836 



:\rASAT. TURKANA, SUK, XANDI, ETC, 



of the Egypt iaii Sudan, became somewhat Arabised by tlie Arabs and 

 Nubians, who. under the protecticn of Egypt, invaded these regions of the 

 I'pper Nile as slave- and ivory-traders some fifty years ago. The country 

 of the Latuka was never formally conquered by Egy})t. nor was it overrun 

 by t lie Dervishes after the ^NJahdi's revolt. It may be said that during the 

 attenuated life of the Egyptian Administration under Emin Pasha. Latuka 

 preserved an attitude of friendly neutrality, which it continued to the 

 British Administration during and aftc^i the mutinv of the Sudanese 



404. KAKAMU.IO PKOPLE 



■soldiers. It is a populous country, governed by powerful chiefs, who many 

 of them talk Arabic, and all of whom dress in Arab costume. A number of 

 the Latuka have adopted Islam. This, and their partiality for Arab clothing, 

 has tended to obscure their relationship to the nude and nomad INlasai. 

 The fact remains, however, that of all existing languages their dialect 

 approaches neai'est to the tongue of the Masai, which is separated from 

 them by many degrees of latitude and longitude. I regret that alone 

 among the im])ortant or interesting dialects of the Uganda Protectorate 

 Latuka finds no place in my collected vocabularies. Such knowledge of 



