410 
West Sudan, the Logon, Bagrimma (Baghirmi), and 
Mandara (Wandela) of the Shary basin, and the Maba of 
Wadai. But the actual relationship of these and other 
outlying branches to the main trunk can only be deter- 
mined by future research. Meantime, Dr. Nachtigal rests 
satisfied with having demonstrated the existence of this 
widely-ramifying family and its radical difference both 
from the Hamitic and Bantu groups. “ How far the re- 
lationship may extend will be made more and more 
evident by a further study of the Sudan languages, espe- 
cially the Hausa, Masa, Bagrimma, Maba. For the 
present it is enough for me to have established the rela- 
tions of the Tubu dialects to each other, and of both to 
the Kanuri and Baele”’ (p. 209). 
But when he comes to the consequences of his premisses 
he speaks with singular hesitation, as if overweighted or 
hampered by the brilliant generalisations of Lepsius. 
The fact is, this theory of the three zones leaves no room 
in Africa for the great linguistic family which Nachtigal 
has nevertheless discovered there. But instead of boldly 
giving up the theory, he timidly suggests alternatives, in 
order somehow to reconcile it with the actual conditions. 
After clearly showing the independent position of Tubu, 
he leaves the reader to choose between a possible ‘ex- 
tremely remote connection with the Negro languages, or, 
if it be preferred, to regard it as a distinct species, which 
has held its ground between the Negro and Hamitic 
linguistic types’’ (p. 201). Most ethnologists will pro- 
bably be prepared to accept the latter alternative, even 
at the risk of adding one more to the two “linguistic 
types” which alone Lepsius will tolerate. The only 
point of contact between Tubu and Bantu seems to be 
the absence of grammatical gender, a negative feature 
which both share with a thousand other languages in the 
Old. and New Worlds. Yet apparently in order to save 
Lepsius’s scheme, Nachtigal is content on this weak 
ground to allow a connection between Teda and Negro, 
adding, still more inconsequently, ‘fin which case, con- 
sidering the vagueness of the concept ‘ Negro’ (bei der 
Unbestimmtheit des Begriffes ‘ Negro’), there can cer- 
tainly be no objection to group the Tubu themselves with 
the Negroes, although, taking the word in its ordinary 
sense, in other respects they essentially differ from them” 
(p- 209). So the Negro—that is, the most marked of all 
human varieties—is frittered away toa “ vague concept,’’ 
because Tubu is a no-gender language, or because 
Lepsius will allow only two linguistic types in Africa. 
But by getting rid of this theory, an easier exploit 
than getting rid of the Negro, everything will fall into its 
place. The consideration that the centre of evolution: of 
the Tubu group hes, not in Sudan, but in the Sahara, far 
north of the original Negro domain, placed by Lepsius 
south of the equator, would almost alone suffice to 
separate it from that connection. Dr. Nachtigal him- 
self shows that Teda, or northern Tubu, represents the 
germ, of which the southern Dasa, Kanuri, Baele, &c., 
are later developments. He also shows that the migra- 
tions, as was natural to expect, were always from the arid 
plains and uplands of the Sahara to the fertile region of 
Sudan. Except under the lash of the slave-driver, 
the Blacks seem never to have moved northwards. But 
we have seen that the roving nomads, Tuariks in the 
west, Tubu in the east, have everywhere, all along the 
NATURE 
[March 1, 1883 
line, penetrated from their desert homes into the “ Black 
Zone.” The inference seems obvious. Nachtigal himself 
regards the Tubu as “a thoroughly pure, homogeneous 
people (ezze durchaus reine, homogene Bevolkerung), un- 
modified by any changes from remote times” (p. 190). 
He also shows their close physical resemblance to the 
Tuariks (Berbers) of the western Sahara, and their 
essential difference from the Negro type. The anthro- - 
pologist will not hesitate to remove them from the latter 
and group them with the former race. The Tubu and 
Berbers are thus ethnically two slightly differentiated 
branches of the Hamitic section of the great Mediterra- 
nean (Caucasic) division of mankind. 
From this standpoint the Tubu speech, although as 
radically distinct from the Hamitic as it is from the 
Bantu, will no longer present any difficulty. In Europe 
the Mediterannean races have developed at least one 
radical form of speech, the Basque; in Asia several, 
the Aryan, Semitic, Georgian, and others in Caucasia. 
Why should they not have developed two in Africa, the 
Hamitic and Tubu? Elsewhere I have endeavoured to 
account for this remarkable phenomenon of specific 
diversity of speech within the same ethnical group.! 
Here it will suffice to note the fact, and if the no-gender 
character of Tubu be urged as a difficulty, the reply is 
twofold. First, no-gender languages occur also in other 
Caucasic groups, as in Basque, Georgian, Lesghian ; 
secondly, although gender has not been developed in 
Tubu, nevertheless it contains the raw material, so to say, 
which has been elaborated into a system by the more 
cultured Hamitic peoples. After admitting that, but for 
the absence of this feature, there would be no scruple 
(Bedenken) in affiliating Tubu to the Hamitic order, Dr. 
Nachtigal adds: ‘‘ Tubu also certainly seems to possess 
the elements by which gender is indicated in the Hamitic— 
oand # for the masculine, ¢ for the feminine, as in 0-777, 
man ; 722, son, by the side of dd, woman ; dé, daughter ; 
dé, mother; edz, female’ (p. 200). Here d@ of course 
answers to ¢, the universal mark of the feminine gender 
in Hamitic, and in the Berber group often both prefixed 
and postfixed, as in ak/z, negro; /ak/it, negress. 
Room must therefore be made in Lepsius’s scheme for a 
third linguistic family, the honour of having determined 
which belongs to Dr. Nachtigal. This Tubu family must 
be assumed to have been independently evolved in remote 
ages by the Garamantes, ancestors of the Tubu nomads, 
during long isolation in Kafara, Kawar, Tibesti, and the 
other oases of the eastern Sahara and Fezzan. Lastly, 
the Tubu themselves must be absolutely separated from 
the Negro ethnical connection, and grouped with the 
Hamites in the Mediterranean division of mankind. 
A, H, KEANE 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Electric Lighting Act, 188 2, the Acts incorporated 
therewith, the Board of Trade Rules, together with 
numerous Notes and Cases. By Clement Higgins, 
M.A., Recorder of Birkenhead, and E. W. W. Edwards, 
B.A., Barrister-at Law. (London: W. Clowes and 
Sons, 1883.) 
PRACTICAL electricians unversed in law, and lawyers 
unversed in the practical applications of electricity, will 
t See Appendix to my “ Asia” (Stanford Series), p. 695. 
