Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/154

 customs are disappearing. Thus, amongst others, the Diur have ceased to spit upon each other as a mark of affection ; and the " tree of death," to whose trunk the heads of enemies were nailed, no longer stands at the side of each village. Diur Ghattas, the principal zeriba of the country, is well placed at the junction of the Bongo, Denka, and Diur territories, and in the intermediate zone between the marshy plains and the hilly terraced lands, with their alternate woods and grassy steppes. Sixty miles to the north-east, at the Diur and Momid confluence, sur- rounded by a labyrinth of canals, and to the east of an immense forest, stands the village and the group of depots called Meshra-er-Rek, or " Station of Rek." Here begins the navigation of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and here is the starting-point for all the caravans proceeding south, south-west, or west, into the region of the Upper Nile tributaries. Before the war which cut off this region from Khartum, a steamer ascended the Bahr-el-Ghazal periodically as far as Meshra-er-Rek. North-west of Diur Ghattas, other zeribas follow in the Diur territory. Such are Kuchuk-Ali, where Gessi gained a final victory over the slave-dealer Suleiman, and where are some fine banana, lemon, and orange groves, planted by Schweinfurth ; and Wau, on the left bank of the Diur, surrounded by extensive forests, which furnished the materials for the flotilla in which Gessi sailed down the Diur to the port of the Bahr-el-Ghazal.

West of the Bongo are the Sereh and Golo, whose territories are both bounded by the Ji or Pango tribe. The Sereh greatly resemble their neighbours the Niam-Niam, to whom they were for some time subject. They are a well-built, stout, cleanly, and industrious people. They are of a cheerful disposition, enduring fatigue, hunger, and thirst without complaint. Of all Africans, they possess the fewest domestic animals, rearing poultry alone in their villages.

In general, the Golo resemble the Bongo in appearance and customs, although speaking an entirely different language. Their round huts have very large eaves supported on a circular row of posts, thus forming a complete verandah round the dwelling. They erect exceedingly elegant granaries in the form of a vase resting on a stool, and surmounted by a movable cover tapering to a point ornamented with plumes.

West of the Golo dwell the Kredi or Krej, who wander in small bands in the heart of the forests, and whom Schweinfurth describes as the most repulsive and least intelligent Negroes he ever met. This region, however, which drains through the Biri and other streams into the Bahr-el-Arab, is one of those where the populations have become most mixed, not by free crossings, but by promiscuous intercourse, forced migrations, and the passage of troops and slave-dealers. The whole of Dar-Fertit, a name usually applied by the Arabs to this part of the country, was recently little more than a camp of slave-hunters. The affix Dera or Dwem, meaning "town," joined to so many names of places, indicates the zeriba or fortified stations main-