220 SAVAGE SUDAN 



"God created all the animals. Man he created on 

 this wise. God went to the river-bank and took some 

 red clay and made a man. The man was red (that 

 is, according to Shilluk standard ; white by ours). God 

 then went away from the river, to the black soil, and made 

 another man who was black. When God had finished 

 making Man, He rubbed His hands together to get the 

 mud off. It came off in little particles and as these 

 fell they became stinging gnats. The gnats became a 

 great nuisance as they would get into the hair on Man's 

 head and could not be dislodged. God saw Man's sad 

 plight so He invented the razor and gave it to Man, 

 whereby he could shave his head and thus obtain relief 

 from the gnats. 



"The next animal created was the oribi. This little 

 antelope is chief of the smaller animals. The oribi's 

 first child was the elephant ; the second was the hippo- 

 potamus. When the hippo was a baby, God made the 

 water-courses (khors] so that the water all flowed into the 

 big river and the inland pools all dried up. The people 

 were dying of thirst, but God said, ' People, there is water 

 in the river; go to it.' The people went, but the 

 hippo could not walk so far as he was very heavy, 

 while his mother, the oribi, was very small. She broke 

 down, trying to carry her child. Thereupon she cried 

 to the hyena, saying, 'Sister, come help me carry my 

 child. 1 The hyena agreed, and throwing the young 

 hippo across its neck, proceeded and presently reached a 

 small pool ; it was only a water-hole and not the river. 

 The hyena became angry with the gazelle, saying, ' My 

 neck is broken by the weight of your child ; where are 

 my wages?' The hyena bit a piece from the hippo's 

 neck as his wages, and therefore the hippo's neck remains 

 crooked to this day. The gazelle cursed the hyena, 

 saying : ' For eating my child's neck you shall remain 

 in the wilderness for ever.' 



" The water at that place being insufficient, the 



