DINKA MENDACITY 209 had wounded two lions fi-om his boat lower down on this river.

The Bahr-el-Zeraf was closed to those travelling under ordinary conditions, owing to the fact that the Nuers had only recently been brought into touch with the Government, an important expedition to the chief village having just been accomplished. A few specially favoured sportsmen had permission to go some way up the river, but, being generally at the mercy of the wind, they did not get beyond the confines of the great, treeless, open swamp-land which forms the middle section of the river.

An armed expedition a considerable time before had had a hostile reception, but it was without doubt due to the lying tactics of the irresponsible Dinkas of the Khor Filus, which opens into the Sobat east of the Zeraf, who are always on raiding terms with their Nuer relatives. They undoubtedly spread reports that the pacific expedition was coming in reahty to eat the Nuers up ! So the interesting and, parenthetically, intensely trying journey into the interior of swamp-land, where food and potable water were scarce indeed, to the settlement which was the common Mecca of the Dinkas and Nuers, had had important effects in disarming suspicion, which were made apparent to me very shortly afterwards.

The Nuers inhabiting the confines of the White River between the Sobat and Lake No had naturally had some little intercourse with Europeans. Even 14