THE NILOTIC NEGROES 



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eastern tributaries, including the Bari, Shilluk, Latuk, and Turkana; (3) the Kavirondo tribes; 

 and (4) the Masai and their allies. 



THE DISTKA. 



The Dinka are the most northern of the Nilotic Negroes, living in the basin of the 

 Bahr-el-Ghazl, the great south-western tributary of the Nile. They occupy the country around 

 the famous port of Meshra-er-Rek, and range east and west of that place for about 400 miles. 

 They were once a powerful, numerous people; but, like most of the tribes of that region, 

 their numbers have been terribly reduced by war and famine since the overthrow of Egyptian 

 rule in 1884. 



The Dinka are a muscular, well-built people; their colour is a very dark brown, 

 although they often appear quite black, as they cover themselves with powdered charcoal 

 mixed with oil. The head is of the ordinary 

 Negro type, long and narrow, contracting to the 

 top and back; the jaws are powerful and promi- 

 nent, and the lips thick and projecting. They 

 have not much hair, and the head is generally 

 shaved, a single tuft being left, to which some 

 feathers are often attached. Some of the men, 

 however, comb out their hair and train it into 

 stiff tufts, which stand out from the head like 

 spokes. The people have a reputation for cruelty 

 and bloodthirstiness; but Schweinfurth remarked 

 many instances of tenderness and compassion, 

 and of family affection and devotion. 



The women are clad in a couple of aprons 

 of nntanned skin, which cover from the hips to 

 the ankles, but the men go completely nude. 

 Both sexes break off the incisor teeth in the 

 lower jaw, while the men only are scar-tattooed. 

 The tribal mark is a series of raised lines radiating 

 from the top of the nose over the forehead and 

 temples. The women wear iron rings in ears 

 and lips, and heavy iron rings round their legs 

 and arms. Schweinfurth saw women who were 

 each adorned with half a hundredweight of these 

 ornaments. The men wear massive ivory rings 



round the biceps of the upper arm, bracelets of hippopotamus hide, and tails of various 

 animals. The men also wear head-dresses of ostrich feathers and caps made of white beads. 



The favourite weapons of the Dinka are clubs and a bow-shaped instrument for parrying 

 the blows of their opponents' clubs. They have also spears, but no bows and arrows. 



The Dinka live in large circular and conical huts about 40 feet in diameter; the roofs are 

 made of straw and thatch, supported by a central tree trunk, and low walls of chopped straw and 

 clay. The huts are not grouped in villages, but in small clusters beside the sheds and tethering- 

 grounds for their cattle, of which they have large herds. The cattle are humped, have small 

 horns, and are mostly white; the other domestic animals are sheep, goats, and dogs and one 

 might almost add snakes, which are protected and allowed to live in the roofs of the houses. 

 The presence of the snakes is possibly the explanation of the absence of poultry. 



The principal vegetables cultivated are dhurra, yams, ground-nuts, tobacco, and simsin, 

 which is grown for oil. The food is prepared with great care, and the Dinka are famous 

 as cooks. 



Photo by Richard Buchta. 



A DINKA GIRL 



