Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/285

Rh ETHNOLOGY. 1 A F li 1 C A 263 town; and although they possess some solid constructions of stone, such as churches and bridges, it appears that these were built by the Portuguese, the ruins at Axum and other places belonging to a much earlier period, when the country undoubtedly enjoyed a higher civilisation than at present. Owing to the influence exercised upon them during the last thirty years by European missionaries and travellers, their conduct towards strangers is less rude than it used to be at the time of Bruce. It is a remarkable fact that, not withstanding the low state of their religion, the Christians in Abyssinia are not allowed to keep slaves, although they may purchase them for the purpose of selling them again, ithiopic. This extensive race comprehends by far the greater num ber of African nations, extending over the whole of Middle and South Africa, except its southernmost projection to wards the Cape of Good Hope. A line drawn from the mouth of the Senegal in the west to Cape Jerdaffun in the east, forms its northern limits almost with geometrical accuracy, few Ethiopic tribes being found to the north of it. All the members of this race, however, are not Negroes. The latter are only one of its numerous offshoots; but between the receding forehead, the projecting cheek-bones, the thick lips of the Negro of Guinea, and the more straight configuration of the head of a Galla in Abyssinia, there are still many striking analogies ; and modern philology hav ing traced still greater analogies, denoting a common origin, among the only apparently disconnected languages of so many thousands of tribes, whose colour presents all the hues between the deepest black and the yellow brown, it is no longer doubtful that the Negro, the Galla, the Somali, and the Kaffre, all belong to the same ethnological stock. The principal Negro nations, as we know them, are the Mandingoes, who are numerous, powerful, and not uncivi lised, in Senegambia, and farther inland, around the head waters of the Quorra, where they have established a great number of kingdoms and smaller sovereignties. The inland trade is chiefly in their hands. They are black, with a mix ture of yellow, and their hair is completely woolly. The Wolofs or Yolofs, whose language is totally different from those of their neighbours, are the handsomest and blackest of all Negroes, although they live at a greater distance from the equator than most of the other black tribes, their prin cipal dwelling-places being between the Senegal and the Gambia, along the coast of the Atlantic. They are a mild and social people. The Foulalis or Fellatalis occupy the central parts of Soudan, situated in the crescent formed by the course of the Quorra, and also large tracts to the south east, as far as the equator west to the Senegal, and east till beyond Lake Chad. Their colour, as a rule, is black, inter mixed, however, with a striking copper hue, some of them being hardly more dark than gipsies. They are one of the most remarkable nations in Africa, very industrious, live in commodious and clean habitations, and are mostly Moham medans. A distinction was formerly made between the Foulahs of Senegambia and the Fellatahs of Central Africa, but it has since been ascertained that they belong to the same stock, and speak the same language. The hair of the Foulahs is much less woolly than that of other Negroes. Of the prin cipal nations in Guinea, among whom the true Negro type is particularly distinct, especially around the Bight of Benin, are the Feloops, near the Casamanfa, very black, yet hand some; and the Ashanti, of the Amina race, who surpass all their neighbours in civilisation, and the cast of whose features differs so much from the Negro type that they are said to be more like Indians than Africans ; although this is perhaps only true of the higher orders. They are still in possession of a powerful kingdom. The country behind the Slave Coast is occupied by tribes akin to the Dahomeh on the coast. In South Guinea we meet three principal races, namely, the Congo, the Abunda, and the Benguela Ne groes, who are divided into a variety of smaller tribes, with whom we are much less acquainted than with the northern Negroes, although the Portuguese have occupied this coast for upwards of three centuries. The Wamasai and Wok- Wama wavi, possibly of Abyssinian stock, are a remarkable race and V of wild nomad hunters, who occupy the high plateau which ^ rises between the coast-land and the Victoria Nyanza, extend ing from the equator southward to the route which leads from Zanzibar to the Tanganyika Lake. They are the terror of the more settled inhabitants of the surrounding countries, and occasionally make raids down even to the coast-land behind Mombas. The next great branch of the Ethiopic race comprehends the Galla, who occupy an immense tract G-al a. in Eastern Africa, from Abyssinia as far as the fourth degree of S. latitude, on the coast inward from Mombas. Our knowledge of them is chiefly confined to those Gallas who conquered Abyssinia. With regard to their physical con formation, they stand between the Negro of Guinea and the Arab and Berber. Their countenances are rounder than those of the Arabs, their noses are almost straight, and their hair, though strongly frizzled, is not so woolly as that of the Negro, nor are their lips quite so thick. Their eyes are small (in which they again differ from the Abyssinians), deeply set, but very lively. They are a strong, large, almost bulky people, whose colour varies between black and brownish, some of their women being remarkably fair, considering the race they belong to. An interesting tribe of them has g mal lately been brought to the knowledge of Europeans, the Somali, originally Arabs, who have advanced from the southern shores of the Gulf of Aden since the 15th century, and now occupy the greater portion of the East African pro montory wedging into the Galla region, and almost dividing that country into two distinct portions. For the most part they pursue a wandering and pastoral life. In the central regions of the continent the negroid Negro tribes, which are classed under the general name of tr ibes. Wanyamwezi, occupying the plateau south of the Vic toria and east of the Tanganyika Lakes, have been made known by Burton and subsequent travellers ; round the west and north of the Victoria are several distinct king doms, the chief being those of Karague and Uganda, traversed by Speke and Grant ; in the region west of the Upper Nile the countries of the Jur, Dor, and Bongo tribes have been explored by Dr Schweinfurth, and he has passed beyond the watershed of the Nile into a new basin, where he found the Niamniam and Monbuttu tribes. Dr Livingstone, in his latest journey, has entered the country of the Manyuema tribes, west of Tanganyika, in the heart of the continent ; these he describes as a fine, tall handsome race, superior alike to the slaves seen at Zanzibar and the typical negro of the west coast; exceedingly numerous, and living in a primitive condition, utterly igno rant of the outer world. The Balunda race of Negroes occupy a great area of South Central Africa, and have two ancient and powerful kingdoms of Muropua and Lunda, the former ruled over by the hereditary &quot;Muata&quot; or chief Hianvo, who has his capital near the Cassabi tributary of the Congo, and the latter by the Hianvo s vassal, the Cazembe, whose palace is near the Luapula river, south-west of Lake Tanganyika. Kibakoe or Quiboque and Lobal, south-west of the kingdom of Hianvo, are the chief states on the borders of Angola and Benguela ; towards the Nyassa lake, south east from the Cazembe s dominions, the Maravi tribe is per haps the most powerful, and beyond the Nyassa that of the Wahiao is the chief. The Makololo tribe, occupying the cen tral portion of the Zambeze basin, is of southern origin, and forms an intermediate stage between the Negro and Kaffre. The Kaffres, who, together with the tribes most akin to Kaffres them, occupy the greater portion of South Africa, especially the eastern portions, have some analogy with Europeans in