THE MAKRAKA AND THEIR DIVISIONS. 375 the station, a great number of fresh-water crabs (Telphusa), very comical, nimble creatures, who when approached at first show fight, but then run away. ‘They are called by the Makrak& ugenne, and are eaten by them, as indeed is everything that can be eaten. I also found a beautiful small snake; I had seen it before near Lado, Fatiko, Latuka, and Fauvera, but have never found more than one at a time. It was the Typhlops Schlegel, formerly only found in Mozambique; it appears, however, that this graceful animal is extensively distributed throughout Central Africa. Several specimens of the Georychus were brought to me; they are very common in the Dinka district, but the variety found here appears to be rather larger and of a darker grey colour. The most common bird -seemed to be the Spermestes cucullatus, which builds its nests in the high straw roofs, and in this country appears to take the place of the Lagonosticta) A large Hyphantornis was also found; it is certainly a new variety, but is probably related to the Hyphantorms Guervm. A long stay here would probably enable me to make many new discoveries. The whole of the immediate neighbourhood of the station has been devastated by elephants.

In the foregoing pages I have often made use of the name Makraka in order to designate the peculiar people who have pushed themselves in between the northerly tribes. I must, therefore, mention here that this name, which is accepted on all sides, is not their original patronymic, but a nickname which has been given to these cannibals by the original occupiers of the country. About four generations ago, four Zande tribes, the Iddio, Bongbé (Bombé), Apagumba, and Abangminda, tired of the constant oppression of their own chiefs, left their homes, which lay far to the west-south-west, and made their way towards the north; the rumour of their cannibal propensities, which spread far and wide, rendered their advance easy. I have already mentioned that on their trying to enter Fajelu in the east they were driven back. They then settled in their present quarters, and thence rapidly extended. The Apagumba and the Abéngminda, who have an idiom of their own as well as the common Zandé language, being numerically small tribes, blended with the Bongbé and Wando’s Zandé. The Bongbé