Physical 
work on 
anthropology 
Route followed 
The Hurun 
country 
3;2(! KHl’ORT rrox PHYSII'AL characters of xii-otic negroid tribes 
Dr. Pirrie liad obviously devoted a great amount of time to this part of his work, and 
his measurements were extremely numerous. 
All the detailed measurements are not reproduced entirely in this paper, but I have 
examined and taljulated a very large number of the measurements, and tables of several 
of them, which may be taken as representative of the whole, are included here. 
The field of his exploration, and especially that ])art which included the Burun 
district, has not been touched by physical anthropologists, and this fact alone gives to the 
data which he has secured a great additional value. 
Ac'CorNT OF Dr. Pirrie’s Journeys 
For purposes of convenience, 1 have sub-divided this report into two portions, the first 
of which includes P'r. Pirrie's report upon the journey which he made into the Burun 
district, with some additional notes, which he prepared after his return to Plngland, u))on 
some of the characters and customs of the Dinkas and Buruns. 
The second part comprises some results of the investigations into the iihysical 
characters of several races, from the data which he secured. 
Leaving Khartoum on the 27th October in the Sirdar’s yacht, on which he had been 
kindly offered a passage. Dr. Pirrie went south as far as to Renk, where he met Mr. Struve. 
Renk he describes as “ merely a tongue of land between two swamps, and the mosipiitoes 
are simply black in the air." After a short stay there, during which he made some 
excursions into the surrounding countrv, he went on to iMelut, returning afterwards to 
Renk, and making observations and taking measurements of the natives as he came across 
them. The next weeks were spent in carefully gathering together all available data as to 
the physical characters of the tribes in the neighbourhood, and in preparation for an 
extended expealition into the countrv of the Buruns. The tribes whom he was able to 
measure included Dinkas, Shilluks, Gelielawis, Fertits, and a few representatives of 
some other tribes. 
The following account of his expedition into the Burun country is taken from his 
general report sent to the Sudan Cfovernment. 
The only notes of anthropological interest in it are the following:— 
‘‘1 left Melut, White Nile, on January 11th, 1907, and returned ^larch 21st, 1907, 
having travelled through the Burun country in all directions, and made a circuit of it 
on the north and east sides. 
‘‘ liiiiite. The route adopted was the most direct one of .going eastwards from Rengajuk. 
From Gebel Ulu the route lay by the chain of Gebels Mulke, Al)dul-Dugal, and Koklik 
to Kaili, after which I returned south to Kurmok, then, passing westward through the 
country of the Currara, regained that of the Buruns. (Ncc Fig. 105.) 
“The trilies encountered in this journey were Burun, Jlameg, F’ung, Burta, Currara, 
and a small tribe of Arabs in the Curr district. 
“ K.rteiit. The Burun country extends in a thin lino from about fifteen miles south of 
Gebel Ulu to the Lakes Tigli and Worm; general direction south-east. It then spreads 
eastward and westward along the Khor Yabus and River Sobat.* Buruns are also found 
to the immediate south of the lakes mentioned. There also are four detached colonies 
of hill-living Buruns close to the .\byssinian frontier — on Gebel Wadaga, Ting-ying, 
Tartar and Funka. Buruns with well modified dialect are found on Gebels Abul-Dugal, 
Surkum. Kurmok, Gerrok, Myak and Muffe. 
' This is not the main Soliat River, which lies far away to tlie south. 
