PREFACE.
The research with which this review deals having been entirely
carried out here in Central Africa, far away from all centres of science,
the writer is only too well aware that his work must shown signs of
the inadequacy of the material for reference at his disposal. He has
been obliged to rely entirely on such literature as he could get out
from Home, and, in this respect, being obliged for the most part to
base his selection on the scanty information supplied by publishers'
catalogues, he has often had many disappointments when, after months
of waiting, the books eventually arrived. That in consequence certain
errors may have found their way into the following pages is quite
possible, but he ventures to believe that they are neither many nor of
great importance to the subject as a whole.
With regard to linguistic comparisons, these have been confined
within restricted limits, and the writer has only been able to make
comparison with Hebrew, though possibly Aramaic and other Semitic
dialects might have carried him further. As there is no Hebrew type
in this country he has not been able to give the Hebrew words in
their original character as he should have wished.
All the quotations from Capt. M. Merker in the following pages
are translations of the writer; he is aware that it would have been
more correct to have given them in the original Gherman, but in this
case they would have been of little value to the majority of the
readers of this Journal in Kenya. From lack of available space, too,
he is prevented in this issue from giving the original text in an
appendix, for which he apologizes to the Editors of Capt. Merker's
book. This and much else he hopes to rectify in an extended edition
of this study which he intends to bring out in England in due course.
Not only will the present pages be revised and a considerable
amount of additional evidence given, but a completely fresh section
be included, dealing with the origin of the Bantu tribes of
Africa — principally with the Akamba and Kikuyu of Kenya Colony
and the Amazulu of South Africa — and also with the native tribes of
Australia. The writer hopes to be able to show that all these people
have — as he believes, in historic times — come from Western Asia. It
would even seem that the different races of ancient Western Asia are
as liberally represented in Australia as they appear to be on the
African Continent. This work is already well under way, and should
be published before many months are over.
C. C. I,.
Lumbwa,
Kenya Colony,
July, 1926.
91
Chaptbe I.
INTEODUCTION.
Previous to coining to Kenya Colony, six years ago, the writer
had, wi connection with the study of art, taken a particular interest
in Egyptian sculpture, and on arriving here was immediately struck
with the strong resemblance of the natives, particularly those of the
" Hamitic " group and of the Kikuyu and their fellows, to the types
portrayed in Egyptian statuary. This resemblance was not merely a
matter of physical types; the ornaments and, above all, the elaborate
head-dresses of these tribes, seemed surprisingly similar to those of
the ancient Egyptians, and his interest and curiosity aroused, after
a time he began to study the matter more closely. The highly
organised religious ceremonials and tribal customs and laws, so similar
in many respects to those of the Mosaic code, strengthened his first
impression that these people must, at some earlier period of their
history, have been in very intimate touch with a higher civilisation,
probably that of Egypt, and he believed at first that they were the
degenerate descendants of the ancient Egyptians themselves. He
seemed thus, in the different types, almost to recognise the
representatives of the different periods of Egyptian history, from the
coarser-featured earlier people, through the Hyksos, to the slighter
and more elegantly formed Egyptians of the later Dynasties.
Little did the writer imagine, that the people of the tribe with
which the following review more especially deals, and which above
all others is markedly distinguished by outward signs of a possible
Egyptian origin, should on closer investigation prove to be, not
Egyptian, but Semites who in their passage through Egypt had
adapted to themselves these unmistakeable and most striking
Egyptian fashions. This tribe, the famous Maasai, is, as is known,
one of a large group including such other well-known tribes as the
Nandi, Lumbwa, Suk and Turkana, and also the Dinka, Bari, Latuka,
and Shilluk further to the north, generally known as Nilotic or
Hamitic, and if we manage to prove the origin of the Maasai, we have
also succeeded in establishing, or at least hold the key that enablei
us to establish, the identity of these various peoples, and in all
probability that of innumerable other African tribes as well.
The research that the present study comprises, was based on the
theory that the order of past civilizations showed a process of
continually recurring degeneration, and that this process had applied
to what are commonly believed to be primitive peoples. While
studying this problem, in following up culture sequence in other parts
of the world, W. J. Perry's " The Children of the Sun " came into
the writer's hands. On reading this very interesting work he was
92
struck with certain strong resemblances in the traditions of Bornean
tribes to those of the Maasai, and in tracing these further, he was
obliged to take up the study of these Bornean tribes in greater detail.
The result is, as will be shown in the following, that it would seem
possible that they have a similar origin to that of the Maasai, though
they are not of the same original nation; he believes the Maasai to
be ancient Israelites, and the greater portion of the Borneans to be
the ancient Edomites. This disribution of Canaanitish races to
such widely separated parts of the world is not very difScult to
understand if we look back on history, and see what took place in
western Asia from about 1,000 B.C. right into the begiiming of our
present era, when we shall realize how complete was the dispersal
effected as the result of the great and ruthless wars of the Babylonians
and Assyrians, followed by those of the Persians and others, in which,
besides the barbarous treatment that was meted out as punishment
in the case of opposition, whole tribes were carried away into
captivity to the countries of the victors to the East, or fled in other
directions before the invaders. In this way the original populations
of Canaan, of Syria, and of Phcenicia were dispersed, and as the
result of Semitic and Persian conquests of Egypt itself, even
Egyptians were taken away into captivity into the lands of the East.
If one realizes how, in the days of ancient Canaan, tribes and nations
and different races lived side by side, intermingling within the same
areas, yet each still keeping apart, distinct and separate from one
another, we need not be surprised to see how this strong instinct
for the preservation of the tribal identity, has lasted down to the
present time; an instinct that will come more in evidence as greater
light is thrown on the problems of racial and tribal distinctions existing
over large areas of the world to-day.
In this review we give a number of traditions collected from the
Maasai by M. Merker. In his introduction to A. C. Hollis' " The
Nandi," Sir Charles Eliot refers to these traditions in connection
with the theories held by Merker as to how the Maasai have arrived
in the country of their present abode, as follows: — " Merker, and
those who accept his* statements, are of opinion that the Masai (and
presumably with them the Nandi, Turkana, etc.) are the remains of
a Semitic race which has wandered southwards from Arabia and
been mingled with African elements. The chief objection to this
theory is that the undisputed facts which support it are very slight,
seeing that in spite of search no confirmation has been found of most
of the traditions reported by Merker."* These traditions do appear
almost too good to be true, but when viewed in the setting of the
* A.C.H., II., xvi.
93
fresh evidence of another character that we shall now bring forward
they seem to take their proper place in the records of the people,
who, as will be shown, have retained ancient traditions in so many
other respects with a faithfulness that one would not have credited.
It has been objected that these traditions may not have been of
primitive origin, but are traces of Christian influences, recollections
of missionary teaching at an earlier period. If this were so, it seems
quite inexplicable that only Old Testament accounts should have
survived, and that not one single trace of any New Testament
teaching should be found, which after all would obviously have been
the central point of missionary instruction. Amongst these ancient
traditions of the Maasai collected by Merker, is one of their earlier
neighbours the Dinet, a story which is, when considered in detail,
of such unmistakeably Canaanitish origin that it should serve as
evidence as to the value of the rest. In this connection we wish to
give the following account of a tradition held by the Elgeyo, a tribe
closely allied to the Maasai, which was given to the writer by
Mr. A. M. Andersen who has worked amongst these people for
some time. And this story that he gives is perhaps even more
closely related to the story of Moses in the Pentateuch than any of
the traditions given by Merker: — " Long, long ago, there lived an
old man named Moosa. He was picked up out of a box from the
water, and hid in a granary. He was brought up in the house of «
great man and became a great leader. He stole the king's people,
and when they came to cross the water, the water stood up on both
sides, and they were able to pass over."
Merker himself tells how difficult it was to get these traditions
out of the natives : — " It must further be mentioned that only after
five years from the commencement of taking up this study I came
on the traditions of the remote past. These are not universally
spread amongst the people, but are passed down in certain families,
so that even in larger Masai communities one only finds a very few
old men who know how to tell them in detail. But even these few
will only relate them to the seeker (Forscher) when they know him
well, and know that he knows them and their mentality (Psyche)
well. First, when I had got so far that the people of themselves
asked if I, perhaps, was one of them from the time of their residence
in the land of their origin, did I obtain any information from anyone.
It took however another year and a half before I gathered the
contents of the first chapter of the fourth section. I mention this
here so that other seekers (Forscher), whose attention is directed to
the Masai in other districts, do not get disheartened when their
endeavours remain a long time without the hoped for response."*
* M.M'., vi.
94
It is significant that the Maasi should have asked Merker if he
belonged to a people who were originally of their own race (ob ioh
nicht vielleicht aus der Zeit ihres Aufenthaltens in der Urheimat her
einiger der Ihrigen ware); which would also imply that they know
that they belong to a race which has been dispersed from the country
of its origin to different parts of the world.
With regard to the importance of ancient native traditions and
the diflSoulty of collecting them, we quote the following from
Perry: — " The neglect of, or perhaps, one ought to say, contempt
for, native tradition, is a marked feature of modern ethnological
study. Perhaps one day someone will study the causes of this
attitude towards what many of the less advanced peoples consider
to\ be their most precious knowledge. A tendency exists, in some
quarters, to look upon the savage, as he is called, as a silly child,
who has made up out of his head all sorts of fancies, among them
tales about his origin. This attitude is found among ethnologists,
and, consequently, among those who read their writings So
long as this patronising attitude is maintained towards those who
live in other places, and in different circumstances, there is not
much hope for any real advance in the study of early civilization.
The members of the Polynesian Society have now spent many
years in collecting and studying traditions and myths, and this is
what one of the foremost of these students says: — ' I would like
to say, in my humble opinion the European ethnologist is frequently
too apt to discredit tradition. It is an axiom that all tradition is
based on fact — whilst the details only may be wrong, the main stem is
generally right. In this, local colouring is one of the chief things to
guard against, and here the European ethnologist is generally at
fault for want of local knowledge — at any rate when he deals with
Polynesian traditions. No one who has for many years been in the
habit of collecting traditions from the natives themselves, in their
own language, and as given by word of mouth, or written by
themselves, can doubt the general authenticity of the matters
communicated. But it is necessary to go to the right source to
obtain reliable information, and even then the collector must
understand what he is about or he will fail.
' The men who really know the traditions of their race look
upon them as treasures which are not to be communicated to
everybody. They will not impart their knowledge except to those
whom they know and respect, and then very frequently only under
the condition that no use is to be made of them until the reciter
has passed away.' These traditions were holy things and any
deviation from the truth brought down the wrath of the gods. ' It
is obvious from this, that traditions acquire a value they would
95
otherwise not possess. The fear of the consequences arising out of
false teaching acted as an ever present check upon the imagination.'
" Anyone who has seriously studied traditions in conjunction
with other social facts will bear out , these remarks. Frequently
they serve to throw a flood of light on dark places, and, if not forced
to support any apriori view, but allowed to tell their own tale in
their own time, they reveal the most unexpected results."*
When one sees how the natives of this portion of Africa are
surrounded and restricted at every turn by what is generally known
as Tabu, one is not surprised to find that behind the veil of this
practice is to be found Some of the most remarkable evidence of
their origin. Tabu is by some authorities described as synonymous
with " ceremonial uncleanness " and within certain limits this is no
doubt correct; but when one considers the actions of Tabu in a wider
sense and in more abstract forms, the definition, " curse," adopted
by C. W. Hobley in his " Bantu Beliefs and Magic," becomes more
applicable. In the sense where Tabu is used in connection
with acts of physical contamination, the terms " ceremonial
uncleanness " is certainly more correct, but it seems to the writer
that even here the meaning expressed in the terms " curse " and
" ceremonial uncleanness," stand rather in relation to one another
of cause and effect. Now in the abstract sense we find that Tabu
in one of its commonest forms applies to names that may not be men-
tioned except by means of paraphrases. In the case of the Maasai their
dead are never to be referred to by their original names, in the same
way that their warriors, when out on raids, may neither individually
nor collectively be mentioned by name. In the latter case they are
spoken of as " cattle." It would seem that in either of these cases
Tabu rests on them as the result of the curse of death, and therefore
of separation from the tribe. In the case of the warriors they may
either have killed or been killed, in either case they have been
contaminated by death, and death and separation from the tribe is
for the time-being overshadowing them — they are under a form of
curse and therefore all direct mention of them is Tabu,
i.e., forbidden.
Now we believe that the Maasai, and also other tribes consider
that they are living under a curse. A direct expression of the
knowledge of such a curse was related to the writer by Mr. A. M.
Andersen with regard to the Kamasia people, a tribe closely allied
to the Maasai, who say that they were once white but became black
because they were cursed by a man long ago. That the Maasai,
* W.J.P., 103.
96
too, in all probability, believe the same thing may be inferred from
the question that they put to M«rker, as to whether he belonged to
the same original race as themselves, which would also imply that
they believe that they were once light-coloured like himself. So
proud a people, however^ would certainly never admit that they
were now living under a curse. If, as seems probable, the Maasai
are ancient Israelites who came into Africa about 2,600 years ago,
one has not far to seek for the origin of the curse, for the sacred
writing of the Hebrews, especially those of their prophets, tell us of
it, and that they were to go into exile as the result of their sins and
wholesale neglect of their God Jehovah. That the knowledge of this
curse should remain amongst them would be even less remarkable
than their retention of traditions pertaining to their race which go
back, as will be seen, to about 4,000 years. As the result of this
curse they became separated from that earlier life and the land of
their origin, which, as in the case of their dead and of their warriors,
became under Tabu and could not be referred to except in a
roundabout fashion by paraphrase. As will presently be seen, names
and words that have any bearing on that former existence have, to
a remarkable degree, been retained in the language of their origin,
and, in a number of cases, in a paraphrastic form, which, however,
when interpreted and taken in conjunction with all the other
evidence, historical, ethnological, and not least, that of their ancient
traditions, would seem to divulge unmistakably the true origin of
these people.
It would seem that it is in their tribal names and such
nomenclature as has some special bearing on their ancient traditions
even when the original meanings have been forgotten, that one has,
in the first place, to seek for linguistic evidence of the origin of native
tribes; it would appear that their everyday speech has, as the result
of intermingling with other races, and as the results of tabus, become
so altered and changed that but a very small proportion of the
original remains. Added to the reasons just given we also have the
peculiar faculty of the Oriental, to which even the present-day Jew
is so addicted — ^that of playing on words. One sees this in their
instinctive fondness for parables and riddles, and their taste for
expressing themselves in figurative speech, all of which is also
apparent in the sacred writing of the Jews. This same instinct is
also to be found amongst the " Semitic " natives in Africa, who
delight in riddles of which they possess a great number. When the
prophet Zephaniah, speaking of the eventual restoration of Israel,
says " for then will I turn t6 the people a pure language."
(Zeph. III. 9.) this statement, in all probability, referred to the
knowledge that, as the result of their exile and their peculiar
fondness for playing on words, and also as the result of the workings
97
of tabu under the system of the heathen rehgions whioh they had
adopted, their language was bound to change and become corrupted
from its original state; indeed it is likely that that process of
corruption was already considerably advanced when the prophet
uttered those words, for the dispersal of the kingdom of Israel had
already taken place many years before.
To place the evidence brought forward in this review in
satisfactory sequence, so as to present a clear, concise, and easily
grasped summary, is no easy matter. It must be remembered that
this is not intended as a record of ethnological data nor to describe
native life and customs, but is an endeavour to prove from
ethnograpical and historical facts, from native customs, traditions,
and beliefs, the origin of the peoples in question. To do this it i»
necessary constantly to compare one subject with another; the writer
has only used such matter as seems to bear directly on the problems,
in question.
Chapter II.
HISTOEICAL EEVIEW.
Merker arrived at the very definite conclusion that the Maasai
are a Semitic race — of the same origin as the ancient Hebrews. He
bases this conclusion to a great extent on the close resemblances
that exist between ancient Maasai traditions and the Hebrew records
af the Pentateuch. These resemblances are indeed so remarkable
that one only wonders that he did not identify the Maasai with tfie
Ancient Israelites. How he has just managed to miss the mark here,
it is easy to see; it is because he has neglected historical research,
and has instead brought forward such conjectures as the following;
sither the Maasai have arrived in their present locality by way of
Arabia, which he considers the more unlikely alternative, or that
bhey have come down via Egypt and the Nile valley in early
pre-historic days before the Egyptians themselves came into Egypt,
Deeause, once the Egyptians were established in Egypt, any
migrations of other races through their country would have been
impossible. The object of this chapter is to give a short historical
review showing not only the possibilitiy of Canaanitish migrations
through Egypt, but that it appears that they are actually recorded
as having taken place, and also to suggest the possibility of masa
emigrations of Egyptians themselves into Central Africa.
For present purposes the history of Egypt can be divided roughly
into four great periods. (1) The Pre-Historic. (2) The Ancient
Kingdom, from the first Dynasty to the Hyksos. (3) The Hyksos.
(4) The later Kingdom, from XVIIth Dynasty to the Roman
occupation.
The people of the pre-Hyksos period were of a different type
and character to those of later timfis, when they became strongly
Semiticised in language as well as in type. Writing of the period
from about 1,500 B.C., Sir Flinders Petrie, in his recently revised
history of Egypt, points out how important was the change that
occurred, due to the close contact established between the Syrian
and the Egyptian.
" The striking change in the physiognomy and ideal type of the
upper classes in the latter part of the XVIIIth dynasty points to a
strong foreign infusion. . . .
"This intimate connection with Syrian craftsmen and Syrian
women altered the nature of the Egyptian taste and feeling more
profoundly than any influence since the foundation of the
monarchy."* This foreign infusion having thus begun continued for
centuries with the invasions of Assyria, and, above all, with the
Persian conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, and the consequent
Persian occupation which lasted over two hundred years. This again
was followed by the Greek period, which eventually gave place to
Roman rule, by which time the original Egyptian must have, to all
intents and purposes, ceased to exist.
'With regard to the Semitic races, the immediate neighbours of
the Egyptians to the north-east, the Israelites and other Canaanitish
raees, we know that the former resided four hundred years and
more, in the earliest days of their history, when they were but a
small group, in Egypt. That they in their turn intermarried with
the Egyptians we know, for Joseph married a daughter of the Priest
of On, and having secured the entry into the families of the
aristocracy, it is reasonable to suppose that further infusion of
Egyptian blood took place, particularly amongst his descendants the
tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and this no doubt continued until
the Exodus from Egypt. That intermarriage occurred at later dates
we also know, and an intimate relationship with Egypt existed all
through the history of the Israelites, who were never averse from
marrying Egyptians. Neither must it be forgotten that the great
caravan route between Egypt and Syria led through their land, and
that they were for the greater part of their history dependent on the
* F.P., I., 148.
99
goodwill of Egypt to whom they also paid tribute at times, in apite
of which, however, they always seem to have been on a friendly
footing with these their mighty neighbours.
The purpose of dwelling on these facts is to show that in type,
customs, etc., a close affinity must have existed between the people
of Canaan and the Egyptians at the time that the Canaanites were
driven out of their country, and, assuming that we have in Central
Africa to-day ancient Egyptians of the later dynasties and
Canaanitish people living side by side with each other, we can under-
stand that it cannot be too easy to distinguish between them.
How did these Canaanitish people come to migrate into Egypt,
and from thence into Central Africa? Knowing that the system of
carrying whole bodies of people into captivity, using both men and
women as slaves besides taking numbers of women as concubines,
was an universal practice in ancient warfare, one cannot wonder if
nations and tribes, or the remnants of them, fled from the invaders
or conquerors to escape this state and to take refuge with friendly
neighbours. The fate that awaited captives is well expressed in the
words of Sennacherib: — "The people of Chaldea, the Arameans,
the Mannai, the men of Kae, the Phcenicians who have not
submitted to my yoke, I carried away^ and set them to forced labour,
and they made bricks." In this way Egypt became a constant
recipient of refugees from Canaan, and how customary this was will
be seen by quoting from Petrie's writing on the reign of Psamtek I.
where he refers to the camp at Defneh, the fortress on the Eastern
frontier of Egypt: — " This Greek camp formed a place of refuge for
the Jews during the frequent waves of Assyrian conquest, and last
appears in the account of Jeremiah as Tahpanhes."* Amongst
these waves of conquest was that caused by the refusal of Hoshea,
king of Israel, to pay tribute to the king of Assyria, who instead
appealed for help to So, King of Mizraim (2 King XVII. 4.) which
resulted in the siege of Samaria which lasted three years. In
722 B.C. Samaria fell to Sargon, and the tribes to the East of Samaria
were carried away into Assyria. Those to the North had already
been taken into captivity as the result of a previous Assyrian
invasion. Sargon now turned his attention to subduing his tributary
dominions in Syria, which he easily effected, and in the process of
which it is recorded that he had the king of Hamath flayed alive.
He then returned to Palestine to finish what he had left unaccom-
plished. He marched right down through Palestine to the borders
of Egypt, inflicting a total defeat on the combined armies of So, or
* P.P., II., 330.
100
8habaka, and the kings of Eaphia and Gaza, completely routing
them before Eaphia, a city to the South of Gaza in 720 B.C.
With the fall of Samaria the Israelitish tribes to the east were,
as was seen, carried away captive into Assyria, and, with this example
before them as well as that of Sargon's rigorous treatment of the
Syrians, it would have been surprising if the tribes left to the west
and south-west of Samaria had not fled before the renewed advance
of the Assyrian forces, not stopping until they were safe within the
borders of friendly Egypt. These tribes would have been those of
Epbraim and the half tribe of Manasseh whose country lay along
the coast of the Mediterranean. As the result of this fighting Egypt
loet its hold over Palestine, and the Kingdom of Israel also thenceforth
ceased to exist.
Another occasion for such a flight into Egypt would have been
after the defeat of Pharaoh Nekau at Charchemish 605 B.C. by
Nebuehadnessar, whose armies followed the retreating Egyptians
into Palestine, when remnants of the people of the Kingdom of
Israel^ and more particularly the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim,
would have followed the flying army of the Pharaoh into Egypt. This
is the more likely as Nekau 's forces at the time were chiefly composed
of mercenaries, and it is most probable that he had Israelitish troops
drafted from the remnants that had remained in their country at
the time of the Sargon invasion. These troops fearing the retribution
that they had to expect at the hand of Nebuehadnessar would in
their flight have collected with them the other remnants of their
people and taken refuge in Egypt.
, The historical evidence of the flight of Israelitish refugees into
^87P^ ^^ already been recorded ; it now remains to be seen what
happened to them there. Petrie speaking of a later period says: —
" The next year Jerusalem fell, the Babylonian set up his own
governor, who was overthrown; and, after this ' Johanan the son of
Eareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of
Judah, .... men, women and children, and the king's daughters,
.... and Jeremiah the prophet so they came into the land
of Egypt, .... thus came they to Tahpanhes' as Jeremiah relates
(XLII. 5.); and so to this day Taphanhes, or Defneh, is called the
fort of the Jew's daughter. And Jeremiah took great stones, and
'hid them in the elay of the paved area (A.V. brick kiln) which is
at the entry of l^araoh's house in Taphanhes ' and prophesied that
NebuehadrezzMT would ' spread his royal pavilion over them.' In
the clearing of the fortress of Taphanhes the paved area before the
entrance was actually found, and was a place quite suitable for setting
up a royal tent. The absence of any royal wine jars of this reign agrees
101
with the place having been given up to the Jewish fugitives; and
such exiles would have been a useful frontier guard certain not to
league with the Babylonian.* .... In 568 B.C. Nebuchadreszar
marched into the Delta so the cylinder inscriptions of
Nebuchadrezzar found in the Isthmus of Suez may be accepted as
showing that he did at least enter the Delta, and pitch his royal
pavilion before the entry of Pharaoh's house in Taphanhe8."t
From Petrie we learn further that from the VII th century B.C.
and onwards a colony of Jews settled at Elephantine and doubtless
elsewhere in Egypt. § These Jews at this early time could have been
no other than the refugees out of the Kingdom of Israel that we have
now discussed, for the troubles of kingdom of Judah and the necessity
of going into exile, did not begin until half way through the VTth
century B.C.
