150 AN EXCURSION TO LIJR. 



Fig-trees, planted and cultivated everywhere in the east, are 

 not found here. The few bark cloths occasionally seen come 

 from Unyoro, and only people in good circumstances can afford 

 to buy them. Salt also is brought from the same country, 

 though some is obtained here by burning grass and washing 

 the ashes. Saline earth is said to exist farther northwards, in 

 the district of Chief Bold. The only domestic animals visible 

 were sheep and goats ; the cows were perhaps out grazing 

 with neighbours in the mountains. The goats are fine, slim, 

 tall animals, but rather short in the body, and short-haired ; 

 the sheep are large, and resemble the thick-tailed breeds of the 

 lower Nile (Sudan). No dogs were to be seen. 



The language is very similar to that of the Shiili and Shefalu, 

 which is spoken in the neighbourhood of the rapids of Kariima 

 and Tada, and it is quite identical with the idiom spoken in 

 Wadelai's and Roketo's districts. As many of the people here 

 speak Kinyoro, I was able to make myself understood without 

 the aid of interpreters, and in spite of the limited time, I 

 managed to compile a small vocabulary, which reveals the 

 almost complete conformity of this language with the Shiili. 

 I tried afterwards, in Fatiko, to compile a Shiili vocabulary also, 

 and have already alluded to the great similarity existing 

 between this language and that of the Shiluk, which, however, 

 is only known to me from the small Jur (Shiluk) vocabulary 

 in Dr. Schweinfurth's excellent collection. The hypothesis of 

 a great Shiluk migration to the south, which I venture to put 

 forth, is chiefly supported by the really surprising similarity 

 of the languages, manners, and customs of the three peoples 

 above mentioned, and is the more probable because Dr. Schwein- 

 furth reports the existence of members of the Shiluk family 

 in the Bahr-el-Ghazal territory, so that their presence here is 

 not surprising, nor is this an isolated instance. The Shiili them- 

 selves say that their forefathers came from the north. It is to 

 be hoped that later and more competent inquirers will succeed 

 in throwing a clearer light on this most interesting subject. 



Here also the name Liir or Aliir was given as a general 

 name to the country south of the Madi district as far as and 

 beyond the true Mahagi marked on Mason's map, and the 

 district here is named M'svar or Kasvar (probably Mason's 



