Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/515

N I A N I A 473 the fury of the Iroquois, they finally joined them in 1723 against the Hurons, and from this time they ceased to exist as a separate tribe. The first printed allusion to the cataract is in the record of a voyage by Jacques Cartier in 1535. Its position was first mentioned by Samuel Champlaiu in a map attached to his voyages published in 1613. The earliest description is that by Father Hennepin, who visited it in 1678, and published an account of it accompanied with a sketch giving a view of a third fall on the north side caused by the presence of a large rock on Table Rock. The rock and cascade are mentioned by Kalm the Swedish naturalist, who visited Niagara in 1750, but they had disappeared a few years previously. Some writers indeed mention as many as six falls, and there can at least be no doubt that within the last two hundred years the aspect of the falls has been greatly altered. Goat Island extended, up to a comparatively recent period, for about another half mile northerly in a triangular prolongation ; and the number of small islands was perhaps larger than at present. Large masses fell in 1818, 1828, 1843, and 1847, and in June 1850 Table Rock disappeared. See Sir Charles Lyell, Travels in North America, 1845; George W. Holley, Xiagara, 1880; paper by Professor Tyndall on "Niagara" in Macmillan s Maga zine, vol. xxviii. (May 1873) ; paper by G. W. Holley in Scribner s Magazine (August 1876) ; Dr Julius Pohlraann, Life History of the. Niagara River, 1883. NIAGARA FALLS, a village of Niagara county, New York, situated at the Niagara falls, opposite Drummondville (on the Canadian side), and a mile and a half above the contiguous village of Suspension Bridge, formerly Niagara City, which is connected by a suspension bridge with Clifton (on the Canadian side). At Niagara Falls there are grist mills and machine shops. In 1880 the population of Niagara Falls was 3320, and that of Suspension Bridge 2476. Both villages are largely frequented by visitors. NIAM-NIAM, a numerous and widespread Central African race, vho were first visited by John Petherick in 1858, and have since been more fully described, especially by Piaggia, Dr Schweinfurth, Dr W. Junker, Potagos, and G. Casati. But none of these explorers have penetrated more than a few miles from the upper Nile and Welle basins into the Niam-Niam domain, which consequently still remains for the most part an unknown land. Its limits are determined on the east by the Bongo and Monbuttu territories, about 28 E. long., and on the north as far as 20 E. long, by Dar-Fertit and Dar-Banda, about 7 N. lat. But in other directions they extend for unknown distances on the south towards the middle Congo, westwards along the Kuta (upper Shari ?) probably to the Fan country, which is now known to stretch from the Ogoway basin for a vast space towards the north-east. Nearly the whole of equatorial Africa, from the neighbour hood of Lake Albert Nyanza to the Atlantic, east and west, and from the Congo to the headwaters of the Shari, south and north, would thus appear to be divided between the two great cannibal nations of the Fans on the west and Niam-Niam on the east. Their common cannibalism, combined with some other characteristics, has suggested a possible ethnical relationship of these two peoples, which, however, has not been confirmed by a close examination of the respective physical types. The Fans, like the Fulahs of Soudan, seem to be fundamentally distinct from the Negro stock, although more or less affected by Negro elements, whereas the Niam-Niam, notwithstanding certain marked peculiarities, cannot be severed ethnically from that connexion. Affinities have also been sought for them amongst the neighbouring Krej tribes, amongst the Nubas of Kordofan and the Nile, and even amongst the Soudanese Fulahs, but, in the absence of more ample details, any attempt to determine the relations of the Niam-Niam to the surrounding peoples must be regarded as premature. The term Niam-Niam, by which they are best known l to the neighbouring populations, appears to be of Dinka 1 Not exclusively, for they are called Babungera by the Mangbattus (Monbuttus), A-Madyaka by the Dyurs, Mundo or Manyanya by the Bongos, Makkarakka or Kakkaraka by the Mittus. But Niam- Niam, pronounced Gnam-gnam (Ital. gn], has been adopted and gene ralized by the Soudan and Nubian Mohammedans. origin, meaning in that language "great eaters," with reference, as is supposed, to their cannibalistic propensities. The most general national name is Zandey (pi. A-Zandey), which seems to be current throughout the eastern Niam- Niam domain, a region estimated by Schweinfurth (ii. p. 4) at about 48,000 square miles, with a population of at least two millions. But these by no means constitute a uniform ethnical group, for within this area is the large A-Madi nation, 2 differing altogether in speech and even in some respects physically from the ordinary Niam-Niam type. Apart also from numerous tribal divisions, the eastern Niam-Niam proper form three very distinct branches, presenting considerable varieties in appearance, language, usage, and general culture. The bleak, northern highlands bordering east on the Bongos and north on Dar- Fertit are occupied by the Banda Niam-Niam, a rude and savage people, rather of a black-brown than of a red com plexion, omnivorous in taste, devouring apes, reptiles, insects, and apparently human flesh, practising circumcision, and wearing a broad strip of bast or even mere foliage round the loins. These are succeeded southwards by the more civilized Belanda Niam-Niam, who hold the fertile hilly territory about the headwaters of the Abu-Dinga> Beri, Dembo, and other western tributaries of the White Nile. They are of a very dark red or coppery colour, of middle size, and somewhat regular features, betraying distinctly Negro blood chiefly in their woolly hair and thick lips. Their costume is even more scanty than that of the Banda, but special attention is paid to the hair, which often presents the most elaborate designs, more picturesque than conducive to the comfort of the wearer. They cultivate durrah, maize, sesame, bananas, batatas, and are skilled wood and ivory carvers, and workers in iron, producing knives, spears, chains, bracelets, and other ornaments in this metal, which abounds in their country. Very different from either of the foregoing are the so-called " White " Niam-Niam, neighbours of and probably often confounded with the already mentioned A-Madi of the Makua-Welle river basin. The complexion seems to be more of a bronze tint, and they are distinguished from the other branches of the family by their tall stature, sym metrical figure, long kinky hair and beard, and higher social culture. They wear cotton garments, obtained by barter for ivory, copper, and iron, are fond of music and dancing, occasionally form powerful political states, which, however, are liable to disintegration at the death of the founder, 3 and in many respects present certain affinities, with the Baghirmi and other Negroid peoples of the Chad basin. But so little is yet known of the institutions and internal condition of the Niam-Niam race that these divisions cannot be accepted as finally established. At the same time there can be no doubt at all about the existence of a very distinct Niam-Niam type, which is one of the most marked in the whole of Africa. "These beings," remarks Schweinfurth, on his first introduction to them, 2 Visited by Dr W. Junker in 1882-83, and described by him in Petermanns Mittheilungen for May 1883. 3 About the middle of this century most of the eastern Niam-Niaiu lands appear to have been subject to Yapaty, son of Mabengeh. But after his death they were distributed amongst his seven sons, Renjy, Balia, Perkye, Tombo, Bazimbey, Manuba; and in 1870 there were already fourteen reigning princes of this dynasty, besides several" others of doubtful relationship with the line of Mabengeh. In the Niam-Niam districts visited by the traders from Egyptian Soudan there were at that time altogether as many as thirty-five independent chiefs. But reports were current of a very powerful " sultan " named Mofio, whose empire lay some 300 miles farther west. Another large state, founded in the Welle region by Kipa (Kifa), brother of Yapaty, also fell to pieces after his death in 1868. The powerful chiefs Bakangoi and Kanna, visited in 1883 by Casati, are sons of this Kipa, whose grave near Kanna s village is still watched by twenty-five "vestals, "bound, under penalty of death, to keep a fire constantly burning, and to pre serve their chastity inviolate (Esploratore, August 1883). XVII. 60