MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 841 



the down of the marabou stork. A hair-cap is often stuck with ostrich 

 plumes, or may he further decorated with a huge pall of black feathers. The 

 Karamojo are industrious agriculturists, and are peaceful people with a love 

 of commerce. They have been often harried in times past by the Turkana 

 on the east, the Nile tribes on the west, and outlying sections of the Nandi 

 on the south. Not much is known about their customs, but they are said 

 to be similar in some respects to those of the Bantu Negroes, of which they 

 evidently form an outlying branch that has accepted from their conquerors 

 of Masai stock an early branch of the Masai language. 



To the east of Karamojo, in the somewhat arid countries along the 

 western coast-lands of Lake Rudolf, and thence south-west over high 

 mountains and hot valleys to the north end of Lake Baringo, extends the 

 distribution of the gigantic Turkana-Suk people. The Turkana who 

 dwell to the west of Lake Rudolf are perhaps the tallest race living on 

 the globe's surface. The late Captain Wellby considered that in one 

 district the men presented an average of 7 feet in height. I met with 

 very tall men amongst the Suk, but I do not think the tallest exceeded 

 6 feet 6 inches. The colour of the skin in the Suk-Turkana group is 

 chocolate-brown. In their physiognomy they sometimes recall the Masai 

 very closely, but I have seen one or two examples with a cast of features 

 almost Caucasian. The hair of the head, though abundant, is altogether a 

 Negro's wool. On the whole, perhaps, their -physical characteristics may, 

 together with their language, support the theory that the Turkana-Suk 

 group of Negroes are the outcome of a mixture between the Masai stock 

 (which is a blend between the Hamite and the Negro) and the Nilotic 

 peoples such as the Acholi and Dinka.* In their original migration the 



* For the better understanding of these shades of definition of the varying blends 

 of the Negro with early Caucasian invaders of the Nile basin, I give the following 

 summary of my views : — 



A statement skoiving approximately the proportion* of the early Caucasian element 

 in tin negroid or Negro races of East Central Africa. 



„ „ ,,, , , ,. ... Proportion of White 



Jsame of Race or Stock, and Composition. ' 



(Caucasian) I!I I. 



Hima (Hamite, allied to Gala, Somali, etc., Caucasian and original Negro) h 



Masai-Latuka (Hima and Nilotic Negro) i to ^ 



Suk-Turkana-Elgumi (Masai and perhaps Gala with Nilotic and bantu) £ 

 Nilotic (a dash of Hima and Masai with much original Negro and a 



little Pygmy and Bushman blood) ■-', 



Bantu (West African Negro mainly, with a little absorption of Congo 

 Pygmy, and, on the east and south, Bushman, blood ; powerfully 

 modified by Hima [Hamitic] intermixture in many tribes) . . • /„ to .'. 

 West African Negro j 



Pygmy - Original Negro stocks None 



Bushman (Hottentot) J 



