7iM J5AXTU NEGJIOES 



include all llic tiilio spcakiny nearlv alli('(l I'aiitii dialects between the 

 north-west corner o{ Mount Elu^on on tiie north and the (iermau frontier 

 on tlie east coast of J^ake Victoria Nyanza on the south. As will Ije 

 pointed out in (he next chapter, the best general name for the JSilotic 

 peo[)le who dwell in a ])art of the Kavirondo country is that suggested by 

 Mr. Hobley — " Ja-luo." 



The dialects (divided into three distinct groups) spoken by the people 

 whom I group together as Kavirondo are not only Bantu, but are in some 

 respects more archaic even than Luganda and Urunyoro. The group of 

 dialects spoken by the degraded and simian-like Xegroes on the western flanks 

 of Mount Elgon may jjcrhaps claim to be the nearest living approach to the 

 original Eantu mother-tongue, though the Lukonjo of Euwenzori, Luganda, 

 and Eunyoro come very near to the same exalted position. The ^lasaba * 

 people' of West p]lgon, who speak this extremely archaic Bantu language, 

 represent a little enclave of Bantu-speaking people (the Bapobo, Bangoko, 

 Bakonde, Bagesu, Basokwia, and Bosia), surrounded by tribes of a totally 

 ditiereut physique and language, though their Kavirondo brethren to the 

 south are not more than thirty or forty miles distant. They are perhaps 

 the wildest jieople to he found anywhere within the limits of the Uganda 

 Protectorate. They are wilder even than the Congo Dwarfs. Quite recently 

 they were brought under subjection to some extent by an Uganda chief 

 wlio was emjjloyed to restore order in the country between the Victoria 

 Nile and Elgon. l)ut even still there remains a section of this people 

 dwelling high up (at altitudes, perhaps, of 7,000 and 8.000 feet) on the 

 ridges surrounding the ceiitral crater of p]lgon wliich in all probability 

 has never seen a European, and who W(iuld display hostility towards him 

 or any other stranger who came within its reach. 



Directly the present 'writer saw these Masaba folk he was struck with 

 the low and apish appearance that many of them presented. Here and 

 there one distinguished amongst them the square-headed, better-looking type 

 of Xandi physiognomy, due, no doubt, to refugees from Nandi-speaking 

 countries having settled among these savages ; but ordinarily the ]Masaba 

 peo}tle bear a strong resemblance to the Pygmy-Prognathous group on the 

 western limits of Uganda. h'ome who were seen, but who unfortunately 

 could not be photographed, gave considerable justification to the employment 

 of the term "ape-like men." They had strongly projecting superciliary 

 arches, low brows, flat noses, long upper lips, and receding chins — stumpy 

 individuals irresistilily recalling the Congo Dwarfs, having the same flat 

 noses, bulging nostrils, and long upper lips. There was nothing about these 



* Tla-y <lo not themselves recognise this name, which is one apiilied to them by 

 the Magamla, and is a convenient general term for a grou]) of wihl mountain trilies 

 that have no general designation of their own. 