The reference just made to the colony of Jews settled at
Elephantine is of peculiar interest in connection with the following.
We learn from Herodotus that in the reign of Psamtek (664-610 B.C.)
the garrison stationed at Elephantine on the Ethiopian border
mutinied and deserted into Ethiopia. Having seen that prior to this
the Israelitish tribes would have taken refuge in Egypt as the result
of the dispersal of the kingdom of Israel 722 B.C. an4 also the use
to which such exiles would have been put, and the existence at this
time of the Jewish colony at Elephantine, it may be supposed that
the greater portion of the troops stationed at Elephantine were
composed of Canaanitish exiles. Herodotus' account of this desertion
into Ethiopia is as follows: — " .... the Automoli, who are also
known by the name of Asmach. This word translated into our
language, signifies those who stand on the left hand of the sovereign.
This people, to the amount of two hundred and forty thousand
individuals, were formerly Egyptian warriors, and migrated to these
parts of Ethiopia on the following occasion : in the reign of
Psammitichus they were by his command stationed in different
places; some were appointed for the defence of Elephantine against
the Ethiopians .... When these Egyptians had remained for the
space of three years in the above situation, without being relieved,
they determined by general consent to revolt from Psammitichus to
the Ethiopians; on intelligence of which event they were immediately
followed by Psammetichus, who, on his coming with them, solemnly
adjured them not to desert the gods of their country, their wives and
P.P., II., 344, t ID., 353. § F.P., III., 59.
102
their children. One of them is said to have replied, that wherever
they went they would doubtless obtain both wives and children. On
their arrival in Ethiopia, the Automoli devote themselves to the
service of the monarch, who in recompense for their conduct assigned
to them a certain district in Ethiopia possessed by a people in
rebellion against him, whom he ordered them to expel for that purpose. ' '*
Now Herodotus informs us further that it took four months by way
of the Nile and partly by land to get to the country of the Automoli
from Egypt, and that it took fifty-two days from the borders of
Egypt to the city of Meroe on the Nile in Ethiopia. Measuring
out on the map the distance as represented by the extra sixty-five
days' journey from Meroe to the country of the Automoli wfe find
that this country is just south of present day Abyssinia. Herodotus
has given us two names for these people; Asmach and Automoli —
Asmach is in all probability the Egyptian name, for Automoli is the
Hebrew word Semoli, to which Herodotus has applied the Greek
prefix Aut in place of the S of the Hebrew word, and the Hebrew
Semoli has the same meaning as that given by Herodotus, i.e., " on
the left hand side " meaning the left hand army of the king or
those who fought on his left hand wing. In that portion of Africa
where Herodotus has placed the land of the Automoli, or more
correctly Semoli, we find to-day widely distributed a people called
the Somali. This certainly is strong evidence that the troops who
deserted at Elephantine were not Egyptians but Semites, a portion
of whom have retained the same ancient name by which they were
known in the days of Herodotus. In passing we may mention that
the Automoli are not generally accepted as of Egyptian stock; Petrie
quotes Maspero in " The Passing of the Empires," p. 499, who
suggests that they were the Mashawasha who had figured for some
considerable time in Egyptian history. It has not been established
who these Mashawasha really were, but they are supposed to have
been made up of a group of tribes who were neighbours to the
Egyptians who have not been definitely identified or located. On
considering the story as told by Herodotus, it does not seem likely
that Egyptian-born trops would have deserted in this fashion, but
if we suppose the garrison at Elephantine to have consisted of
Canaanitish auxiliaries, the picture presented at once becomes
comprehensible. We see in these mercenaries dissatisfied Semitic
troops who had been posted for three years on the southern frontier,
instead of at Daphne, where they would have been at hand when
a suitable moment arrived to strike a blow against Assyrian rule in
Palestine, and by that means possibly regaining their own country.
* Her., II., XXX.
103
Probably they were also dissatisfied because the Greek troops, who
had helped Psamtek to gain his throne, had been given the place of
honour as " those on the right hand side pf the king." If the temper
of the Automoli was at all the same as that of the Somali and
Maasai to-day, one can quite understand their indignation at their
secondary, position which they would have considered an insult.
When, in reply to Psamtek's appeal to them not to desert their
wives and children, the Automoli soldier retorted that they would
doubtless find wives and children wherever they went, the reply was
perhaps not purely ironical, as most likely arrangements had already
been made by which the families of the mutineers had been sent on
ahead into Ethiopia to await them.
Herodotus states the number of these Automoli to have been
240,000. One can be sure that this number was not made up of only
one tribe, but of several tribes, though no doubt they were closely
allied to one another, who for the time being were all included under
the one name Automoli or Semoli, i.e., "those on the left hand
side," which name was eventually only retained by one portion which
we recognise as the Somali of to-day. We shall give more evidence
later in support of the supposition that the Automoli were the
ancient Israelites.
It is not to be supposed that this was the only flight from
Egypt into Ethiopia. Another on a considerable scale immediately
prior to the one just referred to, is suggested in the reign of
Tanutamen of the Nubian dynasty (667-664 B.C.), who was obliged
to retire from Egypt to Ethiopia before the conquering army of
Ashurbanipal of Assyria. That numbers of Canaanitish auxiliaries,
who would have feared the Assyrian invasion more than others,
would have followed him into Ethiopia, is extremely probable,
more especially too, as these Canaanites would have come
into Egypt as refugees under the reigns of preceeding Ethiopian
rulers. The devastation that Ashurbanipal caused as the result of
this invasion is best expressed in his own words : — ' ' My bands took
the whole of Thebes, in the service of Asshur and Ishtar; silver, gold,
precious stones, the furniture of his palace, all that was; costly and
beautiful garments, great horses, men and women, .... I removed
and brought to Assyria. I carried off spoil unnumbered."* A little
more than a century after this came the Persian conquest of Egypt
by Cambyses. The Persians held Egypt upwards of two centuries;
some periods of this occupation were a reign of terror for the
* P.P., II., 307.
104
Bgyptians. From the accounts of this Persian occupation we gather
such notes as the following: — " He reduced Egypt to a worse state
of servitude than it was under Darius, "t " A third brother Ochus
took the name of Darius. More oasulties produced more revolts; but
in spite of a revolt in his second year, Darius kept his hold until
405 B.C."§ What results Cambyses' invasion and his march
through Egypt on his way to conquer Ethiopia may have had in
causing Egyptians to flee before his advance to take refuge in
Ethiopia or beyond can only be surmised, as no records exist
concerning the matter. About 850 B.C., however, we have a record
of i^ flight into Ethiopia as the result of another Persian invasion.
" Pelusium was outflanked, and fell by surprise. Nehktnebf
retreated, and the Greeks carried all before them. Memphis was
abandoned, and the king fled to Ethiopia with his treasures."
It is reasonable to suppose that not only large numbers of troops
followed him but that many of the common people also followed
m what was evidently a panic. " Of the three Persian kings who
filled this lime (342-332 B.C.) . . . . nothing whatever is known in
Egypt. The miserable land was a prey to their rapacity. Ochus
placed an ass in the temple of Ptah, and slaughtered the Apis for a
banquet, as well as other sacred animals. The temples were utterly
looted, the city walls destroyed. Egypt lay wasted and
wrecked ...."* It is only natural to suppose that this sort of
thing with all the abuse and oppression to which the people would
have been subjected, and the constant dread of being carried away
into captivity would have caused mass emigrations from the country.
All such emigration must necessarily have taken place for the most
part towards the south, and so large numbers of these emigrants
would have found their way into the lands south of Ethiopia. The
historical records of the Jews state quite definitely which portions
of the kingdom of Israel were taken into captivity to the east into
Assyria (II. Ki. XV. 29; II. Ki. XVII. 6. I. Chr. V. 26) anci it is
to be noted that nothing is said of the south-western portion of the
kingdom which included the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. The
prophet Hosea (Chap. IX. 3, 6.) foretold that Ephraim should go
into captivity m Egypt, Ephraim, meaning here the " house of
Joseph," standing for his own tribe as well as for that of his brother
Manaseh. This prophecy, Hosea very probably lived to see fulfilled,
and when Zephaniah, writing about a hundred years later, prophecies
of the eventual return at some future date of Israelites " from
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia," he is no doubt referring to what
was a known, accomplished, historical fact^ i.e., that these Israelites
+ P.P., II., 369. § ID., 371. * ID., 889.
105
were, at that very time, in the regions of Africa to the south of
Ethiopia.
The migrations of Egyptians and Canaanites through the country
of Ethiopia would Seldom have met with any resistance, more
especially as the throne of Egypt was occupied for considerable
periods by Ethiopian rulers. The Ethiopians on the contrary would
have welcomed such migrations as augmenting their strength in
anticipation of some day with the assistance of such willing helpers,
evicting in their own favour the foreign invaders of Egypt from the
north east.
We have not touched upon what may have been the result of
forcing the ancient Egyptians of the Xllth to the XVIth dynasties
to evacuate their country as the result of the Hyksos invasion. A
short glance at what they were then subjected to is however of
interest. Prom the records of Manetho we quote the following: —
" . . . . and there came up from the east in a strange manner men
of an ignoble race, who had the confidence to invade, and easily
subdued it by their power without a battle. And, when they had
our rulers in their hands, they burnt our cities, and demolished the
temples of the gods, and inflicted every kind of barbarity upon the
inhabitants, slaying some, and reducing the wives and children of
others to a state of slavery. .... These six were the first rulers
among them and during the whole period of their dynasty they made
war upon the Egyptians with the hope of exterminating the whole
race." How this may have affected these ancient Egyptians, and
induced emigration even at this early date no records are left to
relate, but such emigrations into the countries of the south may have
been possible even then.
Until how late in history the migration of peoples from the
north-east into Egypt, and of the Egyptians out of Egypt, continued
to take place the extracts from J. G. Milne given below will show.
That those foreign races which migrated mto Egypt would have
remained in that country under conditions that even the Egyptians
themselves found hard to endure is not likely, and it is reasonable to
suppose that they were but birds of passage through that country,
and when opportunity offered would have gone further afield south-
ward into Africa where they would not only obtain their cherished
tribal freedom, but where the natural conditions were probably
better than they are now, for science tells us that Africa is and
has been getting gradually drier and in parts less habitable.
'With regard to the migrations of peoples from the north-east into
Egypt at later periods Milne tells us, speaking of the year
616 A.D. : — " But if Niketas had any such scheme in view, he had
106
not time to carry it into effect before he was dispossessed of his
control of Egypt by the invasion of the Tersians. When Heraclius
was recognised as Emperor, they had captured Antioch, and they
gradually worked southwards through Syria and Palestine, whence
great crowds of refugees fled into Egypt."* Speaking of the reign
of Constantine he describes the conditions of Egypt as being such
that the Egyptians themselves had been obliged to leave the land: —
" But the state of the cultivators of the land was in many districts
desperate, owing to the burden of taxation and the neglect of
irrigation: a group of documents from the village of Theadelphia in
the Fayfim shows that in the reign of Constantine nearly all the
inhabitants had fled and only three out of twenty-five of those on
the assessment-Ust were left to pay taxes on land of which the
greater part was unwatered."t
Though little actual evidence exists as to the details of the
various mass emigrations of ancient Egyptians that may have taken
place as suggested above,, it would have been extremely unnatural
in the face of centuries of invasion by foreign races, and the
consequent persecutions that the people would have had to endure,
if such emigrations had not taken place; there was practically only
one direction in which they could have fled — south, into the heart of
Africa. That these emigrations were not hampered by lack of means
of communication from Egypt to the south, is suggested both by the
fact that Egypt itself was in communication with Central Africa via
the Nile Valley, and also because we know that in the days of the
Ethiopian dynasties large bodies of troops were being moved to and
fro between Egypt and Ethiopia.
Having completed this historical review of the migrations out
of Egypt southwards, it is well to take a short glance back along the
route that the Maasai are supposed to have come in their wanderings
down into Central Africa. One thus finds a broad belt of tribes
closely allied to the Maasai, both in type, language and customs,
stretching in a north-westerly direction up the Valley of the Nile to
about 12° N.L. North of the Maasai, whose southernmost territories
begin at about 5° S.L., are the Lumbwa Nandi with numerous
smaller allied tribes at each side of them from the Uganda border to
the escarpments of the Eift Valley. North of these, again, come the
Suk and Turkana beyond which in the countries round the upper
Nile are the Acholi, Bari, Latuka, Dinka and Shilluk. Speaking of
this large group Sir Charles Eliot in his foreword to Hollis' " The
Masai " says: — " The whole group are sometimes classed together
♦ J.G.M., 114. + ID., 93.
107
as Nilotic, and have many peculiarities in common. Their languages
show a considerable, though varying, degree of affinity; physically
they are tall, thin men, with features that are not markedly negroid,
and are sometimes almost Caucasian; several remarkable customs,
such as the nudity of the male sex and the habit of resting standing
on one leg, are found among them all. ... A glance at the map
will show that from the Eift Valley to the Nile there runs in a north-
westerly direction a broad belt of non-Bantu languages, more or less
allied to one another, Masai, Nandi, Suk, Turkana, Karamoja,
Latuka, Bari and Dinka. The Karamoja appear to be Bantus
who have been forced to accept an alien form of speech.
This distribution of languages seems clearly to suggest a
south-eastward movement from the country between the North of
Lake Eudolph and the Nile. The hypothesis is rendered more
probable by the fact that in East Africa as elsewhere the course of
invasions has been mainly from the north to the south. This is
certainly the case with the Gallas, Somalis, and Abyssinians (who
are rapidly encroaching on the Protectorate), and probably with the
Bahima. It also seems probable that the physical type of these
races (Masai, Nandi, Turkana, Dinka, etc.) represent a mixture
between negro and some other factor."*
Speaking of influences that may have come down into Africa
from tlje north Hobley in his " Bantu Beliefs and Magics " says:—
" For ancient religious influences on Central Africa, we must look
more to the channel afEorded by the Nile Valley which had become a
route of exploration as far back as the time of the Pharaohs.
Although, however, we know that Egyptian influence was spasmodi-
cally exercised for a long distance up the Nile Valley, .... The
only case of permanent settlement which appears to be beyond doubt
is the invasion into Uganda, Unyoro, and Ankole, of a light coloured
race, now know as the Ba-Hima or Ba-Huma. Some consider that
these people came from the Abyssinian highlands; Sir Harry
Johnstone, on the other hand, believes them to be descendants of
ancient Egyptian settlers; according to Dr. Seligman they are
probably descendants of what he terms Proto-Egyptians — ^the latter
description being a more concrete definition based upon careful
researches in the Nile valley, the result of which was not available
when Sir H. H. Johnstone made his suggestion It is, more-
over, highly improbable that the ancient Semitic beliefs should have
originated in East Africa. We must, therefore, decide whether such
similarity as we • find to-day is merely a case of parallel and
unconnected development, or the result of an ancient invasion of a
* A.C.H., I., xii.
108
Semitic race or possibly of a race which had adopted Semitic beliefs,
tn the present state of knowledge it will be safer to assume that
this similarity is due to parallel development. . . .
" It is, however, necessary to make it clear that if there should
have been any Semitic influence it cannot have been derived from
the Arab settlements oh the Bast Coast of Africa, founded during
the last few hundred years. Their political hold of the country never
extended much beyond the tidal waters, and their only social
influence was the slight one exercised at intermittent intervals by a
slave raiding or ivory trading expedition. No ancient trace of
Mohammedanism can be found among the people under considera-
tion, and their pres^it state of culture is pre-Islamio in point of
time."t
The references that we have here quoted from two well-known
authorities have been given to show that the general impression
favours the immigration into Central Africa of the Maasai at one
point and the Bahima of the south-west of the Uganda Protectorate
6n the other from somewhere down the Nile, and we will close this
chapter with the following remark by Sir Charles Eliot: — " A tribe
coming from the north like the Masai, and possibly at one time in
touch with races influenced by ancient Egypt, may conceivably
represent not an improvement of the primceval African stock but a
degeneration of some other race "* And how intimate this
suggested contact with ancient Egypt must have been will be shown
also by ethnographical evidence of traditional customs so
unmistakeably ancient Egyptian that they can hardly have been
acquired except by actual direct intercourse with Egypt itself.
Chapter III.
OBIGIN OF MAASAI AND BORNEAN TRIBES.
As guggeated by itheir deities and tribal names.
Though the historic data at present available does not allow us
to follow in any detail the wanderings through which the tribes of
Borneo reached their present abode, there is, as we shall see in a
later chapter, enough to enable us to realize the principle causes
t C..W.H., 20. * A.C.H., I., xiv. ~
109
which may have brought them into the Malay archipelago from what
may have been the land of their origin in Western Asia.
We will now deal with some of the tribal names and religious
traditions, first of the Maasai, and then of the Borneans, in order to
show that both in themselves, and by means of the evidence
produced through comparing them together, they point in either case
to the same Canaanitish origin.
Dealing with the Maasai we hope first to show the origin of
their present-day religious traditions. The Maasai have a supreme
deity whom they call Engai (eng being the article and Ai the name of
the deity). This Engai is, remarkably enough, feminine. They have
besides two inferior deities, their " black god " or good god and their
" red god " or malevolent god. What this little pantheon represents
we will now see. We find their equivalent in ancient Egypt. Here
18 the picture: Hathor, the great and popular goddess of ancient
Egypt, was in one aspect worshipped in the form of a cow. tShe
was pre-eminently a sky-goddess, and was the personification of the
great power of nature, which was perpetually conceiving, bringing
forth, rearing and maintaining all things. Hathor was represented
as a cow giving milk to the sun-god; hence also the Egyptian kings,
as identified with Horus, are sometimes figured at the breast of the
Hathor cow.* This account of the goddess Hathor is of importance,
for as will be shown later, when we shall speak of her in her other
aspect as " The Lady of the Fig-tree " she would seem to be
connected with other native religious traditions of Africa to-day.
The famous statue of the divine cow Hathor, found in 1906 by
Ed. Naville at Deir-el-Bahari, and now in the Cairo museum, enables
us to identify both the Maasai Engai and their black and red gods.
The following is quoted from Sir Gaston Maspero in his " Egyptian
Art," where he describes this statue: — " The front view shows only
the head surrounded by accessories At the top of the com-
position, between the tall horns in the form of a lyre, the usual
head-dress of goddess-mothers, is the solar disc flanked by upstanding
feathers with an inflated ureus .... Under the snout (of the cow),
is the statuette of a man standing, his back to the cow's
chest the face is mutilated, the flesh black; he stretches out
his hands, palms downwards, in front of him with a gesture of
submission, as if avowing 'himself the humble servant of
Hathor: .... we guess him to be a Pharaoh. He is found again in
a less punctilious attitude under the right flank of the statue. He is
kneeling, naked, and his flesh is red; he presses the teat between his
* AE.K., 39.
110
hands, and drinks greedily of the sacred milk. If we may believe the
cartouche engraved between the lotuses, the two figures, the black
and the red, are one and the same soverign, Amenothes II. of the
'XVIIIth dynasty."* And here we have first of all the supreme
deity — ^female as we noted — of the Maasai, the great goddess Hathor
of ancient Egypt. The black figure, standing under the head of the
cow, represents the Pharaoh belonging to this world who was divine
in ancient Egypt in his Ufetime, and was worshipped by his people
as " the good god "; the " black god " of the Maasai is their " good
god." The red figure, the Pharaoh who has passed into the other
world, who no longer takes a kindly interest in men, may have
become the " red god " of the Maasai and in course of time their
malevolent deity. As an alternative it may be suggested that " the
black god " may have been Osiris who was sometimes depicted as
black, and the " red god " may have been Typhon or Set — ^the evil
deity of the Egyptians who was depicted as red. It is also possible
that a confusion existed between these alternatives, for the ideas
of the ancient Egyptians themselves concerning their deities seem to
have been rather indefinite. The object here is in the first place to
show the probable Egyptian origin that we claim for the Maasai
deities.
Hathor was also regarded as a goddess of love and from the
earliest times she was the great mother-goddess of the masses in
Egypt, while the cultured classes worshipped Isis, the mother of
Horus. Ai was the great mother-goddess of Babylonia and the wife
of the sun-god Shamash, and we seem to recognise her again in
Canaan, where she was evidently worshipped by the Ammonites in
the city of Heshbon, probably as their great mother-goddess by the
side of Melcom (Jer. XLIX. 3.). " Ai " probably meant then, as
Engai amongst the Maasai to-day, merely " the goddess," and, as
" The Goddess," Ai was probably known to some of the Canaanitish
peoples. (By what article her name was prefixed amongst the
Semites of Canaan is not known, for in Jeremiah the name stands
alone, without an article). That Ai — " the goddess " — should in its
turn have been applied by Canaanitish peoples to the popular mother
goddess of Egypt, whom they would have identified with their own
deity, is perfectly natural, and thus we see how Ai in its last stage
would have become the Masaai Engai as identical with the Egyptian
Hathor. This worship of Hathor, the great cow deity would
naturally have appealed to a pastoral people, and we seem to see
again the influence of this worship in the custom prevalent amongst
the Maasai of on occasion milking their cows into their mouth direct;
this was originally to them no doubt the same rite or sacramental
* G.M., 108.
Ill
ceremonial of partaking of the milk of life from the deity that we
have seen in the case of the Pharaoh of the Deir-elBahari cow:
another example of the sacramental drinking of the milk of life from
the deity is found in another Kenya tribe and we shall refer to this
later on. One sees perhaps the same origin in the Maasai custom of
bleeding bullocks and drinking the blood, sometimes even sucking
is straight from the wound, and one wonders if this may not also
have been an ancient Egyptian rite of partaking of the blood of life
straight from the sacred cow, as a personification of Hathor. It is
no exaggeration to say that cattle are sacred to several of the tribes
of Africa, and the Maasai and allied tribes certainly venerate their
cattle in a manner that gives one just reason to suspect that they
are, to all intents and purposes, sacred to them.
It must not be forgotten that the Israelites had for a considerable
time before their exile accepted the heathen religions of their
Canaanitish neighbours, in which the worship of the mother goddess
was predominant, and their prophets declare this to have been the
reason why they were dispersed and driven from their country.
When one knows that these religions were very similar in their main
conceptions to those of Egypt, it is vcasy to understand that the
Hebrews would readily have accepted the deities of Egypt and
identified them with those of their previous worship.
Having thus reviewed what we believe to be the origin of the
divinities of the Maasai, and before passing on to the Bornean
peoples, we wish to give some evidence of the racial origin of the
Maasai as we see it in their tribal names.
The very important part that tabu plays in the lives of these
natives, has already been referred to in the introductory chapter.
We now come to see how its influence has affected tribal names.
With regard to the name Maasai itself, this seems to have come into
use fairly recently for not so long ago they called themselves
Maa* This change was probably deliberate as the fact is still
remembered, and it is possible that the name Maasai, as an earlier
variation was retaken into use, after having for some time and for
some reason or other been under tabu. The writer cannot believe
that a people who are not only so conscious of their own superiority,
but so extremely loyal to ancient traditions and customs, could allow:
their tribal name to fluctuate unsystematically. We believe the
Maasai to be no other than the Israelitish tribe Manasseh or Manasay
as is a more correct rendering of the Hebrew. HoUis, spelling
phonetically writes " Masai " Maasae, on the strength of which we
* A.C.H., I., 267.
112
have adopted the spelling Maasai, as we consider this is still nearer
the original than " Masai."
