120 Sir Charles Eliot [May 19, 



investigators in our Protectorate have not been able to confirm the 

 existence of these traditions, and I confess that I share their scepti- 

 cism, and think that the stories which Captain Merker has collected 

 are merely distorted versions of what, natives have heard from 

 missionaries, or perhaps from Mohammedans. But even if the tra- 

 ditions are old and genuine, the probabilities are enormously in favour 

 of their being due not to any Semitic relationship, but to contact 

 with Abyssinia, where there is not only an ancient Christian Church 

 but also an ancient Jewish colony. 



It is a curious fact, which has been noticed by several travellers, 

 that the natives of East Africa have very few religious observances. It 

 is, of course, not true that they have no religion at all, as is sometimes 

 said, but it is a fact that whereas to the west of lake Victoria, in 

 Uganda, Unyoro and other countries, there were in pagan times 

 temples, priests and sacrifices of the usual African type, all these 

 external signs of religion are wanting to the north and east of the 

 lake. Mohammedanism is professed in the coast towns, but not very 

 fervently, and by the Somalis with occasional bursts of fanaticism, 

 but also it would seem not with habitual devotion. It has never 

 penetrated inland or produced any effect on the Masai or other 

 warrior races. I attribute this absence of external religious signs 

 mainly to the predominance in these regions of nomads or semi- 

 nomadic tribes. Nomads are not perhaps naturally irreligious, but 

 they have not the time or the materials for impressive ceremonies. 

 The example of northern Asia shows this. The Turks and Mongols 

 when they settle down, are generally conspicuous for their devotion 

 to Mohammedanism or Buddhism, but their original religious systems 

 were slight and vague, and those of them who are still nomadic are 

 extremely lax in their observances. 



Two classes of religions ideas, other than Christian and Moham- 

 medan, prevail among the inhabitants of East Africa. One is the 

 worship of a sky-spirit, called Eng-ai among the Masai. The Clallas 

 worship a similar spirit under the name of Wak, though it is not 

 clear what the connection between the religious ideas of the two tribes 

 may be. They agree, however, in having hardly any ceremonies 

 except prayer. Among the Gallas, I strongly suspect that these 

 prayers are due to Christian influence, as the petitions which are said 

 to be used every day recall the language of the Lord's Prayer, and 

 also the specimens published were collected in or near Abyssinia. 

 The prayers of the Masai and kindred tribes seem to be genuine 

 native compositions, in which the appeals to the sky god are mixed up 

 with allusions to the heavenly bodies. Among the Masai and the 

 other Nilotic tribes, there appears to be hardly any idea of existence 

 after death, or of ancestor worship. Medicine men, who all belong 

 to one family, are buried and are believed to turn into snakes, but 

 they say that common people die like cattle, and corpses are simply 

 thrown into the jungle to be eaten by hya3nas. Among the Bantu- 



