152 MAN IN THE SUDAN these races were originally akin to the Semites at a period anterior to their appearance in Africa.

The practice of smearing the body with red earth, referred to by Herodotus, and also decoration with chalk, is not confined to the Nubas, being general among the Bantus. The Nandi exactly follow the example of the Ethiopians of Herodotus, painting one side of the body white, the other red. I remember a Bari, far up the Mountain Nile, evenly tinted all over a rich dusky red, not an atom of black being visible. The Shilluks follow a scheme of facial adornment with chalk which has some counterpart in Australia, but there used to indicate mourning.

Pliny refers to the red earth plaster in regard to the Ipsodorse and others, living on the west bank many days south of Meroe, and speaks of a nation, more distant still, who were 8 cubits in height say 7 feet 7 inches—which is not unknown amongst modern Nuers. Strabo speaks of the Heleii, or " marsh-men," in a similar location, and these historians might almost be writing of to-day.

To Diodorus, speaking of the riverain blacks in the heart of Africa, is reserved one of the most exact accounts, although he omits reference to great height. He says they were flat-faced blacks, with curled hair ; fierce, cruel, wicked, and bestial. Their bodies were foul, and their nails long, like claws.

Their weapons were clubs, spears, and hide shields ; their food, flesh, milk and cheese, marsh-fruit and sesamus. Many of their women went naked ; their