So many of the names figuring in Maasai traditions appeared to
be of a composite character, just as in Hebrew, and as the Maasai
language itself is to such a considerable extent built up of composite
words, we believed ourselves justified in adopting the following method
of dissecting names. These examples will show how Maasai composite
words sub-divide. Thus the Maasai for the elephant is 01 le-'ng-aina =
the of the arm; the father is 01 o-i-w = the who begets; in
neither case is it specified who or what has " the arm " or " begets,"
as the context would make this clear. For the sake of comparison
we now give a few Hebrew words, similarly sub-divided. Abiezer—
abt-e-aer = father of help; Benjamin — b en' -ja-min = son of the right
hand; Zechariah — ■zek-aT-i-aK.=whoTOi Jehovah remembers. It is
well to mention here that in the case of Bornean names we have
found the same principle of sub-division applicable.
Maasai — this name written more phonetically according to Hollis
is Maasae and comes very near to the Hebrew Manasay, meaning
" one who causes to forget."
We have thus the Ma-a-sae the first clan of which
tribe is that of L'Aiser the first family of which
clan is called Oidon.
The exact equivalent and sequence is found in the Biblical
records of the half tribe of Manasseh that would have gone into exile
into Egypt. The name of this tribe
is as seen Ma-na-aay the first clan of which was
Abi-ezer or Je-ezer the great hero of which clan
was the judge, Gideon, so famous in the history of the
Israelites.
The 01 oibonok, i.e. the elders of the Maasai all claim that they
oome of the family of Gidon, and according to their ancient traditions
the founder of this family, to whom they trace their pedigree, was
one Kidonoi. (The rest of the evidence to be drawn from this very
interesting tradition concerning their elders will be dealt with in
another chapter). The other three clans of the Maasai are
Il-'Mfingana, Il-Mokesen, and Il-Molelyan. They would appear to
sub-divide and translate as follows:' —
Il-Me-'ngana = The people of Canaan, 'ngana probably an
abbreviation for Canaan.
Il-Mo-ke8en = The people appointed, from the Hebrew kese
meaning '' appointed." Notice the similarity to the well-
known term " The chosen people."
Il-Mo-'l-elyan = The people of the Most High, from the Hebrew
elyon = " Most High," and often used to express Jehovah.
113
These are probably all ancient paraphrases to hide their original
clan-names from the time of their first coming down into Africa, and
have been faithfully retained, though the meanings have probably
long ago been forgotten, at least by the mass of the people, though
possibly kept guarded as sacred tribal secrets by select elders. "With
regard to the Mokesen: the Maasai vocabulary includes the word
ke8en = " the cloth in which a baby is carried," but it is difficult
to believe that the name of a clan should have such a meaning, on
the other hand, the word for this cloth is probably derived from the
Hebrew kese, in the sense of this particular cloth being "appointed"
or destined for this special purpose; this is suggested by the fact that
a peculiar cloth is used for carrying infants, and, as we see, it has a
special name. It is well to mention in this place that, as with the
Maasai so with the Borneans, the original meanings of names and
words have been lost, though, as suggested, certain ones with a
bearing on specially prized traditions may yet be known by the elders
of the tribes. As we shall now see it is possible to re-construct the
lost meanings of certain Bornean names and words figuring in their
traditions, by means of a knowledge of the Maasai language.
With regard then to the Borneans we find that their supreme
deity is called Laki Tenganan* the original meaning of which name
they have lost, but with the help of the Maasai language we are
able to interpret it. L'akir is the Maasai for stars, and here we have
the meaning Of the first part of this Bornean name — the star.
The meaning of the second part would seem to be the same as that
of name of the Maasai clan Mengana which we have just discussed,
and Te-'nganan would mean " of Canaan " the whole being thus
L'aki Te-'nganan = The Star of Canaan. (Canaan is a composite
word as follows Ka-na-an = the low region). This word Tenganan we
find too in the Maasai language in their word for man = tungani,
which is even more clearly expressed in tungunan of the Turkana
people, who are closely allied to the Maasai. Tungani, tungunan no
doubt originally " of Canaan," i.e., " a man of Canaan," the
meaning of which having become forgotten it became applied to any
man indiscriminately. Now the Maasai have also their equivalent of
" The Star of Canaan," though they have also lost the original
meaning. They call the star of dawn, i.e., the morning star: 01 akira
le-'ng-akenya. The Maasai word rukenya means mist and the
country at the foot of Mt. Kenya is called by them en gop e'
rukenya = the land of mist. This comes very close to the meaning of
the name Canaan = th.e low regions, which suggests darkness and
mist, and more especially so when it is realised that the Hebrew
* W.J.P., 147.
114
word for cloud is anan and comes from the same root as Canaan.
We see here how the Maasai word for " the low regions " at the
foot of Mt. Kenya, has the same root as their name for the star of
dawn, and the equivalent to this we find in the Lahi Tenganan of
the Bomeans, where the name of the star includes the name of
Canaan, " the low region," and we cannot help believing that
originally rukenya of en gop e' rukenya and akenya of ol akira
le-'ng-akenya stood for Canaan or was possibly a paraphrase of it. If
this supposition is correct, the name of the colony, Kenya, would be
equivalent to Canaan.
The morning star held a peculiarly significant meaning for the
ancient Israelites. It stood to them for their promised Messiah,
and is referred to in their sacred writing as " The Star out of Jacob "
and as " the bright and morning Star." That this tradition still
lives after a fashion amongst the Maasai, and that " the morning
star " has a special significance for them, may be gathered from the
tradition of paradise, given by Merker, and which we will give further
on, in which the " morning star " is set to guard the entrance to
paradise. The Laki Tenganan, " The Star of Canaan " 'of the
Borneans represents another individual, as will presently be shown.
The probable Hebrew origin of the Maasai L'akir and the Bornean
Laki will be discussed later.
In the creation myths of the Kayans we find the following: —
" In the beginning there was a barren rock. On this the rains fell
and gave rise to moss, and the worms, aided by the dung-beetles,
made soil by their castings. Then a sword-handle came down from
the sun and became a large tree. From the moon came a creeper,
which hanging from the tree became mated with it through the
action of the wind. From this union were born Kaluban Gai and
Kalubi Angai, the first human beings, male and female."* Slightly
reconstructing the first name, we have Kalub Angai and Kalubi
Angai. Knowing that the Maasai Engai, also called Angai means
the God, and that Ai was known too in ancient Edom and is found
in the name of the Edomite king, mentioned by Sennacherib,
Ai (An-aa)-rammu = " Ai is high,"t we are able to interpret the
meaning of these two words as " Kalub the god " and " Kalubi the
god," these two first human beings having been raised to the rank
of deities which, however, they no longer retain. This practice, as
will be shown, of deifying their ancestry was customary amongst
these people in very ancient days, and is one that they still follow.
» H.mD., II., 137. + E.E.&E., " Edomites."
115
Having assumed that these Bornean people are of Canaanitish origin,
one is struck with the strong resemblance of the Bornean name
Kalub to that of the Biblical hero Cole 5, one of the spies who led
the Israelites into the Promised Land. On looking up the pedigree
of Caleb we find that he was a Kenezite, in other words a descendant
of Esau, who was also called Edom. Caleb, though an Edomite,
had been adopted into the tribe of Judah. Now we learn from the
Hebrew records that the Edomites had deified their ancestry: —
" Thou exaltest thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest
among the stars." Ob. 4. (" The star of your god, which ye made
to yourselves." Am. V. 26.). This statement was nothing else but
the record of a well-known historic fact, for the records of ancient
Egypt tells us that Esau or Edom was included in the Egyptian
pantheon and worshipped under the name of Usos. Esau was also
worshipped by the Phoenicians, according to Philo Byb. (Euseb.
Praep. Evang. i. 35), who also calls him Usoos. E. of E. & E.
'* Canaanites." And the supreme deity of the Borneans, Laki
Tenganan, can be no other than this same deified Esau,
their great ancestor, whom they had honoured by making
him their supreme deity and their " btar of Canaan." Laki
Tenganan has a wife. Doh Tenganan^ who is also worshipped by the
Borneans, who is therefore no other than Esau's wife Adah, and we
find too, that the Usoos worshipped in Egypt had a female counter-
part: — " The war-goddess Aasith appears to have been of Semitic
origin, and becomes interesting to us chiefly by reason of the link
which Muller finds between this divinity and the hunter Esau, deified
as Usoos, whose female counterpart he believed her to be."* The
name Doh is obviously the same as that of Odoh, found amongst the
Borneans, and is evidently a variation of the Hebrew Adah, the
a having become interchangeable with o in course of time. As
crowning evidence in support of the identification of Laki Tenganan
and Doh Tenganan of Borneo, with Esau and Adah on the Biblical
records, we find the following story current amongst the Borneans
concerning Esau and Adah: — Usai was the guardian of the shades
of men. His wife desired to have a large prawn that lived in the
Baram river; so Usai built a dam across the river at Lubok Suan
and baled out the water below it, seizing the crocodiles with
his fingers and whisking theitn out on to the bank. While this operation
was in progress, the dam gave way; and Usai's wife was drowned in
the sudden rush gf water. In vain he sought for his wife, weeping
bitterly. Disconsolately he waded down the river. At the mouth of
the Pelutan he wept anew, throwing aside the crocodiles as he
explored the bed of the river. At Long Salai he found his wife's
* A.E.K., 9.
116
coat and wept again. At Long Lama he found his wife's waist-cloth
and gave up hope, and at Tamala he clucked like a hen, so great
was his grief. Still he went on wading down the river. The water,
which at Long Plusan was only just above his ankles, reached his
middle at the mouth of the Tutau^ and covered all his body at the
place where the Tinjar .... flows mto the Baram. At the mouth of
the Adoi he wailed aloud, " Adoi, Adoi! " (a sorrowful cry in
common use, nearly equivalent of our Alasl)."* In spite of its
many naivities this old story sounds a note of real human love and
grief. Embellishments that often only serve to veil the realities of
a legen'd, here seem to point conclusively to an actual and tragic
event in the lives of a man and woman who existed in the remote
past. As is customary with most native myths it has been given a
definitely local setting. We find a curious confirmation of the
supposition that Usai is Esau, in the word with which he expresses
his grief — " Adoi, Adoi! ", for as the Hebrew Elah = GoA becomes
Eloi = iD.y god, so Adoi becomes my Adah and is quite simply the
despairing call of Esau for his lost wife, and to this day Bomean
natives use the word Adoi as an exclamation — " my Adahl " as we
might say " my god!."
The plain facts of this story when the local colour that time has
added is removed, are — ^firstly^ that of a dam, built probably for
purposes of irrigation, possibly across the river Jabbok (this name,
meaning river, has a close resemblance to the Bomean Lubok) which
was in the land occupied at one time by the tribe of Esau.. Secondly,
that this dam broke, and with the consequent rush of water Esau's
wife Adah was swept away and drowned, and it is not at all
improbable that in this tradition we find an historic record of the
true circumstance of her death. The Bomean legend continues as
follows, and very possibly, in its main lines, gives a true account of
how Esau himself met with his end." .... Usai .... strode down
the coast to Miri,, where he lived on charcoal and ginger. (The belief
is widely held that the people of Miri, formerly ate charcoal in large
quantities). The people of Miri seemed to him like maggots; and
they, taking him to be a great tree, climbed up on him. When he
brushed them oft, he killed ten men with each sweep of his hand.
The Miri people set to work to hew down this great tree, and blood
poured from Usai's foot as they worked. Then Usai spoke to them,
asking them what sort of creatures they might be, and said : ' Listen
to my words. I am about to die, My brains are sago, my liver is
tobacco. Where my head falls there the people will have much
knowledge, where my feet lie will be the ignorant ones. ' Then, his
* H.m.D., IL, 142,
117
being cut through, he fell with a mighty crash, his head falling
towards the sea, his feet pointing up the river .... The Miris, of
whom a thousand were killed by the fall of Usai, have beautiful hair,
because his head fell in their district; but the other people have only
such hair as grew on Usai's limbs."* The embellishments of this
portion are not much more than customary oriental symbolism; we
see the hero depicted as a giant, in comparison to whom his enemies
were but minute dwarfs (the invariable method of depicting the
conquered foes of ancient Egyptian and Assyrian mural decorations
and in laudatory verse) but besides this he is depicted as the ancestral
tree from which these Bornean tribes sprung and which is hewn
down in the fight against their enemies. Then follows his dying
words spoken in prophetic spirit. Even the strange style with which
he begins when he says, " My brains are sago, my liver is tobacco "
should, we think, be taken seriously, as the native manner of implying
that by his brains — ^his forethought, the material welfare of his
people had been secured, and by his liver — significant of his powers
cf divining future events, aided by the stimulating influence of
tobacco, he had been able to foresee and provide for the future.
Ancient tradition therefore tells us here that Esau was killed in
battle, fighting his enemies. Who these enemies were it would be
interesting to know, particularly as the name Miri is that of a tribe
found among the Klemantans who hold this legend. It ia
interesting to note the mention made of the hair on Usai's body, for,
as we know, from the story in Genesis, Esau was ' a hairy man "
the very name Esau meaning hairy.
The Western Asiatics believed, as do the Malays to-day, that
the soul resided in the liver and hence the following from an early
hymn to Anu : — " May the great gods make thy heart to be at rest
through concord and prayer; may they make thy liver to be at peace
by prayers and bowings, "t Divining from the livers of animals such
as pigs, bullocks, fowls, etc., which were substitutes for earlier
human sacrifice, arose out of this belief. This is no doubt long
ago forgotten by most of the native tribes in different portions in the
world who practise this form of divination. It is of interest to draw
attention to the fact that the pig was most particularly the saorifioial
animal of the ancient Canaanites as it is amongst the Bornean tribes
to-day.
In the account given above of the creation of the Kalubs Angai,
the dung-beetles are mentioned as aiding in the act of creating the
* H.mD., II., 143. t W.B., I., 133.
118
world. This reference is too Egypto-Western Asiatic in character to
be passed over unnoticed. The dung-beetle, or scarab, as is well
known, played an important part in the cosmic conceptions of the
peoples of Egypt and Western Asia.
The remarkable way in which some of the names of the chief
Bomean tribes correspond with the names of the dukes of ancient
Edom, the immediate descendants of Esau, will now be shown.
We wish to mention that the particulars given of the Bomean
tribes in these pages are almost entirely derived from Messrs. Hose
and McDougall's " The Pagan Tribes of Borneo."
These tribes are divided into the following six groups; of which
the Sea Dayaks or Ibans, and Kayans, as having come into the
island at a much later period, may be considered as separate from the
Kenyahs, Klemantans, Muruts, and Punans, who would seem to be
the original inhabitants. It now remains to see what evidence exists
that these are of Canaanitish origin. If we refer to the O.T. we find
that the 36th chapter of Genesis contains nothing but the plain
matter of fact genealogy of the peoples of Edom and of the family
of Esau in particular. The last verses in this chapter gives the
names of the " dukes " that came of Esau, " according to their
families after their places," and amongst these we find, side by side,
three of the names of the tribes given above : Dukes Pinon (also
written Punon), Kenaz and Teman. Punon and Punan, Kenaz and
Kenyah, Teman and K'leman-t&n; it is astonishing that four
thousand years have not effected a greater change.
The name K'-leman-tan is here quite consistently sub-divided in
the manner mentioned previously and would appear to mean " the
Teman tribe " (Teman, in Hebrew, means of the right hand), and
we feel doubly justified in separating Leman from the rest of the
word Klemantan in this fashion, for in Hose and McDougall's book
the translation of the beginning of an incantation is given as
follows: — " holy Dayong, thou that lovest mankind bring back
they servant from Leman," the T having in the course of time been
converted into L. Here we have the " Leman " of the word
Klemantan, but given as a place name, which agrees with the
quotation just made from Gen. 36, where the dukes of Esau are
called "according to their families, after their places — by their
names," and the Hebrew records also tell us of the land of Teman,
which was in the north-east of the country of Edom. The Edomites,
therefore, named their cities after their dukes, and Punon is marked
in the maps of ancient Canaan issued to-day.
Little reference is needed with regard to Kenyah, which in the
first place would refer to the ancient tribe of Kenaz (the tribe of
Caleb the Kenezite already mentioned), but it is also possible that
119
it has come to have a double meaning and that it may in one sense
stand for Canaan, the original home of the tribe, and in this resembles
the name of Kenya, the East African Colony, which as we have
already seen, probably also stands for Canaan.
The fourth name in this group, Murut, would appear to be the
same as that of Mered. Mered was of the family of Caleb. That he
was a great man is seen from the fact that he was married to a
daughter of a Pharaoh (I. Chr. IV., 18.) and would therefore have
been likely to be the founder of a separate tribe named after him.
Closely affiliated with the Muruts are the Kalabita and the Dusun,
and in the former name we see again that of Caleb ^ the ancestor of
Mered, which explains the close connection existing between these
two groups. The Dusun again may be attributed to Dishon, found
in the genealogy of Esau.
Amongst the various Bomean sub-tribes is '.also that of the
Miri. In Gen. XVI. 43 we find " duke " Iram; elsewhere in the
Bible we find Iru and Iri as variations of the same name, and possibly
Miri is M'in, or the people of Iri or Iram. We also find Iram as a
place name in Borneo.
As to the Sea Dayak or Iban, and the Kayan, the latter name
strongly suggests a Semitic origin and may possibly be connected
with the Hebrew work Chayah = \ive, to preserve alive. With regard
to the Sea Dayak, the name Dayak is obviously the same as the
Hebrew dayyag = & fisher, both the Bomean as well as the Hebrew
word being descriptive of a life connected with the sea. They
commonly speak of themselves as Kami menoa (i.e., we of this
country) which appears to be almost pure Hebrew^ K'am-i Menoah =
the people of this place, menoah meaning place, om = people.
We will bring this chapter to a conclusion by showing some
names, chiefly place-names, found amongst the Maasai and Borneans
bearing as we believe, on their Canaanitish origin.
Maasai.
Bornean.
Canaanitish.
Sharangani (1).
Sarangani (2).
Sharon of Canaan.
Amala river.
Tamala river.
Amala in Canaan.
Kedorong.
Kidurong.
Kidron in Canaan.
Enjamusi.
Banjermassin.
Benjamin.
Kino gop (4).
Kina Balu (4).
Heb. china = comely.
Sirikwa (3).
Sirik.
Molelyan (3).
'Buliluyan (2).
Heb. elyon = most
high.
Iram.
" Duke " Iram.
Gilgil.
' Gilgal.
Kishon (3).
Kishon also called
Kisongo.
" the waters of
Megiddo."
Mara river.
Elesha.
Mara.
Elisha.
120
(1) Sharangani, we believe, should be sub-divided to mean
" Sharon of Canaan," as has been seen in the case of the Maasai
words Me n^ano and tungani.
(2) Sarangani and Buliluyan are not actually in Borneo, but
head-lands on the coast of the not far distant Philippines. The
northern-most point of these islands bears a most Maasai sounding
name — Engano.
(8) Sirikwa, Molelyan, and Kishon are tribal names. The
Sirikwa are or were a tribe allied to the Maasai.
(4) If we accept Kino and Kina as the same as the Hebrew
chinrs oamely, these names would be " the comely land " and " the
comely widow." The Kino gop of the Maasai is especially sacred to
them, for it there that a large portion of the tribe have been
accustomed to hold their great periodical cicumcision festivals.
(<?op = earth, may be derived from the Egyptian earth-goddess Kep.
'' The thing which is called Naiteru-kop ( = the beginner of the earth)
is a God "* and in Naiteru one may possibly see the name of the
female counterpart of this Egyptian cosmic deity, his wife, the sky-
goddess Nut. Hose & McDougall state that Kina Balu means "Chinese
widow " and that the name was given as the result the establishment
of a Chinese colony in northern Borneo. Is it not possible that this
meaning has comJi to be applied at a later date and that originally
this, the greatest mountain in the island, was named Kina Balu in
memory of somehing in connection with the land of their origin? It is
hard to believe that such an important feature in the landscape of
the island should have been named or renamed at a recent date as
the result of the immigration of a small contingent of an alien race.
Petrie, after having given a list of certain Canaanitish place
names in his history of Egypt, adds: — " .... all lasting with no
change — or only a small variation in vowels — down to the present
day .... it needs no further proof that ancient names may be safely
sought for in the modem map."
And to this we may add that as the British race has carried with
it all over the world wherever they have founded colonies, the names
of places from their home country, so also, it would seem, have the
races of antiquity done in their wanderings before them.
We will now leave the Borneans for a time, and in the following
chapters deal with the Maasai and other African tribes.
* A.C.H., I., 270.
121
Chapter IV.
MAASAI TEADITIONS BEARING ON THEIR ORIGIN.
The traditions, collected by Merker from the Maasai, that we will
now give, are of extreme interest and value, and it is remarkable that
in the following story of the Dinet we should find an account which
would seem to fit in so exactly with the ancient Edomites who have
already been suggested as the ancestors of the present day
Borneans: —
In the land of the Aroi which was intersected with canals for
irrigation, lived the el Dinet. The land was thus named because of
two mountains which, on account of their position, were likened to
the horns of cattle Cattle were killed in such a manner that
all the blood should escape, as the people were not allowed to partake
of blood, or fiesh that contained blood. In cooking the meat the legs
were not cut up but cooked whole. If the cooking-pots were not
large enough to take the whole leg, the leg was hung with rope from
the ceiling so that the lower portion could be cooked, after which it
was reversed in order to cook the other half.
The men and boys shaved their heads, the women shaved only
the sides of the head, leaving on the top a portion the size of a
spread-out hand where the hair was allowed to grow so long that it
reached down to the middle of the back. They ornamented their hair
by plaiting in cowrie shells. Circumcision was not practised amongst
them. . . . After the birth of a child the husband killed a sheep which
he ate in company with his friends. This custom was explained thus,
that the man was the primary cause of the child having come into
existence, and that the wife has only borne it.
The young men did not go out to war, they only fought with the
bees of which there were quantities in the land. On the tre^s and in
number of places in the hard red earth one saw holes in which the
bees lived. Each hole had its owner who had marked off his property
from that of his neighbour.
The people were called to their counsels by the beating of a large
drum which it took a whole oxskin to cover. Each one that sought
justice brought with him larger or smaller beads (perlen) which were
put down on the drum.
The name of their god was Njau, and the name of their chief was
Tungasssoi.*
* M.M., 289.
122
At the beginning of this story the name of the country is given
as that of Aroi, which is a Maasai word meaning " the ox with the
crumpled horn," and that the land had got its name because of the
two mountains which were likened to the horns of cattle. It is
significant that the land of the Edomites was also known as the ' ' land
of Seir " which name it had got from Mount Seir within its borders.
But it is also interesting to note that the position of the mountain
peaks of Mount Seir and Mount Hor separated only by a narrow
valley may well have come to be compared to the horns of cattle as
in this Maasai story.
The name of the people, as we read, was the Dtnet. If as is
possible, the et of this name was a suffixed article the name itself
would be Din, as in E'dom the E is the prefixed article and we would
thus have Din and Dom. With the Bomeans we seem to find this
same name amongst their ancient traditions, which as will be shown
later we conceive to be the same as Edom, namely Odin or Oding,
and if we accept the in Odin as the prefixed article as in Edom we
thus have Odin = Din as in the Dinet of the Maasai. The meaning of
the name of the city of Din-ha-ba in ancient Edom is obscure, could
it have stod in some connection with the name of Edom itself?
The next point, that of their manner of slaughtering cattle and
the prohibition of drinking blood and eating flesh containing blood is
too obviously an ancient Hebrew practice to require any remarks. The
following point, however, is of extreme interest and shows what may
have been an ancient custom or rite which may have existed in
ancient Egypt and from there been borrowed by the Edomites who
were no doubt in intimate touch with the ancient Egyptians, their
near neighbours. Dare we believe that this custom of cooking the
leg of the ox whole by hanging it tied from the roof was ancient
Egyptian custom in connection with the deified " ox-leg " of
Egyptian mythology which was identified with the god Set, the spirit
of evil, who had to be bound and kept in subjection, and which figured
thus and guarded was represented by the constellation of Ursus Major
which in early times bore the name of " the ox-leg."
