_Native Races of the British Empire_ THE NATIVE RACES OF EAST AFRICA BY W. D. HAMBLY, F.R.A.I., B.Sc. (RESEARCH DEGREE, OXON.) OXFORD DIPLOMA IN ANTHROPOLOGY ASSISTANT ANATOMIST IN THE WELLCOME RESEARCH EXPEDITION TO THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN, 1913-14 HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON, EDINBURGH, GLASGOW TORONTO, MELBOURNE, CAPE TOWN, BOMBAY 1920 [Illustration: MASAI WARRIOR WITH LION-SKIN HEAD-DRESS.] PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY MORRISON & GIBB LTD., EDINBURGH PREFACE During recent years there has been a very happy tendency to change the nature of geographical teaching from a monotonous memorising of the names of natural features to a subject of living interest. In the endeavour to effect this change there has been a serious omission in our failure to appeal to natural interests of children by making the human element a central feature of geographical work. A study of the picturesque lives of native races of the British Empire is an absolute essential if the teacher wishes to impart the appropriate colour and setting to a subsequent course of economic, regional, and political geography. The sharp contrast between European beliefs and customs and those of primitive people is in itself an incentive to study and interest. In addition to this, a sympathetic understanding of the many native races who are controlled by English statesmanship is necessary for the material and moral progress of dominions in the British Empire. W. D. HAMBLY. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 9 CHAPTER II THE FIGHTING MASAI 17 CHAPTER III MASAI STORIES AND BELIEFS 28 CHAPTER IV THE AKIKUYU PEOPLE 33 CHAPTER V SOCIAL LIFE OF THE AKIKUYU 38 CHAPTER VI THE BAGANDA TRIBE OF UGANDA 41 CHAPTER VII SOCIAL LIFE OF THE BAGANDA 46 CHAPTER VIII STORIES TOLD BY THE BAGANDA 49 [Illustration: EAST AFRICA] THE NATIVE RACES OF EAST AFRICA CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A few years ago two dwarfs or Pygmies from the trackless forests of Uganda were bold enough to allow themselves to be brought to London, where they were exhibited and photographed. Unfortunately these little people had no one who could interpret their language, or what a wonderful story they might have told concerning life in an equatorial forest, where the foliage is in places so dense as to shut out the powerful glare of a tropical sun. Many years ago these dwarfs were known to the highly civilised inhabitants of Ancient Egypt, and as early as 3000 B.C. the leaders of expeditions into the Sudan were charged by the Pharaohs of Egypt to return with gold dust, ivory, ornamental woods, and leopard skins; but above all these forms of wealth King Pepy II. desired a Pygmy “alive and well.”