The House Of God Was Turned Into "Pomade Divine." This Was A Result That Might Have Been Expected By Any Person Who Had Practical Experience Of The Baris.

The extent of country occupied by this tribe was about ninety miles in length from north to south, and seventy in width.

Although the people who inhabited this district were all Baris, there was no cohesion among them. They were divided into numerous small chiefdoms, each governed by its sheik or head man. Thus Allorron represented Gondokoro, while every petty district was directed by a similar sheik. The Bari country was thickly inhabited. The general features of the landscape were rolling park-like grass lands; - very little actual flat, but a series of undulations, ornamented with exceedingly fine timber-forests of considerable extent, and mountains rising to about 2,500 or 3,000 feet above their base. From these mountains numerous streams drained to the Nile: these were generally dry in the summer season. The soil was poor in the neighbourhood of Gondokoro, but at a distance from the river, the country was fertile; the rocks were throughout granitic; the mountains yielded the finest iron ore, especially those of Belinian, twelve miles from Gondokoro, where the natives were expert black smiths. Cultivation was carried on to a large extent throughout the country; the corn generally used was the common dhurra (Sorghum vulgare). This was usually the dark-red variety, which, being rather bitter, has a chance of escape from the clouds of small birds which ruin the crops. Sesame was common throughout all portions of Central Africa, and throve well upon the poor and light soil of Gondokoro.

The Baris were exceedingly neat in their dwellings, and their villages were innumerable. Each hut was surrounded by a small court composed of cement made from the clay of the white-ant hills mixed with cow-dung and smeared with ashes: these courts were always kept scrupulously clean. The Bari hut differs from that of other tribes, as it contains an inner circle, which can only be used by creeping on the hands and knees-first through the entrance, which is only twenty-four inches high, and secondly from the passage formed by the inner circle. The inner walls are formed of wattles and clay neatly smeared or plastered with cement. They are quickly attacked by the white ants, which destroy the wattles, but the clay is sufficiently tenacious to form a wall when the wood or reeds may have disappeared.

The granaries are formed of wicker-work supported upon upright pedestals of either hard wood or of stone, to resist the white ants; the wicker-work is smeared with clay and cow-dung, and the roof is thatched in a manner similar to the house.

The Baris are a great pastoral people, and possess immense herds of cattle. These are generally small active animals with humps; white is the prevailing colour. The sheep are small and the mutton is good; but although the fine pasturage of the Bari country is eminently adapted for sheep and goats, these animals are delicate, and require much attention during the heavy rains, at which time they are always kept beneath a roof at night, with fires composed of dry cow-dung to create a smoke that will drive away flies or mosquitoes.

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