;i6 



NATURE 



[September j, igi i 



THE SUK PEOPLES.' 



TX/TK. BEECH has written an extremely interesting 



•L'-l- book, the possession of which will be a 



sity to every anthropologist and student oi African 

 languages; and the introduction to this work by Sir 

 Charles Eliot is not a few vapid pages of commenda- 

 tory remarks signed by a notable name, but an 

 essential portion of the book itself. 



Mr. Beech commences his work by a description of 

 the Suk people, and a sketch of 

 their affinities with the- surround- 

 ing peoples. He comes to the con- 

 clusion which was first published 

 by tie- writer of this review in 

 1902, that the so-called Suk 

 peoples are really an assemblage 

 of very diverse Negro and Negroid 

 types whom tlie force of circum- 

 stances has driven into something 

 like tribal cohesion in that pictur- 

 esque country of deep ravines, 

 high plateaux, volcanic peaks, and 

 hot plains, between Lakes Rudolf 

 and Baringo on the east, and llie 

 Elgon and Nandi plateaux on the 

 west. Mr. Beech thinks that 

 the traditions of the old men show- 

 that there were (in the main) two 

 original tribes living in the 

 western part of the Suk country 

 (the Elgeyo escarpment), the 

 names of which were Chuk or 

 Chok (the origin of the present 

 name, which is a Masai corruption 

 popularised by Joseph Thomson), 

 and Seker ; and that fugitives and 

 adventurers from various sur- 

 rounding districts entered the Suk 

 country, and intermarried with the 

 two original tribes. " Every type 

 is represented, from the tall, hand- 

 some Hamite, with almost perfect 

 features, to the short, dwarf-like 

 pygmy, with spread nose and bolt- 

 ing eyes." 



The author is inclined to think 

 that this last-named tvpe charac- 

 terised both the original Chuk and 

 'seker. Elsewhere in the book, °n 

 connection with the illustrations, 

 Mr. Beech refers to a " Bushman- 

 like " type. Some of the first ex- 

 plorers who wrote on the subject 

 of llie- Suk people (including the 

 reviewer) were apt to speak of the 

 Bushmanlike type of Pygmy 

 amongst them and amongst the 

 neighbouring Andorobo (the An- 

 dorobo, be it observed, speak a 

 language which is related to that 

 of the Suk, the Nandi, &c). It is, 

 we believe, the case thai one oi 

 two trustworthy observers have 

 noted types of physique amongst 

 the Andorobo which offer a slight resemblance to the 

 Bushman, but it now- seems to lie clear 1 ha! the Pygntj 

 type ol Suk, which also reappears amongst the Bantu 

 tribes o1 Mount Elgon, as well as Farther west in 

 eastern Uganda, is decidedly not of Bushman affinities, 

 but, "ii llie contrary, obviously connected with the 

 Congo Pygmy. This would seem lobe the case with 



the dwarl tribes ol southern Ethiopia firsl seen bj 



the missionary Krapf, and of the Red Bongo, and other- 

 dwarf peoples 0! the Egyptian Sudan. There is no 

 marked steatopygia amongst the Pygmy Suk or any of 

 the dwarf race-, jusl mentioned. In other anatomical 

 features connected with the external genitalia of men 

 and women (which it is not necessary to specify here, 

 but \\ hich are clearly illustrated in Dr. Peringuey's work 

 on tli,- Stone Age in Smith Africa), they are almost the. 

 opposite pole amongsl Negro races to the Bushman. 



Pastoral Suk (type 1). From -'I'I)- Suk: their Language and Folklo 



The one or two illustrations of Pygmy types of Suk in 

 Mr. Beech's book are of value in emphasising this 

 fact (the non-Bushman likeness of the Pygmy Suk), 

 the moie so as the) are taken from nude figures. 



As regards the Suk language, Mr. Beech comes to 

 conclusions which seem to the reviewer to be thor- 

 oughly sound, lb recognises the great affinity between 

 SOk and Nandi do which we would venture to add thi 

 Ndbrobo, Solik, and other "Nandi" languages, and 

 shows that the Turkana that giant rare of Lake 