The custom of the men and boys shaving their heads does not
apply to-day amongst the tribes of Borneo. On the other hand,
however, the mode ascribed for the women of the Dinet is exactly the
manner in which the men of the Bornean tribes wear their hair,
i.e., shaved all round their temples and back of the head and the
hair left on top allowed to grow half way down their backs.
We now come to a most interesting point in the Maasai narrative
and one that is not only analagous to ancient Edomitish conditions,
but which the customs of Borneo to-day help to elucidate, thus forming
an interesting link between the Maasai story, Edom, and the modem
123
Bornean. The story says that the young men did not go out to war
as they only fought with the bees, of whch there were quantities in
the land, living in holes in the earth. Each hole had its owner
who had marked off his property from that of his neighbour. That
these " bees " were not insects, but were human beings, living in
subterranean dwellings, is perfectly evident from the fact that special
mention is made of how each " bee " had its own hole and h&d
marked off the boundaries of his property from that of its neighbour.
It is well known that the original inhabitants of the land of Edom,
the Horites, lived in subterranean dwellings; modern archeological
research has shown that this was the case from one end of the country
to the other. That the Edomites were continually at war with these
people is confirmed by the fact that they ultimately destroyed them.
(Deut. II. 22). The Masai term " bees," would seem to be an
ancient Canaanitish term for warriors, whose mode of warfare was
that of sudden attack from hidden places; this term was no doubt
applied to the Horites, on account of their living underground as do
certain varieties of bees and hornets, and also because of their practice
of suddenly dashing out on the Edomites from these subterranean
albodes. In this respect they would have resembled bees or hornets
swarming out from their hidden nests in trees or in the ground to attack
intruders. Now that bees and hornets were abundant in those
countries is also seen by the fact that the valley of Zoreah in southern
Canaan derived its name from them, Zoreah meaning " place of
hornets." These human " hornets " figure again and in the form of
warriors too, amongst the present-day Borneans. Hose and
McDougall say that : — ' ' All the left-handed men are sorted out to
form a party whose special duty is to ambush the enemy, if possible,
at some favourite spot. These are known as the hornets (singat)."*
Hornets, or those that attack suddenly from hidden places, would
describe the methods of the " bees " in the story of the Dinet, and
would be equivalent to those " hornets " or ambush-warriors of the
Kayans. How extremely Canaanitish is both this Bornean method
of selecting left-handed warriors for special, responsible duty, and also,
we believe, their name for them — singat— will now be shown. It is
recorded in Judg. XX. 16. that: " Among all this people there were
seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at
an hair breadth, and not miss." and again in I. Chron. XII. 1. 2.
" And they were among the mighty men, his helpers in war. They
were armed with bows, and could use both the right and the left hand
m slinging stones and in shooting arrows from the bow." The Bornean
word for their ambush warriors — singat — ^may possibly be derived
either from the Hebrew sene = bush, ^ad = troop, or " bush-troops ";
* H.mD., I., 171.
124
or the sin from the Hebrew aeon = battle, in which case the meaning
would be " battle troops, " or in plain .English, " fighting troops." The
close connection between bees and soldiers is seen too in respect of the
Nandi, whose word for these are 8eg6mya=bee, 8egein = Boldier.
The Maasai story says further that the name of the god of the
Dinet was Njau, N is the article, and the name therefore is Jau whom
Prof. Hommel has identified as an ancient Asiatic deity, to which
reference will be made later.
The name of the chief of the Dinet was Tungassoi — ^Tu-'ng-assoi,
probably meaning " the (man) of the Esau "; it is natural
that the name of the great ancestor and founder of the
Edomite race, should have been remembered and handed down in
the traditions of that nation.
Two further points of interest in the preceding story are, (1) that
the Dinet practised irrigation; (2) that they did not practise circum-
cision. We have seen in the Bornean legend of Usai and Adoi, that
Usai was building a dam, this dam-building was in all probability for
irrigation, and irrigation is still practised by certain tribes in Borneo.
Irrigation, as we know, was practised extensively in ancient Canaan,
as was natural, considering its position between Egypt and
Mesopotamia, both of which countries relied principally on irrigation
for growing their crops. With regard to the Dinet not practising
circumcision, this also coincides with the customs of the Bomeans
to-day, though they hold traditions which suggest that they may have
practised it in bygone ages. The ancestors of the Kayans are said to
have been a gang of criminals, with mutilations in the ear-lobes and
elsewhere* It is known that the Edomites abandoned circumcision
at an early stage in their history. The special mention of beads
(perlen) as currency amongst the Dinet is of particular interest, for
beads are peculiarly prized amongs the Bomeans: — " Formerly these
old beads were one the principal forms of currency, and still constitute
an important part of the wealth of many families."!
The following account by Merker seems to give a picture of
Egypt and the Delta. " There lived in the land of Gaiwos where the
river of the same name formed a number of islands, the El Didity.
They lived by agriculture and fishing. In their fields they planted
maize and a plant named ogari, the large roots of which after having
been cut into slices and dried were ground into meal. The fishes they
caught either with hook and line or else in baskets.
* W.J.P., 110. tH.mD., I., 226.
125
" Across the numberless arms of the river they had built bridges.
Every second day markets were held when fish were bartered for
vegetables. The name of their god was Se. They met at the foot of a
neighbouring mountain where they asked their god for food and help.
The circumcision of girls and boys took place at puberty.
A man paid to the father of the bride eight pots of honey and
worked for him for two months in his fields. After the birth of a boy
the mother was not allowed to leave her hut for sixteen days. After
the birth of a daughter she kept to her bed for five days. The first
time that the mother and child left the hut, their heads were
shaved." *
In his story the name of the country Gaiwos is very reminiscent
of Goshen and in the description of the river with innumerable arms,
we seem to recognise the Delta. The civilized aspect of this country
as suggested by the building of bridges across the rivers, regular
markets held every second day, and also the fact that the principal
industries appear to have been agriculture and fishing, all point to
Egypt. The name of the god Se, is also strongly Egyptian in
character, and the mountain may possibly refer to the pyramids.
We should like to have given some more of these interesting
traditions concerning the ancient neighbours of the Maasai, but as they
do not appear to have the same direct bearing on our present purpose,
we must refer our readers to Merker's book. From the Maasai
traditions collected by Merker the following are of great interest as
bearing on the origin of these people.
The first two human beings Maitumbe and his wife Naiterogop
were placed by God in a beautiful paradise where grew all manner of
fruit-bearing trees. God spake to them and said: " Of all these fruits
may you eat, they are your food, only of the fruit of one tree that is
standing there," God pointed to it, " you must not eat, that is my
command." The two people hearkened to God and lived a happy
life without care. They had three cows and a pair of goats but no hut,
nor did they wear clothes. God visited them almost daily, descending
from heaven by means of a ladder. One day God came down and
called for the people, but they had hidden themselves in the bush.
God called out and asked why they had hidden themselves, upon
which Maitumbe replied " We are ashamed because we have done
evil and have not listened to thy command. We have eaten of the
fruit of the tree that you have forbidden. Naiterogop gave me of the
fruit and persuaded me to eat, after she had eaten herself." On God
asking Naiterogop why she had eaten contrary to his command, she
* M.M., 299.
V26
replied that the three-headed serpent came to her and told her that
if she ate that fruit she would be like the god and become almighty
like him." God was angry at this and said to the people: " As you
have not hearkened to my command, you must now leave paradise,"
and turning to the serpent he said: " And as your punishment you
shall live for ever in holes in the ground." With these words God
turned quickly round and walked back into heaven. The morning star
was sent to turn the people out of paradise and was placed there to
keep guard.*
The story tells further that these first people had three
children, and goes on to recount how a number of present day
customs originated. They are however so mythical in character that
they have no particular bearing on the present argument. An account
of the first murder is given, no doubt a tradition of Cain slaying Abel.
The account of the flood is interesting, and bears a stronger
resemblance to that of the Pentateuch than to the early Babylonian
version.
The account of the giving of the ten commandments is so truly
Israelitish that it must be give in detail.
One day the Maasai heard on the mountain of God a whirlwind
and a shout, and running up to it they heard, coming out of a cloud
on the top of the mountain, the following words shouted: — " God has
Bent me to tell the Maasai ten things. To-morrow I will come back
and then all the elders must be here." The following day, early, the
elders collected at the foot of the mountain and went up it together.
Having got a good way up the mountain they heard a loud voice
calling to them to halt. As they looked at the top of the mountain,
they saw a being in the shape of a man who had however two large
wings on his back like a bird, but only one leg. To be able to move
with only this one leg the angel carried a pole in his hand, which he
used in walking as a jumping pole. The old men spake: — " Olotu en
diriman " = " He comes with a crutch " and gave him the name of
01 dirima.
When the elders had thrown themselves on the ground the angel
spoke : — " God has sent me to say ten things to you.
(1) There is but one God. He has sent me here. Up to now you
have called him E'majan or E'magelani: from this time ye
shall call him N'gai. Ye are not to make yourselves an image
of 'Ngai. If ye follow his commandments all will go well with
with you, when however ye do not hearken, he will punish
you with famine and sickness.
* M.M,, 271.
127
(2) When ye go to fight with the El meg ye are only to strike with
Btioks or shoot with the arrows of wood without iron points;
ye are to use no knife because God has forbidden that you kill
a man, and he will punish you severely if you do not hearken.
(3) Each one is to be content with what he has, and must not
take what belongs to another Maasai.
(4) You must be merciful to one another and not fight with one
another. Only old men may drink honey beer, as the younger
become drunk with it and elated and then begin to quarrel and
to fight.
(5) No warrior or youth, no unmarried man, may touch the wife
of a married man.
(6) When a Maasai has lost any of his property, then shall the
other Maasai support him; when he has lost it all he shall
receive something from each one, so that he soon may become
well off again
(7) Only one shall rule over you; him shall all hearken to. Disputes
are to be settled by a council of old men.
(8) A man must never have more than one wife at a time; first
when she is dead or parted with may he marry another
(9) You shall kill no female animal, nor any bulls, nor fae-goata,
nor donkey stallions. Only cut male animals may ye kill for
for food.
(10) You are every year on the eighth day of the ninth month to
keep the Kudjarok to the honour of God, with burnt ofierings
of the good smelling " os-seigi " wood, for which God will
keep away from you plague, famine, and sickness
When the angel had spoken these words, a cloud sank down over
the mountain and hid him from the sight of the elders. These now
left the mountain and went back to their kraals, where they told
what they had seen and heard.*
Of extreme interest in this account is the description of the deity
with one leg who used a crutch to help himself along. The exact
equivalent is found in the description given of the Nandi evil deity or
devil which they call Chemosit, who is said to be half man and half
bird, to have only one leg and to propel himself by means of a stick
which resembles a spear and which he uses as a crutch. \ (See
frontispiece).
* M.M., 279. t A.C.H., II., 41.
128
The aceount given above, does not mention Moses but nevertheless
he makes his appearance in Maasai traditions as a lawgiver;
he is called Musana, and Merker says of him that in physique
he was a dwarf, despite which he wielded a very great
influence over his people. He introduced the week of seven days, the
reckoning of which dated from the new moon. On the day before the
seventh day the people gathered together under the shadow of a tree
in the neighbourhood of the kraal, and nine cattle were slaughtered
and eaten, and honey beer was drunk, but only by the old men and
ol aigwenani (this describes a communistic sacrificial feast as practised
in the heathen religions, such a thing did not occur under the Mosaic
law). After this feast the people returned to their kraals, but collected
again the next day for instruction on the following three points.
(1) The unmarried men must sleep in their own kraals and not
in those of the married, so that they cannot come to the
married women. The warriors are not to go out to war without
the permission of the ol oiboni.
(2) No breeding animals but only castrated animals may be killed
for food.
(8) No one may take what belongs to another. Those who are
in need have to be supported. God gives friends to the good
people, who willingly help them.
The importance that Musana and those of his time attached to
these teachings can be seen by this seventh day being called Esubat
'n olon=the good day.*
Eeuhat 'n olon means thus in present day Maasai " the good
day," but Eaubat is so like the Hebrew Shabbath that one cannot
doubt that these words are derived from the same source. And more
especially so when one considers the olon, which is also the Maasai for
6un. We believe this word to be derived from the Hebrew elyon,
meaning " most high," which is equally applicable to olon as sun
(Eng-golon = ihe power, authority), and to Esabut 'n olon which
would thus come to have had the original meaning of " The Sabbath
of the Most High," which is exactly the sense in which it stood to
the ancient Israelites, and stands to the Jew of to-day. This is an
extremely interesting example of how words can have come to acquire
an entirely altered meaning in course of time.
Eng olon = the sun, is, curiously enough, like Engai, feminine;
but their word for the moon, ol aba is masculine, and would seem to
be the same as their word iaba = father — in the dialect of the
Dorobo, aba — and is most evidently the same as the Hebrew
* M.M., 282.
129
a& = father, which in Aramaic is abba. This is a curious reversal of
the usual order, which it would be interesting to have explained.
In the Maasai legends given by Merker, Moses appears under
different names, of which the more important are, Marumi and
Musana. Marumi 's father, according to Maasai tradition was Geraine
and he had also the name of Eramram, meaning " stutterer," which
was apparently a name common to his whole family, as stuttering
was a hereditary failing. In Exod. we find that the name of
the father of Moses was Amram which is almost identical with
Eramram. The Maasai Geraine was said to have two other children
besides Marumi — ^the son Labot, would correspond to Aaron, and the
daughter Meria would correspond to Miriam, the sister of Moses and
Aaron. It is interesting to note in connection with the meaning of
the family name Eramram, that Moses, when bidden to rescue the
children of Irael from the tyranny of Egypt, protested his inability
and incapacity for such a task on the ground of being " slow of speech,
and of a slow tongue." (Exod. IV. 10).
All who have come in contact with the Maasai have remarked on
the exclusive and aristocratic attitude of this tribe. They regard
themselves as a special and sacred people, and have no doubt
whatever of their inborn superiority over every other race. Inter-
marriage with other tribes is practised but little, and the women of
the despised el meg " negroes " are not taken into the tribe; when
raiding their neighbours they only carry off their cattle and do not
take away their women folk. Having seen how they have kept true
to their traditions in other respects, it is only fair to assume that
through the ages they have kept rigorously to this custom and that
they have not intermixed to any appreciable extent with alien blood.
Even their attitude over the cattle raiding question, to which we
are about to refer, naive and not a little humorous as it appears to
us, is but another proof of their assurance that they are the Creator's
chosen people. How ancient is the tradition that they are cattle
raiders is seen in I. Chron. VII. 21. " And Ezer and Elead, whom
the men of Gath, that were born in that land slew, because they came
down to take away their cattle."
Another proof of the high opinion that they have of themselves
is shown in the way that they have adopted so many of the insignia
of the Pharaohs, and in particular the symbols of their divinity; their
mode of doing their hair in similar style to that of the large wig of
the Pharaohs, the skin coats of their elders represent the cobra's
hood. Even the lion-skinned head-dress worn by their warriors has
its equivalent in the lion-mane fringe seen on the statues of the war
goddess Sekhmet. It seems only reasonable to suppose that this
behef in their divine origin and their right to assume all the peculiar
130
insignia of royalty and divinity, is a perverted tradition founded on
their original conditon as part of the chosen people of Jehovah.
These charactersties of the Maasai are described by Merker as
follows: — " The most prominent trait in the character of the Masai
is his natural pride, which is founded on their religious outlook by
which they are the chosen people of God. God has made the world
and all that is in it only for them, all that are not Masai are subject to
them, and their property belongs to them. From this comes their
pride and their profound contempt for the non-nomadic (ansassigen)
negroes, who do not know 'Ngai, and who have no right to what has
been created by him and who therefore are condemned to get their
daily sustenance by working in the ground. God cares however for
the Masai as for his children, they need not work; 'en dobira meti
8idai = work is not good, all belongs to them, and when the negro will
not give it up freely then the Masai take it by force. The negro has
on the whole only one justification for existence in the eyes of the
Masai namely as the keeper of the cattle that 'Ngai has created for
the Masai. ' The Masai call all non-Masai in general terms — el meg
(S. 01 megi) a word that should be translated, " unbelievers." The
Masai know neither friendship nor faith towards the unbelievers, and
any form of deception and cunning is permissible towards them.
Their names for the tribes related to them by race are derived
from the names of the districts which they inhabit, and in this
connection it m^ust be noted that the Masai have their own names for
the latter. He uses for the European the term derived or reconstructed
from Kiswahili '1 aisungu. And lastly, he calls the negro el manat
(S. ol manatinda) the meaning of which approximates to "the
savages " and is equivalent to the word Washenzi, by which the coast
people denote the negroes of the interior."*
" When they go to war against another tribe, to plunder, they are
only taking what belongs to them by right, and what God has given
them as their own, and what other tribes are unrighteously withholding
from them. ' If the el meg would only voluntarily give up to us our
property, our cattle that are in their possession, we would not need
to go to war with them. As, however, they will not do that we are
obliged to fight them. And they makq these wars against the depiseo
heathen that do not know 'Ngai and do not pray to Him, but only
to spirits, on which account He does not stand by them, and always
gives the victory in the righteous cause to the Masai."! Mollis
gives us much the same picture, and the following quotation again
shows their assumption that they are by no means the barbarians
* M.M., 116. t ID. 204.
131
that they consider their neighbours, the Bantu people, to be. " If a
small child yawns, his mother grasps his mouth between her fingers
to prevent it from stretching and becoming big like the savages'
mouth."*
The traditions again concerning the elders of the Maasai suggest
an Israelitish origin. Merker (283) says that the first ol oiboni was
Kidonoi, the founder of the family of en Gidon, and he belonged to
the clan of L'aiser. The name of Kidonoi means in Maasai " the one
with the tail," for as the story goes he had a tail a hand span in
length. Here are thus two names for the judge Gideon of Biblical
fame, one of which seems to bear a rather distorted meaning. In this
lies a confusion that is not however difficult to explain. Similar to
Gideon we find in the Hebrew the word for wizard=yiddeoni. Now
these wizard were the wise men or prophets of their heathen deities.
That these wizards were associated with the idea of tails is quite
likely, for we find the Pharaohs and Gods of Egypt depicted with
tails, and the tail was evidently to the pagan people the emblem of
superior and divine knowledge. This was recognised by the Hebrews,
as seen in Isaiah VI. 14. " Therefore the Lord will cut off from
Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and
honourable he is the head; and the prophet that teaches li6$, he is the
tail."
Gideon the great hero judge, of the tribe of Manasseh, renowned
for his knowledge and wisdom, had become with time and their
relapse into heathendom, as we see, a great " wizard "-prophet, whom
they picture with a tail, no doubt having forgotten the symbolic
meaning of this appendage.
The ol oiboni of the Maasai is held in repute not only for hia
superior wisdom, but also for his prophetic powers. He is by no means
the common w^toh doctor of most other African tribes, his position is
far more that of the chief elder or judge in ancient Israel, and combines
with this, what is perhaps his chief attribute, that of prophet.
Mollis I., 326 tells how Mbatian, the greatest of all ol oibonok of more
recent times, prophesied, before ever Europeans came to the country
that white people would arrive.
Another point which suggests the Hebrew origin of the ol oiboni
is that he does not cut his beard, for by so doing he will be deprived
of his supernatural powers. This reminds us of the story of Sampson,
who as a Nazarite was forbidden to cut his hair, and when eventually
this was done, his strength departed from him. And again, the
* A.C.H., I., 834.
132
ol oiboni lives only on milk and honey (cp. Is. VII. 15. " Butter and
honey shall he eat, that he may know how to refuse the evil and
choose the good."). To this diet roast goat's liver only is added, no
doubt to increase his powers of divination, as the livers of animals are
usually associated by pagan peoples with omens, augury, and
divination.
The word oiboni (usually translated medicine-man) is possibly
derived from the Hebrew or Aramic ab = father, chief, and oni may be
the suffixed pronoun as in the Aramaic rob bont = my master, and
oiboni would thus mean " my father " " my chief." The Maasai
term for surgeon — ol abani, bears an even closer resemblance to this
possible derivation. A and are sometimes interchangeable in
M/aasai. Aramaic, closely allied to Hebrew, was, as the " lingua
franca " of Canaan and Syria, the everyday speech of the peoples of
those countries, and papyri found from the Jewish occupation of
Elephantine, are written in this dialect.
The oibonok are all said to belong to the Gidon family, the
founder of which was Kidonoi, identical, as we have seen, with Gideon
of biblical fame. Mbatyan and his son Lenana claimed their descent
from Kidonoi, who was the son of Sigiriashi, the son of 01 Mweiya.
The pedigree from which these names are taken contain several
others, which, however, are of more recent date. With regard to the
names now given Marker states that they are from their earliest
history, when these men held the position of chiefs.* That many and
wide gaps exist in the pedigree is quite apparent, and only the most
outstanding names have been passed down through the ages. When,
therefore, it is claimed that Kidonoi (whom we have already discussed),
was the son of Sigiriashi, this in reality merely refers to his being his
direct descendant and " son of " is frequently used in this particular
sense in the O.T. In Sigiriashi, we have the not uncommon Biblical
name Zechariah. Now the donkey of the Maasai rejoices in the same
exalted name, being called Sighiria, which was possibly the name by
which this animal was known colloquially in ancient Palestine, for the
meaning of the word Zecharia is " whom Jehovah remembers," and
the donkey was particularly remembered in the Mosaic law, as its
first-bom was exempt from the law enforced with regard to all other
domestic animals, namely, that the first-bom must be sacrificed to
Jehovah. The name Sigiriashi, however, would mean — iah being
Hebrew for man — " the man whom Jehovah remembers," and as we
will now show we believe it be a paraphrase applied to the patriarch
Jacob, who was also known as Israel.
* M.M., 19.
138
It is recorded that Sigiriashi was the brother of 01 Oimooja and
that they were both the sons of 01 le Mweiya.* Here is one of two
brothers of whom the one was " the man whom Jehovah remembers."
We find a parallel to this in the Hebrew record of Jacob and Esau,
the former of whom was especially remembered by Jehovah, and
became the father of " His chosen people."
Having thus identified Sigiriashi with the patriarch Jacob,
01 oimooja would therefore be his brother Esau. The father is
mentioned as 01 le Mweiya, but we believe him to be not Isaac but
Abraham, for in another Maasai tradition told by Hollis we find that
one Le-eyo on his death-bed gave the birthright to his younger son,
who became the father of the Maasai, as in the Biblical account Isaac
conferred the blessing, and with it the birthright, on his younger son
Jacob.
Now Merker says that Maasai traditions record that in the days
of this Sigiriashi they left the land of their origin and came into
Africa, but this cannot refer to the migration that brought them to
their present abode, for that occurred long after the days of
Gideon = Kidonoi, who was a descendant of the Sigiriashi to whom
this Maasai tradition of an emigration refers. But it tallies most
accurately with the historical fact that the Israelites in the days of
the patriarch Jacob, whom we identify with Sigiriashi, emigrated into
Egypt, i.e., into Africa.
In the historical review, in the second chapter, we have shown
how the term Automoli of Herodotus is evidently a collective name
for a group of peoples who, as troops, deserted " en masse " from the
frontier fortress of Elephantine and migrated down into Africa, south
of present-day Abyssinia. It has also been shown that Automoli is
the same as the Hebrew Semol or Semali — those of the left-hand side,
and that the African Somali of to-day would seem to be a portion of
these Automoli. Our assumption that the Somali are ancient
Hebrews, is further confirmed by the Masai name for them, that of
Sigiriaishi, which, as Sigiriashi is the same as Jacob or Israel, " the
man whom Jehovah remembers," would make these people —
paraphrased as " the people whom Jehovah remembers " — Israelites.
