342 GOK TERRITORY TO RIVERS ROA AND YALO. 



a well would have taken up too much of our time, we continued 

 our march without making a halt. 



At this spot the Mellan district, inhabited by the Beli divi- 

 sion of the Mittu, is wedged in between the territories of the 

 Dinka. On Junker's map the Mittu are called Beli and 

 Balma. Balma, however, or rather Balima, means " my friend " 

 in the Beli language, and the Danagla, when they first came 

 to this country, heard this word so frequently that they applied 

 it to the whole tribe. Just in the same way the Bari became 

 known as Gillio or Yulio, which also means " my friend." 



Strange to say, we encountered numerous coveys of rock- 

 fowls (Ptilopachys) in the steppe-woods of the Beli country, 

 although these birds ordinarily inhabit only stony regions. 

 The boundary between the Beli and the G5k, a Dinka tribe, is 

 formed by a small Anogeissus wood, beyond which we entered 

 Fedwin, a district of the Gok. 



The khor in front of us floods its banks to a distance of 

 three-quarters of an hour's march on either side. I noticed 

 that many loam walls had been erected for catching fish. 

 Khor Gulmar, where we camped for the night after an exceed- 

 ingly hot march, has also a very broad swampy bed ; the 

 stream flows slowly to the north, and contains excellent cold 

 water. In the rainy season this khor is sometimes very diffi- 

 cult to ford, and it sends a large quantity of water into the 

 sandy flats of the Nuer district, in which it is said to lose 

 itself. Even in the driest season large basins containing clear, 

 good water are always to be found. Fannegai adjoins the 

 district of Fedwin ; it has a rather moist soil, and a corre- 

 spondingly luxuriant vegetation. Acacias, strange to say, are 

 totally wanting in this district, but dolebs are very common. 



The districts of the Gok are smaller even than those of the 

 Agar ; we therefore arrived at an early hour at the station of 

 Jot, the chief village of the district of the same name, which is 

 generally, however, called Zeriba Mukhtar, after the commander 

 of the station. It forms the frontier post towards the Bahr- 

 el-Ghazal district. The Gok have the same tribal mark as the 

 Atwot, viz., several scars radiating from the glabella, and their 

 language, customs, and arms are exactly like those of their 

 Dinka brothers. They are celebrated as the best and bravest 



