SECTIONAL VIEW OF DINKA HUT.
"But they are different in shape from the Shillook huts we have been seeing as we ascended the river."
"Yes, they are different in shape, and they belong to another tribe of negroes. We are now in the country of the Dinkas, of whom we have already spoken.
"The Dinkas are mainly on the east bank of the Nile, and their possessions extend quite a distance into the interior. The actual area of their country is unknown, as it has never been surveyed, and only a few travellers have explored it. The Dinkas are taller and finer in appearance than the Shillooks, and are a brave, hardy people. Their faces are more intelligent than those of the Shillooks, and altogether they are superior to their neighbors. Like the Shillooks, they are fond of veneering their skins with ashes, which gives them a brownish hue, and the favorite bed of the Dinka is a pile of ashes, with a stick of wood at one end, on which his neck can rest. When the ashes are washed away their skins are of inky blackness, and the Dinka may be fairly set down as one of the darkest of his dark race."
Fred wished to know how they lived.
"As to that," replied Doctor Bronson, "their ways of life are not much unlike those of the Shillooks, except that they are more peaceful. They have large herds of cattle, and are eminently a pastoral people. They cultivate the soil to quite an extent, and they move their villages occasionally in search of pasturage for their herds.... There: observe the bank of the river with your glass and you will see one of their herds, which is evidently coming down to allow the cattle to drink."
