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NIAGARA FALLS
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See also:NIAGARA FALLS , a See also:city of Niagara See also:county, New See also:York, U.S.A., on the E. See also:side of the Niagara See also:river, at the Falls, 22 M. N.N.W. of See also:Buffalo. Pop. (1900) 19,457, of whom 7326 were See also:foreign-See also:born, (1910 See also:census) 30,445. The city is served by the New York Central & See also:Hudson River, the See also:Wabash, the See also:Erie, the Lehigh Valley, the See also:West See also:Shore and the See also:Michigan Central See also:railways, and by the See also:International Electric railway and the Niagara, St Catharines & See also:Toronto (electric) railway. The city extends along the level See also:summit of the cliffs from above the Falls to some 3 M. below. The river is here crossed by three See also:bridges; the (upper) See also:steel See also:arch See also:bridge, built (1895) on the site of the former suspension bridge (built in 1869; blown down in 1889; rebuilt as a suspension bridge) near the Falls, is crossed by See also:double See also:carriage-ways and footpaths and by an electric railway, and is probably the longest bridge of the See also:kind in the See also:world, being 1240 ft. See also:long with an arch span of 84o ft.; and 14 m. farther down the river are two railway bridges, the Michigan Central's See also:cantilever bridge, completed in 1883, and the (See also:lower) single steel arch bridge (completed in 1897, on the site of See also: Niagara Falls is an important manufacturing city; the value of the factory products increased from $8,540,184 in 1900 to $16,915,786 in 1905, or 98-1%. The city is the See also:shipping centre for the W. part of Niagara county. The See also:village of Niagara Falls was for a See also:time called See also:Manchester. In 1892 the village of See also:Sus-See also:pension Bridge (formerly Niagara City) was joined with it under a city charter, which has been frequently amended. NIAM-NIAM (Zandeh, A-Zandeh), a See also:people of Central See also:Africa, of mixed See also:Negroid descent. With kindred tribes, they stretch from the While See also:Nile above the See also:Sobat confluence to the See also:Shari affluent of See also:Lake See also:Chad, and from the See also:Bahr-el-Arab, about 10° N., nearly to the See also:equator. Their See also:political ascendancy, weakened by the incessant attacks of the Arab-Nubian slave-raiders before the rise of the Sudanese See also:mandi in 1882, was afterwards broken by the forces of the See also:Congo See also:Free State and the Anglo-See also:Egyptian See also:Sudan. The See also:term Niam-Niam appears to be of See also:Dinka origin, meaning in that See also:language " See also:great eaters," with reference, as is supposed, to their cannibalistic propensities. They are called Babungera by the See also:Mangbettu (Monbuttu), A-Madyaka by the Diur, Mundo or Manyanya by the See also:Bongo, See also:Makaraka or Kakaraka by the Mittu. But Niam-Niam has been adopted and generalized by the Sudan and Nubian Mahommedans. Their native name is Zandeh (pl. A-Zandeh), which is current throughout the eastern Niam-Niam domain, a region estimated by Georg See also:Schweinfurth, who visited the See also:country in 1370, at about 48,000 sq. m., with a See also:population of at least two millions. But these by no means constitute a See also:uniform ethnical See also:group, for within this See also:area is the large See also:Madi nation, differing altogether in speech and even
in some respects physically from the See also:ordinary Niam-Niam type. Apart also from numerous tribal divisions, the eastern Niam-Niam proper See also:form three very distinct branches. The See also:bleak See also:northern See also:highlands bordering See also:east on the Bongo and See also:north on See also:Dar-Fertit are occupied by the See also:Banda Niam-Niam. To the southwards are the more civilized Belanda Niam-Niam, who hold the fertile hilly territory of the Nile-Congo See also:watershed. Very different from either are the so-called " See also: African See also:race. By tribal See also:custom the men are all hunters, armed with long knives and spears and carrying oblong See also:shields of wicker-See also:work; the women all tillers of the See also:soil, which with little toil yields abundant crops of cereals, yams, manioc, colocasia and Virginian See also:tobacco. Both sexes wear large pins of ivory, iron, See also:monkey or human See also:bone See also:stuck in their hair, and stain their skin with red camwood and the oil of a See also:wild See also:berry. The Niam-Niam are intelligent, skilful builders, and proficient in many native See also:industries. Prominent among these are their earthenware vessels, which display considerable symmetry; iron smelting and See also:metal work, such as swords, knives and spears; See also:wood carvings, such as stools, benches, See also:bowls and tobacco pipes, of varied and intricate See also:design and often admirable See also:works of art. They are great smokers, and very fond of See also:music. Of the ox, See also:horse, See also:ass or See also:camel they have no knowledge; the only domestic animals are poultry, and a breed of See also:dogs, like small See also:wolf-hounds, with smooth red hair, See also:twisted tail like a porker's, large ears, pointed nose and four-clawed See also:hind feet. These curious little " greyhounds " join in the See also:chase with small wooden bells round the See also:neck, and are thus soon found when lost in the See also:woods. The Niam-Niam are distinguished by their elaborate head-dresses (they formerly wore a sort of big full-buttomed See also:wig, and Dr W. See also:Junker actually saw elderly people in these), and peculiar See also:tattoo markings—square patterns on forehead, temples or cheeks, ' About the See also:middle of the 19th See also:century, most of the eastern Niam-Niam lands appear to have been subject to Yapaty, son of Mabengeh. But after his See also: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 