THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Photo by Mr. J. W. liolund. 



A GROUP OF HAUSSA. 



surrounding Agao, Khamta, and other Hamitic peoples, who still speak rude dialects of the 

 old Hamitic tongue, and form the substratum of the heterogeneous Abyssinian populations. 

 Of these the most primitive are the Wito (Vaito), fishers and hunters of the hippopotamus, 

 who dwell round the shores of Lake Tsana, and present physical characters quite distinct from 

 those of both the Karaites and Semites, by whom they are despised as outcasts. Their chief 

 distinguishing features are a retreating head, with the outer corners of the eyes and eyebrows 

 sloping upwards, an aquiline nose curved like a hawk's beak over the upper lip, enormously 

 long chin, pointed ears, short woolly hair altogether an aggregate of discordant characters 

 such as scarcely occur in any other known race. Yet the Wito women are described as really 

 beautiful, even according to European ideas. They are a harmless people who keep aloof from 

 their neighbours, and live in little conical huts made of reeds taken from the lake. 



