III.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO : I. SUDANESE. 69 



whole family, were of a pale or yellowish-red complexion, like 

 rhubarb 1 ." 



There is no suggestion of albinoism, and the explanation of 

 such strange contrasts must await further exploration in the whole 

 of this borderland of Negroes and Bantus about the divide 

 between the Chad and the Congo basins. The country has 

 hitherto been traversed only by two or three French pioneers, 

 interested more in political than in anthropological matters. 



Of the settled and more or less cultured peoples in the Chad 

 basin, the most important are the Kanembu 2 , who 



The Cultured 



introduce a fresh element of confusion in this region, Peoples of 



. ..... , . . . . Central Sudan. 



being more allied in type and speech to the Hamitic 

 Tibus than to the Negro stock, or at least taking a transitional 

 position between the two; the Kanuri, the ruling people in Bornu, 

 of somewhat coarse Negroid appearance 3 ; and the southern 

 Baghirmi, also decidedly Negroid, originally supposed to have 

 come from the Upper Shari and White Nile districts 4 . Their 

 civilisation, such as it is, has been developed exclusively under 

 Moslem influences, but it has never penetrated much below the 

 surface. The people are everywhere extremely rude, and for the 

 most part unlettered, although the meagre and not altogether 

 trustworthy Kanem-Bornu records date from the time of Sef, 



1 ir. p. 382-3. 



2 That is, "Kanem-men," the postfix bu, be, as in 7'i-bu, Ful-be, answering 

 to the Bantu prefix ba, ?va, as in Ba-Suto, Wa-Sivahili, &c. Here may possibly 

 be discovered a link between the Sudanese, Teda-Daza, and Bantu linguistic 

 groups. The transposition of the agglutinated particles would present no 

 difficulty; cf. Umbrian and Latin (Eth. p. 214). 



3 Barth draws a vivid picture of the contrasts, physical and mental, between 

 the Kanuri and the Hausa peoples; " Here we took leave of Hausa with its 

 fine and beautiful country, and its cheerful and industrious population. It is 

 remarkable what a difference there is between the character of the ba-Haushe 

 and the Kanuri the former lively, spirited, and cheerful, the latter melancholic, 

 dejected, and brutal ; and the same difference is visible in their physiognomies 

 the former having in general very pleasant and regular features, and more 

 graceful forms, while the Kanuri, with his broad face, his wide nostrils and 

 his large bones, makes a far less agreeable impression, especially the women, 

 who are very plain and certainly among the ugliest in all Negroland" (ii. 

 p. 163-4). 



4 See Nachtigal, ii. p. 690. 



