TOPOGEAPHT. 113 



tained by the slave-dealers. Dem Idris, the chief town of the Golo country, is one 

 of the great centres of the ivory trade. "When Bohndorff, Juncker's fellow-traveller, 

 escaped northwards towards the end of 1883, elephants' tusks were here heaped up 

 in the stores. Had the river not been blocked by the revolt, Governor Lupton 

 valued the merchandise that he could have forwarded to Khartum at 125 tons of 

 ivory and 15 tons of indiarubber. 



Topography. 



Dem Ziher, or Dem Suleiman, the chief town of the " Dwems," named after the 

 two slave- dealers, father and son, whose power was overthrown by Gessi in 1878, is 

 one of the largest places in the Nilotic basin above Khartum. The Egyptians have 

 made it the capital of the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal. The king of Uganda's 

 envoys on reaching this " great city " believed that they had arrived in England, 

 of whose wealth and wonders they had heard so much. Its stores are stocked with 

 European merchandise as well as with local produce, exotic fruits and vegetables 

 acclimatised in the surrounding gardens. Here jewellers have established themselves, 

 and scidptors here carve ivory tastefully as bracelets, sword and dagger hilts, and 

 many other articles of vertu, and manage to keep within the law which claims 

 elephants' tusks as the Khedive's property. Dem Suleiman is the only town of the 

 riverain countries possessing a mosque. 



To the north of Fertit, Gessi chose as the garrison station on the Arab frontier 

 the town of Hiffi, situated in the vicinity of large forests near the sources of the 

 streams flowing towards the Bahr-el-Arab, but which run quite dry during apart of 

 the year. The Togoi, one of the neighbouring tribes, belonging probably to the 

 same race as the Krej, are savage, ugly, and debased ; whilst other peoples, such as 

 the Inderi and Shir, have features which, according to Felkin, are almost " Euro- 

 pean," and are distinguished for their high moral qualities. The village of Gondu, 

 about 24 miles north of Hifii, is a citadel of the Shir, perched on the top of a hill 

 rising some 300 feet above the plain ; a rough path winds up the side of the hill, 

 which, however, the Arab invaders have vainly attempted to scale. The Shirs, with 

 no other weapons than arrows and stones, have always repulsed their assailants. 

 Having remained independent and retained their bravery, they have lost nothing of 

 their good qualities. At the sight of a stranger they leave their work and run for- 

 ward, offering him refreshment and food. The Shir have little of the Negro type, 

 their lips being thin and the nose shapely. They daub the body with oil and red 

 ochre, which gives them a resemblance to their namesakes, the Shirs of the Nile Valley. 

 Like the Madi and so many other peoples of the Upper Nile region, they pass a 

 great part of their life in dressing their hair. Their favourite shape is that of a 

 halo composed of long tresses. 



The Mandara, or Mandula, north of the Shirs in the direction of the Baggara 

 Arabs, form the most advanced section of the Negro populations. According to 

 Gessi, they are immigrants from Baghirmi, near Lake Tsad, who, flying from the 

 slave-traders, took refuge in a country which, however, had been most devastated by 



