838 



MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



their language as I possess is derived from 

 iMiiin Pasha's article on the subject published 

 ill the Zeitschrifi far Ethnologie, Berlin, 1882. 

 Tlie question is such an interesting one that I 

 trust the officials or missionaries of the Uganda 

 Protectorate may make haste to collect vocabu- 

 laries of Latuka before that language dies out 

 vmder the rivalry of Sudanese Arabic or of the 

 flourishing Acholi tongues to the south. What 

 would be interesting in this connection would 

 be to ascertain if Patuka were more arcahic 

 than Masai, both tongues being derived from a 

 stock which was a blend between the tongues 

 of the Nile Negroes and of the Hamitic Galas. 

 At present, from the little I know, it would 

 seem to me that Masai comes nearer to this 

 original blend than the tongue of Latuka, which 

 is slightly more corrupt. If this be the case, 

 the original birthplace of the ^Nlasai may have 

 been farther to the east or north-east than the 

 Latuka. 



East of the Latuka country there would 

 seem to be a belt of Nilotic people connecting 

 the Acholi tribes with their allies in race and 

 language, the Dioika or Janke.* To the east 

 and south-east, however, of this belt of Acholi 

 people is the Karamojo, or Karamoyo, country, 

 which extends north and south from the northern 

 flanks of ]Mount Elgon nearly to a level with 

 the north end of Lake Kudolf. The Karamojo 

 people physically are closely allied to the Bantu 

 Negroes, though in their cranial and facial characteristics they betray 

 ai ancient intermixture with the Masai. The women, though quite of 

 tlxe Negro type, have sometimes very fine figures, modelled a good deal 

 more according to the conventional ideas of beauty amongst Europeans. 

 Tiiey are broad at the hips, and have thick, well-shaped thighs and short, 

 straight legs hoiu the knee to the ankle. The men are very like the 

 good-looking ty[je of Bantu Negro. Sometimes, however, they show traces 

 of Nilotic intermixture by the long, lanky figures, knock knees, and long, 

 thill, splayed legs. They are black of skin. There is a slight tendency 



* .lanke, or Dyaiike, is the correct form, which the Sudanese Arabs have conuiited 

 to Difika. 



4'j'j, 



