Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/455

 THE DALLAS. 869 forefathers pass into the bodies of those rapacious felines. But Fischer met with no traces of this worship in the southern parts of the country, where the most respected animal is a species of stork, which also preys on carrion and follows the warriors on all their marauding expeditions. The dead are not buried, but exposed under some wide-branching tree. To consign them to the earth would be regarded as an act of desecration. Hence passing caravans are obliged to carry all their dead with them, the bodies being usually concealed in a bale of cotton goods. Were their presence suspected the convoy would be turned back, to keep the sacred soil of Masai Land from the risk of pollution by their burial. The Gallas and Neighbouring Tribes. In the Tana basin the southward displacement of the Bantu populations has been caused by the Galla hordes advancing from the north, Thes3 Gallas, who themselves suffer from the encroachments of the Somali people, are probably the original stock whence the Masai branched off at some remote period. On this southern verge of their extensive domain they formerly constituted two main groups, the Bararettas who dwell on the right or southern bank of the Tana, and the Kokawes, who are scattered along the north side of the river, but who have been almost completely exterminated by the Somali. In 1878 all had disappeared except four village settlements, and there can be no doubt that all the Gallas of the district would have been swept away but for the timely intervention of the Swaheli and Arab traders on their behalf. These traders settled along the neigh- bouring coast had certainly no great love for the insolent Galla people, and would have complacently looked on at their utter extermination, but for the fact that thereby they would lose an established market and regular customers for their wares. Having been plundered of all their cattle, the local Galla communities have been compelled to take to the chase, to agriculture and trade, pursuits altogether repugnant to the great bulk of the nation. Their clans are governed by the heiyu, or chief, who is chosen from some distinguished family, and whf» is himself subor- dinate to a higher chief, also appointed by election, but only for a term of seven years. This advanced southern branch of the great Ilm-Orma nation is fully conscious of their common origin with the northern Galla people, to whom they are said occasionally to dispatch envoys. North-west of Lake Baringo the district watered by the upper course of the Wei- Wei, which flows northwards in the direction of the Zamburu, is inhabited by the Wukiimasia and Wa-Klgeyo tribes. Although certainly related to the Masai, these peaceful and industrious peoples betray little resemblance in their social usages to their fierce and predatory neighbours. Their tutelar deity is not the repulsive hyaena, but the fertilising water, which they show great skill in distributing through an intricate system of irrigating canals over their fields and gardens. When crossing any of these running waters they seldom fail to manifest 121— AF