Shilluk people

“ Let us now turn back to the preceding chapter, and compare the position of the people of the Shilluk tribe, and the subjects of the Grail King, with that of the ancient Babylonians, as set forth in their Lamentations for Tammuz.
There we find that the absence of the Life-giving deity was followed by precisely the same disastrous consequences;
Vegetation fails—
"The wailing is for the plants; the first lament is they grow not.
The wailing is for the barley; the ears grow not." ”

“ At the present day he still keeps up considerable state and exercises much authority; his decisions on all matters brought before him are readily obeyed; and he never moves without a bodyguard of from twelve to twenty men. The reverence which the Shilluk pay to their king appears to arise chiefly from the conviction that he is a reincarnation of the spirit of Nyakang, the semi-divine hero who founded the dynasty and settled the tribe in their present territory, to which he is variously said to have conducted them either from the west or from the south. ”

“ But while the Shilluk hold their kings in high, indeed religious reverence and take every precaution against their accidental death, nevertheless they cherish "the conviction that the king must not be allowed to become ill or senile, lest with his diminishing vigour the cattle should sicken and fail to bear their increase, the crops should rot in the fields, and man, stricken with disease, should die in ever-increasing numbers." To prevent these calamities it used to be the regular custom with the Shilluk to put the king to death whenever he showed signs of ill-health or failing strength. ”

“ The Shillooks are quite an accomplished people, being warlike, pastoral, agricultural, piscatorial, and having a well-defined government. Not only do they keep up the continual feud with their powerful neighbors, the Dinkas, but they take advantage of the overflowing of the Nile to launch their canoes, drop quietly down the river, and attack the Arab population on either bank. So bold are they, that on several occasions they descended the river nearly half way to Khartoum, hid their canoes in the reeds, and crossed the country to Sennaar or the Blue Nile. ”

“ The Shilluks will be delighted at having tricked the Turks, for they are really an extremely vitiated people. According to nature, corruption of morals cannot take place in the very earliest stage of life, and there might have been, therefore, a previous cultivation here which has now disappeared, and left only the bad parts behind. ”

“ Instead of clothes, the poor besmear themselves with ashes, and are thus recognised at a distance by their grey colour, the real complexion of the tribe being ruddy. Like other riverain populations of the White Nile, the Shilluks ornament their hair with grass and feathers in the most iantaslic forms, such as that of a crest, a fan, a hulo, a helmet, or even a broad-brimmed hat. ”

“ The more distinguished warriors and their wives had around their throats collars of iron or brass wire so high and stiff that they could barely move their heads.
They apparently belonged to the Shilluk tribe, which extends far into the east, for Kali and Mea understood their speech excellently and Stas partly. They did not have, however, limbs as long as their kindred living on the overflowing banks of the Nile; they were broader in the shoulders, not so tall, and generally less like wading birds. ”

“ I found that they are in their own country, quite as idle as they are in captivity abroad; they may be seen loitering about, but never by any chance at work. During the hot season they do not sleep in their huts, but in the open air, old and young congregating together like a herd of cattle. The Shilluks walk about in a state of complete nudity, and only when they are married cover their loins with a strip of cotton-stuff. The majority of them wear merely a piece of calico of the size of a hand to cover their nakedness. Their women are very ill-used. ”

“ The Shillook tribe inhabits the entire left bank of the White Nile, occupying a territory about 200 miles long and about ten miles wide, and which extends right to the mouth of the Gazelle River. Hemmed in by the Baggara on the west, it is prevented by the river from extending itself farther eastward, and only the lower course of the Sobat has any of the Shillooks for its denizens. Their subjection to Egyptian government, which was completed in 1871, has caused a census to be taken of all the villages on the left bank of the Nile, which resulted in an estimate of about 3000. ”

