CHAP. XVII ABYSSINIANS 359 



in Stanley's first descent of the Congo, and subsequently as headman 

 during the James Expedition into Somaliland, Teleki's march to Basso 

 Narok, Stanley's Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, and Lugard's adminis- 

 tration in Uganda, he has done inestimable service in the cause of 

 African exploration. Men such as Wasama and Dualla show that the 

 Somali character is capable of great development ; and it was impossible 

 to compare even the roughest of our unruly crew with the Zanzibari 

 or Pokomo, without feeling that the race has great capabilities. At 

 first sight the people seem to be truly African in their levity, passion, 

 and fitfulness ; but scratch the Somali and you find the Arab, with 

 Arabian capacity for devotion and discipline, and latent powers of 

 organisation, which promise for the race a great future in the develop- 

 ment of East Africa. 



Section E. — The Semitic Races 

 The Abyssinia7is 



While the Somali and the Galla represent one type of Asiatic 

 invaders, the Abyssinians represent another. The two first are 

 unquestionably Hamitic, while the Abyssinians in the main are Semitic. 

 There are in the country several tribes representing the Hamitic races, 

 which occupied Abyssinia before the invasion of the Semites : such 

 are the Beja of the north, the Saho around Massowah, the Agau of 

 the Central Plateau,^ and the Sidama of Kaffa in the south. ^ But 

 the dominant race throughout historic times has been Semitic. Among 

 the men engaged for the Lake Rudolf Expedition, however, there were 

 a large proportion of Hamites, since, being mainly drawn from the 

 shop-boys of Massowah, the Saho were well represented. 



True Semitic Abyssinians are probably not yet residents in British 

 East Africa. The southern Abyssinians raid across the frontier into 

 the British sphere of influence ; but they do not seem to have founded 

 permanent settlements there, and it is probably only the Hamitic tribes 

 that conduct these raids. It may therefore appear superfluous to refer 

 to these Semites. But as the introduction of Abyssinian porters into 

 Equatorial Africa was an interesting experiment, which cost the Lake 

 Rudolf Expedition a good deal of money, it may be as well to record 

 the result. 



Over eighty Abyssinians were engaged at Massowah, but unfortu- 

 nately there was some misunderstanding as to the terms of their 

 engagement. They maintained that they had been enlisted to go to 

 Lamu and thence to India, where they were to act as escort to a native 

 prince. When, therefore, they were landed on the beach at Melindi, 



^ L. Reinisch, Sitz. ber. phil. hist. CI. k. Akad. Wiss., Wien, Bd. cxxi. (1890) ; 

 Abh. xii. p. 4. 



- L. Reinisch, "Die Kafa-sprache in Nordost-Afrika," ibid. Bd. cxvi. (1888), p. 68. 



