7(*.i> 



NILOTIC NEGROES 



From ;i llnrjuistic point of \ie\v these people fall into at least foiu' 

 divisions (not to mention other forms of speech used l)v Nilotic Negroes 

 to the westward of the region under consideration), three of which — the 

 Xilotic ('l)inka-Acholi), the Xandi, and the Masai — nve distantly related, 



while the fourtli — Madi — has little in common 

 with the ]Silotic lantruas^es. but betravs some- 

 / what ^^'est African affinities in its phonetics, 



vocabulary, and grammar, and even offers a 

 very faint, perhaps disputable, resemblance to 

 the Eanta family. The languages s})oken by 

 the Dinka, Shiluk, Acholi, Aluru. Lango, and 

 Ja-luo are all closely allied. The sub-group, 

 indeed, of the Acholi (with its dialects of 

 Alura, Lango, and Ja-luo) is practically one 

 language. According to native tradition, the 

 Acholi section of the Nile peoples swept down 

 on the equatorial sections about the great 

 lakes at no very remote })eriod. It is, per- 

 haps, an open question which came first, the 

 Bantu Negi'oes from tlie north-west or the 

 ^^ ^^ ^^^^ Acholi Nile people from the north. I think, 



VN^S ^B ^^^H *^^^ ^^^^ whole, that the Bantu preceded the 



'^^^^^^'' ^^^^ Nile Negroes in these regions. Another ja'oblem 



is the relationship between the Nile Negroes 

 and the Nandi and Masai tribes. The Masai 

 (jroHp of languages — which comprises the very 

 distinct tongues of Bari. Latuka. Karamojo, 

 Turkana, Silk, Elgumi (Waniiaj. and Masai — 

 and the Xandi and a few broken dialects 

 in the north of Lgogo, have an indisputable 

 relationship in vocabulary and numerals with 

 the Nilotic tongues. Yet the differences be- 

 tween the two stocks are considerable, and the 

 differences, again, between the Bari snb-grouj), 

 the Karamojo-Suk dialects, the Nandi. and 

 the Masai, are almost equal to the difference 

 between German and Russian. In the Bari we find a jjcople of typical 

 Nilotic physique speaking one of the languages of the Masai group. In 

 the 3Iasai we see a race which is negroid rather than Negro, and offers 

 but little resemblance physically to the Nile Negroes, though the Masai 

 language is remotely related- to Acholi and Dinka. Again, in the Karamojo 

 people we have a race which, according to Dr. Shrubsall, is that of the 



409. A DINKA NILE NEGKU 



