Golos.The Golos.—The Golos are an intelligent, active race, willing to learn and to work.
The cultivation of crops is their chief occupation. Besides dura and Indian corn they grow telabun, dukhn, lubia, simsim, onions, sweet potatoes, water melons, pumpkins and “bedingan.” They keep a few sheep and many fowls, but no cattle.
The huts are well built, with ventilation between the wall and roof, and are clean both inside and outside.
“Malots” (iron hoes) are bought from the Jurs for honey, skins, labour, etc. A wife costs 40 malots.
The men are fond of clothes, and are generally clad like the Sudanese over the rest of the Sudan. They are fairly skilful weavers, using the cotton of the country, which, however, is not extensively cultivated. The women, on the contrary, are content with a bunch of leaves fore and aft, but are fond of beads.
The Golos are good sportsmen and trackers. They possess a fair number of guns, chiefly old traders and Remington rifles, but have very little ammunition. Bows and arrows and elbow knives are other weapons used.
Bongos.The Bongos.—The Bongos have the same occupations and appearance as the Golos, but are rather shorter and more thick-set.
The women wear a large circular stone on the upper lip or a wooden plug pierced through the lower.
Decimated by the Nyam Nyams and slave-traders, very few of them practise the crafts that they were formerly skilled in. Like the Jurs, they are accustomed to smelting ore and working in iron. Their dexterity in wood carving is shown in the various utensils, stools, spoons, etc., which they still make. Great attention and trouble is devoted to basket work and weaving grass mats.
The Bongos are fond of music, and play with string and wind instruments.