316 COLOUR AND DIALECT OF NATIVES. 



the colour. Wherever we find people who have continued 

 for ages in a hot humid district, they are deep black, but 

 to this apparent law there are exceptions, caused by 

 the migrations of both tribes and individuals ; the Mako- 

 lolo, for instance, among the tribes of the humid central 

 basin, appear of a sickly sallow hue, when compared with 

 the aboriginal inhabitants ; the Batoka also, who lived 

 in an elevated region, are, when seen in company with 

 the Batoka of the rivers, so much lighter in colour, they 

 might be taken for another tribe ; but their language, 

 and the very marked custom of knocking out the upper 

 front teeth, leave no room for doubt that they are one 

 people. 



Apart from the influences of elevation, heat, humidity, 

 and degradation, I have imagined that the lighter and 

 darker colours observed in the native population, run in 

 five longitudinal bands along the southern portion of the 

 continent. Those on the seaboard of both the east and 

 west are very dark ; then two bands of lighter colour lie 

 about three hundred miles from each coast, of which the 

 westerly one, bending round, embraces the Kalahari 

 Desert and Bechuana* countries ; and then the central 

 basin is very dark again. This opinion is not given with 

 any degree of positiveness. It is stated just as it struck 

 my mind in passing across the country, and if incorrect, 

 it is singular that the dialects spoken by the different 

 tribes have arranged themselves in a fashion which seems 

 to indicate migration along the lines of colour. The 

 dialects spoken in the extreme south, whether Hottentot 

 or CarTre, bear a close affinity to those of the tribes living 

 immediately on their northern borders ; one glides into 

 the other, and their affinities are so easily detected, that 

 they are at once recognised to be cognate. If the dialects 

 of extreme points are compared, as that of the Caffres 

 and the tribes near the Bquator, it is more difficult to 

 recognise the fact, which is really the case, that all the 

 dialects belong to but two f amilies of languages. Examina- 

 tion of the roots of the words of the dialects, arranged in 

 geographical order, shows that they merge into each other, 

 and there is not nearly so much difference between the 

 extremes of east and west as between those of north and 

 south ; the dialect spoken at Tete resembling closely that 

 in Angola. 



Having, on, the afore-mentioned date, reached the 



