736 Mr. A. Henry Savage Landor [May 31, 



It is not easy to imagine a more dreary, nninteresting, nnpleasant 

 country than the Bahr-el-Ghazal. I happened to be marching 

 from Meshra-el-rek towards Wan during the hottest and dry est 

 month of the year, just before the rainy season. My animals were on 

 several occasions unable to obtain water from the wells along the trail. 

 The Denca, a powerful race next to the Shiluk, to whr)m they are 

 closely allied, derive their name, I think, from the Shiluk legend of 

 the two brothers : Guacango and Dengo, who, according to the 

 Quagnaret, were the first of their race to appear in the land. Dengo 

 having quarrelled with his brother, crossed the Nile with his cattle 

 on to the right bank, where he settled. Evidently, the Quagnaret 

 originated from Guacango, and the Dinka from Dengo, the word 

 Dinka having been suosequently modified into Denca. 



Having marched across the Bahr-el-Ghazal as far as Dem Zeibir, 

 I proceeded to cross the tropical forest in an almost southerly direc- 

 tion, but described some considerable detours as no trail existed. 

 The Kresh, and many other interesting tribes, were encountered near 

 the western boundary of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. 



You are all well acquainted with the dwarfs of the forest gener- 

 ally called the Niam-niam. As you know, Niam-niam is not what 

 they really call themselves, but merely a disparaging name applied to 

 them by others. They call themselves A-sandeh, sancleh meaning 

 " under." 



A number of these people came under my observation. Malformed 

 anatomically, ill-proportioned, with big paunches, elongated and 

 slanting skulls, they were absolutely devoid of any intelligence, and 

 timid and treacherous to a degree. 



Curious and indisputably well-defined peculiarities in their lan- 

 guage lead one to believe that these people have degenerated from 

 a higher standard of mental ability. However, these peculiarities 

 might also be accidental. Whether accidental or not, we find in 

 the A-sandeh tongue examples of deep philosophy which are not to 

 be found in more complete languages, such as Italian, French, 

 German, Spanish, Portuguese, or English. For instance, in order 

 to explain that some inanimate object belongs to him, such as a 

 hut {Kuoraiii), a spear (Basso) . . . the A-sandeh would use the 

 pronoun corresponding to " my " in English. " 3Iy hut, 7ny spear," 

 etc., but in describing a part of himself, or talking of people of his 

 own blood, he will never say " 3Iy father, )ny mother, my eye, }ny 

 leg, my hand," but will say : " / father, / mother, / leg, / hand," 

 etc., to denote that people of his blood and fiesh, as well as any part 

 of his own anatomy, are more than mere possessions. They form 

 part of himself. This is generally done by the suffixes " sse " or 

 " re " or " 7ni " after the noun. ]\Iy father, ba-mi ; my friend, hadia- 

 re ; my eye, henyU-sse. 



We do not find the same accurate philosophy in many other 

 A-sandeh expressions, although some descriptiveness is generally 



