104 NORTH-EAST AFEICA. 



cemetery, whither the bones of the dead, first buried near the dwelling, are brought 

 after they have been completely decomposed. Funeral dances are kept up round 

 the dead for weeks together. The territory of the Latuka is very fertile, and their 

 tobacco, although nearly always adulterated with foreign substances, is in high 

 demand among the neighbouring peoples. In this country the leopard is the only 

 beast that is feared, as it often attacks man. The lion is so little dreaded that 

 Emin-Bey tells us that one of these animals having fallen into a leopard-trap, the 

 people hastened to set it free. 



The Latuka district is bounded on the east by the Lofit or Lafit range, rising 

 some 3,300 feet above the plains, and on the south by still higher mountains. 

 The whole country consists of a long fertile valley studded with trees, amongst 

 which is the " higlik," whose saccharine fruit is so rich in potassium that it is used 

 as soap. The villages are tolerably numerous, many even meriting the names of 

 towns. Tarmngoleh, the chief town, situated in the midst of the Latuka country 

 on the high bank of the Khor Kohs, is said to contain no less than three thousand 

 huts, not including the sheds for some ten or twelve thousand head of cattle. It is 

 surrounded by a strong palisade, each house being further protected by a separate 

 enclosure. Three-storied turrets stand in many parts of the city, in which sentinels 

 keep guard during the night, ready to strike the war drum at the least appearance 

 of danger. One main street intersects the town, all the rest being merely 

 winding alleys, into which the cows can only enter one by one — an arrangement 

 which simplifies counting, and prevents the enemy from surprising and carrying off 

 their herds. In the northern region of this country, the two villages of Wakkala, 

 or Okkela, and Loronio, also known as Latomeh, from the name of its chief, have 

 also a large population. According to Emin-Bey, the women, as in U-Ganda, are 

 far more numerous than the men. 



The Latuka are the most easterly of all the Galla tribes, unless the Lango of 

 the Upper Nile and the Wa-Huma of the plateaux are also to be regarded as 

 branches of this race. But on the Bahr-el-Jebel itself and to the west of this river 

 none but Negroes are met. The Niambara, or Niam-bari, occupying a hilly 

 district which forms the water-parting between the Nile and its tributary the 

 Yeï, are akin to their easterly neighbours, the Bari, although their speech is 

 distinguished by a greater variety of tones and sibilant consonants than the 

 language of the neighbouring peoples. Like the Bari, the Niambara are tall and 

 strong and go naked, but load themselves with iron bracelets, rings, and other 

 ornaments of the same metal; while the women wear daggers at the girdle. ~ 

 Although earrings are imknown amongst most of the Nilotic peoples, the Niambara 

 pierce the lobes of the ears, passing glass trinkets through them, and, like the 

 Orechones of South America, distending them on each side of the face. The 

 women also pierce the lips at the corners, and insert a fragment of quartz, or if that 

 is not available, a wooden cylinder or a piece of reed. They wear no loin-cloths, 

 but only a scrap of leather, leaves, or occasionally a small bell. About the middle 

 of the century, before the arrival of the ivory merchants, elephants' tusks were of 

 such little value that they were scarcely used except as stakes for the cattle 



