Diur

Diur (J0"R), a Negroid people of the White Nile, north-east of Gondokoro and south of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, who give their name to the Diur affluent of the Nile, which flows through their territory. The term Diur, meaning "Men of the Forests" or "Savages," is applied to them by their northern neighbours, the Dinkas, because they do not keep cattle. They are partly dependent on the Dinkas, but they call themselves Luo, and claim to be a branch of the Shilluk nation, whose language they speak with great purity. Like the neighbouring Bongos they are of reddish rather than black complexion, and although without cattle they bread goats, possess poultry, grow durra, beans, sesame, sweet potatoes, and ground nuts (drachis hypogeea), and manufacture their own arms, chiefly spears and arrows, from the iron which abounds in the ncountry. Besides iron smelting and forging, they make, pottery and extract butter from the nut of the butter-tree (Bczssia Parhii). The Diurs, who go nearly naked, show great- affection for their children, and also carefully tend the infirm and aged. Since the middle of the century they have suffered much from the Arab slave-hunters and from the exactions of the Egyptian officials. (Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa; Junker, Travels in Africa.)