764^ 



NILOTIC NEGEOES 



in their origin may have 

 had some connection 

 with the Bantu grou[). 

 Then down from the north 

 came the ancestors of 

 the Nile Negroes, driven 

 south possibly by the 

 first determined Hamite 

 invasion of the Egyptian 

 Sudan and Abyssinia. 

 The Nile Negroes swept 

 due south, and in places 

 were checked and pro- 

 foundly modified by 

 the thinner stream of 

 Hamitic immigrants (ot 

 the (jrala stock) who were 

 continually entering 

 Negro Nileland from the 

 north-east. Some fusion 

 in varying degrees be- 

 tween the Hamite and 

 the Nile Negro created 

 the ]Masai and Silk types, 

 and temporary successes 

 of this powerful blend 

 carried the modified Nile 

 languages (which we 

 know now as the ]Masai 

 group) westwards as far 

 as the Bari country (where 

 the language became 

 tinged with West African 

 phonology), and south- 

 wards deep into what is 

 now German East Africa. In the middle of Negro Nileland a large section 

 of Bantu Negroes was stranded, and adopted a dialect of this ^las-ai group 

 (I refer to the Karamojo). Elsewhere, however, the constant stream of 

 Nilotic Negroes following one anotlier in waves of immigration carried 

 this Negro type and its language actually to the north-west coast of Lake 

 Albert (the Ahu-ii) and to the north-east coast of the A'ictoria Nyanza 

 (the Ja-luo). The Ja-hio fragment of the great Nilotic invasion overla})ped 



411. A BAKI NEGRO FROM BEDDEX, WHITE NILE 



