THE WANYIKA. 



81 



tradition is that they were expelled by the Gallas 

 from the lands lying N.N. West of Melinde. 

 They occupy the highlands between S. lat. 3° 

 and 5°, and they are bounded north by the 

 Wataita, and south by the Wasumbara. Dr 

 Krapf proposes for them a census of 50,000 to 

 60,000 souls, which appears greatly exaggerated. 

 They are, as usual, divided into a multitude of 

 clans, concerning which we know little but the 

 names. Mulattoes of an early date, negroes mixed 

 with Semitic blood and with a score of tribes, 

 these East African families appear to have cast 

 off in the course of ages the variety and irregu- 

 larity of hybridism ; moreover, if it be true that 

 ' the Semite is the flower of the negro race,' the 

 produce would hardly be properly called half-caste. 

 Receiving for ages distinct impressions of the 

 physical media around them, they have settled 

 down into several and uniform national types : 

 these, however, will not be detected by the un- 

 practised eye. Many considerations argue them 

 to be a degeneracy from civilized man rather 

 than a people advancing towards cultivation. 

 Their language attaches them to the great South 

 African race, and some have believed in their 

 ancient subjection to the Ethiopian or Kushite 

 Empire. The historian of these lands, however, 



VOL. u, 6 



