122 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



This sketch, hurried as it is, of a very short period 

 of administration in the Upper Nile province would 

 be incomplete were I to omit some mention of the 

 different methods employed in dealing with Dinkas on 

 the right bank, and with Shilluks eight hundred yards 

 further west, on the left bank of the Nile. 



The Marchand expedition had left on record that 

 both the Dinkas of the Bahr el Ghazal and the Shilluks, 

 being of one stock, were very warlike, and it were best 

 not to interfere with them. The chief inspector (who 

 had gone about a great deal in the province) did not 

 at all agree with his chief (who had remained either at 

 headquarters or in his steamboat on the rivers) in the 

 way that the Dinkas in the Upper Nile were taxed, and 

 administered to the fullest extent, while the Shilluks 

 were left to their paramount chief. Nominally, of 

 course, the latter paid tribute ; but, like that of Darfur, 

 most of it, if not all, found its way back to them as 

 presents, besides being infinitesimal when compared 

 to the richness and number of the population. 



I was in touch with them only a very short time, 

 but long enough to see that the governor was Shilluk- 

 phile, just as the chief inspector was Selimphobe. 



To the casual wayfarer the Dinkas of this province 

 are much more civilised and cleanly, though poorer, 

 than the Shilluks, whom one seldom sees without a 

 covering of ashes and filth. The Dinkas, too, use 

 the mother-of-pearl shell of a sort of mussel from 

 the Nile as a spoon, instead of their fingers. In 

 appearance the Dinkas, Shilluks, and Dinkas and Jurs 

 of the Bahr el Ghazal are very alike. They all knock 



