Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/481

 THE SOMAIJ RACE. 898 in the direction from north to south, corre«ponding with the alternutlnj* coast streums and trade winds of the same region. The Somali people can scarcely be said to have a common racial type, so great is the diversity in the physical appearance of the different tribes and nalionH, a difference which is itself mainly due partly to the differences in the social habits, partly to the v.jrying climatic conditions and ethnical interminglings. Neverthe- less the Somali may in a general way be said to resemble the Danakils, although as a rule they are taller* and less robust; the figure is also somewhat more slim, the bearing more martial, the complexion darker. The figure seems all the taller that the head is smaller in proportion to the size of the body. Scarcely any invalids are found amongst them, although they age rapidl}'. A young man not more than twenty years old may sometimes be taken for one of forty, while one of forty looks like a venerable patriarch. Many who are in complexion as black as the Shilluks of the White Nile, or the Senegumbiuu Wolofs, have nevertheless the same regularity and even delicacy of features as the very finest Europeans. The women espeiiully are often admired for their harmony of expression and dignified carriage, as well as for their soft and musical voice. On these points very strong testimony is given amongst others by Captain Wharton, who lately spent some time surveying the Somali seaboard, and who describes the coast tribes near the equator as the handsomest race of men and women he had ever seen, black in colour, but with magnificent physique.f At the same time the life of hardship led by the women gives them almost a decrepit look before they are thirty years old, and this effect is intensified by the tendency to steatopygia which is very common amongst the married women. The models of physical beauty so frequently met amongst the Somali have by some authorities been attributed to crossings with non-African populations, and especially with the Semites of the neighbouring Arabian peninsula. Such inter- minglings have certainly taken place, and during the centuries when active com- mercial relations were carried on all along the seaboard, Aryan influences, represented both by the Greeks and Persians, may even have had some share in modifying the primitive Somali type. But on the other hand many so-called Negro populations in the interior of the continent are also known to be distin- guished by the almost classic outlines of their features. The closest resemblance to the Arabs in physiognomy, as well as in social habits, is found amongst the tribes of the coastlands. The western Somali, and especially the Issa people, who dwell nearer to the Gallas, in the same way show a corresponding closer resem- blance to the type of that race, being distinguished from the other Somali by a broader face and coarser features. The flat features and high cheek-bones, characteristic of the true Negro type, are most prevalent in the southern districts, and especially amongst the Rahanuin conquerors, who have already come in con- tact with the Bantu populations of the Tana basin. Imm tribe, 5 feet 11 inches ; Gadibursi tribe, o feet 10 inches, t Prveeedinai of the Royal Geographical Society ^ October, 1885.
 * Stature of the Somali according to Paulitachke's meastiremcnta : Habr Awal tribe, 6 feet 2 inches;