The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1899-07-06
RACE or AFRICAN GIANTS.
Peaceful CutiVators Recently Found Along
the Blue Nile.
From the London Mail.

the all-penetrating Briton has been
slow to reach it, Sir William Garstin
has just discovered colony of
giants. They are endowed with \
phye;cal attributes such as wculI :
have driven their old fairy tale a.
cestoTs into permanent retirement
These giants are farmers For geR-
Grafton after generation they have
titled the soil along the banks of the
Blue Nile and titled it 10 spite of OBJ
staclea that make the annual har
vesting of the Kansas cyclone seem
Ike sUmTer in an amateur garden.
The old family homesteads of the
Nile giants have "A most annoying
habit of disappointing intermitently.
This peculiarity-due to the uncer-
tain temper of the sluggish stream
that flows by their deorsteps-has
caused the giants to acquire emphib.
ieus habits, Instead of abandoning |
the regions entirely and seeking
more trustworthy neighborhood
they have, with infinite patience ard
forbearance, studied the whms and
eccentricities Of the river. Wien it
is high they move up out Of the wet
and cultivate the high lands, When
it is low they move ell that is porta-
bic onto the mud islands that APP
pear the moment the stream sub
sides, and on these little mud piles
they raise rice and grain and really
incredible amount of farm produce.
This alternating between the banks
and the middle of the stream is kept
up year il and year out
Sir William Garatin. under secre-
tary of the Egyptian public works
department, returned to Cairo RS
: Gently from an extended journey up
the Blue and White Niles on the
2 English gunboat Metemmeh. He
E found the ShIllocks, AS the tribe OF
5 giants is called, at Mogren 6l-Bohoor
or the Meeting of the Waters. He
asserts that he was most fayorsbiy
! impressed with the Shlllocks. They
are good looking TO begin with, and,
;, better than that, they are honest.
t Their most marked physical eharac-
h teristic is their tremendously long
s arms, which hang below their knees.
: They are men of remarkable bodily
e strength. and can endure fatigue
and hardship that would kill an or
- binary mortal. Sir William found
that hardly any Of them failed to be
e az least a foo. taller than the tallesi
0 Englishman in the party, and many
n much larger than that.
re Their attire is conspicuous by It's
IS absence When Shillock glaut has
Il donned headgear he is ready FOL
g breakfast, but no man ever stirs out
1. without it or without the spear il
y his hand, eBd tais weapon Is inyarla
}. bly, decorated lavishly with ostricl
Is feathers at the point. The Sbillocl
10 women are much smaller than thu
1t men and are inferior 10 thea il
looks They wear their heads closel.
ee shaved and array themselves, wlnte
N end summer alike, IN skins, whicl
m they wear after the style adopted b
a sandwich man. The Shilloek
not religious man and, beyon
oy some vague ideas Of the desirabil!t
III OF propitiating ma'evolent spirits
he is influenced By no crseds VIVA
ever. His only aodern vice Is th
o oo harmless one Of smoking and he il
IS dulges in that on scale befttin
Es. his stature. The pipe which
smokes will hold comfortably ha
. pound OF tobacco and when BE b
% tween his teeth he passes IT oVor
his wife and she carries it until
wishes it again,
The most serious obstacle whi'
the Esslish traveller encountered
: his inland voyage was the ''sud
\ : mass of vegetation which is loesen'
NJ bv the action of the water and foa
-tb down stream Frequently the rlT
y: was completely damned BY 1t al
!: progress was impossible until it b
= been cut awsy Some idea OF 1t c
> obtained by the experience Of