BEYOND THE SUDD 
291 
taken to breeding - a race of rather pretty little dogs 
which, we are assured, they regard as quite the next 
best substitute. 1 As a matter of fact, according- to 
their own assertions, the cannibalism of the Nyam- 
Nyams was always restricted to eating their fallen foes 
slain in battle—the liver for choice. 
These savages strike rather a fresh note in local 
types. For they are built in normal human mould, thick¬ 
set and in striking - contrast with the egregiously lanky 
and long-limbed Shilluks, Dinkas, and Nuers among- 
whom we had hitherto been sojourning. Nyam-Nyams 
whom we met were distinctly friendly and inquisitive—- 
also acquisitive, wanting everything I possessed, though 
“liver” was not specified. Their spears and ornaments 
were of better finish than those of the more northern 
savages, and I procured from them (for a few piastres) 
a hunting-knife of quite elaborate make, its ornamented 
blade and wire-woven haft bespeaking a degree of manual 
skill hardly to be expected in such primitive folk. 
One fact of purely human interest strikes the observer 
at Gondokoro and south thereof. Whereas up to this 
point the Greek trader has monopolised the whole store¬ 
keeping and retail business of the Sudan, here the Baboo 
from far India—so familiar in East Africa—reappears 
to fill that office. The fact is eloquent of the energy 
and enterprise of both. The Greek, carrying his goods, 
has pushed inland 2500 miles from Mediterranean 
shores; the Indian 2500 miles from Mombasa, or 5000 
from Bombay, the last 100 miles of that distance only 
to be made good by donkey-transport. As fellow- 
subjects of the Indian, one regretted to hear that the 
intrusive Greek threatens to oust his duskier competitor. 
While collecting birds on the riverside at Rejaf, 
my companion was photographing native women who 
1 These Nyam-Nyam dogs had quite a vogue in Khartoum, many 
English ladies keeping them—of course purely as pets and without ulterior 
object. 