In the introduction to Hollis' " The Masai " Sir Charles Eliot
mentions as remarkable the phrase used by the Masai " The highlands
and lowlands of our vast country which belongs to our god." The
origin of this phrase we find in I. King. XX. 22-30. ; in verse 28 we
read " And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of
Israel, and said. Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrfans have said,
* A.G.H., I., 325.
184
i'LATE E.
AUM AXD S.KQ WIliK OK.VAMEXTS OF BoEX'EAN-IbAN
MaaSAI ClIRLS.
AND
The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys,
therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thy hand," and
immediately previous to this in verse 23 " and the servants of the
king of Syria, said unto him. Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore
they were stronger than we ; but let us fight against them in the plain,
and surely we shall be stronger than they." The result of the battle
was that the Syrians were severely beaten. It is e(vident from this
that the Israelites even in those old days, claimed that their god
was " The God of the highlands and lowlands of their country."
But the Syrians also it would seem claimed the same with regard to
their country and their gods, and a strong feeling of rivalry evidently
existed between the two nations; each upholding the honours that
they thus claimed for their respective deities in this matter.
in the Bomean story of Usai and Adoi, it has been seen how the
latter name has also been preserved by being used as an exclamation —
" my Adah! ". An equivalent to this is found amongst the Masai,
who speed their parting guest with the word Esai = "BO be it."* Here
we have the Hebrew Esaiah meaning " Salvation of Jehovah " which
is the equivalent of our " good-bye," which is derived from the form
used by our forefathers " God be with ye." The Maasai have
forgotten the original meaning of their Esai, and so would we for our
" good-bye," had it not been recorded in our written documents.
The equivalent form of taking leave amongst the Nandi is Sai«eri= our
Good-bye. Here is the same aiser as in the Maasai clan name
Ufiitev, which has been shown to mean originally help from the
Hebrew eeer; and seeing that the Maasai Esai in all probability meant
" Salvation of Jehovah " we may assume that Saiseri meant " God
help ye."
Again, in the following one sees Semitic traditions. HoUis relates
that: — " The warriors are fond of the titles 'l-oingok (the bulls) and
'N-gaminini (the generous people) Now to become one of the
oingok, a warrior must kill savages, whilst the gaminini are chosen
if they frequently slaughter bullocks and give the meat to their
comrades."! The term " bull " signified amongst the ancient
Semite races " Mighty onefe "; this is shown symbolically in the
Assyrian reliefs of bulls with men's heads. A Hebrew term for bull
was also abbir meaning " Mighty ones." This term bull was also
used by the Egyptians, and Seti I. was described as " Mighty bull,
ready-horned, mighty -hearted, smiting the Asiatics, beating down
the Hittites, slaying their chiefs." Gaminini, again, must be
derived from the Hebrew 2/atnm = right hand, and gaminini would
thus mean one who gives generously with his right hand. The
* A.C.H., 1., 287. t ID. 298.
135
complete opposite to this is found in the Maasai for theft, 'Nyamin,
and here we have the pure Hebrew yamin, but how it has got this
meaning, is more difficult to see.
It will be shown in the next chapter how astonishingly the
Maasai have retained ancient traditions in the case of their head-
dresses. We wish however to point out here what we believe to be
two other of the insignia of Egyptian divinity that they have
adopted.
The manner in which several of the " Hamitio " tribes have
appropriated to themselves the divine attribute of the beard of
Osirian divinities, will be dealt with more fully in a following
chapter,, where w€S have suggested that the lip-ornaments of these
people were derived from this source, being intended to denote the
divine descent of the wearers, as also on account of the magical
and fertilising powers with which they possibly credited them.
Another custom that we venture to trace to thel same origin, i.e., that
of identification with the deity, is the curious custom amongst these
" Hamitic " tribes, and which has so often been remarked on, namely
that of resting, standing on one leg, and supporting themselves by
means of their spaar. The one-legged characteristic of the angel in
the foregoing account of the giving of the ten confsoandments has
been seen. This one-legged peculiarity was also noted in the devil
ChemoB of the Nandi, to which further reference will be made later.
In both cases they were said to support themselves on crutches. The
origin of this one-leggedness is no doubt derived from the Osirian
deities of Egypt, who were so often depicted in a manner which gives
an impression that they were one-legged. See illustration of Chemoa
in frontispiece. The Pharaohs, also assimilated this characteristic
as Osirians. This one-legged aspect of the Nandi Chemos and the
Maasai angel arose, no doubt, from a misunderstanding of the real
meianing of the representation of the Osirian gods, swathed is
mummies; in many instances the illusion of one-leggedness is very
complete. ITiat strangers, refugees, not deeply initiated into the
mysteries of the Egyptian cults, would have accepted the divine
attributes as depicted, at their facei value, is easy to understand, and
that in this fashion the " Hamitic " tribes of 'Equatorial Africa
accepted these divine attributes in a literal sense and applied them
to themselves as a divine race. The crutch too, which they seem
to have identified with a spear, is probably the spear or standard with
which the " one-legged " Osirian deities were often depicted, and it
certainly bears a strong resemblance to a crutch.
We find that amongst the Maasai, the smiths constitute a special
caste, and are known as kunon. No inter-marriage whatever occurs
136
with this caste, and no Maasai will take the daughter of a smith to
wife, nor can any kunon marry the daughter of a Maasai. They are
distinctly a pariah caste, and this is consistent with the conditions of
the smiths in ancient Egypt, and, we believq, too, in Western Asia.
Merker, we believe quite correctly, identifies the word kunon with
the Hebrew kenan = smith, and thus connects them with the Kenites.
These people inhabited the northern part of the Sinaitic peninsula.
Here a certain portion of them joined the Israelites on their return
from Egypt and went with them into Palestine: — " And the children
of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-
trees with the children of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad;
and dwelt among the people." Jud. 8. 16. He Kenites are beUeved
to have been a tribe whose chief occupation was that of smiths, and
Professor Sayce speaks of them as follows: — " Separate from the
Edomites or Amalekites were the Kenites or wandering ' smiths.'
They formed an important guild in an age when the art of metallurgy
was confined to a few The Kenites were, in fact, the gypsies
and travelling tinkers of the Oriental work The art of working
iron was one which required peculiar skill and strength, and the
secrets it involved were jealously preservefd among certain nomad
families. As culture advanced the art became more widely known
and practised, the Kenites ceased to have the monopoly of the trade,
and degenerated into mere nomads who refused to adopt a settled
life. Their very name came to disappear and their stronghold in the
southern desert was wasted by the armies of Assyria. The Kenites,
it will thus be seen, did not constitute a race, or even a tribe. They
were, at most, a caste."* Amongst the Egyptians, and no doubt
also amongst the Western Asiatics, the smiths constituted a separate
caste who could nejither marry outside their own body nor could
anyone marry the daughter of a smith. That the Hebrews did not
regard the Kenites as pariahs, probably on account of their Semitic
blood is evident from the fact that Moses married a Kenite, and no
tabu existed concerning the Kenites or smiths under Mosaic law.
When, later on, the Israelites adopted the heathen religions of their
Canaanitish neighbours, they probably also adopted the superstitions
relating to the smith, when these people would consequently have
become the pariah caste as they were under heathen religious law.
Now as the smiths were a separate casle with which others could have
no social dealing in ancient days, so to-day amongst the " Hamitic "
and other tribes of Kenya Colony, they all have the pariah
" smith " castes with whom no sort of intermarriage or social traffic
can come in question.
♦ A.H.8. I. 175. — —
187
Chaptek v.
EELIGIOUS BELIKFS AND CUSTOMS, ETC., OF VAEI0U8
CENTRAL AFRICAN TRIBES.
As we remarked in the introduction, when considering the
customs of these African peoples in general, one is impressed by the
fact that they are living under an equivalent to " Mosaic " law;
ceremonial customs, rites and prohibitions, meeting one at every turn.
Dryberg in his book " The Lango " makes the following very true
statement: — " It cannot be too often emphasized that religion is a
much more important factor in the secular life of primitive peoples,
than it is with civilized communities — indeed it is the most important
factor of all. It enters into all their family and social relations, into
their most commonplace activities and their daily occupations — in
short, there is no aspect of native life which has not its religious
significance and which is not more or less controlled by the religious
rites or prohibitions."*
We by no means intend to deal here with the details of this
highly organized system amongst native tribes, or even to describe it
in a general way. The object in these pages, is, by selecting the
most striking similarities, to endeavour to show that they derive their
origin from sources of historic antiquity.
In earlier chapters the origin of the Masai deities has been
traced; we will now proceed to consider those of other tribes.
The Nandi are particularly interesting as they are sunworshippers,
the only tribe (together with their sub-tribes) in this portion of Africa
who are so. This points strongly to a Canaanitish origin, for sun-
worship was the typical form of religion amongst the Canaanites and
the other Semitic peoples of Western Asia. ITie god of the Nandi
is the sun, which they call Asista, or, without the article Asia. In
approaching the question of their religious beliefs, Eliot, in his
introduction to HoUis' " The Nandi," suggests the possibility of the
relationship of these people to Semites.! The Nandi are in physical
type, character, language and customs, recognised as closely allied to
the Maasai and we believe them to be ancient Semitic Canaanites,
though not Israelites. A strong indication of their Canaanitish origin
is suggested by their name for Devil — Chemos, with the definite
article — Chemoait (chemosit = the devil — one-legged devil. Holiis).
* J.H.D., 233. t A.C.H., II., xix.
188
s
3
3 -?
This Chemos we believe to have been originally the same as the sun-
god of the ancient Moabites — Chemoah, who on his passage through
Egypt was degraded to an evil deity, the more humane form of
sun-worship practised in Egypt having been accepted in his place. A
similar change seems to have taken place in the case of another
Canaanitish deity. The malevolent spirit of the Balenga of
N.E. Ehodesia is Molechi. The resemblance here to the Canaanitish
Moloch or Molech is too obvious to need any reference. The character
of the present day Chemos of the Nandi has changed but little from
that of the Chemosh of old, to whom the first-born children were
ofiered as human sacrifices, his name meaning " fiery " or
" hearth " — ^very significant of the form of sacrifice his worship
demanded. The memory of this monstrous practice would seem tu
live to day in the character in which the Nandi devil Chemos is
represented. Hollis describes him as follows: — " There is also a
devil called Chemosit, who is supposed to live on the earth and to
prowl round searching to devour people, especially children. He is
said to be half man, half bird, to have only one leg but nine buttocks,
and his mouth, which is red, is supposed to shine at night like a
lamp. He pFopels himself by means of a stick which resembles a
spear and which he uses as a crutch."* (See frontispiece — recon-
struction of Chemosh). How the Canaanitish deities Molech and
Chemosh could have become degraded from the position of gods to
that of devils, is not difiicult to understand. On their passage through
Egypt the people who held this form of worship would have accepted,
as we have said, the more humane form of Egyptian sun-worship,
and Molech and Chemosh, the deities who had made such terrible
demands on human life, and primarily on the lives of their first-born
children, would have become their evil gods — ^their devils. It is of
interest to note that the Canaanitish Baal was identified in Egypt
with the god Set, the evil deity of the Egyptians. Baal, Molech, and
Chemosh, were all three gods of the same character.
The Nandi name for sun — ^their supreme deity — Asia is probably
a confusion of the sacred Ap^a of Egypt witli Osiris; this cult would
naturally have appealed to a pastoral, sun-worshipping people.
The Canaanitish origin of the malignant spirit of the Balenga (in
N.E. Rhodesia), has just been referred to and it would seem that the
benign deity of this people, Leza, is also of Canaanitish origin. Leea
may possibly be derived from a Hebrew word meaning " the god who
helps," just as Abi-ezer means " father of help," but Azar or Ezer is
mentioned in Hasting's Encyclopedia of Beligion and Ethics, under
" Canaanites " as the term for a deity in ancient Canaan. They also
* A.C.H., II., 41. "
139
possess another deity — Songa, who, on the strength of the striking
similarity of the other two to Canaanitish deities, we venture to
identify with Onca, who figured in the pantheon of Phoenicia.
Having noticed the existence of the name( Moloch in N.W.
Ehodesia, we are going to venture a theory as the origin of the
supreme god of the Bantu known in Kiswahili as Mungu, of which
the Mulungu or Muluggu of the Kikuyu and Akamba is a variation.
We believe him possibly to be no other than the Western Asiatic
Moloch, whose pedigree would have come down as follows:
Moloch — ;Molochi — Muluggu — Mulungu — Mungu.
With regard to the origin of the Maasai god 'Ngai, Merker speaks
as follows: — " According to Hommel (Prof. dr. P. Hommel: " Die
Altorientalischen Denkmahler und das alte Testament. II. Auflage.)
Ai is the oldest term for the moon-goddess amongst ihel Western
Semites, whose cult of the moon was practically montheism. Long
before Moses had brought in the official name for God, Jahveh, Ai and
Jau existed as other names (Nebenformen) of the same meaning for
the supreme deity. As the name for God in the Masai, 'Ngai shows
the feminine form, so also was the Ai of the Babylonians of feminine
gender."* This Ai seems also to have been worshipped in Heshbon
to the east of the Jordan by the Ammonites, and was evidently their
female deity by the side of their sun-god Melcom. Jau appeared, as
we have seen, in the Maasai story of the Dinet, given by Merker.
The Taveta people, a tribe allied to the Nandi and Maasai, call
their deity Izuwa,\ which name seems to resemble the Hebrew Jaweh.
Izuwa is also their name for the sun, which, like the Nandi, they
worship.
Besides their supreme deity Asis, the Nandi have a vague
conception of another deity of a dual character, called Ilet-ne-mie and
Ilet-ne-ya, the traditions concerning which are similar to those of the
Maasai black and red gods. Sir Charles Eliot, in his foreword to
Hollis' " The Masai," suggests that this .may have been borrowed
from the Somali Ilahe, but from what has been shown here as to the
probable Canaanitish origin of these tribes (including the Somali), it
is nearer to hand to take the Hebrew Elah or God, as the direct source
from which they are derived in each case, and to which may also
be ascribed the Elai of the Suk, a neighbouring tribe of the Nandi.
The Jaluo, a Nilotic tribe which, it seems, belongs to the same
big group as the Nandi, call the sun Ghieng, and appear to have
* M.M., 342. t A.C.H., II., xix.
140
worshipped it up to a fairly recent date; this word is strikingly similar
to the Canaanitish Chiun who was a Phoenician deity and is also
mentioned in Amos V. 26. The word amongst the Jaluo for god is
Nyasai, and as Ny is the article, the name of the deity is Asai. It
seems here as if we have again to deal with the deified Esau, the
Uaooa of the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians, and the Tungassoi
of the Maasai account of the Dinet.
The following names, all of which appear to be of Canaanitish
origin, and are all names of deities, benign or malevolent, are most
striking evidence in support of the assumption that many African
tribes may be of Canaanitish origin. Ai, Jau, Molechi = Molech,
Chemos = Chemoeh, Izuwa=J&vfeh, Leaa=Ezer, Songa = Onca,
Chieng = Chmn, Nyasai=the Esau, Hat, Elat, /Zafte = Blah.
The sanctity of the wild fig-tree, in which, as has been seen, in
ancient Egypt the spirit of the divine Hathor was supposed to dwell,
and from which she sacramentally administered the elements of life,
just as when in her other form, that of a cow, she gave her divine
milk, is a conspicuous feature in the animistic beliefs of many African
tribes to-day. The sacramental characteristics of this tree are well
illustrated in the following picture given by G. Lindblom of an
Akamba practice, and occurs amongst the ceremonies connected with
their circumcision. A wild fig-tree is selected by the elders, who act
as initiators to the candidates, and they go to the fig-tree and pray
" Fig-tree we have come to pray thee to give us milk-juice for the
Asiggi," the asaigi being the circumcision candidates. .Aji offering of
a little food and milk is made to the tree and a little fat is smeared
on its trunk. The tree is pricked with a sharp instrument, and the
exuding juice is caught in little calabashes and the assigi pretend to
drink it and thus imbibe the milk of life from the tree.
In his chapter on sacrifices C. W. Hobley tells of this sacred
fig-tree and the custom of the Kikuyu, who " sacrifice at the sacred
fig-tree, or mugumu, which is always intended as an act of communion
with the deity or high god called Engai."* A description of a sacrifice
at one of these sacred fig-trees (Ficus capensis) of which he was an
eye-witness, is worth recording here: — *' 'ITie elders " (one can almost
call them priests, as he says a little further on) " first took some
sugar-cane and poured a Uttle on each side and in front of the tree,
praying at the same time. The sacrificial ram was then strangled,
held up before the tree, and its throat pierced. The blood was
collected in a cow's horn and a little poured on each side of the tree
and allowed to trickle down the trunk. At this stage of the
proceedings another prayer was uttered.
* C.W.H., 40.
141
"A strip of skin and fat running from the throat of the carcase
down to its belly, and including the genitals, was then out off and
hung up on the small branch projecting from the tree. The elders
now prayed again. After this the ram was dismembered and the
feast took place. The reality to these natives of the existence of this
tree-deity is well shown in the following prayer of the officiating
elders: — " Mlulungu, this is food. We desire rain and wives and
cattle and goats to bear, and we pray god that our people may not
die of sickness."*
How widespread throughout Africa is this ancient and forgotten
cult of Hathor, can best be understood by studying the various native
head-dresses. The sacred symbols worn on the head of this famous
deity are found to-day on the head of the native from almost one end
of the continent to the other. The illustration here shown, PI. A. of
the head of the Hathor cow, shows the horns, symbolic of the new
moon of this queen of heaven, the ostrich-plumes, and the disc of the
sun, the emblems of life.
The hoi*ns and fea,ther8 of Hathor are most clearly seen in the
warrior head-dress of the Zulu, where the bullock horns are set in a
crown of ostrich feathers. Horns are sometimes introduced into the
crown of ostrich feathers worn by certain Kavirondo peoples of
Kenya. Another form symbolic of the Hathor horns is seen in the
way the Bushongo of Congo grow their hair to resemble buffalo horhs
and also how the Jaluo place the tusks of the wild-pig in their head-
dresses.
PL C. shows the soul-bird as worn on the head of the goddess
Isis. This soul-bird, when depicted on the heads of the female deities,
was represented by a vulture. ITie large wig of the Pharaohs was
further a conventionalized form of this same bird head-dress of the
deities, PI. C. The most perfect picture of this ancient Egyptian
bird-wig is the coiffure of the Maasai, and is worn in varying forms
by tHe Nandi and other Nilotic tribes. In some cases an actual wig
is worn, which is put on for special occasions. PI. C. illustrates this
Maasai head-dress. This illustration will best show how faithfully the
traditions of this wig of the Egyptian deities have come down through
the ages. The head, the protecting wings, the tail, are all still
there to-day, and the style of plaiting is identical too with that often
found on ancient Egyptian statuary. But perhaps even more
interesting is the Maasai warriors' head-dress PI. B. The origin of
this head-dress is best explained b^ the plate. It is nothing else than
the fringe of mane worn round the face of the Egyption hon-headed
* C.W.H., 54.
142
goddess of war, Sekhmet, who was identified with Hathor and also
with the Canaanitish Ashtart, and as we see this head-dress in the
same plate, repeated again in the Sphinx statue from Tanis of the
Egyptian warrior king. On the picture of Sekhmet it will be noted
that this fringe of mane is placed round the lion-face, over the regular
Egyptian wig- In the case of the Masai this head-dress is made of
lion-skin and fringed vnith ostrich feathers.
The small Egyptian wig is also found widely used amongst the
natives of Africa as the " motif " of their various methods of dressing
the hair. This wig was worn both by the Pharaohs and the lower
ranks. PI. D illustrates this wig as used by the common people ;
inset 1, shows AmenheteJ) IV. wearing the same wig, and inset 2.
depicts the modem Kikuyu mode of hair-dressing, which, as will be
Been, is identical with the ancient wig. The knotting of the hair in
this fashion was intended to represent the feathers of the soul-bii:d,
and until recently this tradition of the feathers of the soul-bird, was
Bometimes even more strongly emphasised by the Kikuyu, who plaited
feathers, preferably those of the vulture, into their hair. The Nandi
again, whilst their hair is growing after it has been shaved for
ceremonial reasons, sometimes fasten a small, spiral-shaped tuft
made of a vulture feather at the back of their head. The Kikuyu mode
of hair-dressing is widely distributed amongst the natives of Kenya,
and is found even in the heart of the Congo.
It is an extraordinary thing that two tribes living near each other,
probably for many hundreds of years, like the Maasai and Kikuyu,
should yet each have kept their own peculiar traditional head-dresses
so distinct. It is astounding to see with whaftenaciy these traditions
have been held and handed down, practically without a change, for
over 5,000 years. Here is indeed another proof of how little the
passing of long periods of time need change or afEect traditions.
Burial.
The Maasai are not supposed to believe in a life after death except
for a chosen few. These happy exceptions are the medicine men and
rich persons. All others are disposed of by putting the body out into
the bush to be devoured by the hyena. " The body is always taken
to the west of the kraal, toward the setting sun. It is laid on the
left side with the head towards the north so that the face looks
towards the East. The legs are drawn up to the chest, the left hand
supports the head, and the right arm is folded across the breast."*
As with the Masai, so also with the Kikuyu and Akamba, only
elders and a few others of important standing receive burial, the rest
* A.C.H., I., 304.
143
are disposed of by the hyena. Those of the Akamba which are buried,
are interred in the neighbourhood of the hut and the hole is only dug
deep enough to prevent the hyena from unearthing the body. To
quote from Lindblom: — " The minimum depth may be set at one
metre. They first dig straight down and then out at the sides, so that
a round hole is made Immediately after death, and before the
limbs have had time to stiffen, they are bent up towards the body,
a custom which is very prevalent amongst Bantu people, and general
amongst more primitive nations. The dead man is laid upon his right
side, with his head resting upon his hand, as though he were sleeping.
A woman is laid in the same manner but on the left side. The face
is turned to the East or the West."* This contracted form of burial
was used in Canaan, also in Babylon, as it was in Egypt. The idea
was evidently that this position was to represent the posture of an
unborn child, possibly to express that death is the birth of another
life.
The Jaluo, curiously enough, bury their dead, but in such shallow
graves that they are only dug up by the hyena and devoured.
The Nandi put their dead out to the hyena to the west of the
hut, the woman laid on her left side, the man on his right, the hand
supporting the head, but the legs outstretched. Very old men and
women and very young children are, however, buried in the dung-
heap of the cattle kraal. The old men are sewn up in ox or goats'
hides, and milk, beer and food are put into their graves, t
The Lango bury in a similar manner to the Akamba, shough
deep, in order to get down to the red earth. The graves are placed
for the men on the right-hand side of the door of the hut, for the
females on the left.§
Mention was made above that the elders and more important
persons amongst the Maasai are buried. This is done in shallow graves
in which the body, wrapped in an ox-hide, is placed in a contractad
position and then covered with stones. This heap of stone is
continually added to by any one, in passing, throwing a stone on it.
These heaps in time reach quite considerable dimensions. That this
form of burial was also practised amongst the ancient Hebrews, we
learn from the fact that Absalom was cast into a pit in the wood aid
a very great heap of stones was laid upon him. (II. Sam. xviii., 17).
* G.L., I., 103. ! A.C.H., II., 70, 72. § J.H.D., 165.
144
The Taveta, a people very closely allied to the Maasai, to the
N.E. of Kilimanjaro, bury their dead in a sitting posture.
