158 TO THE LAND OF THE NEGROID We here come into touch with the great negroid races. The Dinkas are particularly in evidence, this being approximately the northern boundary of their country. They belong to a group of tribes possessing many characteristics in common, apparently evolved through the peculiarities of the country which is to them home. Just as Nature steps in to provide the mud-fish of the Dinder with lungs on retreat of the water, so she approximates man to the style of the stork in the regions of the marsh. The Nilotic negroids, such as the Dinkas, Shilluks, Nuers, Baris, and Buruns, though showing minor variations, exhibit a common type, which is more traceable in relation to Dinkas and Nuers than others. The Dinkas appear to possess the more diplomatic character, though their abiUty in warfare is less, and their habitat has extended enormously over great areas. Their country ranges from the north of Renk up the east bank to near the country facing Fashoda, where some Shilluks join in. On the west bank the main body of the Shilluk nation extends to the great bend of the Nile, where the Sobat and Bahr-el-Ghazal combme with the main stream.

Then south, on the west bank of the Mountain Nile this time, the Dinkas once more appear, now being faced by the Nuers, who spread to the east far beyond the Bahr-el-Zeraf, and are hemmed in by the Twi Dinkas on the south. But in the Khor Filus, opening into the Sobat, is a section of Dinkas of whom more anon.