SHILLUK

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 859 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SHA-SIV

SHILLUK , a Negro race of the upper Nile valley, occupying the lands west of the White Nile from the

Sobat

SOBAT

northward for about 36o m., and stretching westward to the territory of the Baggara tribes. They are the most numerous of the Negro tribesof the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and form one

great

GREAT

family with the Alur and Acholi (q.v.) and others in the south. Formerly extending as far north as Khartum and constituting a powerful Negro kingdom, they are now decadent. They are the only race on the upper Nile recognizing one

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

as ruler of all the tribes, the chiefship passing invariably to the sister's child or some other relative on the female side. The Shilluk towns on the Nile bank are usually placed near to one another. They own large herds of cattle. In physique the Shilluks are typical Negroes and jet black. The men used to

wear

WEAR

nothing, the women a calf-skin attached to their girdle, but with the

establishment

ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement,
late
- LATE
Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

of Anglo-Egyptian

control

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

, c. 'goo, they gradually adopted clothes. The poorer people smear themselves with ashes. They ornament the

hair

HAIR (a word common to Teutonic languages)

with grass and feathers in fantastic forms such as a halo,

helmet

HELMET (from an obsolete diminutive of O. Fr. helme, mod. heaume; the English word is " helm," as in O. Eng., Dutch and Ger.; all are from the Teutonic base hal-, pre-Teut. kal-, to cover; cf. Lat. celare, to hide, Eng. " hell," &c.)

, or even a broad-brimmed hat. When they saw Schweinfurth wearing a broad felt hat they thought him one of them, and were amazed when he took it off. They are skilful as hunters, and especially as fishermen, spearing fish while wading or from ambach rafts. Their arms are spears, shields and clubs. Their religion is a kind of ancestor and nature

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

.
See G. A. Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa (1874) ; W. Junker, Travels in Africa, Eng. ed. (London, 189o-1892) ; The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905).

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