18 GEOGRAPHY (No. 98 (b) Thenegroes of the ironstone region form a well 6 marked ethnic group , occupying the ferruginous lands between the swampsand theNile-Congo water-parting. The most interesting and characteristic are the Bongo, whose country lies south of Wau . Another tribe of verysimilar habits and appearance is the Golo, who dwell west of Wau .

(c) The Nyam -Nyam , or Zande, live in the high lands of the Nile-Congo water-parting , between the fourth and sixth parallels, south and south -west of the ironstone negroes. Their estimated number is not less than 2 millions, and their territory, part ofwhich lies within the Sudan and part in the Congo and Ubanghi, has an area of about 48,000 square miles. The Nyam Nyam are a distinctive race of round -headed, chocolate brown people, with long, thick , frizzled hair . They are by far the most intelligent and well organised of the black races, admirable hunters and fighters, and , when drilled, make excellent troops, alike in the Sudanese and the French Ubanghi armies . In former days they were notorious cannibals.

Language North of Khartum , and over the greater part of Kor dofan and Darfur, Arabic is generally spoken. The Barabra of Dongola province, however, speak four or five dialects of Nubian; and a group of closely related languages , of which eighteen distinct forms have been identified, are currentamong the Nuba of the Nuba mountains. The Beja tribes of the north -east speak a tongue known as Bedawiya, which has some affinities with Somali ; and the black races of the Blue Nile , Darfur, and the south have each their own tongue The Shilluk language, which is akin to that of the. Acholi of Uganda, is current far beyond the present limits of the tribe, and this fact supports the tradition that the Shilluk were once a great nation and domi nated the country of the Bahr el- Jebel and Sobat. The Dinka tongue, which is related to Shilluk, is also un