“The first sight of a throng of savages suddenly presenting themselves in their native nudity is one from which no amount of familiarity can remove the strange impression; it takes abiding hold upon the memory, and makes the traveller recall anew the civilisation he has left behind.... Although these savages are altogether unacquainted with the refined cosmetics of Europe, they make use of cosmetics of their own; viz., a coating of ashes for protection against insects. When the ashes are prepared from wood they render the body perfectly gray; when obtained from cow-dung they give a rusty red tint, the hue of red devils. This colour is only donned by land-owners. Ashes, dung, and the urine of cows are the indispensable requisites of the toilet. The item last named affects the nose of the stranger rather unpleasantly when he makes use of any of their milk vessels, as, according to a regular African habit, they are washed with it, probably to compensate for a lack of salt.... Entirely bare of clothing, the bodies of the men would not of themselves be ungraceful, but through the perpetual plastering over with ashes they assume a thoroughly diabolical aspect. The movements of their lean bony limbs are so languid, and their repose so perfect, as not rarely to give the Shiluks the resemblance of mummies; and whoever comes as a novice amongst them can hardly resist the impression that in gazing at these ash-gray forms he is looking upon mouldering corpses rather than upon living beings.” As to the Bahr-al-Ghazal, Schweinfurth opines that the volume of water brought down by the Gazelle River to swell the Nile is still an unsolved problem. “In the contention as to which stream is entitled to rank as first born among the children of the great river god, the Bahr-al-Ghazal has apparently a claim in every way as valid as the Bahr-al-Jabl (Mountain Nile). In truth, it would seem to stand in the same relation to the Bahr-al-Jabl as the White Nile does to the Blue. At the season when the waters are highest the inundations of the Ghazal spread over a wide territory; about March, the time of year when they are lowest, the river settles down in its upper section into a number of vast pools of nearly stagnant water, whilst its lower portion runs off into divers narrow and sluggish channels. These channels, overgrown as they look with massy vegetation, conceal beneath (either in their open depths or mingled with the unfathomable abyss of mud) such volumes of water as to be in some places nearly unsoundable by moderate lengths of pole or cord.”