Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/572

 470 WEST AFEICA. ungainly form, and according to Emin Bey emits a peculiar and very pungent odour. Enormous shoulder-blades give them a rounded back, other marked physical characteristics being a flat, narrow, and hairy chest, full paunch like that of Negro children, long slender extremities, very delicate hands, large bony knees, feet turned inwards, and an uncomfortable tottering gait. xSTevertheless they are extremely nimble, bounding through the tall grass " like grasshoppers,'' and so sure of aim that they do not hesitate to attack the elephant, planting their darts right in his eye, or, according to the Nubians, creeping between his legs and spearing him from below. Their hunters show great ingenuity in devising and setting snares, in overtaking and pursuing the quarry, thanks to which qualities they live on good terms with their powerful neighbours, supplying them with ivory and at the same time acting as agents for the distribution of salt, which is such a valuable commodity in the interior of Africa. West and north-west of the Monbuttu territory the Nile-Congo waterparting is occupied by the powerful Zandeh or A-Zandeh nation, who like the Tangalas of the Niger basin are better known by the name of Niam-Niam, and who are also called Babungera and Karakara. The crest of the divide running south-east and north-west between the White Nile and Welle slopes runs very nearly through the centre of the Zandeh domain, a healthy and pleasantly undulating region standing from 2,500 to 3,000 feet above sea-level. North-westwards the race also probably penetrates into the Upper Shari, and consequently into the Tsad basin, while the striking resemblance observed between their usages and those of the Fans in the Gaboon and Ogoway regions would seem to show that the Niam- Niams have penetrated far to the west. The original unity of these two peoples is rendered all the more probable that their migrations have proceeded in opposite directions, as if from a common centre of dispersion. Hence while the Fans claim to have come from the east, the Zandehs relate that their forefathers reached their present abodes from the west. But however this be, the part of Central Africa already known to belong to the Niam-Niams is estimated by Schweinfurth at nearly 60,000 square miles, with a total population of probably not less than two millions, either true Zandehs, or allied, vassal, or enslaved peoples. But there is no national unity, and merely in the part of the country explored by him Schweinfurth enumerates no less than thirty- five independent chiefs, several of whom maintained constant blood feuds against each other. According to Keane the Banda Niam-Niams of the north- east should be carefully distinguished both from the Belandas of the central districts between the Nile and Congo watersheds, and from the " white " Niam- Niams, who dwell farther south as far as and bej^ond the Welle, and who are the most civilised of all. ' The fame of the Niam-Niams had long been spread abroad amongst the Nubians and Sudanese Arabs ; but the mirage produced by distance conjured up strange visions of this mysterious people, picturing them rather as a superior kind of ape than as members of the human family. The famous ** tailed men," reported by travellers beyond the Upper Nile regions, were supposed to be none other than the