NA TURE 



[May 25, 1905 



subdued the Bantu coast people and the Arab half- 

 breeds to the shores of the Indian Ocean. 



All observers of the Masai have noted their superiority 

 in physical appearance to the pure-blooded negro. 

 There has evidently been a good deal of intermixture, 

 especially during the last three decades, with women 

 of Bantu race, and the original Masai stock itself is 

 only one of the many hybrids between the Caucasian 

 and the negro ; but still the average man or woman of 

 Masai race is a negroid rather than a negro, with a 

 skin of coppery-brown, not black,' with a more defined 

 bridge to the nose and a better developed chin than the 

 ordinary negro possesses. They are, however, far more 

 negro in appearance than, for example, the Hamitic 

 (Hima) aristocracy of the lands lying to the north, 

 west and south of the Victoria Nyanza ; yet thev retain 

 a larger infusion of Caucasian blood (due, of course, to 

 Hamitic intermixture) than the pure type of Nilotic 

 negro, to which in other respects they are nearest allied 

 in origin, language, and, above all, in habits and 

 customs. 



Now that our knowledge of eastern equatorial 

 Africa is so extensive, we realise that the Masai are 

 no isolated phenomenon in racial distribution, but are 

 simply a southward extension of the Nilotic peoples. 

 They probably originated several hundred years ago in 

 the northern part of the present Uganda Protectorate, 

 in the mountainous country between the present abode 

 of the Lotuka tribe (the nearest allies of the Masai in 

 language) and the Turkana peoples to the east. In this 

 region they were simply one of the many blends be- 

 tween the Hamitic (Gala) invaders of equatorial .Africa 

 and the Nile negroes. The writer of this review, in 

 his work on the Uganda Protectorate (p. 841), has 

 computed that the proportion of Caucasian intermix- 

 ture in the case of the Masai is from one-quarter to 

 one-eighth. Their language, which for classification 



1 Owing to their hahit of smear: 

 strike the casual observer as being ; 



IB >h^ 



NO. 1856, VOL. 72] 



may be grouped with the Lotuka, Elgumi or VVamia, 

 Bari (on the White Nile), Karamojo, and Turkana, is, 

 together with the nearly allied group of the Nandi- 

 Dorobo, distinctly, though distantly, related to the well 

 marked Nilotic family of negro languages which in- 

 cludes the Dinka, Shiluk, Dyur, Acholi, &c., and 

 links on to the negro languages stretching away to 

 Wadai and Lake Chad. In the Masai language, as in 

 the kindred tongues of the Masai group, there is distinct 

 evidence of Somali or Gala influence. This may be 

 due to the ancient intermixture of blood between the 

 Gala and the Nilotic negro which formed the Masai, 

 and also to the contiguity of the Masai in some of 

 their wanderings with outlying groups of Hamitic 

 people. 



For the first time the civilised world has been pre- 

 sented with an authoritative work on the Masai lan- 

 guage, customs, and folklore, by Mr. A. C. Hollis, of 

 the British East .'\frica Protectorate. Nothing of the 

 kind worth serious notice has appeared since the works 

 of Krapf and Erhardt. Though a Masai dictionary 

 remains to be composed which 

 sliall give a full vocabulary of 

 this interesting language, the 

 book under review can scarcely 

 be bettered in fulness or cor- 

 rectness as a grammatical 

 study. Equally admirable is 

 the collection of Masai 

 legends. These are not given 

 in the form of generalised 

 " stories " with a Hans 

 Andersen flavour ; but the 

 original is first of all pre- 

 sented in the Masai with an 

 interlinear translation, and 

 then follows a correct but 

 more readable version in 

 colloquial English. Of neces- 

 sity, a work like this is more 

 interesting to students than to 

 the general public (though^ it 

 is admirably illustrated with 

 appropriate photographs). But 

 for the students of African 

 ethnology and languages it is 

 a work of permanent value ; 

 it is ihc authoritative study of 

 the Masai people ; and it is 

 satisfactory to record that the 

 .luthor confines himself mainly 

 to facts and not to theories, 

 and that Sir Charles Eliot in 

 his introduction does not trace 

 the origin of the Masai to the 

 ten lost tribes of Israel. A 

 recrudescence of this irritating mania having recently 

 appeared amongst German writers on .Africa who 

 ought to have known better, it is a relief to find that 

 English authorities on African questions can still re- 

 tain their sanitv on the subject of the proper place in 

 history and e'thnology of that mixed Armenian, 

 Dravidian, and Semitic people which we call by the 

 racial name of Jew. H. H. Johnston. 



The anniversary dinner of the Royal Geographical 

 Society on Monday was really a complimentary banquet to 

 Sir Clements Markham, the popular and active president 

 of the society, who has just retired from office after twelve 

 years of zealous service. During this period Sir Clements 

 Markham has watched over the affairs of the society, and 

 has guarded the interests of geography, with a devotion 



■ith the shield of his 



