354 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Photo by Richard Buchta. 



FAJELU MEN AND WOMAN. 



Their chief town, Tarran- 

 golle, contained about 3,000 

 houses, which are either bell- 

 shaped or consist of a high 

 conical roof on a low, vertical, 

 circular Avail. Each house is 

 surrounded by a stockade, and 

 a larger stockade surrounds the 

 whole town. The passages 

 between the different com- 

 pounds are just wide enough 

 for the cows to pass in single 

 file; so that, in case the outer 

 wall of the town is rushed, the 

 enemy could only drive off the 

 cattle slowly and along paths 

 which could easily be defended 

 and closed. The Latuka have 

 large herds of cattle, which are 

 driven into the towns every 

 night, where they are protected 

 from flies by the smoke of fires. 

 The dress of the men con- 

 sists only of a helmet, which is 

 made by interweaving some 



unravelled bark with their hair until it forms a thick felt 1| inch thick. The front of this 

 hair helmet is strengthened by a band of copper, and another strip forms the crest. The 

 surface is then decorated with beads and the edge completed by a row of cowry-shells. 



The women, on the contrary, wear the hair short. Their ornaments are strings of beads, a 

 fur tail, large earrings, and a long cylindrical crystal ornament, worn hanging from the lower 

 lip. The four front teeth of the lower jaw are extracted. Scar-tattooing is practised, the 

 tribal mark being a series of radial gashes over the forehead, temples, and cheeks. The men 

 do not tattoo. 



The tribal weapons are the spear, an iron-headed mace, a spiked bracelet with projecting 

 knife-blades 4 inches long, and a sword. They carry hide shields 4 feet long by 2 feet wide. 



Polygamy and purchase are the rules of marriage. The funeral rites are more characteristic. 

 The body is buried outside the man's hut, but inside his compound. Funeral dances are held 

 for some weeks, after which the body is exhumed, and the bones cleaned, packed in an 

 earthenware jar, and then placed in a cemetery near the town. 



THE MASAI. 



In the districts around the Latuka dwell other Nilotic tribes: to the west there are the 

 Bari, in the main Nile Valley; to the east there are the Turkana, between the Latuka and 

 Lake Rudolf; to the south-east are the Karamoyo and Kamasia. These tribes are all people of 

 large stature, and according to Wellby the Turkana frequently exceed 7 feet in height. 



These people, however, are less important than the famous tribe of the Masai, who have 

 forced their way southward from the home of the Nilotic Negroes along the Eift Valley to 

 the slopes of Kilima Njaro in German East Africa. They now extend from that mountain for 

 about 300 miles northward. The Masai have been studied in detail by many observers, among 

 the earliest of whom were Fischer, Thomson, and Johnston. Thomson gave a graphic sketch of 

 the habits of the Masai, while to Johnston we owe a precise account of their physical structure 

 and language. 



