BORANA CUSTOMS AND LANGUAGE 



are particularly handsome, and their lithe and graceful 

 figures are especially noticeable. 



The Borana are, as a general rule, pagans, although 

 many of them have been converted to Mohammedan- 

 ism by the Somali. They believe, however, in the 

 existence of a Supreme Being (Wak), to whom they 

 sacrifice a goat or sheep before undertaking any 

 important expedition and going out to war. As 

 far as I could gather, they have no conception of, 

 or belief in, life after death. Their marriage customs 

 are very primitive and rarely include the giving of a 

 dowry : they are polygamists, and their conjugal 

 morality is very lax. Unlike the Somali, they do 

 not practise the rites of circumcision or clitori- 

 dectomy ; marriage takes place at a very early age 

 (ten or eleven) and the girls undergo no initiation 

 ceremony on reaching the age of puberty, as is 

 the custom among many uncivilised tribes. 



Their language is unwritten, but it resembles the 

 Galla and is not unlike the Somali. In proof of this 

 may be adduced the fact that the Somali are able to 

 converse easily with both the Galla and Borana after 

 a very brief acquaintance — which would be im- 

 possible were there not a certain similarity between 

 their languages. This, in conjunction with several 

 customs common to all three tribes, would appear to 

 indicate a common origin, and this is very probably 

 the case. 



The Somali look with contempt on the Borana 

 and on the Galla, and will not for a moment consider 

 this possibility — a narrow and prejudiced view not 

 unnatural to a tribe whose ideals consist in a fancied 

 superiority over their neighbours. Nothing definite 

 can be said on this point, for it requires for its 



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