A curious custom exists amongst the Akamba in the case of the
second or third wife, whose body is not permitted to be taken out
through the gate, but through a special opening that is made for the
purpose in the village fence which is afterwards closed up again. 'i"his
is more particularly interesting as an exactly similar custom exists
amongst the Kayans of Borneo, where the coffin containing the dead
is lowered through the floor of their pile-built houses, some boards
being temporarily removed for the purpose. This is done to avoid
carrying the corpse down the house-ladder, the usual exit. The reason
given for this procedure is that it makes it more difficult for the ghost
of the deceased to find its way back into the house.*
The Hebrew custom of anointing the body for the burial exists
amongst certain African tribes, amongst which are the Maasai, and
the Lango.
The burial of the kings of Bunyoro is extremely interesting, and,
as with 80 much else in the customs of this people, it is so strongly
reminiscent of ancient Egypt, that the following quotation from Bosooe
is worthy of note: — " When a king died, his body had to be interred
in a particular part of the country which was reserved for the tombs
of the kings. A large pit was dug for the grave, and over it a hut
was built. The body of the king was arranged with the knees bent up
towards the chin in a squatting attitude, and stitched in a cow-skin.
The whole of the grave was lined first with cow-skins and then with
bark-cloth, and the body was laid on a bed of bark-cloth. Two of the
king's wives were selected to go with him into the other world, and
they went into the grave, laid the body on the bed as though sleeping,
and covered it with bark-cloths. Then they lay down, one on either
side of the body, and the grave was filled with innumerable bark-cloths,
some of which were spread over the body, while others were thrown
in until the grave was full and they were heaped above the level of
the floor. No earth was put into the grave, which was filled with
bark-cloths only. In this large shrine or temple some of the widows
kept watch, guarding it constantly, and a priest and medium were
in attendance. People came to the tomb to visit the King as if it
were his court, and they made requests of him and brought him
offerings, which became the property of the widows. At times the
* H.mD., II., 35.
145
reigning king would send gifts of eows to his predecessor, and the
priest and the medium held communion with the dead and informed
the king of anything that came to their knowledge which concerned
h'm or his country"* The bark used for making bark-cloth is that
of a wild fig-tree. Here we may possibly, see again the tradition of
Hathor in her form of the Lady of the Sycamore (Ficus sycamorus)
and also in that the corpse is thus first wrapped in the hide of the
Sacred Cow, and afterwards covered and the grave filled in with
cloths made from the bark of her sacred tree. A suitable burial for
a divine king, for the king of Bunyoro is regarded as divine.
The Bomeans also make bark-cloth, whichcrthey get from several
species of trees, principally the Kumut, the ipoh, and the wild fig. t
Having now described the forms of burial and disposing of the
dead that are more generally used in Central Africa, it remains to
see how these compare with the customs practised in ancient Egypt
to which those of Canaan were, in many cases, similar. It cannot
be a question of making any comparison with the costly forms of
burial used by the wealthier Egyptians, so it only remains to oonSider
the more primitive forms of Egyptian burial. Perry, quoting from
Elliot Smith, says: — " In the pre-dynastic age in Egypt, the corpse
was buried lying flexed upon the left side, with the head south; it
was protected from contact with the soil by linen, mats or skins, or
in the larger tombs by a pallisade of sticks or a wooden frame in the
grave. The small graves were shallow pits of an oval or nearly round
form; the larger graves were deeper rectangular pits, roofed with
branches of trees In the course of time the graves of the
richer classes became more elaborate Also the pile of earth or
stones on the top of the grave was enclosed by a wall of mud-brick,
thus forming the mud-brick mastaba."§ The pile of stones is still in
use with Maasai, and was also practised under certain conditions in
Canaan, as was seen in the case of Absalom.
A variation of the fenced-in mastaba is practised in Africa to-day
amongst the Balenga of N.W. Ehodesia, who make a round mound
above the graves of their chiefs, plastering them with clay to make
them smooth, and surrounding them with a fence.**
* J.R., 199. t H.mD., I., 200. § W.J.P., 435, ** E. v- R., 422.
146
Petrie says: — " The attitude of the body was always contracted
in pre-historic times, the knees drawn up closer than a right angle to
the spine, the hand before the face or throat, The dynastic
people brought in full-length burial, though contracted burial continued
to the end of the old kingdom. ... . .In the pre-historic times the
direction was almost always with the head to the South, facin^' West,
lying on the left side. .... The royal connections were usually
head North, face East ; . . . Down to the Xllth dynasty ail burials
keep this direction. North and East, and so down to the XXth dynasty
at Abydos."* Petrie goes on to say that: — " Through the later ages
from the XVIIIth dynasty to the Roman period, all the simple kinds
of burial were practised."**
The Hyena.
We will now endeavour to trace the origin of the strange custom
amongst so many of these African tribes of putting out their dead
to be devoured by the hyena. That this custom may have existed in
ancient Egypt is not wholly improbable, and Bir Wallis Budge even
suggests such a possibility when he says : — ' ' The making of a good
tomb, however simple, demanded the expenditure of money, or its
equivalent, and thus it followed, as a matter of course, that only
kings, chiefs, nobles, or men of high position, who could command
the services of slaves, would be buried in a tomb, and that all the
the poor, or common people, would go without burial. "§ And again,
speaking generally of Africans he says: — " Common peoples, i.e., all
those who did not belong to the ruling families, were not buried, but
their bodies, after death, were thrown out into the ' bush ' to rot, or
to be devoured by hyenas and other wild beasts."! One naturally
wonders if the hyena actually existed in ancient Egypt, and if so,
why one has heard nothing either of any animistic beliefs about him,
or as to his unearthing and devouring the bodies of those who received
but a shallow burial in the sand. Apart from this question however,
it is not difficult to trace how this practice of allowing the dead to
be devoured by the hyena would have arisen out of traditions that
were Egyptian.
One finds amongst the religious beliefs of Egypt more than one
form of animistic tradition that might have occasioned a wandering
tribe to accept the hyena as the divine disposer of the dead. We have
first of all the crocodile-headed deity Sebek, of whom it is said, that
he opened the doors of heaven to the deceased, and led them along
the by-paths and the ways of heaven, and in short, assisted the dead
* F.P., III., 141. ** ID., 151. § W.B., II., Vol. II„ 79.
t ID., Vol. I., 167.
147
to rise to the new life.* Then again we have Seker, " 'ITie great
god who carried away the soul, who eateth hearts, and who feedeth
upon offal, the guardian of the darkness, "t Again, the famous
monster of the Judgment hall of the dead had many traits in common
with these gods. This Amenet, who was also called the " swallower, "
was represented with the head of a crocodile, half of the body and
the fore-quarters of a lion, and the hind-quarters of a hippopotamus.
He was present in the judgment hall of the dead ready to devour the
heart if it was found too light in the balances. Petrie describes him
as: — " the monster compounded of crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus,
which awaits the weighing of the soul, is called the swallower, and
might be supposed to destroy the person or to incarnate the soul."
He is depicted as having a small head, high and deep neck and
withers, low hind-quarters, and the portion of his neck and body
representing a lion is spotted like a hyena. As seen in the uncertain
light of dusk, the hyena would have borne a resemblance to this
creature and one can understand that a wandering people who had
little time to bury their dead, accepted the hyena as a combined
form of the deities described above — -as carrier of the soul to the land
of the west, the entrance of the underworld. As has been already
noted, many of the African tribes follow the ancient tradition by
putting out their dead to the West of their dwelings.
The fact too of the hyena living in deep burrows in the ground
or in caves would have further convinced them in these beliefs.
That the natives believe in the hyena as a medium or means of
communication with the world of the dead is shown by the Nandi
belief, described by HoUis:— "They are also believed to talk like
human beings, and to hold communication with the spirits of the
dead. Whenever several children in one family have died, the parents
place a newly born babe for a few minutes in a path along which
hyenas are known to walk, as it is hoped that they will intercede with
the spirits of the dead and that the child's life will be spared. "§
The Nandi also say when they hear the cry of the hyena in the
day-time, that it is the call of the spirits of the dead.
In connection with this custom of leaving their dead to be
devoured by the hyena, it must be noted that amongst certain tribes
[not Semitic ones, however), it is customary, instead of giving the
dead to the hyena, for the family and friends of the deceased to
* A.E.K., 113. + ID., 114. § A.G.H., 11., 7
148
eat the dead body themBelves. A picture of this is given by Eosooe
when writing about the Bageshu. He describes this ceremonial
cannibalism as follows: — " As soon as darkness falls the body of the
dead man is carried out and deposited upon a piece of waste ground,
and sounds as of the howling of jackals rise all around. This noise is
meant as a warning to all people to keep to their houses . . and
the children are frightened into obedience by being told that wild
animals are coming to eat the body. In reality the sounds are made
by men All the people, therefore, keep within their huts,
while some old women proceed to the waste ground on which the
body lies and cut it up, carrying back the parts to the house .... the
portions they carry back have to be cooked and eaten by the mourners,
who during the next four days meet together to wail for the dead and
eat the desh. The bones are burned and nothing is left to bear
witness of the ceremony but the skull, which is cleaned and kept in
some prominent place either in the hut or at the door "* It
should be realized that what we have now seen is not an expression
of cold-blooded canibalism for the mere pleasure of eating human
flesh, but a purely ceremonial custom of a sacramental character,
probably handed down from a higher state of civilization, for
ceremonial sacramental cannibalism existed in ancient Egypt, in
conjunction with human sacrifices, down to the days of the Eomans.
Juvenal in his XVth Satire expresses the disgust felt by the Bomans
at this Egyptian custom.
Beferring to the remarks as to the incarnation of the soul through
being devoured by the " Swallower," this ceremonial feasting of the
Bageshu on their dead, must originally have signified the
re-incarnation of their dead relatives in themselves, but, as well as
that, it would have had a sacramental meaning, and it is very possible
that this custom was derived from ancient Egypt. The sacramental
character of this feasting is best described in the word of Petrie from
a chapter on "Eating devoted animals in ancient Egypt": —
" Eating the sacred animal was the bond of union of the
tribe The whole species was kin to the tribe, and the sacramental
eating was needed to maintain the kinship "t The sacramental
eating of human bodies is suggested by him as follows: — " The
pyramid texts, which are the oldest body of spells and prayers,
continually refer to the dismemberment of the body and the replace-
ment of the bones after bemg stripped of the flesh. ..... 'Nebhat
has replaced for thee all thy members, Horus presents to thee thy
* J.R., 260. t F.P., III, 187.
149
flesh ..... he has united thee without there being any disorder in
thee.' This refers to the frequent misplacement of bones found in
re-united skeletons 'I am a Prince, the son of a Prince
whose head is restored to him after it hath been cut off.' There are
many statements similar to these.
" In pre-hisoric burials these customs are repeatedly found. As
the evidence has been frequently questioned, the principal examples
are here quoted in brief, selecting those which cannot be due to later
disturbance. The skull was kept apart from the body; in five graves
it was set up on a pile of stones, once on a brick ... ; or the skull
upright, while a gold necklace was round the neck ... A skull was
found buried alone; and, again, with pendants of clay laid round
it These examples are explained by the Nigerian custom
of cutting off the head of a corpse and keeping it as a family treasure
m the house, where offerings are made to it, especially at family
festivals This custom of severing the body, is, therefore,
pre-historic, found beneath undisturbed skins .... and lasted until
the Vlth dynasty . . . There is also a complete dissevemment of a
woman of Eoman age ...
Sacramental eating: In one large grave the long bones had been
split, had the ends battered off, and the cellular matter scooped out;
this was not done in spite, for ornaments were buried with the skull
and stone vases stood around. Yet, though there were six skulls,
there were no bones in connection. That this richest grave had the
bodies thus treated reminds us of the Polynesian killing of Captain
Cook in order to eat the divinity that had come among them. The
higher the person, the more desirable to be assimilated; ...."*
As we have seen in the account of the Bageshu, the head of the
dead was kept in some prominent place either in the hut or at the
door, and so we find that in ancient Egypt a special protection for
buildings was the hanging up of the skulls of oxen, which latter
practice is found to-day amongst the Maasai, who place the head of
the sacrificial ox by the door of their huts.
The practice existing to-day amongst the Borneans and so similar
to that of the Bageshu of hanging human heads outside their houses
as protection against evil, has possibly the same origin as their but
recently discarded practice of human foundation sacrifice, so typically
Canaanitish, which has already been considered.
On the question of cannibalism and human sacrifice we quote
the following from Perry which is of interest in this connection: —
" It is significant that human sacrifice tends to die out among peoples
* F.P., III., 126.
150
ot lower culture. This fact opens up a field of research in social
phsychology, and tends to give a new idea of the meaning of civilzation
and its relationship to human behaviour. In North America and
Mexico the contrast is striking between the highly civilized Mexicans
and the Indians of the plains, greatly their inferiors in culture, but
lacking their hideous customs. These Indian tribes have rejected
human sacrifice and cannibalism as foreign to their ideas and desires."*
In summing up the question of human sacrifice in the chapter " The
great Mother and human sacrifice," in " 'i"he Children of the Sun,"
Perry says further: — " The possible sequence of events is as follows:
In the first instance the earliest kings were peaceful: Osiris and
Tammuz certainly bear this character. These kings, it is said, were
themselves sacrificed for the good of the community, probably by
drowning. So long as this persisted, it is hard to see what war-like
developments could take place. But a great transformation took place
with the coming of solar ideas. Both in Egypt and Sumer the mother
goddess, when connected with the sun-god, is destructive and martial.
In Egypt she gets the human blood necessary to rejuvenate the king.
That is to say, instead of the king being killed, human victims are
now got, and thus the situation is entirely altered. ITie king, no
longer doomed to die, has the power of life and death over his subjects.
The education of ruling groups in \|)ar-like behavious begins from that
time.
" This conclusion will doubtless appear surprising to some
readers. They must remember, however, that the available evidence
is dead against the ascription of regular pugnacious behaviour to
early man, and that the causes of this behavior must be sought in
food-producing communities. It seems certain, to me at least, that
the whole study of social psychology will have to be ordered on
difierent lines in the future if any progress is to be made. The facile
habit of inventing pictures of early times will have to be abandoned
in favour of the method of relying solely on facts, however unpalatable
they may be."^* These extracts have been given to show, in the
first place, what is the view held by a modern school of thought
concerning the question of human sacrifice and cannabalism existing
in the woirld to-day, and to point out that these practices are rather
signs of a former higher state of civilization than of a primitive one.
In face of the evidence that has been brought forward in these pages
in support of the belief that these African tribes, must, at an earlier
* W.J.P., 238. ** ID. 238, 239.
151
period, have been in close contact with or portion of a high civilization,
even their cannabalistic customs only form further evidence pointing
to this fact.
Note. — Since the above was completed the writer has received
some further literature on ancient Western Asiatic conditions; and
must therefore add that the native burial customs described above
resemble those of Western Asia far more closely than those of Egypt.
Chaptkb VI.
WESTERN ASIATIC SUN AND ASHTART WORSHIP IN
KENYA, Etc.
Native beliefs, customs, and objects of ethnographical interests
are only included in this review in so far as we believe that they have
any bearing on the question of the origin of those tribes with which we
are dealing; this is by no means intended as an etEnographioal
survey — as such it is necessarily very incomplete.
We shall now proceed to discuss those ornaments and articles of
wearing apparel belonging to African and Bomean tribes which seem
to point to a common origin.
In the matter of their war-dress one finds a striking similarity
between that of the Maasai and of the Bornean warriors. In both
cases it consists of a garment in which a hole has been cut, through
which the head is passed, and which hangs down loose and unattached
bfick and front. Hose and McDougall describe the Bornean war-coat
as follows : — '' The war-coat is made of the skin of the goat, the bear,
or (in the case of distinguished chiefs) of the tiger-cat. The whole
of the skin one piece is used, except that the skin of the belly and
of the lower parts of the fore-limbs are cut away. A hole for the
warrior's head is made in the mid-dorsal line a little behind the skin
of the head, which is flattened out and hangs over the chest,
descending to the level of the navel; while the skin of the back, flanks,
and hind limbs in one large flap, covers the back and hind parts of
the warrior as far as the bend of the knees The warrior's arms
are thus left free, but unprotected. In the finest coats there is a
patch of brightly coloured bead-work a the nape of the neck, and
the " back flap " is adorned with rows of loosely dangling horn-bills'
feathers; but these again are considered appropriate only to
152
the coats of warriors of proved valour."* The Maasai warrior's war-
coat is constructed on similar lines and the equivalent to the feathers
which hang detached on the Bornean war-coat is found in the strips
of leather which also hang in this fashion on the Maasai coat; the
id^i being the same in each case. Still more like the Maasai war-coat
is the " war-ooat " worn by the Iban women of Borneo at the war
dance executed on the return of the warriors from a successful raid.
These coats are decorated all over with shells sewn on after the
fashion of spangles, and are fringed at the end with longish air. The
general style is identical to that of the Maasai, which also has fringed
ends not of hair but of leather. The e£Eect of the war-coat of the
Bornean warrior, when seen from the front, is that of a rufi, and the
equivalent effect is achieved by the Maasai with the collar or cape
of vulture's feathers which he wears over his shoulders. The fact of
the collar being made of vultures' feathers is significant, as here again
we see the tradition of the vulture soul-bird of the Egyptian deities.
Anc"'er curious custom found amongst the Maasai as well as tha
Borneanb Is that of the men wearing " sitting-mats " attached to
their waist-belts. Those of the Maasai are made of hide, whereas
the Bornean ones are of plaited fibre.
Other striking similarities between Bornean and African customs
are found in the practice of mutilating the lobes of the ears by
piercing the same and extending them by means of plugs and weights
until they hang down in big loops to act as receptacles for carrying
innumerable ear-rings. Hose and McDougall write on this custom as
follows: — " The ear-rings are the most distinctive feature of the
Kayan wx>man's adornment. The perforated lobes of the ears are
gradually drawn down during childhood and youth, until each lobe
forms a slender loop which reaches to the collar-bone, or lower. Each
loop bears several massive rings of copper ..... whose combined
weight is in some cases as much as two pounds. Most of the Kenyah
women also wear similar ear-rings, but these are usually lighter and
more numerous, and the lobe is not so much distended. The women
of many of the Klemantan tribes wear a large wooden disc in the
distended lobe of the ear, and those of other Klemantan tribes wear a
smaller ..ooden plug with a boss ...."** This might almost have
been written of the tribes of Kenya Colony, and, as regards the ear-
ornaments of the Kenyahs, of the Kikuyu tribe in particular, for it is
their ouftom to wear a great number of large, light rings, made of
beads strung on wire, in each ear. One also finds amongst the
* H.mD. I., 163. ** ID., 47.
153
Kikuyu, as well as amongst the Maasai and the Kandi, the custom of
wearing plugs of wood or wooden discs in the ear-lobes, exactly as
described in the case of the Borneans.
Before leaving the question of ear-ornaments it is interesting to
point out another strong similarity between those of the Borneans
and of the African tribes under discussion. Many of the men of the
Ibans or Sea Dayaks wear a row of small rings inserted round the
margin of the shell of each ear.* Exactly the same custom exists
amongst several tribes of the natives of Kenya Colony, more especially
amongst the Suk, the shells of whose ears are often closely studded
with these small rings. Amongst the Kikuyu too, one sometimes finds
the same practice, though the rings are fewer in number and of larger
size.
The ornaments worn by the Maasai and Nandi women are
unusually interesting, and though diSering in some respects they are
very similar in general syle and consist chiefly of coiled wire, some-
times of brass and sometimes of iron. The Maasai women and girls
completely sheath their arms from shoulder to elbow, and from elbow
to wrist, and their legs from knee to ankle, in closely wound coils of
polished iron wire. The Nandi envelop both the lower and upper
arm in exactly the same fashion, but on the legs they only wear
about three to six inches of coiled wire below the knee. Both Nandi
and Maasai married women wear ear-rings of a similar design; they
are discs of closely coiled and highly polished brass wire. "With the
Nandi these discs are as much as six inches in diameter, with the
Maasai they are smaller. In both cases these discs are attached
to the very extended ear-lobes, and, in the case of the Nandi, hang
down 6-> lav as to rest one on each breast. In addition the Maasai
married women wear wide necklaces or collars made of coiled, polished
wire, which rests on the shoulder and the upper part of the chest.
As has been noted only the married women wear these ear-rings or
collars, but even the young unmarried girls — scarcely more than
children — wear the wire arm and leg ornaments. When one considers
the weight of these massive metal ornaments — amounting in some
cases to as much as seventy pounds — and the way in which the coils
of wire must necessarily restrict the free play of the muscles, it is
almost incredible that these women can and do undertake any manual
labour, and have so fine and graceful a carriage. We hope further
on to give what we believe to be the reason, other than that of
vanity, why they burden themselves with these impedimenta.
The Iban girls of Borneo wear on their limbs wire ornaments
almost identical to those of the Maasai girls, but in the former case
* H.mD., I., 47.
154
they are slightly less exaggerated in shape. In PI. E., we see a
Maasai and an Iban girl drawn side by side for the sake of
comparison.
Hose and McDougall mention that a well-to-do Kayan woman
wears so many ivory bracelets that both fore-arms are sometimes
sheathed in them.*
A most striking and extraordinary form of " garment " is worn
by the Iban woman, a description of which is best given in the
words of Hose and McDougall:— . . . . and a corset consisting of
many rings of rattan built up one above another to enclose the body
from breast to thigh. Each rattan ring is sheathed in small rings of
beaten brass. The corset is made to open partially or completely
down in front, but is often worn continuously for long periods."**
This custom of winding the body round and round with wire has its
equivalent amongst the Kikuyu and allied tribes. The women of the
Wimbe tribe, at the foot of Mount Kenya, ornament their loin-cloths
or short skirts in this fashion with cords made of beads. Amongst the
Iban women a sho'fit corset reaching over the hips as far to the waist-
line is also used. The Kikuyu again at their circumcision ceremonies
wind the entire bodies of the girls round and round with coils of
cord composed of beads.
We cannot possibly believe that these ornaments, so peculiar,
not to say unique, in character, common both to the Bomeans and to
the tribes of Kenya, could have been independently and spontaneously
evolved by peoples who to-day in other ways differ from each other
m such a remarkable degree, and who live in such widely separated
parts of the world. When considered in the light of so much other
evidence they seem an additional proof of the common origin of these
peoples.
Now sun-worship is not, and never was, a popular form of religion
amongst African peoples, not even in ancient Egypt, where it was
very different in character to that of the Western Asiatic sun-worship,
as practised amongst the neighbouring peoples to the north-east of
Egypt. Sun-worship was introduced into Egypt in early dynastic
times, and, though it became the official cult of Egypt as the result
of its acceptance by the royal family and the aristocracy, it never
became popular with the bulk of the people, who continued their
original forms of worship of the deities of the night and of the nether
world. We think that we shall be able to show that many things
* H.mD., I., 47. ** ID., 46.
166
point to the fact that the sun-worship of this portion of Africa is not
of Egyptian but of Canaanitish origin. The particular characteristics
of Canaanitish sun-worship, which also in such a prominent manner
included the worship of the moon, " The Queen of heaven," the
great mother goddess Ashtart of the Canaanites, the Ashtoreth of the
O.T. was the honouring of the origin of life, expressed in the debased
worship of the organ of procreation as symboliized by the form and
shape of the phallus. This cult tolerated all forms of immoral
practices, and it would seem even encouraged them, and temple
prostitution and communal prostitution flourished under its patronage.
Ashtart herself under one of epithets was known as Kadesh
(cf. Kedesha = ' temple harlot '). The ceremonial immorality and
obscene orgies that were practised in connection with this cult in and
around " the groves " of the " high places " need not be dwelt on
but mention of these conditions must be made for the sake of
comparison with similar practices amongst the Nandi and Maasai.
