10 
TEAVELS m CENTEAL AEEICA. 
verts to Islamism_, and the inhabitants skirting that portion of the 
White Nile and its tributaries that I have followed up^ I can safely 
vouch for^ know not God. They believe in neither future reward 
nor punishnient_, but have faith in a supernatural power exerted over 
the elements, as professed by the common rain-maker; and, as it 
strikes me, if not this, another superstition, the veneration for a 
bull, practised by them, may be a corrupted relic of a portion of 
the creed or habits and customs of the ancient Egyptians. The 
animal thus chosen and eventually worshipped is generally the 
finest piebald beast that can be procured. He is petted and caressed 
to such an extent that he soon comes to understand his position, 
and always leads the other cattle. When that object is attained to 
the satisfaction of his happy owner, his legs and ankles are decorated 
with the most choice of iron and copper rings, and from the tips of 
his long horns the tails of cows and giraffes are suspended. Songs 
are composed and sung in his praise, and, believed to be invested 
with supernatural powers, he is idolized, and his aid is invoked to 
divert from them every evil that may threaten any portion of or the 
entire community with which his master may be connected. When 
it is remembered that, with some rare exceptions in those districts 
where tsetse flies prevent the rearing of cattle, the negroes are ex- 
clusively herdsmen, this kind of worship extends to a vast portion 
of Central Africa. When dead, the sacred piebald is buried with 
great ceremony ; and on the death of his master, he is slaughtered, 
and his horns fixed on a post denote his owner^s grave. 
Some tribes inter the heads of families within the hut they inha- 
bited when alive ; but the Dinka generally is buried in a sitting 
posture outside the entrance. 
From my knowledge of the form of government in vogue among 
the Shillooks, I may state that most of the communities of the 
