THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 37 



" < None of the tribes are able to write. They can 

 count, and their system of numerals is similar to ours ; 

 and I append a tablet of the numerals, as supplied me 

 by M. de Malzac, in use among the Kidgs, the A jars, 

 the Ocools, the Dinkas, &c. 



" i The dwellers along the White Nile live principally 

 upon cow's milk, doura grain, sweet sorghhum, rice, 

 beans, earth-nuts, and sweet potatoes. The married 

 women are partially clothed in sheep-skins, but the 

 men as a rule go quite naked. The Djours, however, 

 enclose their generative organs in a panther-skin bag, 

 while the women wear a belt of leaves round their loins. 



" The habitations in the rainy regions are round 

 huts with conical roofs ; in the regions where no rain 

 falls they are square, and have flat roofs. The Barrys 

 invoke a divinity whom they call the great rain 

 (Dendit). At a time of drought they sacrifice a white 

 ox in order to obtain rain, and when there is too 

 much rain they sacrifice a black ox to obtain sun- 

 shine. This sacrifice is, moreover, in very general 

 usage among the tribes of the White Nile. 



" { When two enemies become reconciled, each of 

 them puts to his lips a piece of iron, which is the 

 token of peace, and which is at once buried in the 

 ground at the spot where peace was made. 



" c The bodies of all those who die are cast into the 

 Nile by the tribes who live on the banks ; but the 

 dead of the inland tribes are buried in front of their 

 houses, in a sort of sitting position, which is only 



