452 
THE KILIMA-NJAEO EXPEDITION. 
There is absolutely no distinction between the Masai 
proper and the agricultural Masai, or “ Wa-kwavi,” 
as regards their language. The vocabularies given by 
Krapf of the Wa-kwavi, and Erhardt of the Masai, 
only differ slightly in orthography, and are independent 
versions of one and the same form of speech. As I 
have already remarked, the Masai tongue, wherever 
spoken by Masai people, offers, as far as we yet know, 
little dialectal variation, though it is used over a 
district stretching between 5° 30' S. and the Equator. 
In this uniformity it resembles the Galla language, 
which exhibits but trifling differences in the dialects 
spoken on the confines of Abyssinia (12° N. latitude), 
and on the coast of the Indian Ocean, near Mombasa. 
Doubtless the fact is due to the roving habits of the 
race, for, as has been already mentioned, the Masai 
warriors range in their raids over nearly the entire 
district that bears their name, and thus are kept in 
constant communication with the outlying tribes of 
their race. 
Before describing in a superficial manner the gram¬ 
matical construction of the Masai tongue, I feel bound 
to remark that for beauty and simplicity of expression 
it stands almost unrivalled among the languages of 
Africa. Compared with such dreadfully complicated 
forms of speech as the Fulde (spoken by the Fulbe or 
“ Fulahs 55 in Central and West Africa), where there 
are some nineteen 4 ways of forming the plural, and the 
verbs with their many tenses and moods are worse 
than in Greek, the Masai language offers the gram¬ 
matical simplicity of English. It has, moreover, a 
very copious vocabulary, and its combinations of 
sounds are harmonious, simple, and easily pronounced 
4 To say nothing of irregularities. 
