NATIVE IDEAS OK COSMOLOGY. iS/ 



merly classed as negroes, while Meinhof stated that certain 

 tribes, the Wahwa and Wasendani, had clicks in their langaiiges 

 like the Hottentots. How many of these clicks and what they 

 were he does not say. This is interesting of itself, and shows 

 the extent of former Hamitic occupation, and the probable line 

 of advance of the Hottentots. From the Masai, Capt. Merker 

 collected a number of legends relating to the origin of the world, 

 the deluge, the fall of man and others, astonishingly like those 

 related in the b(X)k of Cienesis. The Masai account of the Crea- 

 tion runs as follows : — 



In the beginning the earth was a waste and barren wilderness, in 

 vvhicli there dwelt a dragon alone. Then God came down from heaven, 

 fouglit with the dragon, and vanquished it. From the dragon's blood, 

 which was water, the barren, rocky wilderness was made fertile, and the 

 spot where the struggle between God and the dragon took place was called 

 Paradise. Thereafter God created all things — sun, moon, stars, plants, 

 and beasts, and finally two human beings. The man was sent down from 

 heaven and was called Maitunibe, and the woman. Uaitergorob, sprang 

 from the bosom of the earth. God led them into Paradise, where they 

 led an untroui)led existence. They were allowed to eat of all the fruits 

 of the garden, with one exception, called ol oilai. Often God visited 

 tliem by climl)ing down a ladder. One day, however, he could not find 

 them, but at last discovered them crouching in some bushes- He inquired 

 what they were afraid of, and the man replied that they had eaten the 

 forbidden fruit. He said his wife had given it to him. The woman 

 answered that she had done it at the suggestion of the serpent. God was 

 ;uigry. and sent the morning star. Rilegen, to drive them out of Paradise.* 



1 have considerably condensed this account, and it is only 

 fair to add that suspicion has b^^en thnnvn U]xin 

 its accuracy. Several ethnologists and travellers deny that the 

 Masai are Hamites, or that these stories are indigenous. Sir 

 Harry Johnston says the Masai are Nilotic negroes, and Hollis, 

 in his book on the Masai, makes 110 mention of any such tradi- 

 tions- I understand that he takes the view that they are mutil- 

 ated Christian teaching. However this may be, Captain Merker 

 is in error in describing them as Semites. Hamites they possibly 

 are. But what has the Hamitic question to do with the origin 

 of Bantu Creation myths? The ordinary theory of the deriva- 

 tion of the Bantu peoples is that they originated somewhere 

 west of the Victoria Nyanza. through some negro tribe marrying 

 women of Hamitic type. In that case their language would have 

 been modified by the Hamites, and they would possibly have 

 obtained some of their traditions of Creation from these people. 

 That these is a foreign strain in some of the Bantu seems very 

 probable. Is it Hamitic? I am not thinking of recent Semitic 

 intermingling, such as has been going on along the coast for a 

 long time. Take the old Varoswe of Rhodesia. There are two 

 distinct types found among these people. One tall and slight, 

 with fine straight features, and the other short, abnormally broad 

 and negroid. The former have thin lips, thin noses and flat nos- 

 trils. These characteristics may be Hamitic. I do not think 



* Merker : '' Die Masai — -Kthnographische Monographie eines Ost- 

 afrikanischcn Semitenvolkes." Berlin (1904). 



