396 'DISCOVERY OF SOURCE OF THE NILE: 



' great backwater Luta Xzige.' The anthro- 

 pology and ethnology are marvellous : what can 

 be said of his identifying the Watuta with the 

 Zulu, and the Zangian Wahuma with the ' Semi- 

 Shem-IIamitic ' race of ^Ethiopia or with the 

 Gallas, the most Semitic of the N. East African 

 tribes ? AYliat can we make of ' our poor elder 

 brother Ilam ? ' What can ruddy King David 

 have had to do with the black Chief Rumanika ? 

 The explanation is that the author's mind, in- 

 curious about small matters, could not grasp, 

 and did not see the importance of grasping, a 

 fact, and his vagueness of thought necessarily 

 extended to his language. Else how account for 

 liis ' partial eclipse of the moon happens on the 

 fifth mid sixth of January, 18G3 ' (Journal p. 

 213) ? if and be a misprint for or, why had he 

 not consulted the newest almanac ? Nor did he 

 know the use of words. A mass of foul huts is 

 ' a village built on the most luxurious principles,' 

 and a petty chief is a * King of kings ; ' whilst 

 a * splendid court ' means a display of mere 

 savagery, and the ' Erench of those parts ' are 

 barbarians somewhat livelier than their neigh- 

 bours. ' Nelson's Monument at Charing Cross ' 

 is a specimen of what wc may expect from 

 Central Africa. 



