Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/494

 404 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. them the Koran and had it translated into their language. The Borani, or Vuoranas. who are met as far south as the neighbourhood of Mount Kenia, are also a powerful Galla nation, who, according to Brenner, number as many as a hundred and fifty thousand souls. They are during riders, and have long been at war both with thi'ir Somali anrl Masai neighbours. The Borani are a very religious people, who worship a supreme being, to whom they sacrifice black animals, whether oxen or goats, near black rocks, or else at the foot of some large tree isolated on the plain. Although they do not pniL-tisj tattooing, they huve the breast covered with si-ars, which are produced by striking themselves with some sharp instrument during the frenzy of the national war datice. They inter their dead seated in an attitude of meditation, for, say they, " Man dies not, he only dreams." The Borani are said to be divided into two great branches, the Ya and the Yul. But our information is siill extremely defective regarding most of the popuUitions occupying the regions which are comprised between the Somali seaboard and the unknown territory of South Ethiopia. Here there is still a complete gap between the itineraries of explorers like Thomson and Fischer advancing through Mtisui Land northwards, and those of Revoil, Brenner, Chaille, Long, and others, wlio hae penetrated very little inland from the south coast of Somali Land. A great interval also still remains to bo filled up between Thomson's farthest north and Schuver's farthest south, the whole of this unknown region being roughly comprised between the equator and the tenth degree of north latitude, and stretching from the Indian Ocean westwards in the direction of the White Nile basin. In the Appendix will be found tabulated the names, with approximate popula- tion >, of the chief nations in Somaliland and the territory of the Eastern Gallas. TOPOGRAFHY. — YiTU TERRITORY. The ubiquitous German traders, who have received a " concession " of the whole seaboard as. far as the Jebel Karoma, and who have become the " protectors " of its inhabitants, have made their first essays at annexation at the southern extremity of the Somali coast. In this they have acted wisely, for the district chosen by them is one of the most promising in the whole of East Africa. The valley of the Tana, which reaches the sea at this point, is a natural highway towards the Upper Nile basin, and thus affords considerable facilities for opening up the resources of the vast but still almost unknown region which stretches from the Indian Ocean westwards to the eastern affluents of the White Nile. In the year 1885 the brothers Denhardt, who had already a few years previously traversed the country in various directions, obtained from Sultan Akhmed of Vitu, surnamed Simba, or the " Lion," the concession of a territory about 000 square miles in extent. The whole of this tract, which is limited towards the south by the course of the river Ozi, they immediately placed under the suzerainty of the German Empire. In vain the feeble Sultan of Zanzibar protested against these high-handed proceedings, i rging his own undoubted prior