. Hound the graves of their chiefs they carve stakes in the form of human beings, which bear a striking resemblance to the divinities of the South-Sea Islanders. But these human figures of the Bongo are not gods, but merely symbols of the resurrection, a doctrine in which, together with metempsychosis, they are firm believers. The souls of old women are supposed to pass into the bodies of hyænas, on which account these animals are regarded as possible family relations, and never killed. The Diur, that is to say, "Men of the Woods," "Savages," are so called by the Denka, who regard as inferior beings all tribes not possessing numerous herds of cattle. Their true name is Luoh or Lwo, and like the more southerly Belinda, who have encroached on the Niam-Niam domain, they are immigrants of Shilluk stock. They still speak an almost pure Shilluk dialect, and some of the aged amongst them have preserved the traditional system of tattooing peculiar to that nation.

The Diur occupy the last ferruginous terraces of the plateau between the Bongo and Dinka territories. Their domain is watered by several streams, the largest of which takes the name of this tribe. According to Schweinfurth, they number some 20,000, but increase rapidly in times of peace, because their families, remarkable for their mutual affection, are generally numerous. The Diur, much better proportioned than the Denka, are one of the naked peoples classed by the earlier explorers amongst the "tailed men," as they generally wear two attached to the girdle. Skilful smiths like the Bongo, they also manufacture rings for ornamenting the arms and legs, but they no longer dress the hair after the complicated Shilluk fashion. Nearly all the men and women have very short hair. The ancient