Life in the Nuba Mountains

Evening Star, Issue 20054, 20 December 1928, Page 5

Life in the Nuba Mountains

—-4*.— A NEW REASON FOR CLOTHES THE AFRICAN ORIGINS OF BRER RABBIT Mr D. N. Mac Diarmid, who lias been doing pioneering work for tho Sudan United Mission in the Nuba Mountains of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, is now in England, and has some very interesting stories to tell of his experiences. Ho is a New Zealander, and began work in the Sudan in 1913. “After tho war,” lie told a London ‘Observer’ representative, “1 went from Khartoum to Hoiban, in tho Nuba Mountains, to start work among Ihe quarter of a million raw pagans there. People imagine that tho country is a sort of extension of tho Sahara desert. On tho contrary, when wo first tried to make our way up to JLieiban among the mountains, which rise to 5,000 ft, it was tho mud that hindered ns more than anything else, for hero lOdeg north_ of the Equator there is a heavy rainfall.” The people are entirely primitive, and wear no clothes. “It is sometimes asked why w© teach the boys in tho school w© have started to wear clothes,” said Mr Mac Diarmid. “It is nob a question of morals particularly, but of convenience, for when it gets cold tho Nubans rub themselves all over with oil, which, of course, catches all tho dirt that is Hying round. A dirty, oily boy is hardly a scholar whom it is a pleasure to have in a lorm. Having taught them, therefore, to wash and keep clean, wo have to introduce a certain amount of clothes to keep off tho cold winds.” EATING BEETLE. Nakedness without cleanliness is not tho only bad habit. The girls like to catch handfuls of flying ants to cat alive as delicacies, while, says Mr Mac Diarmid,“ it is worse still to hear them crunching up alive mouthfuls of the loathsome beetles, known familiarly on account of their dreadful odour as ‘stink beetles.’”

Tho boys have in the course of a few years rapidly taken up Scout work. “They are also doing simple blacksinithcry, so that their parents may have at last iron tools instead of the 10ft long ebony poles which hitherto have been practically the only agricultural instruments they possessed, said Mr Mac Diarmid. “Wo have also oven been able to print some little readers in tho language used around Heiban—tho language changes about every twenty miles—and for this wo have used local folklore tales. The boys were horrified at first that wo should use these talcs in the daytime in school. ‘Such tales should only bo told at night!’ they explained.” FOLKLORE TALES. These stories bear a _ strong family resemblance to those of Brer Rabbit, which, of course, were originally taken from Africa to the United States by tho slaves. “Wo have no rabbits in the Nuba Mountains,” Mr Mac Diarmid explained, “and Brer Rabbit’s part is usually taken in tho stories by the little local leopard, which does little barm, though I do not like to seo the traces of its having been within a few yards of my bed at night, as I have sometimes done. Since the people, got rifles, as they did during the Maluli troubles a generation ago, they have practically exterminated tho lions and elephants locally, both for sport and for food. Our people aro not warlike, and the Government would like to take away all rifles, but tho women are tho stumbling block. They would laugh so much at any man who dared to giro up his rifio that be would not bo able to hold up bis head. So that in tho Nuba mountains, at any rate, tho women do not make for peace. Wc want to educate the girls as wc are educating the boys, but the old folk will not hear of it.” Mr Mac Diarmid and his wife have adopted several babies whose mothers have died, and who otherwise would have been buried alive, according to local eftstom. “ The first one was named ‘ JK’ (Joke),” Mr Mac Diarmid said, “ and the second ‘LM ’ (Idem); but then wo thought it was time to stop* so the rest have got real Nuban names.’ The boys and girls have got as many games as white children, though they have readily added Soccer and rounders to their list. There is a sort of native hockey in ■which the goals are villages two or three miles apart!”