See also:dynasty, besides several of doubtful relationship with the See also:line of Mabengeh. In the Niam-Niam districts visited by the traders from the Egyptian Sudan there were at that time altogether as many as See also:thirty-five See also:independent chiefs. But reports were current of a very powerful " See also:sultan " named Mofio, whose See also:empire See also:lay some 300 M. farther west. Another large state, founded in the Welle region by Kipa (Kifa), See also:brother of Yapaty, also See also:fell to pieces after his death in 1868. The powerful chiefs Bakangoi and Kanna, visited in 1883 by G. Casati, were sons of this Kipa, whose See also:grave near See also:Karma's village was still watched by twenty-five " vestals," See also:bound, under See also:penalty of death, to keep a See also:fire constantly burning, and to preserve their chastity inviolate (Esploratore, See also:August 18'83).an X-shaped figure in a See also:cartouche below the See also:chest, and various zigzag, straight or dotted lines on the upper See also:arm and See also:breast. Most of them See also:file the incisors. From the malted See also:grain of a See also:species of eleusine they brew See also:good See also:beer, of a sparkling brown or reddish colour and pleasant See also:bitter See also:taste, derived from the stalk of the same cereal. In this widespread Negroid family are now provisionally grouped the Makaraka, intermingled with the Mundu, and the Babukur in the north-east (Bahr-el-Ghazal) ; the Krej, Banda and N'Sakkara in the north-west (Dar-Fertit, and thence to the upper Shari) ; the Bansiri, Ndris, Togbo, Languassi, Dakoa, Ngapu, Wia-Wia, Manja, Awaka, Akunga and others about both slopes of the Congo-Chad See also:water-parting. These last, who give such an enormous westward See also:extension to the family, present much the same See also:physical characters as the Zandeh proper, and speak dialects of the widely diffused Ndris language, which is not See also:Bantu, but appears to show See also:affinities with Zandeh. This great See also:division ethnologists are even disposed to connect with the See also:Fula of west and central Sudan, and to substitute for the now exploded " Nuha-Fula " a " Zandeh-Fula " family, resulting from various See also:secular interminglings between the true negroes and the See also:Berbers of North Africa. Such crossings have undoubtedly been in progress since prehistoric times over an enormous area See also:south of the See also:Sahara (AFRICA: See also:Ethnology), and are almost everywhere marked by certain See also:constant characters, such as long ringlety or kinky black hair, coppery, reddish or bronze shades of complexion, See also:brachycephalic (round) head, often highly pronounced, and indicated outwardly by an unusually wide space between the orbits, and generally by some-what softened negro features. But, owing to the different environments and to the different initial ratios of intermixture, the transitional forms are almost endless, so that it becomes difficult to constitute distinct ethnical See also:groups without calling in the aid of language. Where type and speech correspond, as to a large extent is the See also:case with most of the above-mentioned tribes, even strict systematists will be disposed to constitute See also:separate ethnical groups, at least as working hypotheses, always allowing for the somewhat untrustworthy nature of the linguistic See also:factor. In the case under See also:consideration Fula has no kind of connexion with Zandeh speech, but this by no means precludes the possibility of racial connexion. Beyond a few meagre vocabularies no materials have yet been collected for the study of the Zandeh language, which, except in the Madi country, appears to be everywhere spoken with considerable uniformity in the eastern Niam-Niam lands. Its phonetic See also:system, such as initial mb and vowel auslaut, affiliates it, not to the Libyan, as has been asserted, but to the Negro linguistic type. Within this See also:order of speech its pronominal prefix inflection points to See also:affinity rather with the See also:southern Bantu than with the Sudan group of See also:languages. Thus the See also:personal plural a-, as in A-Zandeh, A-Madi, A-Banga, &c., would appear to be identical in origin and meaning with the Bantu wa-, as in Wa-Ganda, Wa-Swaheli, Wa-Sambara, &c. There is also the same dearth of abstract terms, which renders the See also:translation of Scripture into the Negro See also:tongues such a difficult task. Compare gumbah, an expression for the Deity, really meaning " See also:lightning," with the Chinyanja chuuta=See also:thunder=See also:God (?) and the Zulu Unkulunkulu= great-grandfather, also adopted by the missionaries as the nearest See also:equivalent for the Deity in that language. Politically the dismembered Zandeh empire and dependent principalities are divided up between See also:France, which ciaims the " sultanates " of Rafai, Dinda, Zemio and Tambura in the Mbomu valley, with all the peoples in Fertit and the Shari basin; See also:Belgium, which administers the eastern See also:section between the Mbomu and the upper Welle; and Great See also:Britain, to whose See also:share have fallen the Makaraka and other Niam-Niam groups of the Bahr-el-Ghazal region. See John See also:Petherick, See also:Egypt, the Soudan and Central Africa (1861); Carlo Piaggia's " See also:Account of the Niam-Niam," communicated by the Marchese O. Antinori to the Bol'etino of the See also:Italian See also:Geographical Society (1868), pp. 91-168; G. A. Schweinfurth, See also:Heart of Africa (See also:English edition, 1873); G. Casati, " See also:Journey to the Niam-Niam Country," in Esploratore for August 1883, and Ten Years in Equatoria (1891); F. R. Bohndorff, Reisen in Central Africa (1885); Dr W. Junker, " Rundreise in dem sudlichen Niamniam-Lande," in See also:Petermann's Mittheilungen for May 1883, English edition, Travels in Africa (1890). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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