One evening, while they were discussing their route and estimating the time it would take them to reach "Miani's Tree," Frank asked if they would go near the country of the Nyam-Nyams, the curious people described by the Italian explorer.
"I am sorry to say it is out of our route," replied the Doctor. "It lies far to the west of where we are going, and therefore all that we learn about it we must take from others, and not from our own observation."
"You said that the Dinka negro whom you saw at Cairo told you that the Nyam-Nyams rarely exceeded the height of the two dwarfs brought away by Miani," one of the boys remarked.
"Exactly so," was the reply; "but because the negro made that assertion is no reason why we should accept it. However truthful the negro may be in his civilized condition in America, he is not always absolutely veracious in his native wilds. For 'conspicuous inexactness' it would not be easy to find his superior.
"The same negro said it would take a year's travel from Khartoum to reach the country of the Nyam-Nyams. He certainly exaggerated considerably in that assertion, as a quarter of the time would be sufficient for the journey, provided there were no more than the ordinary delays. However, he may have included the hinderances which sometimes come from the unwillingness of a tribe to let strangers move on without a residence of a month or so among them. This is the custom in several parts of Africa, and many explorers have been greatly inconvenienced by it.
"Dr. Schweinfurth travelled among the Nyam-Nyams, and, while he does not make them so small as Miani represents them, he says they are not as large as the majority of the African race. He took the measurements of many of their men, and the tallest stature he found was five feet ten and a half inches. The upper part of the figure is long in proportion to the legs, and this peculiarity gives a strange character to their movements, though it does not impede their agility in their war-dances and in athletic sports.
"He compares their complexion to the hue of a cake of chocolate. There are some variations of the color, but the ground-tint is always an earthy red in contrast to the bronze tinge of the Ethiopian races of Nubia. They are accustomed to make tattoo-marks upon their faces, and sometimes on other parts of their bodies, but do not practise this disfigurement as much as the natives of some of the South Sea Islands."
