April 29, 1909] 



NA TURE 



249 



THE NANDI.' 



MR. A. C. HOLLIS, who holds an important 

 post in British East Africa, is favourably known 

 to ethnologists as the author of a valuable book on 

 the language and folk-lore of the Masai, and now 

 ethnologists are indebted to him for a companion 

 work on the Nandi, concerning whom much less was 

 previously known than about their belligerent neigh- 

 bours. One-half of the new book is taken up with 

 a vocabulary and grammar of the Nandi language. 

 This is a sister language to that of the Masai, and 

 just as there is probably a strain of Galla or Somali 

 blood in the Nandi, Alasai, &c., so also there is 

 nothing improbable in the idea that Somali influence 

 may be traceable in their language. They certainly 

 owe to it some of their numerals, and it may be 

 that the use of the articles and the order of 

 words are due to the same cause. But Sir 

 t'harles Eliot, who discusses this problem, states 

 that in details he sees no proof of near kinship. 



The general account of the Nandi given by 

 Mr. Mollis is written with great care, and is 

 illustrated by a number of clear figures in the 

 u*\t and a wealth of beautiful plates. The 

 Nruidi appear to be a mi.xture of Nilotic Negro 

 ;uid Bantu, with some pygmy element and a 

 Cjalla strain. Originally they came from further 

 north, and Mr. Mollis is of opinion that they 

 liave not occupied their present position on the 

 l^latoau east of the Victoria Nyanza for more 

 than a few generations. Their country was 

 i-losed to Arab and Swahili traders, for the 

 Nandi, who w'ere hardy mountaineers and skilful 

 lighters, refused to allow strangers to cross the 

 threshold of their country without special per- 

 mission. Punitive expeditions against them were 

 made in 1895, 1900, 1903, and 1905. Now they 

 are moved into a reserve, and it is hoped that 

 a difficult native problem has been finallv settled. 



In the Nandi we have an example of an ori- 

 ginally hunting people who became pastoral, 

 and, according to Sir Charles Eliot, have within 

 the last few generations betaken themselves to 

 agriculture, though in a somewhat desultory 

 fashion. Like the Masai, they regarded raiding 

 as the most important business of life, and their 

 social institutions are very similar. They are 

 divided geographically into fifteen districts or 

 divisions, and parishes or subdivisions, and 

 genealogically into clans and families. Each 

 dan has one or more totem or sacred animal, 

 but totemism is on the wane, as marrying into 

 the same clan is permitted, and though it is 

 iKiw considered wrong for a man to kill his F 



sacred animal, to whom an apology is expected, 

 in former times the killing of a sacred animal 

 bv the clansman was strictly forbidden. A man 

 of the elephant clan shot an elephant because 

 it had good tusks. When the animal was dead 

 he went up to it and said, " So sorry, old 

 fellow, I thought you were a rhino." He traded 

 the tusks with the Swahili, gave the elders a present, 

 and no notice was taken of his action. The supreme 

 deity is Asista, the sun. He is the creator and giver (3f 

 all good things; prayers are addressed and offerings 

 made to him. There is also a kindly and a male- 

 volent thunder god. The spirits of departed ancestors 

 and adult relatives are held responsilile for sickness 

 and death, and are appealed to and propitiated when- 



nd FoIk-!ore." By A. C. Hollis. With 

 Pp. xl+3a8. (Oxford: Clarendon 



ever necessary. There is also a devil who prowls 

 around seeking wliom he may devour. The prin- 

 cipal medicine man is the supreme chief of the whole 

 race, with a hereditary position, but it seems that 

 the office was borrowed from the Masai; he never 

 prays to Asista, but only to the spirits of his an- 

 cestors. 



A circumcision festival is held every seven and a half 

 years, when most youths between the ages of, say, 

 ten and twenty undergo the operation, which trans- 

 forms them from boys into warriors. For about six 

 months they remain isolated from women and 

 children, and wear v^omen's clothes, and for about 

 half this time they also wear a remarkable head- 

 dress (Fig. i). Before their circumcision festival the 

 girls dress in men's attire, and after it thev wear 

 long garments which reach from the neck to the feet. 



' The Nandi ; their Language 

 iduction bv .Sir Charles Elic 

 ^. 1909.) Price 16s. net. 



and their heads are enveloped in a complete hood 

 which has only two holes for the eyes. It is cus- 

 tomary for the Nandi to distribute their stock 

 amongst their wives during their lifetime, each one 

 being given a certain number to look after, tend, and 

 milk. The sons of each wife inherit the property 

 thus placed in their mother's charge. The boys 

 usually are also given cattle from their earliest youth 

 upwards. The eldest son of the principal wife in- 

 herits the lion's share of his father's property. There 

 is a classificatory system of kinship, and the maternal 

 uncle plays an important part in the existence of 

 every Nandi. An understanding exists betwetii a boy 

 and his maternal uncle which is not met with between 

 other relatives, and the maternal uncle is appealed to 

 for intervention when a boy is in disgrace. The most 



NO. 2061, VOL. 80] 



