702 



The National Geographic Magazine 



the country of the Yampos, the Nuers, 

 and Dinkas, all of whom are long-limbed 

 giants belonging to the British sphere of 

 influence. 



The Yambo women think they em- 

 bellish themselves by making large cica- 

 trices on the body, while the men indulge 

 in similar incisions on the arms and chest. 



As compared with the dances of Asia, 

 I never saw among any of the tribes of 

 Central Africa dances of any originality 

 or grace. The Yambo, like all negroes, 

 dance a great deal at their festivals, the 

 men and women often joining in these 

 dances ; the men opposite the women, 

 who sing and clap their hands, while the 

 men jump and hop about lightly with 

 knees slightly bent. The tam-tam is not 

 beaten with the hand, but with two sticks, 

 and as these people do nothing but play 

 on the tam-tam all day and all night, 

 they eventually become skillful at it. 



The chiefs do not remove their front 

 teeth, but all the others, both men and 

 women, do. In their particular case they 

 profess that it is done in order to facili- 

 tate speech, as their teeth grow quickly 

 at a peculiar angle, which makes it un- 

 comfortable for them to close the mouth 

 absolutely until the teeth are removed. 

 Although this is the reason they them- 

 selves give, I think that their speech is 

 only affected because their respiratory 

 organs do not work as they should when 

 the hot, fetid air of their region is inhaled 

 in large quantities through the mouth — a 

 fact which might certainly affect their 

 speech also. 



It is a curious fact that the Yambo who 

 inhabit a region unmistakably deadly for 

 all other people, as well as for tame ani- 

 mals brought there, are not themselves 

 affected by malarial fever, notwithstand- 

 ing that they are simply devoured by mos- 

 quitoes. 



The narrative of the march through 

 the Xuer country and descriptions of this 

 long-legged people, with their queer 

 methods of plastering the hair with red 

 mud and their unique custom of keeping 

 count of their love affairs by scars on the 

 body make novel reading. 



We marched over a wide, treeless, flat 



country, so trampled upon by elephants 

 in the wet season that thousands of deep 

 holes — their footmarks — covered the 

 whole country and were a great nuisance 

 — in fact, quite a danger — for my ani- 

 mals. These holes delayed us consider- 

 ably, as they were often covered with 

 grass ,and my animals were constantly 

 tumbling into them. 



We had no experiences worthy of no- 

 tice that day, nor did we see much game, 

 except two herds of large red antelopes 

 and flocks of herons striding majestically 

 about, with their red beaks, black wings, 

 white chest, and long red bag dangling 

 from the neck. In the heat of the sun 

 they spread their spacious wings and kept 

 the head under the shade thus produced. 

 They remained in that position sometimes 

 for hours, generally perched on the top 

 of high sand heaps or ant hills, thousands 

 of which are to be found all over this 

 country. 



There was a slight difference in the type 

 of these Nuer, and they did not generally 

 follow the custom of smearing them- 

 selves all over with ashes like the tribes 

 farther east. It was not uncommon, how- 

 ever, to see men painted white all over, 

 except for a dash of grease upon the chest, 

 which gave a beautiful black shine to the 

 undyed skin, and a half moon by the side 

 of it. The face and neck were painted 

 of a brilliant red color, quite a ghastly 

 practice. Another fashion common 

 among these people was that of smear- 

 ing the body with butter when it was not 

 dyed with ashes. The skin became then 

 beautifully polished. The reason all 

 these tribes plastered their hair into a 

 point was merely to remove the natural 

 kinks and curls and render it quite 

 straight; also, of course, to bleach it. 



The vanity of these people was amaz- 

 ing. I saw two men with brass bracelets 

 so tight round the forearm that the cir- 

 culation had almost ceased and the hands 

 had got swollen and almost atrophied. 

 In two cases which came under my ob- 

 servation these bracelets had actually cut 

 into the flesh at the wrist, and when I 

 asked the owners why they did not re- 

 move them, as the hand was getting ab- 



