St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1899-07-08
RACE OF FARMER GIANTS.
of ObstacIes-Their Disappear
Ing Homesteads.

4
ling Homesteads. a.
On the banks, of the Blue Nile, some
200 miles from its mouth, and in re-
gion so inaccessible that even the all
penetrating Briton has been slow to
reach i, Sir William Garstin has just
discovered a colony Of giants. They are
| endowed with physical attributes such
las would have driven their old fairy
tale ancestors into permanent retire
ment. These giants are farmers. For
i regeneration alter generation they have
titled the soil along the banks CT the
/ Blue Nile, and titled it in spite CT OBJ
stacles that make tne@annuals harvest
4 ing Of the Kansas cyclone seem like
a simmer in an anateurg garden.
| The old family homesteads of the
/ Nile giants have,a most annoying habit
OF disappearing intermittently. This
peculiarity-due to the uncertain tenn
per of the sluggish stream that flows.
by their 5doorsteps-f1as caused the
giants to acquire amphibious habits
Instead of abandoning the region en-
tirely aud seeking amore Trustworthy.
i neeifgshb borhood they ve,sWith infinite
1 patience and forbeafance, studied the
/ whims and eccentricities of the river.
/ When lit is high they move up out of
the wet and cultivate. the 4aigh lands.
| When it is low they move all that is
/ portable onto the mad islands that ap-
pear the moment the streafh subsidies.
and on. these. little mudspiles they raise
rice and grain, and a really incredible
amount Of farm produce. This alter
mating between the banks and the mid
Isdlle ef thesstfeam is kept up year in
| and year out.
| Sir William Garstin, under secretary
OF the Egyptian public works depart
ment, returned to8Cairo reGentIytfron1
an extended journey up the Blue and
White Niles on the English gunboat
Metemmeh. lie found the shillocks,
as the tribe of giants is called. at
I IMogren n-ei- RGhoor, or the Meeting Of
tire Waters. He asserts that he was
| most favorably impressed with the
Shiilochs. they are good-looking, to
begin with, and, better than that, they
fare honest. Their most marked phvsi-.
cal Characteristic is their tremendous
ly long arms, which hang below their.
knees. They are men of remarkable
| bodily strength, andean endure fatigue
and hardship that would soon kill an
ordinary mortal. Sir William found
that hardly any of them failed to be
ats Feast "a foot taller than the taF1esf
Englishman in the party, and many.
much larger than thats,, 59.
Their attire is conspicuous by it's alb
sence. When a Shillock giant has
donned his headgea he is ready for
breakfast, but: no man ever stirs out
without it or without his spear i'm his
hand, and this weapon Invariably is
decorated layishly with@ostrieh sfeath-
erss at the point. The ShiIlock women
are smuch smaller than the men and
are inferior to them in looks. They
wear their3heads closely shaved and arr
ray themselves, winter and summer
alike, in skins, which they wear after
the style adopted by a sandwich smans
The Shilloek is not a religious man..
and, beyond some vague ideas of the
#desirability Of propftiafing maIevole1it
spirits. be is4infiuenced by no creedssl
whatever. His only modern vice is the
HARMLESS one of smoking, and he in-s
dulges in that on a scale betting his
stature. The pipe which he smokes will
hold comfortably a half pound of to-
bacco. and when he becomes weary, of
holding it between his teeth he passes
it over to his wife and she carries it
until lie wislles#it again. @
The most serious obstacleswhieh thesH
English traveller encountered on his
inland voyage was the 'ssud'' or mass
of Vegetation which ssloosenedsby the
action of the water and floats down
stream. Frequently the river was
completely damned by IT and progress
was impossible until it had been cut
away. Some idea of it can be obtained
by the experience of Sir Samuel Baker.
with 1000 men constantly working at
it he was able TO proceed on ly II miles
in 10 days #rhe5sud regulates the flow
of the river but whether its removal
would result IN an, oyerabundant sup
ply of water to the countries far North
at flood and q shortage at other seasons
is a question still unsettled. At pres
5ept this Rlass sofs fsyegetation is the most
serious o3stacle in the opening up and
future cultivation of the country.
Another enemy to civilization which
the engineers have encountered is the
RELENTLESS white amt Anything not
made Of IRON it viii destroy utterly.
It has been decided, therefore, that the
poles of the transcontinental teIegraph
will all have to be sof iron.-London
Mail.
sery UsefssR Neighbor.
Andrew Dixon, of Kansas, who died