The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, Samuel White Baker [inspirational novels .TXT] 📗

The huts

throughout all tribes are circular, with entrances so low that the

natives creep both in and out upon their hands and knees. The men wear

tufts of cock’s feathers on the crown of the head; and their favorite

attitude, when standing, is on one leg while leaning on a spear, the

foot of the raised leg resting on the inside of the other knee. Their

arrows are about three feet long, without feathers, and pointed with

hard wood instead of iron, the metal being scarce among the Shir tribe.

The most valuable article of barter for this tribe is the iron hoe

generally used among the White Nile negroes. In form it is precisely

similar to the “ace of spades.” The finery most prized by the women are

polished iron anklets, which they wear in such numbers that they reach

nearly half-way up the calf of the leg; the tinkling of these rings is

considered to be very enticing, but the sound reminds one of the

clanking of convicts’ fetters.

 

All the tribes of the White Nile have their harvest of the lotus seed.

There are two species of water-lily—the large white flower, and a

small variety. The seed-pod of the white lotus is like an unblown

artichoke, containing a number of light red grains equal in size to

mustard-seed, but shaped like those of the poppy, and similar to them in

flavour, being sweet and nutty. The ripe pods are collected and strung

upon sharp-pointed reeds about four feet in length. When thus threaded

they are formed into large bundles, and carried from the river to the

villages, where they are dried in the sun, and stored for use. The seed

is ground into flour, and made into a kind of porridge. The women of the

Shir tribe are very clever at manufacturing baskets and mats from the

leaf of the dome palm. They also make girdles and necklaces of minute

pieces of river mussel shells threaded upon the hair of the giraffe’s

tail. This is a work of great time, and the effect is about equal to a

string of mother-of-pearl buttons.

 

Jan. 31st.—At 1.15 P.M. sighted Gebel Lardo, bearing S. 30 degrees

west. This is the first mountain we have seen, and we are at last near

our destination, Gondokoro. I observed to-day a common sand-piper

sitting on the head of a hippopotamus; when he disappeared under water

the bird skimmed over the surface, hovering near the spot until the

animal reappeared, when he again settled.

 

Feb. 1st.—The character of the river has changed. The marshes have

given place to dry ground; the banks are about four feet above the

water-level, and well wooded; the country having the appearance of an

orchard, and being thickly populated. The natives thronged to the boats,

being astonished at the camels. At one village during the voyage the

natives examined the donkeys with great curiosity, thinking that they

were the oxen of our country, and that we were bringing them to exchange

for ivory.

 

Feb. 2nd—The mountain Lardo is about twelve miles west of the river.

At daybreak we sighted the mountains near Gondokoro, bearing due south.

As yet I have seen no symptoms of hostility in this country. I cannot

help, thinking that the conduct of the natives depends much upon that of

the traveller. Arrived at Gondokoro. By astronomical observation I

determined the latitude, 4 degrees 55 minutes North, Longitude 31

degrees 46 minutes East. Gondokoro is a great improvement upon the

interminable marshes; the soil is firm and raised about twenty feet

above the river level. Distant mountains relieve the eye accustomed to

the dreary flats of the White Nile; and evergreen trees scattered over

the face of the landscape, with neat little native villages beneath

their shade, form a most inviting landing-place after a long and tedious

voyage. This spot was formerly a mission-station. There remain to this

day the ruins of the brick establishment and church, and the wreck of

what was once a garden; groves of citron and lime-trees still exist, the

only signs that an attempt at civilization has been made—“seed cast

upon the wayside.” There is no town. Gondokoro is merely a station of

the ivory traders, occupied for about two months during the year, after

which time it is deserted, when the annual boats return to Khartoum and

the remaining expeditions depart for the interior. A few miserable grass

huts are all that dignify the spot with a name. The climate is unhealthy

and hot. The thermometer from 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit at noon in the

shade.

 

I landed the animals from the boats in excellent condition all rejoicing

in the freedom of open pasturage.

 

CHAPTER II.

 

BAD RECEPTION AT GONDOKORO

 

All were thankful that the river voyage was concluded; the tedium of the

White Nile will have been participated by the reader, upon whom I have

inflicted the journal, as no other method of description could possibly

convey an idea of the general desolation.

 

Having landed all my stores, and housed my corn in some granaries

belonging to Koorshid Aga, I took a receipt from him for the quantity,

and gave him an order to deliver one-half from my depot to Speke and

Grant, should they arrive at Gondokoro during my absence in the

interior. I was under an apprehension that they might arrive by some

route without my knowledge, while I should be penetrating south.

 

There were a great number of men at Gondokoro belonging to the various

traders, who looked upon me with the greatest suspicion; they could not

believe that simple travelling was my object, and they were shortly

convinced that I was intent upon espionage in their nefarious ivory

business and slave-hunting.

