ANTHROPOLOGY 



485 



is negroid rather than Negro. This is the division of African peoples to 

 which the modern Somali and Gala belong, and of which the basis of the 

 population of ancient Egypt consisted. These Hamites are represented by 

 the remarkable Bahiraa aristocracy of the western portions of the Uganda 

 Protectorate, and possibly by certain tribes at the north end and on the 

 east coast of Lake Rudolf. Of course the Bahima of Western Uganda 

 have mingled to some extent with the Negro races amongst whom they 

 dwell, and the descendants of these unions have influenced the modern 

 type with Negro characteristics that are slightly more marked than is the 



265. HIMA AXD BAXTU 



(1) Hima of Ankole. (2) Muiro of Ankole. 



case amongst the Somali or the ancient Egyptians. The head-hair of 

 the Bahima is often quite woolly, though it may grow longer than it would 

 in purely Negro races. Yet there are individuals among the Bahima who, 

 woolly hair notwithstanding, are nearer to the Egyptian type in their 

 facial features and in the paleness of their skins than is the case even 

 amono-st Gala and Somali. If deductions from native tradition and 

 legend are trustworthy to any extent, the Bahima entered what is now 

 the Uganda Protectorate from the north-east between two and three 

 thousand years ago, remaining for several centuries in the Lango (Acholi) 

 countries east of the Victoria Nile. But the ancestors of the Bahima 

 were probably only the last in a series of Hamitic invaders of Negro 



