3i8 NATIVES OF EASTERN BRITISH EAST AFRICA part hi 



The East African races afford a further illustration of the 

 dependence of character on environment ; since, as the geo- 

 graphical conditions are different from those of India or Greece, 

 they have produced a different type of national character. 

 This case is especially instructive, as the direct influence of 

 the geological factors is so clearly shown. 



As we have seen in Chap. XII., the most striking feature 

 in the physical conditions of Eastern Equatorial Africa is insta- 

 bility. Geological evidence was there quoted to show that the 

 climate of the country has undergone a great change at no 

 distant period. The facts of zoological distribution quoted 

 in Chap. XIII. confirm this. Statements made by the Arab 

 governors of Mombasa and Mambrui, and the meteorological 

 statistics collected on the coast, support the same view ; 

 they show that the climate is still characterised by excessive 

 variation and uncertainty. The tables of rainfall occasionally 

 show us the total failure of one rainy season, followed by 

 a disastrous excess in the next ; while such incidents as 

 the famine at Njemps repeat the same story in more tragic 

 terms. 



Owing to the peculiar conditions of the African climate, 

 the natives are more than usually dependent on the rainfall. 

 Merensky^ has pointed out that the maps of South Africa 

 which show the distribution of rain correspond closely with 

 those which show the distribution of population. 



But rain is not the only factor that has to be considered. 

 In a region of such unstable equilibrium as Eastern Equatorial 

 Africa, we have to allow for changes in the structure of the 

 country as well as in its climate. Great earth -movements 

 have occurred there recently, and, it may be, are in progress 

 still. These may at any time have altered the subterranean 

 drainage of a district, dried up the springs, diverted the courses 

 of the rivers, turned a garden into a desert, and wiped out 

 a tribe. The traditions of such disasters haunt the people's 

 memory, and occupy a leading position in their folklore. The 

 terror of their possible recurrence exercises a disturbing influence 

 on the native character. It keeps alive a disposition towards 

 nomad life, alien alike to the growth of either a fatalism like that 

 of India, or a culture like that of Greece. All the tribes, however, 



1 A. Merensky, Beitrdge zur Kenntyiiss Sud-Afrikas {\d,j^), pp. 78-79. 