 

In conversing with the traders, and assuring them that my object was

entirely confined to a search for the Nile sources, and an inquiry for

Speke and Grant, I heard a curious report that had been brought down by

the natives from the interior, that at some great distance to the south

there were two white men who had been for a long time prisoners of a

sultan; and that these men had wonderful fireworks; that both had been

very ill, and that one had died. It was in vain that I endeavoured to

obtain some further clue to this exciting report. There was a rumour

that some native had a piece of wood with marks upon it that had

belonged to the white men; but upon inquiry I found that this account

was only a report given by some distant tribe. Nevertheless, I attached

great importance to the rumour, as there was no white man south of

Gondokoro engaged in the ivory trade; therefore there was a strong

probability that the report had some connexion with the existence of

Speke and Grant. I had heard, when at Khartoum, that the most advanced

trading station was about fifteen days’ march from Gondokoro, and my

plan of operations had always projected a direct advance to that

station, where I had intended to leave all my heavy baggage in depot,

and to proceed from thence as a “point de depart” to the south. I now

understood that the party were expected to arrive at Gondokoro from that

station with ivory in a few days, and I determined to wait for their

arrival, and to return with them in company. Their ivory porters

returning, might carry my baggage, and thus save the backs of my

transport animals.

 

I accordingly amused myself at Gondokoro, exercising my horses in riding

about the neighbourhood, and studying the place and people. The native

dwellings are the perfection of cleanliness; the domicile of each family

is surrounded by a hedge of the impenetrable euphorbia, and the interior

of the enclosure generally consists of a yard neatly plastered with a

cement of ashes, cowdung, and sand. Upon this cleanly-swept surface are

one or more huts surrounded by granaries of neat wicker-work, thatched,

resting upon raised platforms. The huts have projecting roofs in order

to afford a shade, and the entrance is usually about two feet high. When

a member of the family dies he is buried in the yard; a few ox-horns and

skulls are suspended on a pole above the spot, while the top of the pole

is ornamented with a bunch of cock’s feathers. Every man carries his

weapons, pipe, and stool, the whole (except the stool) being held

between his legs when standing. These natives of Gondokoro are the Bari:

the men are well grown, the women are not prepossessing, but the

negro-type of thick lips and flat nose is wanting; their features are

good, and the woolly hair alone denotes the trace of negro blood. They

are tattooed upon the stomach, sides, and back, so closely, that it has

the appearance of a broad belt of fish-scales, especially when they are

rubbed with red ochre, which is the prevailing fashion. This pigment is

made of a peculiar clay, rich in oxide of iron, which, when burnt, is

reduced to powder, and then formed into lumps like pieces of soap; both

sexes anoint themselves with this ochre, formed into a paste by the

admixture of grease, giving themselves the appearance of new red bricks.

The only hair upon their persons is a small tuft upon the crown of the

head, in which they stick one or more feathers. The women are generally

free from hair, their heads being shaved. They wear a neat little

lappet, about six inches long, of beads, or of small iron rings, worked

like a coat of mail, in lieu of a fig-leaf, and the usual tail of fine

shreds of leather or twine, spun from indigenous cotton, pendant behind.

Both the lappet and tail are fastened on a belt which is worn round the

loins, like those in the Shir tribe; thus the toilette is completed at

once. It would be highly useful, could they only wag their tails to

whisk off the flies which are torments in this country.

 

The cattle are very small; the goats and sheep are quite Lilliputian,

but they generally give three at a birth, and thus multiply quickly. The

people of the country were formerly friendly, but the Khartoumers

pillage and murder them at discretion in all directions; thus, in

revenge, they will shoot a poisoned arrow at a stranger unless he is

powerfully escorted. The effect of the poison used for the arrow-heads

is very extraordinary. A man came to me for medical aid; five months ago

he bad been wounded by a poisoned arrow in the leg, below the calf, and

the entire foot had been eaten away by the action of the poison. The

bone rotted through just above the ankle, and the foot dropped off. The

most violent poison is the produce of the root of a tree, whose milky

juice yields a resin that is smeared upon the arrow. It is brought from

a great distance, from some country far west of Gondokoro. The juice of

the species of euphorbia, common in these countries, is also used for

poisoning arrows. Boiled to the consistence of tar, it is then smeared

upon the blade. The action of the poison is to corrode the flesh, which

loses its fiber, and drops away like jelly, after severe inflammation

and swelling. The arrows are barbed with diabolical ingenuity; some are

arranged with poisoned heads that fit into sockets; these detach from

the arrow on an attempt to withdraw them; thus the barbed blade, thickly

smeared with poison, remains in the wound, and before it can be cut out

the poison is absorbed by the system. Fortunately the natives are bad

archers. The bows are invariably made of the male bamboo, and are kept

perpetually strung; they are exceedingly stiff, but not very elastic,

and the arrows are devoid of feathers, being simple