“ He now received instructions from the Khalifa to proceed to the Shilluk country; and, marching to Kawa, where he embarked, he went direct to Fashoda. The King of the Shilluks, being under the impression that Zeki's steamers were on their way to Reggaf, was much surprised when the Emir suddenly landed; the Mek fled, was pursued, captured, and, having refused to disclose the hiding-place of the money he had received in exchange for the grain, was promptly executed. ”

“ Even before the millet is reaped the people cut some of the ripening ears and thrust them into the thatch of the sacred hut. Thus it would seem that the Shilluks believe themselves to be dependent on the favour of Nyakang for the rain and the crops. “As the giver of rain, Nyakang is the first and greatest benefactor of the people. In that country rain is everything, without rain there is nothing. ”

“ The Shilluk tribe occupy this generally sparsely settled country, but at present the region is desolate, as the population partly died of smallpox, partly was swept away by the Mahdists, and partly sought refuge in the Karamojo Mountains. In Africa it often happens that a region thickly settled to-day becomes desolate to-morrow. According to my calculations you are a hundred and eighty-six miles, more or less, from Lado. You might escape to the south to Emin, but as Emin himself is in all probability besieged by the dervishes, that is not to be thought of."
"And to Abyssinia?" Stas asked. ”

“ He appealed to the eternal human instinct of equality, liberty, and brotherhood, broke for ever with caste prejudices, and received into the Khalsa people of all classes who had hitherto been debarred from bearing arms. The Singhs of the Khalsa felt themselves at once elevated to rank and equality with the proud martial Rajputs. Personal pride and vigour were infused into them, and Sikhism knitted them together in the brotherhood of the Sword. Each became great in his own eyes, as forming one of the select Khalsa whom the Guru regarded as his own. ”

“ The Shillooks are one of the finest negro tribes of which we know anything. They are prosperous cultivators of the soil and great hunters. Although they are greatly exasperated by the wars of the government and the plundering of the passing slave-traders, it is likely that they could soon be led to feel confidence in men whom they found to be neither officials nor slavers. With their light canoes they cross the river constantly, hunting, fishing and raiding on the neighboring Dinkas and Nouers. ”

“ The Shillooks, as is the case with savage tribes in all parts of the world, endeavour to engage every stranger in their personal enmities; and they now hoped to secure the assistance of the expedition against that terrible Mohammed-Cher, who, only a few days before, had shown so much anxiety to proclaim the European lady Queen of the Soudan. When she refused to join in their campaign, their disappointment was extreme. All travellers speak warmly of this unfortunate tribe, who suffer scarcely less from Europeans than from Arabs. The conditions under which they live are very pitiful ”

“ Quitting Egypt, Schiltberger returned to the Crimea, afterwards accompanying his lord, “Manstzusch”, to the Caucasus, where he found the slave trade in full swing, a traffic he vigorously condemns by saying of the people, who sold even their own children, that they were “bös lüt”. Whilst in Circassia, at that time tributary to the Golden Horde, the Great Khan required of its ruler that “Manstzusch” should be expelled his territory. ”

“ Close above our landing-place lay the tolerably long and wooded island of the deceased Sheikh of the Shilluk islands, Abdurachmàn (Ab del Rahman) , Wolled el Desh. It is called by the Arabs Telleb, by the Shilluks, however, Afunje; a name that might bring to our recollection the Funghs,—and here it was where, as I have already mentioned, the Turks in the Expedition of the year 1839, were not ashamed to open the grave of the Sheikh in order to convince themselves that the sworn enemy of themselves and the Baghàras was really dead. ”

“ Still south of the Nuehr tribe we come to a singular district extending on either side of the Nile. This country is inhabited by two tribes, who are both warlike, both at deadly feud with each other, and both fond of making unexpected raids into the enemy’s country. The tribe that inhabits the left or west bank is called the Shillook, and that which occupies the eastern bank is the Dinka or Denka tribe. ”

