THE DIUE. Ill 



The Bongo are perhaps one of the most kindly, gentle, and industrious people 

 of Africa. The}' are not possessed of the extraordinary passion for cattle which 

 characterises the Bari and Denka, but occupy themselves mostly with agriculture, 

 men and women alike preparing the soil and cultivating their plants with the 

 greatest care. The fertile red soil yields abundant crops of tobacco, sesame, durra, 

 and other alimentary plants ; but in spite of this variety of vegetable products, 

 including wald roots and mushrooms, the Bongo despise no flesh, fresh or putrid, 

 excepting that of the dog. They drive away the vulture to regale themselves on 

 the remains of its meal of carrion, eat with relish the worms found in the entrails 

 of the ox, devour scorpions, termite larvae, and all creeping and crawling insects. 

 As amongst other tribes, earth-eating is also very common amongst them. The 

 Bongo are the most skilled of African smiths, supplying the Denka with their arms 

 and ornaments. They build ingenious furnaces to direct a current of air across the 

 iron ore, and manufacture with the aid of very simple tools articles equal in finish 

 to the products of the European workshops. Like the Logone people of the Tsad 

 basin, they have introduced the use of round pieces of this metal as money. They 

 are also skilful builders and carvers, erecting substantial dwellings with circular 

 ledges, which serve as terraces or balconies. Round the graves of their chiefs they 

 carve stakes in the form of human beings, which bear a striking resemblance to the 

 di^^nities of the South-Sea Islanders. But these human figures of the Bongo are 

 not gods, but merely symbols of the resurrection, a doctrine in which, together with 

 metempsychosis, they are firm believers. The souls of old women are supposed to 

 pass into the bodies of hyœnas, on which account these animals are regarded as 

 possible family relations, and never killed. 



The Diur. 



The Diur, that is to say, " Men of the "Woods," " Savages," are so called by the 

 Denka, who regard as inferior beings all tribes not possessing numerous herds of 

 cattle. Their true name is Luoh or Lwo, and like the more southerly Belinda, 

 who have encroached on the Niam-Niam domain, they are immigrants of Shilluk 

 stock. They still speak an almost pure Shilluk dialect, and some of the aged 

 amongst them have preserved the traditional system of tattooing peculiar to that 

 nation. 



The Diur occupy the last ferruginous terraces of the plateau between the Bongo 

 and Dinka territories. Their domain is watered by several streams, the largest 

 of which takes the name of this tribe. According to Schweinfurth, they number 

 some 20,000, but increase rapidly in times of peace, because their families, remark- 

 able for their mutual affection, are generally numerous. The Diur, much better 

 proportioned than the Denka, are one of the naked peoples classed by the earlier 

 explorers amongst the " tailed men," as they generally wear two attached to the 

 girdle. Skilful smiths like the Bongo, they also manufacture rings for ornament- 

 ing the arms and legs, but they no longer dress the hair after the complicated 

 Shilluk fashion. Nearly all the men and women have very short hair. The ancient 