These, as well other Nilotic tribes practise the custom of worship
under trees on hill-tops, where they perform sacrifice and religious
dances and rites. Now this worship on the hill-tops, under trees, is
most particularly typical of ancient Canaanitish religious practice.
With regard to certain of these native festivals and dances, the
licence, obscenity, and debased orgies that take place at times,
particularly at the night festivals, can only be compared to those that
took place around the groves in ancient Canaan. The nudity of the
men of the Nilotic tribes has often been remarked on, and here again
we seem to see the traditions of Canaanitish phallic worship. In the
Mosaic law and elsewhere in the Biblical records the Israelites were
especially forbidden to " uncover " their " nakedness "; the necessity
for these injunctions can only have been due to the fact that the
neighbouring Canannitish tribes were accustomed to expose the
generative organs in connection with their degraded forms of
religion. Although this is of course but negative evidence, we consider
it worthy of inclusion and serious consideration. It should be noted
that amongst the Nandi people the men will cover themselves before
married women, whereas they take particular trouble not to do so
before girls and unmarried women. Practically unrestricted free-love
i? permitted between the unmarried men and girls, amongst the
Nandi, Maasai, and allied tribes.
The custom amongst the Masai of the girls living with the
warriors in special kraals, is too well known to require detailed
description; this existence of communal free-love would seem to
be another heirloom of their Canaanitish origin. Sir James Frazer,
after giving examples of this custom in other places, says that such
customs support the hypothesis that amongst the ancient peoples of
Western Asia also the systematic prostitution of unmarried women
156
may have been derived from an earlier period of sexual communism.*
That such conditions existed in ancient Canaan is also evident from
the special warning given in the Mosaic law against parents
prostituting their daughters, Lev. XIX., 29, and again suggested in
Ezek XVI. and in Mic. I.
Lindblom has recently issued a paper on " Lip-ornaments in
Africa, and in particular those of stone." It would seem that these
lip-ornaments are most extensively rused amongst \NSlotic-Hamitic
tribes, a group of which perhaps the Maasai are the most
representative. As far as is known to the writer lip-ornaments are
not used by the Maasai to-day, but up to a fairly recent date they
seem to have been worn by certain portions of the tribe. These
ornaments were of stone, but when it was possible for them to obtain
it they were made of a strip of glass cut from the circumference of
a bottle and ground into shape by means of stones. They were long
and fairly thin, and were worn by the men in the under-lip which
was pierced for this purpose and may be supposed to represent the
equivalent of the Egyptian divine beard. Lip-ornaments are not
worn by the Nandi but are extensively used amongst neighbouring
and allied tribes, such as the Kitosh, Suk, Turkana, and others;
amongst the tribes who wear them they are also used by the women.
Now Lindblom, having shown that these objects are preferably made
out of rock-srystal or quartz, ventures to suggest that this form of
ornamentation may have two meanings, and speaks on the subjects
as follows: — " It would seem from the examples now given that
rock-crystal and quartz are of importance for many native peoples
m connection with rain-making, and certainly also with regard to the
question of fertility in general. I venture therefore to suggest the
possibility that, as in Africa Lip-ornaments of these stones are chiefly
worn by women, they may be intended to increase their fertility? the
circumstance that at least in Kitosh and the surrounding districts —
how it is in other places is not stated by the authors — ^they are worn
only by grown girls and young wives, seems to support this possibility.
But I venture to go even further and to throw out the question:
do they originally represent a phallus? " (Itanslated from the
Swedish by the writer).**
Lindblom is possibly perfectly right in this latter conjecture,
for, as will be shown, the general character of the religion of the
tribes of this portion of Africa, is distinctly phallic and typical of the
Western Asatic cult of the forces of procreation and fertility. The
• A.A.O., II., 265. ** G.L., IL, 465.
157
writer, however, ventures to believe that lip-omamenta originated
with these peoples during their passage through Egypt and that,
together with so many other insignia of diviniy and royalty, they
also appropriated to themselves that of <he beard of the Osirian deities
of ancient Egypt. Possibly they accepted the beard as a special
emblem of fertility, and may have ascribed to it the " phallic "
character that Lindblom suggests. We have ventured to identify
Naitero-gob (Merker's spelling) with the Egyptian earth-god Qeb.
His particular attributes as a deity of fertility are expressed by the
plant-life springing from his body; may we assume, that the beard
with which he is depicted is worn as symbolic of the same
characteristic. If this be so, then we have the clear pedigree of the
custom of wearing lip-ornaments amongst Nilotic tribes.
With regard to the use that Linblom ascribes to the lip-ornaments
of quartz and rock-crystal as fertilizing agencies, these substances as
well as brass and beads, cowrie shells, etc., used as ornaments have
from time immemorial been worn on account of their magical life-
giving and fertilizing properties, and Linblom arrives in this respect
at exactly the same conclusion as that, as will now be shown, the
writer holds with regard to brass and bead ornaments worn by the
women of the Masai, Nandi and allied tribes.
The fact that we know that the Nandi are sun-worshippers giveij
us some guidance in forming an opinion as to the original symbolic
meaning of all their wire ornaments, the sense of which is no doubt
obscure to the wearers themselves to-day. A further suggestion is
to be found in the Maasai names for serpent, and for the large ear-rings
which have already been described. The Masai word for serpent is
'l-asuria, and that for the brass discs worn as ear-ornaments
8urutya. Amongst the Nagas of India, who are sun and serpent
worshippers, we find their name for sun is Surya, and again Kassites'
sun-god was Suriash. This information is taken from C. F. Oldham's
" The Sun and the Serpent," and he further mentions a deity of a
similar name, Suriha, mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions, who was
a sun-god and identified with Aa or Ea the sun-god of Babylon.
We believe all these words to have come from the same root as the
Hebrew noun saraph, meaning " burning one," also " a burning, fiery,
or stinging serpent " and the verb saraph " to burn," also, " to be
elated." It is worthy of note, in this connection, that the Hebrew
for breast-plate or coat of mail, is shiryan, which would seem to be
from the same root, no doubt in connection with shining metal. That
amongst the Nandi brass wire ornaments are symbolic of the sun may
possibly be inferred from the following riddle told by Hollis: — " What
is the sun rising out of the valley like? Eeply. Brass wliire."* Now
* A.C.H., II., 136.
158
the large brass wire discs worn as ear-ornaments by the Nandi women,
one on each breast, seem to us to represent the coils of the serpent
(coiled brass wire) forming the shining disc of the sun, and it must
be remembered that in Western Asia both the serpent and the sun
were regarded as bestowing fertility on women, which is in all
probability the original reason why these ornaments are used amongst
the Nandi and Maasai.
An indication that the Maasai have been sun-worshippers in the
past is also to be found in the fact that they still on occasions direct
their prayers to the sun, but it is still more significant that they
should in certain oases look on the snake as sacred, even believing
that their medicine-men and rich persons are re-incarnated in that
form; the skin-coats, too, which are worn by their elders are supposed
to resemble a cobra's hood.
TSie iolose connection between brass and the serpent amongst the
ancient Semites can further be gathered from the fact that another
term in Hebrew for serpent was nachash, the allied Chaldean word
meaning brass, copper, being from an " assumed root " meaning " to
be bright," and the Hebrew for brass, copper, is nachush, nechash,
from the same root as nagah — to shine. That the serpent was closely
connected with the sun-worship of ancient Caanan is too well known
to need any emphasis here, and ornaments figuring serpents were also
worn by the people, as evinced by the fact that bronze figures of
serpents, and serpents heads as amulets, have been found both at
Gezer and at Taanach, and we believe that we are perfectly right,
on the evidence now given in connecting the use of the wire ornaments
of the Maasai and the Nandi with ancient Western Asiatic sun and
serpent-worship.
Only a slight reference is necessary to the other wire ornaments
of the people. The coils of polished wire with which they sheathe
the greater part of the legs and arms were no doubt originally intended
to represent the coils of the sacred serpent, and were worn for the
magical life-giving and fertilizing properties which they were supposed
to possess. This would apply equally well to the Iban women of
Borneo with their coiled wire ornaments and corsets, which also point
to an advanced form of sun-worship at an earlier period of their
history. Though the original meaning is probably forgotten by them
to-day, yet possibly these ornaments are still credited with the power
of bestowing fertility. We must remember that in ancient times
certain natural substances were regarded as possessing magical,
" life-giving " and " fertilizing " qualities, and of these gold and
pearls were the most important; and as, amongst the baser metals
brass was the substitute for gold, so beads were the substitutes for
the more costly pearls, and just as we see the use of brass, rock
159
crystal and quartz, so we find beads also used extensively among
these tribes as also cowrie-shells. We have remarked on the way
the Kikuyu wind ropes of bead-work round the bodies of the female
ciroiuncision candidates. Now circumcision amongst these people
takes place at puberty, or in other words, when the girls have arrived
at an age when they are eligible for marriage. It is reasonable,
therefore, to suppose that these bead corsets are or were primarily
intended to give them fertility that they might bear children in plenty
to their future husbands, and we claim the same origin for the custom
of the Iban women of sheathing their bodies with wire corsets.
Lindblom has remarked that: — " Eeligious ideas and rites being
most tenacious of existence, are always certainly met with even
among a people whose physical life and circumstances have been
entirely changed,"* which statement is made in connection with his
opinion that the Elgoni and Nandi were originally one tribe, who,
though their natural conditions have become unlike, have still retained
their joint language and religion. We venture to apply this statement
of a very sound authority of express what we believe in the present
case as to the tenacity of ancient religious tradition; for we think
that native ornamentation presents to us, with all its complicated
and inviolabe rules applicable to different ages, sexes, and conditions,
the remnant of a highly organised religious system where ornament
and decoration were the consciously evolved symbols of oceult
meaning.
Another indication of the Canaanitish origin of the sun-worship
of these people may be seen in the short account given in a recent
issue of this Journal by C. E. Ward on the sun-worship amongst the
Lumbwa who are a branch of the Nandi group. The points that
chiefly interest us in this connection are that what is evidently the
substitute for an altar is built out of cow-dung by some little girls — a
circular wall five inches high and three feet in diameter. Into this is
poured by two ofiQciatirig elders beer, milk and water, i.e., the offering.
At a little distance from this " altar " are placed two poles about four
foot apart near which a fire has been lighted. The participators in the
festival enter and place themselves around the " altar " and the
ofiBciating elders sprinkle them by means of a cow's tail from the
contents that have been poured into the " altar." We seem here to
have the picture of an ancient Canaanitish ceremony performed at a
" grove," and in the poles we seem to see the " asherim," or sacred
poles, 80 indispensable a feature of the Canaanitish worship of the
deities of fertilization. The asherim were sacred poles which stood
near the altar, and which appear by some to have been regarded as
G.L., III., 49.
160
embodiments of Ashtart; again by other authorities they are viewed
as phallic emblems.
Recent excavations in Palestine have laid bare remains which
give us a picture of the ancient " High Places " of Canaan, where
the worship of the asherim took place, and where the worship was
often of the most licentious and obscene character. The " High
Place " at Gezer shows a row of stone pillars or obelisks (masseboth),
one of which was found polished and smoothed by annointing with
blood and oil. Between two of them was set a large socketed stone,
beautifully squared, which is thought to be a sacred laver. llie
character of the worship of this shrine is well seen from the fact that
in the soil that had accumulated over the site were found numbers
of male emblems, rudely carved in soft lime-stone, and also terra-cotta
tablets representing in relief the mother goddess. These were no
doubt votive offerings to the deities of the place, which were believed
to be embodied in the sacred poles and stone pillars; these deities
wtere regarded above all as sources of fertility. An idea of the form
of sacrifice that was at times practised here may be gathered from
the fact that under the floor of this shrine was found a cemetery
of jar-buried infants, who had, evidently in accordance with the
prevailing custom of the dedication of the first-bom, been sacrificed
to the deities of this " High Place." In connection with what we
have said previously concerning the serpent-like character of native
ornamentation, it is of extreme interest to note that in an enclosure
close to the pillars at Gezer was found a bronze model of a cobra.
May one not suppose that this was set up in the shrine as a magic
symbol of fertility for those to look upon who wished to become
mothers. Ashtart herself was often represented as holding a serpent
in her hand.
Now in the " High Place " at Gezer we seem to see the origin
of the Lumbwa ceremonial given just above, and identify the cow-dung
" altar " of the Lumbwa with the stone laver. The wooden pole or
poles of the shrine at Gezer would have perished with time, but
no-one can doubt that they were originally there. As we see the
officiating elders of the Lumbwa doing to-day, sprinkling the
worshippers from the contents of the cow-dung " laver," in like
manner we can be pretty sure that the worshippers of that ancient
shrine were also sprinkled with the contents of that stone laver, and
not they only, but also the stone pillar or post that, as was seen,
was smeared with oil and blood.
We have noted earlier the existence in Africa of the two
Canaanitish deities Molech and Chemosh, now degraded to the status
of evil spirits — Chemosh being the same, as we believe, as the Chemos
of the Nandi, as also of the Lumbwa, with whom we are now dealing;
161
the character of this spirit has already been noted. The Nandi-
Lumbwa do not sacrifice their children to the deity to-day, even
though he is the sun and their god of fertility, just as were the sun-
gods of old in ancient Canaan. This special aspect of the god of
fertility is clearly realized by the fact that the prayer to the sun on the
occasion that we are now considering, is: — " I am now giving you
milk — do you give us children — cattle, wimbi and good grazing." It
was to the deities of fertility that human sacrifice of the first-born was
practised in ancient Canaan. That children figure particularly in the
festival described by Ward, would seem to us to be a tradition retained
of the conspicuous role they once filled, and that whereas formerly
they constituted the offering laid on the altar, the share that has
later been allotted to them has become that of merely preparing the
altar, on which previously they used to be sacrificed.
In the account given by Ward of the Lumbwa ceremony it was
mentioned that a fire was made near the poles, but it is not stated
why this was lighted and kept burning, nor what kind of wood was
used for the purpose. Several varieties of trees are sacred to the
Nandi -Lumbwa people, and it is practically certain that some special
wood was used for the fire in question. In the tenth commandment
of the Maasai a sacred fire was commanded to be made from a special
kind of wood once a year, and this wood was of a sweet scented
kind — in other words this fire was an incense offering, so the writer
takes for granted that the fire of the Lumbwa at their poles is lit as
an incense ofiering to the deity with which these poles are or originally
were identified. That incense was burned at the ceremonies that took
place at the shrine in ancient Gezer, is evident from the fact that at
the excavations was unearthed a jar containing a powder, which
was found to be incense.
The licentious character of the worship at the " High Places "
in Canaan has been noted, and sexual orgies were part of the
ceremonies of worship that took place round the asherah or " groves."
We have already suggested in this chapter the similarity in this respect
with the Nandi worship. A closer insight into the character of such
ceremonies as they are practised amongst the Batwa of Lake
Bangweolo in N.E. Ehodesia is given in " Man," Miay, 1914, by
Dugal Cambell, to which we refer those who are interested in more
detailed particulars. The Batwa belong to a large group whose good
and evil deities are the Leza and Molechi for whom we have already
suggested Canaanitish origin. Leza, it must be noted, holds the
position of supreme deity, who is so remote that he does not take any
active interest in their affairs. The deity to whom the above
ceremonies refer is another, and that he, or she, is pre-eminently a
deity of fertility is shown by the following from Cambell's paper: —
" Songa — a powerful local deity — ^who, they said, was very angry
162
because Batwa ceremonies and his worship had fallen into neglect.
He ordered them to be revived at once, and that all Batwa who had
wished a successful harvest must send to him to have their seed
blessed." In these last words is, it would seem, summed up the
entire principle of the very widespread cult of the fertilizing deities
of Western Asia.
Having suggested the possibility of the Chemos, of the Nandi,
having been originally the Chemosh of Moab, and having also noted
the phallic character of the worship of the Nandi, it is interesting to
give the following extract from an Ancient History of the eighteenth
century, which we, shall have reason to refer to again later:—" The
idols of the Moabites taken notice of in Scripture are Chemosh and
Baal-Peor, sometimes simply Peor; or as the Septuagint writes the
name Phegor. But what gods these were learned men do not agree.
8t. Jerome supposes that they were both names of one and the same
idol (Hieronym. in Esai. 1.5.) : and from the debaucheries into which
those fell who defiled themselves with their worship, several writers
both ancient and modern, have represented them as obscene deities,
not much different from Priapus (Idem in Oseam, and contr. Jovin - I.
1. c. 12. Origen in Numer. Homil. 20 Theophylact. in Hoseam.
Cumberland on Sanchon, p. 67, etc.)." A foot-note tells that " they
offered him dung; which the Jews pretend was the worship proper to
this idol (Solom. Yarhi Philon. Jud. de nomin. mutatione, p. 1061,)"
The character of the worship here given is certainly most descriptive
of that of the Nandi-peoples, even down to the sacred uses to which
dung was applied. We have already seen the sacred use to which it
was consecrated in the making of the altar or layer in the description
given of the Lumbwa ceremonies. Its sanctity is further seen in the
custom amongst these people when they bury their dead of doing so
in the dung of their cattle-kraals. As grass has its sacred uses
amongst them, ^ also has human dung, and Hoilis relates that " A
Nandi will not slay a foe if he sees that a man has grass in his hand
or if the enemy can throw some of his own excrement at him."*
The following custom practised by the Nandi is particularly interesting
as it was evidently one that existed in ancient Canaan amongst the
neighbours of the Israelites: — " When a Nandi child is four months
old, its face is washed in the xmdigested food found in the stomach of
an animal sacrificed in the honour of the occasion."! And again,
haying described a number of forms of ceremonial uncleanness
amongst these people Hoilis relates that: — " the mode of lustration
* A.C.H., II., 74. t ID., xxi.
163
employed in these cases is to kill a goat and to rub some of the ofial on
the person's face and legs."** The same form of lustration
is also practised amongst the Kikuyu and the Akamba. The
equivalent practice as existing in ancient Canaan, and possibly
referring particularly to its existence amongst the Moabites, is
expressed in Mai. II. 3. : — "-I will corrupt your seed and spread dung
upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts." The solemn
feast took place with the eating of the sacrificial animal.
The sanctity of trees amongst the Nandi has been mentioned
above, and this brings us to another custom that would seem to be
of Canaanitish origin. Trees, for these people, constitute their "cities
of refuge." " These and rivers are regarded as sanctuaries, and no
Nandi may kill a man who has taken refuge in one of these."*
Sacred trees are regarded in the same way as sanctuaries by the
Kikuyu. t Cities of refuge were a typically Canaanitish institution
which the Israelites adopted on taking possession of their land. The
Cananitish cities of refuge were " Holy cities " — ^the seats of high
deities, and as deities and trees, were identical in so many instances,
one can see how trees would have become sanctuaries for refuge to
a wandering tribe, in place of the fixed cities of refuge.
Probably another relic of ancient Canaan is the custom found
amongst these people, and other tribes that have been discussed,
i.e., that of the male and female circumcision candidates wearing the
dress of the other sex. That the extensive ceremonials which include
circumcision were not originally merely the initiation into tribal life
and its secrets, is evident from many indications; there can be no
doubt that it was originally the initiation into the higher life of the
deity, and as we hope presently to show this was also the case with
these tribes. The origin of the customs now referred to of the
candidates adopting the clothing of the other sex, was in all probability
in honour of the deity to whose service they were being dedicated, and
we find the equivalent in ancient Canaan in the worship of Ashtart —
the mother goddess of Western Asia, who in one of her aspects was
believed to have been of dual sex — ^where priests ofi&ciated in the
garb of priestesses, and the priestesses in the garments of priests.
It was no doubt in protest against this practice and what abuses it
may have licensed that the Mosaic law stipulated that " the woman
shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a
** A.C.H., II., 91. * ID., 74. t C.W.H., 47,
164
man put on a woman's garment : for all that do so are abomination
unto the Lord thy God." Deut. XXII. 5.
Yet another custom amongst the Nandi which may have
originated from the same source and for the same reason, i.e., that
of symbolizing the deity is that of the girl circumcision candidates
veiling themselves for a period after the ceremony has been completed.
This custom was very possibly originally observed in the rites ot
initiation into the worship of the Canaanitish Ashtart, after the example
that, perhaps, she may have set them, as she also figured as the veiled
goddess, for in one of her types, discovered at Gezer, as also at Teil
Halath she was represented wearing a veil.* Dare we venture to
suppose that the great mother goddess in this aspect had undergone
the rite of circumcision herself; that she voluntarily afflicted herself
in this manner as a form of penance or in sympathy with the self-
afflicted mutilation of the one who she loved and desired so passion-
ately, and that this aspect of her was - originated to facilitate the
introduction of female circumcision amongst the people who were her
votaries, as the need for female circumcision had become necessary
in order that the women who, from a very early age, had become
accustomed to free and unrestricted licence, would, as married,
remain more faithful to their husbands.
Circumcision, both male and female, .is practised amongst the
Maasai Nandi and allied tribes, and also amongst the Kikuyu and
others. We do not intend to go into the details of the extensive
ceremonials that take place in connection wih this ceremony; our
purpose now is to show what significance this rite has for the people
to-day, and to see what deeper import it may have had for them
earlier in their history.
The antiquity of both male and female circumcision is too well
established to require any emphasis. It was practised in ancient
Egypt as well as amongst the peoples of Western Asia. Under the
Mosaic law the Jews only circumcised their males. The significance
of this rite was the outward and visible sign that they were dedicated
to their god and were accepted as his chosen people. We venture
to believe that the act of eircumcision had the same meaning amongst
the other peoples of antiquity, and that female circumcision, in
particular, 8t<>od in close connection with the worship of the mother
goddess, and that by this rite of circumcision, performed as an act of
a sacrificial character, they dedicated themselves to and became
accepted by her as her especial and chosen people. We also believe
that circumcision was practised as a rite of purely religious character
* E.R.&E., " Canaanites."
165
though in all probability it was instituted for practical reasons. That in
its action circumcision also automatically included acceptation into
tribal and national life, was the inevitable result of the close relation-
ship that existed between the tribe and its deity — each and every
individual of the tribe being dedicated to the deity, 'ilie tribe as 8
single unit belonged in its entirety to the deity and thus participation
in tribal life was one and the same thing as participation in the life
of the deity.
Circumcision amongst native tribes to-day is generally regarded
merely as the initiation into tribal life, and in most cases this is no
doubt the only significance that the natives themselves attach to it,
but we hope to show in the following pages that it has not always
been restricted to this particular meaning. We believe that the
original, sacramental meaning of this rite, has gradually faded from
the individual mind in exact proportion to the mental degeneration of
the tribe, so that now that they have sunk to a state of " savagery,"
circumcision means no more to them than a participation in the
privileges and rites of tribal life. In face, however, of the indications
that we shall now bring forward as evidence of the fact that circum-
cision must at an earlier date have symbolised both by its sacrificial
and sacramental character the initiation of the candidate into the life
of the deity, the writer ventures to suggest that, though in the
main, circumcision is merely regarded as the entry into tribal lite
yet at the back of the native mind there may still linger a vague sense
of a religious meaning. Whether this is so or not one thing at least
is certain; circumcision, i.e., the extensive ritual of which the
act of circumcision is but the central point, is the most important
event in their lives, and one to which they attach the highest
significance. It does mean life to them, even if no more than tribal
life, for without it they are dead to the inner life of the tribe.
The most complete records of the life and customs of a Kenya
tribe iSat the writer has yet met with is Lindblom's " The Akamba "
and we strongly recommend this to those who want a graphic and
detailed description of the life of a native in all its phases. To this
work we are indebted for a very valuable description of circumcision.
