220 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
“God created all the animals. Man he created on 
this wise. God went to the river-bank and took some 
red clay and made a man. The man was red (that 
is, according- to Shilluk standard ; white by ours). God 
then went away from the river, to the black soil, and made 
another man who was black. When God had finished 
making Man, He rubbed His hands together to get the 
mud off. It came off in little particles and as these 
fell they became stinging gnats. The gnats became a 
great nuisance as they would get into the hair on Man’s 
head and could not be dislodged. God saw Man’s sad 
plight so He invented the razor and gave it to Man, 
whereby he could shave his head and thus obtain relief 
from the gnats. 
“The next animal created was the oribi. This little 
antelope is chief of the smaller animals. The oribi’s 
first child was the elephant; the second was the hippo¬ 
potamus. When the hippo was a baby, God made the 
water-courses ( khors) so that the water all flowed into the 
big river and the inland pools all dried up. The people 
were dying of thirst, but God said, ‘ People, there is water 
in the river; go to it.’ The people went, but the 
hippo could not walk so far as he was very heavy, 
while his mother, the oribi, was very small. She broke 
down, trying to carry her child. Thereupon she cried 
to the hyena, saying, ‘ Sister, come help me carry my 
child.’ The hyena agreed, and throwing the young 
hippo across its neck, proceeded and presently reached a 
small pool; it was only a water-hole and not the river. 
The hyena became angry with the gazelle, saying, ‘ My 
neck is broken by the weight of your child; where are 
my wages?’ The hyena bit a piece from the hippo’s 
neck as his wages, and therefore the hippo’s neck remains 
crooked to this day. The gazelle cursed the hyena, 
saying: ‘For eating my child’s neck you shall remain 
in the wilderness for ever.’ 
“The water at that place being insufficient, the 