“ Once master of the sovereign’s person he used sovereign authority, so Chiluku, without power himself, retained a vain title till death took him off two years later.
In 1218 the Mongol Khan marched westward, but sent Chepé Noyon in advance, with an army twenty-five thousand strong, against the Kara Kitan usurper, his enemy. Gutchluk fled from Kashgar with a part of his forces. On entering the city Chepé proclaimed freedom of religion to all men. The inhabitants massacred Gutchluk’s warriors, who had been quartered in their houses. ”

“ The Shilluks are feared, and particularly because [293] they always go in bodies, and even descend to pasture as far as the Sagiën of Mustapha Bey, on the left shore. They behave very peaceably, on the whole, towards us, principally because their Sultan has ordered them to avoid giving any cause for strife, and to leave the good Turks in peace. Yet the latter are still in great fear, and Selim Capitan is very unwilling to pass the night on the left shore, so we anchor afterwards in the river. We hear in this country, as in Taka, the greeting of “Habàbä.” ”

“ The Shillooks have not the appearance of men who are naturally malicious. The selfish impudence with which they demand presents, is common to all savage tribes. But the Turks and even the European merchants who take part in the annual trading expeditions up the river, have dealt with them in such a shameful manner that they are now mistrustful of all strangers, and hence it is unsafe to venture among them. ”

“ If the Jews, under centuries of restriction, ostracised from social life, did cling to money and its uses, whose fault was it? No one can say anything dishonorable of Shylock. He is penurious; in no law-book of the world is that denominated as a crime. What is against this man? Simply nothing more than that he is a Jew. But for the poet, who, enthroned on Olympian heights, there should exist only the man, not the Jew. Shylock is revengeful. Well, who has instigated it? Only they who have despised him. After persecuting and deriding him, they crown their infamy by asking him to turn Christian. ”

“ The Shilluks believe that Jo-uk is everywhere, and that man when he dies goes to Jo-uk; but whether anything happens to him in consequence seems doubtful.
To Jo-uk sacrifices are made at least once a year, at the beginning of the rainy season, and much of good and evil are attributed to him. This sacrifice consists in the slaying of an animal by the priest of each village for the people of his village, assembled at the house of the “Nyakang.” The animal is slain with a holy spear, and the flesh divided among the people, cooked and eaten. ”

“ The protected states are indeed to a great extent Sikh, and even now, although they owe the continuance of their existence as separate states to our protection, and the chiefs are all with us, the sympathies of the great body of the people are entirely with the Sikhs across the Sutlej. ”

“ When the people of the town ran to the belfry in alarm and inquired what was the matter, Schiller replied, with dignity, that he wished the whole population to know that 'by the Grace of God, Herman Schiller, after long and perilous wanderings, had reached, in safety, the town of Sredni-Kolymsk!' Months of fatigue, privation and loneliness had probably deprived the poor fellow of his reason, a not unusual occurrence in this isolated portion of the great Russian Empire. ”

“ The Jew has been for so long a time the despised and rejected of men, that now, when he has the opportunity, it seems as though he ought to improve it—show the stuff he is made of, prove that Shylock is a libel upon him, justify his past, achieve great results, demonstrate that he only needed light and liberty to develop into a leader of progress. ”

“ The latter were able to distinguish from their own people, those who had retained for a longer period than others their hereditary chiefs under the suzerainty of the descendants of Jengiz Khan. The principal tribes were undoubtedly the Keraït and Uïgour, whose rulers, named Edekout, a name reminding us of the celebrated “Edigi” whom Schiltberger accompanied to Siberia, preserved their independence until the year 1328 (Erdmann, Temud. d. U. R., 245) . Neumann asserts that two of the tribes named were the Kajat or Kerait, and the Uighur, a statement he leaves unsupported ”

“ Great grazing-plots, such as the larger villages combine to provide for the benefit of the community, and exist amongst the Dinka, cannot be secured for the Shillooks, because they are comparatively limited for space. ”