A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE SUDAN.

By A. Winifred Tucker and Charles S. Myers.

[With Plates XVIII, XIX.]

Historical.

The accompanying map shows roughly the geographical position of the various tribes mentioned in this paper. They are for the most part scattered over a vast expanseAh^jfl#,ntry stretching from about the centre of the Sudan to the White Nile. A few of them are distributed along the upper waters of the Blue Nile, but the majority dwell along the banks of the main stream south of Khartum, along the Sobat river valley and the numerous headwaters of the White Nile converging from the south and south-west at Lake No.

Little is known of the relations of these tribes to one another, and practically nothing of their individual histories, in spite of the fact that they have been in

contact with more or less civilised peoples for the last 4,000 years. Our ignorance is attributed by travellers to the tendency of the Sudanese to break up into small tribes hostile to one another, which leads to so complete an obliteration of common

traditions and relationships that the natives are able to give very little information about themselves.

Practically all we know from the natives themselves may be put in a very few words. The Jurawi claim relationship with the Shilluks.1 The Dinkas also state that the Shilluks and the Jurawi are one, and that the Dinkas and the Nuers are one.3 The Golo tribe assert2 that they, the Bongawi and the Jurawi are from the same stock as the Azandeh peoples, chief of which are the Niam-Niam. If these several statements are correct the Jurawi must be a mixed tribe, which is by no means unlikely when we consider the incessant intermixing which must have taken place owing to flight from slave raiders and from conquering tribes. The Burunawi and

Bertawi are also said to be connected.3

The native traditions afford us little help in determining how long the various tribes have occupied their present positions. The Dinka traditions allude only to mythical origins; they do not give any account of migrations, except in the case of the offshoot dwelling on the White Nile which left the main stock but about 150 years ago. The Shilluks on the other hand must have migrated very long ago, for in their traditions they repeatedly mention their wanderings, while they have a list of twenty- six kings who have reigned over them since they occupied their present home.4 Of the traditions of the other tribes nothing definite has so far been recorded.

1 Schweinfurth, The Heart of Africa (Eng. Trans.), 1878, vol. i, p. 76.

2 This information was contained in a letter written to one of us by Major S. Lyle Cummins, R.A.M.C.

3 Gleichen, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1905, vol. i, p. 122.

4 Gleichen {op. cit.), pp. 197-199 ; cf also “ Notes on the Sudanese tribes of the White Nile,” by Capt. Cummins, Journ. Roy. Army Med. Corps, Nov., 1904.

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