But first, and for purposes of comparison, we wish to give again even
at the risk of repetition, the picture from antiquity of the act of
initiation into the life of the deity. We have shown Hathor in the
character of a cow and of her adoption of the Pharaoh by means of his
initiation into her divine life by sucking the milk ,of life from her
udder. Hathor in her other character, that of " the Lady of the
Sycamore tree," was, as we have seen, represented as dwelling in one
of the wild sycamore or fig-trees (ficus sycamorus) on the borders of
the Libyan desert in the west. Here she awaited the souls of the
166
departed to welcome and accept them into her realm. From the fig-
tree she stretched out her divine form to greet the soul on its arrival,
offering it on a tray a vase of water and some cakes; this sacrament
having been partaken of, the soul was accepted into her realm. In
her aspect of the cow, Hathor gave her milk — the milk of life; in that
of the fig-tree she gave as its equivalent the water and the bread. We
will now turn to Lindblom's description of the Akamba circumcision
ceremonies with its striking resemblances and parallels, (llie Akamba
were formerly close neighbours to the Maasai, and inhabit to-day the
country S.E. of the Kikuyu).
Lindblom tells us how, early in the morning, the initiators of the
circumcision candidates (evidently the relics of a former priesthood)
go in search of a wild fig-tree which must be in an easterly direction.
Having found which they each in turn, beginning with the eldest,
spit on the tree and pray: — '" Fig-tree, we have come to pray you to
give us milk -juice for the asiggi." (The asiggi are the circumcision
candidates). They make an offering of a little food and milk by the
tree, and smear (anoint) a little fat on its trunk, on the right side for
the boys, and on the left side for the girls. The juice (white and
looking like milk) is obtained by pricking the tree with a nail, after it
has been smeared (anointed) with fat in seven places each of the
initiators catches a little in small calabashes. At nightfall they go
and fetch the circumcision candidates and bring them to the tree,
where they take a little milk-juice on one finger and give it to the
candidates who pretend to eat it.* This milk-juice from the sacred
tree, reminds one strongly of the milk of life from the divine Hathor
in her aspect of the cow. Now it should be noted, that the real
circumcision has already taken place some years previously to this
which is the second and more important circumcision. The first
would seem to be a more purely formal act, corresponding to our
infant baptism, and the latter is evidently the ratification of the first,
when, accepting all the privileges of tribal life, the candidate confirms
the previous rite. That this is so is evident from what Lindblom
says of annother ceremony that takes places at the fig-tree, which
he also connects with the real circumcision. " A sUght cut is made
at the base of the glans, and a little beer ig poured into the wound. ' '**
Here then we see by a symbolic act the ratification of the previously
performed act which takes place before the sacred fig-tree or
whatever divinity they may vaguely consider as residing within its
embrace. This act has an unmistakably sacrificial character in that
* G.L., I., 56. *♦ ID., 57.
167
blood, and a portion of the body, is thus offered in symbolic
substitution for the entire individual, body and soul, which is thus
dedicated to the deity, and the sign of their acceptance at her hands
is shown above in the gift of the milk of life which is sacramentally
partaken of.
It seems diflScult to reconcile the ceremonies now described, and
which form such a striking parallel to the rites of antiquity of the
inner meaning of which the votaries were perfectly conscious, with
the mentality of these natives to-day, whose spiritual conceptions
are so vague that they do not appear, as far as we know, to attach
any deeper religious significance to the ceremony than that of
initiation into tribal life, and we believe that we have here a survival
from another and higher state of civilization from which these natives
have degenerated.
To give a detailed account of the customs, ceremonial laws and
animistic and religious beliefs of the native tribes of Kenya, does not
lie within the scope of these pages. Undoubtedly a systematic
summary of them would be of great interest and value, and would
enable us to grasp more easily the extraordinary completeness and
the comprehensive nature of the organization of the system known
as tribal law and custom — ^the remarkable way these affect and control
every action and even the very speech of the individual.
These tribal organizations, " primitive " as they may at first
appear, have, however, in the detailed completeness of their whole
system, including totemism and exogamy, an exact counterpart in
the religious and civil organizations of the ancient civilizatons of
Western Asia; but, whereas, in the latter case, the inner meaning
of the symbolism and ceremonial was consciously and intelligently
evolved, often aesthetically beautiful, and connected with artistic
achievements of a high order ; in the case of the native tribes of to-day,
the system is merely automatic and is practically void in most of its
phases of any spiritual significance, and totally devoid of assthetic
beauty. Yet, little as the native is conscious of any deeper symbolic
meanings in the details of his tribal institutions, they are still the
chief and vital factors of his existence; the bonds which hold
together his family and social life, and the only object for his vague
spiritual aspirations. It seems incredible, when reviewing the mental
and material condition of native tribes to-day, that they shouM ever
have evolved the elaborate ritual of tribal law, with all its multi-
tudinous restrictions and obligations, and that, too, at a far earlier
period, when, according to the evolutionary theory, they must have
been at a lower and more " primitive " state of development than
at present. For if common experience of the native of to-day proves
uny thing, it is this, that even when most intelligent and mentally
168
well-developed, he is markedly deficient in precisely those powers of
gystematio arrangement and organization necessary for the formation
of their elaborate tribal institutions. We refer to the native here in
his more or less untouched state. What possibilities may lie dormant,
to be brought out and developed as the result of education and
contact with our civilization, is another matter.
We have compared the Nandi and the Moabites in so many
particulars, and have ventured to identify the Nandi devil, Ohemos,
with the famous Chemosh of the Moabites, that we will go even
further, and suggest that in the earher Nandi name for their country
and their people, we may find a tradition that indicates even more
definitely that they are the ancient Moabites. They used to call
themselves Ghemwal and their country Chemngal. The latter name
name is composed of two parts — Chem and ngal, and ngcU in
language to-day means news, information; chem is the form of Nandi
prefix used before ng signifying something of a small, weak, or
feminine nature. We can hardly imagine that this would merely
have meant " news," hut chem might also stand for cfe'-em=tribe,
but even so it seems improbable that Chemngal should merely have
meant " news of the tribe." There are, however, in the Nandi
language a sufficient number of words of Hebrew origin, to justify the
supposition that ngal may be derived from the Hebrew galah, which,
besides the meaning, publish, reveal, tell — equivalent to that of the
Nandi news, information, has a second meaning, captivity, exile. We
are told in Jer. XL VIII. 7. that " Chemosh shall go forth into
captivity " and from this, perhaps, is derived the original meaning
of the Nandi name Chemngal — ^the former portion, Chem, being the
abbreviation of Chemosh, the whole, therefore, would have meant
" exile of Chemosh "or, " (the country of) exile of Chemosh." ITius,
Chem in Chemngal would be used as in the Canaanitish place-name,
.l/(Cma8fe = place of Chemosh, abbreviated, as mash suffixed is the
abbreviation for Chemosh. Jahweh used in compound names thus
became suffixed, Isaiafe, and prefixed, Jaazer.
In Chemwal, i.e., Nandi people, we seem to find the Hebrew
word tjalad = children, and on this supposition Chemwal would have
meant " the children of Chemosh," which is exactly how the
Moabites styled themselves in ancient days, king Mesha on the famous
Moabite stone, called himself " the son of Chemosh."
Nandi tradition relates that circumcision was first practised
amongst them by one KipkeHyo, who came from a country called Do.*
On the assumption that Kenya is a paraphrase for Canaan, then this
169
Kipkenyo would mean a " Canaanite," and this old story, divested
of certain legendary colouring, would point to the fact that the Nandi
or Chemwal originally learnt circumcision from the Canaanites in the
land of their origin. Curiously enough words of the same root as
kenya refer amongst the Maasai to the future but amongst the Nandi
to the past. Thus, with the Maasai ofeenj/a = presently, in the
indefinite future; and in Nandi fcfnj/e,fcen2/ = formerly. The past to
the one and the future to the other is Canaan.
Sir Charles Eliot speaking of the Maasai and the Nandi in the
introduction to Hollis' " The Nandi," says: — " all information about
the physical character, language, customs and religions of either
sheds a light on the origin and affinities of both, and the whole group
to which they belong."* This is most undoubtedly the case. The
Maasai and Nandi are racially very closely allied, but for many
reasons, which we have not space to deal with here, we do not believe
the Nandi to be Israelites like the Maasai. Of the other Semitic
tribes of ancient Canaan, there are not many to choose from, and
many indications point strongly to the possibility that they may be
Moabites.
Chapter VII.
OEIGIN OF NOMENCLATUKE IN BOENEAN RELIGIOUS
CONCEPTIONS.
In a former chapter Laki Tenganan, the supreme deity of the
Borneans, and also Kalubi Angai, have been reviewed, and we have
seen how these names, as well as tribal names, point to a Canaanitish
origin. Amongst other religious beliefs of the Borneans we find
further the mention of Bali Flaki, by which name they call the
hawk, whose flight they study for omens to guide them when going
on raids, etc. The exact wording of the phrase in the O.T. which
recalls the fact that the Edomites had deified their ancestry is as
follows; — " Though thou exaltest thyself as the eagle, and though thou
set thy nest amongst the stars," and this reference to the eagle may
indicate that in ancient times they looked to that bird — Bali Flaki —
for guidance in their various undertakings. The hawk, it must be
remembered, was the symbol of the departed soul, and in the hawk or
eagle they may, perhaps, have seen the soul of their hero ancestor,
* A.C.H., II., xiii.
170
the god Esau. That, in the minds of the Borneans, Bali Flaki is
anthropomorphic may be seen by the fact that, with the Kenya, he
holds a peculiar position amongst the omen birds, in that an altar-post,
rudely carved to represent the human figure, is assigned to him before
their houses. This figure is in some cases surmounted by a wooden
image of the hawk.* 'lliis is strongly reminiscent of the way in
which, in ancient Egypt, the Ka or soul, as represented by a hawk
is depicted resting above or on the head of the deity, king, or other
individual. Bali is pure Hebrew, being the same as the Semitic
Baal, the form of Baali means "my lord," and Bali FlaM would
therefore mean " Miy lord of the Stars," or possibly " My lord of
the heavens." With regard to the word Ldki and its equivalent in
the Maasai L'ofeiJi= stars, we find in Hebrew the word.
fcafotr=brigbt. and bachir=elect or chosen. The coming Messiah of
the Jews was referred to as "the chosen of Israel" and also as " the
star out of Jacob "; in their later records he was also termed " the
bright and morning star." It is possible that the Bomean Lahi and
Maasai L'akir may be derived from the same root as the Hebrew
bahir or bachir.
Amongst the Kayans there exist two words, one referring to the
soul and the other to their belief in the life hereafter. These terms
are blua and urip, which words may again be traced to Hebrew origin.
"The Kayans vaguely distinguish two souls — on the one hand the
ghost-soul or shade, which in dreams wanders afar, on the other hand
the vital principle. It would seem that so long as this vital spark
remains in the body, the ghost-soul may return to it; but that, when
death is complete, this vital spark also departs, and then the ghost-
soul will return no more In common speech urip means alive,
but it is applied also as a prefix to the names of those recently deceased,
and seems to mark the speakers sense of the continuance of a
personality as that which has life in spite of the death of the body.
Thus Blua and Urip seem to mark a distinction which in Europe
m different ages has been marked by the words soul and spirit," and
Hose and McDougall add, " and which was familiar also to the
Hebrews."** Now urip meaning alive, seems to have its
equivalent in the Hebrew word ur=i light, «riTO = lights, the
spark of life, the light that lingers on, as the Borneans believe, even
after death. And in blua we may see the Hebrew lua meaning
swallowed up — ^the departed soul or spirit of the Bomean that is
swallowed up in eternity, beyond this present life. Again we find
* H.mD., II., 15. ** ID., 34.
171
Bali Urip, the god of life, which when interpreted through the Hebrew
would mean " my lord light "; possibly a lingering tradition of ancient
Canaanitish sun-worship.
As seen from the prophet Obadiah, it was early a practice amongst
the Edomites to " set their nest amongst the stars " i.e., to deify
their ancestors; that this was an ancient custom amongst the
Bomeans, and also that they still adhere to it to-day, will be shown in
the following. The Bomeans themselves are fairly clear as to the
fact that their deities, of which a very considerable pantheon exists,
are mostly ancestors, and they claim descent from them, Hose and
McDougall relate the following: — " We have Uttle information
bearing upon the origin and history of these Kayan gods. But a few
remarks may be ventured. The names of many of the minor deities
are proper personal names in common use among the Kayans or allied
tribes ; . . . . and the title Laki, by which several of them are
addressed, is the title of respect given to old men who are
grandfathers. These facts suggest that these minor gods may be deified
ancestors or great chiefs, and this suggestion is supported by the
following facts : —
' First, a recently deceased chief of exceptional capacity and
Influence becomes not infrequently the object of a certain cult
amongst the Klemantans and Sea Dayaks. Men will go to sleep
beside his gave or tomb, hoping for good dreams and invoking the aid
of the dead chief in acquiring health, or wealth, or whatever a man
most desires. Sea Dayaks sometimes fix a tube of bamboo leading
from just above the eyes of the corpse to the surface of the ground ;
they will address the dead man with their lips to the orifice of the
tube, and will drop into it food and drink and silver coins. A hero
who is made the object of such a cult is usually buried in an isolated
spot on the crest of a hill; and such a grave is known as rarong.
' Secondly, all Kayans, men and women alike, invoke in their
prayers the aid of Oding Lahang and his intercession with Laki
Tenangan. That they regard the former as having lived as a great
chief is clearly proved by the following facts: firstly, many Kayans
of the upper class claim to be his lineal descendants ; secondly, a well-
known myth, of which several variants are current, describes his
miraculous advent to the world; thirdly, he is regarded by Kayans,
Kenyahs, and many Klemantans as the founder of their race.
' The Kenyahs also invoke in their prayers several spirits who
seem, like Odin Lahang, to be regarded as deceased members of their
tribe; .... From all these descent is claimed by various Kenyah and
Klemantan sub-tribes; and that they are regarded as standing higher
m the spiritual hierarchy than recently deceased chiefs, is shown by
the prefix Bali, commonly given to their names, whereas this title or
172
designation is not given to recently deceased chiefs; to their names
the word Urip is prefixed by both Kayans and Kenyahs."*
Odin Lahang, who has just been mentioned, is probably the same
as Edom, as already explained under the Maasai tradition of the
Dinet, and represents another and more personal aspect of Esau than
that that has been suggested for him as Laki Tenganan. Lahang we
venture to interpret as Laban, who was Esau's uncle, which may have
been added in connection with the ancient matrilineal system in
which the maternal uncle was so conspicuous a feature, or may only
stand for the Hebrew meaning of Laban = glorious, and thus Udin
Lahang might mean "Edom the glorious." Laban seems to figure
frequently in personal names amongst the tribes to-day, where one
finds Aban, Palaban, and Labong.
Amongst the names of their gods and demi-gods we also find the
following, who are all, it would appear from their traditions, ancestors.
For purposes of comparison we have have placed opposite these
Bornean names their equivalents from the genealogies in Gen. XXX VI.
Laki Ju lJrip = Jeush, Bali Penj/aZon^=Jalam, Ajai-Ajah,
SjbaM=:Zibeon What is of extreme interest in this connection is that
it is known that Jeueh, Jala'n, Ajah {Ayyah) and Zibeon were also
deities in ancient Edom, as was also Caleb.** We find, also, the war-
god of the Sea Dayaks, Singalang Burong whom we identify with
Shingala who was worshipped in ancient Edom.f In the Punan
group is found a tribe called Sigalang which one is fairly safe in
assuming has derived its origin from the same source as the Sea Dayak
deity, and one may therefore suppose that Shingala of the Edomites,
like so many other of their deities, was an ancestor who became
deified and also gave his name to a tribe. May we venture to translate
by means of the Hebrew the name of the Bornean deity Urai Uka as
follows. Ur-ai = " light of Ai," I7fca = heb. yakol = " prevail "
i.e., " Light of Ai prevails." The Bornean Jok, as will be shown,
would seem to be identical with the Jaakan of the genealogies in
Gen. XXXVI. and Deut. X 6. who, it appears, was also an Edomite
deity. In the beliefs of the Malanuas of Borneo is found a spirit
named Adum Girang. § This is interesting as Adum is so similar to
the name Edom itself.
* H.mD., II., 10, 11. ** E.E.&E., " Edomites." t ID.
§ H.mD., II, 180.
173
On page 48, vol. II. of " The Pagan Tribes of Borneo," is given
a rough map of " the land of the shades." We find here some
very interesting mythological designations. There is Long Bali
Moitei = the river of the dead; Matei 'm we believe from the Hebrew
TO«ffe = death — Long Bali Matei would thus mean " the river of my
lord death." Further Bawang Daha = lake of blood; 'wang in bawan({
may be derived from the Hebrew i/om = lake, sea, and daha frona the
Hebrew dam = blood. Then there is Alo Malo, which, if derived from
the Hebrew oJaa = rejoice and moZon = lodging-place, abode, would
have meant " abode of rejoicing." Bali Akan = " my lord
Akan " = Akan (Gen. XXXVI. 27.) the same as the deified Jaakan
mentioned above. Bali Dayong = " my lord the Judge " (see below).
Long Malan, malan possibly = Hebrew maZaf = deliver, i.e., the river
of the delivered, " To padan tanah Kanan, padan is the Hebrew for
plain, tanah is the Hebrew for ajfiiction, so the whole would have
meant " the plain of affliction, Canaan." On this little map occurs
also Penyalong, the Supreme Being, whom, above, we have identified
with the Edomite deity Jalam, and his wife Oko Perbungan. Oko,
we venture to believe, is the same as Odoh=Adah, and Perbungan we
think is possibly a dialectal variation of Tenangan. In an earlier
chapter we have used the term Laki Tenganan as found in Perry's
" The Children of the Sun," but Hose and MoDougall call it
Tenangan, which, sub-divided, would be Tenangan=" of Canaan,"
ang in angan being the same article as in ang-ai; this ang or 'ng
equivalent to the Hebrew k in Canaan. Angan is thus only a more
abbreviated form of Canaan than in Sarangani or the Maasai tungani
and Mengana.
It is worthy of notice that as the pig was peculiarly the
sacrificial animal'of the original Canaanites, so is this animal amongst
the Borneans to-day; and just as amongst the Western Asiatics
it was the custom to sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial victim on the
" altar-posts " and on the worshippers, so do the Borneans still.
Again, the Canaanitish custom of human foundation sacrifice — as
found at the excavations at Gezer and elsewhere — was practised until
quite recently by the Borneans; now, however, they substitute a fowl
for the human victim.
The Borneans call their medicine man dayong, which can be no
other than thee Hebrew dai/j/an = judge or discerner. This Hebrew
word dayyan we seem to find again in the dyang of the Nilotic
tribe in northern Uganda called the Lango. This word, however,
refers to cattle; it was possibly associated in the original sense of
discerner, with the practice of augury from the entrails of sacrificial
cattle, and by degrees this original meaning has been lost; but that
this word can also apply to people is seen in the name Lango Dyang,
174
a tribe co-related with the Lango in question. However, in
considering this matter, we must remember that the " Hamitio "
tribes regard cattle as more or less sacred and almost on a level with
human beings. Thus, for instance, a Nandi salutation is A-'kot-ok
Hka ak piik (I salute you, cattle and people), and their word for the
udder of the cow, unlike that used for the mamillary organs of other
animals, is the same as that used for the female breast.
A mythical warrior-hero and demi-god called Klieng, figures
amongst Bomean animistic beliefs, and also they have an omen-bird
which thiey call Kieng (a woodpecker, lepoceatea porphyromelaa).
Equivalent names to these are found again amongst the African Lango
and the tribe closely akin to them, the Jaluo. 'ITie former have a
spirit which they call Chyen, and amongst the latter we find Chietig,
who by certain authorities is mentioned as a deity, though it seems
to be their name for the sun. Here again it seems possible to link
up these Bornean and African terms with those of ancient Canaan,
for mention is made in Amos V. 26. of " your Moloch and Chiun "
and this Chiun was a Phoenician deity adopted by the Israelites.
Chiun, Chyen, and Chieng, Kieng and Klieng would surely seCm to
have a common origin. Another striking similarity between Bornean
and African beliefs is to be traced in the woodpecker as an omen bird
for amongst the Maasai, Nandi and other tribes the woodpecker is an
omen-bird of considerable importance, to whom they look for
directions and signs, particularly when setting out on journeys, on
visiting sick people, and on going out to fight or to raid*
Amongst the Bomeans a generic term for spirit is Toh, which
plays a very important part in their religious beliefs, and the
equivalent to this spirit amongst the Lango is Jok. Now this Jok
figures under many aspects, just like the Bomean Toh, and amongst
others as the particular god of the tribe, under the name of Jok Lango.
Dryberg mentions him thus: — " Another very ancient manifestation
of Jok is known by the name of Jok Lango the name, with
its insistence on the fact that he is peculiarly the Lango god, is
curious, and niay have been applied at the time when the tribe
ursurped the ' Hainitic ' name Lango; on the other hand, while the
characteristicB of this partlculeur Jok may have been ancient as
affirmed, a distinctive name may not have been applied until recent
years ia aioswer to tiie modern Jok Nam, ' Jok of the river '."** The
Nam in Jok Nam would seem to be the same as the Hebrew
♦ A.C.H., I., 323. *♦ J.H.D., 220.
17|)
I/am = lake or eea, and it is significant that the river Nile was also
called in ancient times " the sea." In connection with this Jol
of the river of the Lango, it is interesting to note the Bomean name
J ok for a special crocodile. Hose and McDougall mention this in
their chapter on animistic beliefs: — " In olden days Kayans used to
make a crocodile ef clay and ask it to drive away evil spirits;
Sometimes a man dreams that a crocodile calls him to become his
blood-brother Usong's uncle has in this way become blood-
brother to a crocodile, and is now called " Baya " (the generic name
for the crocodile), while some crocodile unknown is called Jok,
and Usong considers himself the nephew of the crocodile Jok."*
Dryberg does not mention if the Jok Nam of the Lango, their rivei
god, has any particular concrete form, so we assume that he has
merely become a vague spirit of the river; but as the river-god in
ancient times was often represented as a crocodile we can only
suppose that the crocodile was the Jok Nam and the equivalent of the
Jok of the Borneans. The ancestor of Jok is, we venture to believe,
the Edomit« Jaakan, who, with so many others in the genealogies in
Genesis XXXVI., were deified. W. E. Smith has suggested that
Jaakan and the Arab god Ya'uk were identical, and very possibly both
Ya'uk and the modem Jok of Borneo and the Lango can clt^ ih»
same origin from Jaakan.
In quoting just above from Hose and McDougall, mention was
made of a certain grave known as rarong; amongst the Ibans the
same word is found denoting a spirit which they call ngarong. We
seem to see here the Hebrew word ooron. — enlightened, illumined,
and thus ngarong may have meant " one who enlightens." The
Lango have a spirit — Jok orongo; are we to suppose that this, too,
oomee from the Hebrew aaron? It is also curious that the Lango
have a word odin^ = wizard (their other word for wizard is ajok) so
like the Bomean Oding. Their word for star is achyer, whic^ may
well have the same origin as that suggested for the Maasai L'akir and
the Bomean Laki, i.e., the Hebrew bachir, 'When we take into
account that the Jaluo, who are a brother tribe to the Lango and
speaking the same language, call their god Nyaaai — ^which is probably
Esau, and that they also have chieng, the number of names in the
beliefs of these people similar to those of the Borneans is truly
remarkable. Dare one venture to suppose that the Lango peoples are
another branch of the Edomites who in the general dispersion of the
peoples of Canaan found their way down into Africa.
* H.mD., II., 76.
176
In closing this chapter we will give the following extract from
Hose and McDougall who write as follows: —
" In conclusion, we venture to make a suggestion which we
admit to be widely speculative and by which we wish only to draw
attention to a remote possibility which, if further evidence in its
favour should be discovered would be one of great interest. We
have throughout maintained the view, now adopted by many others,
of which Professor Keane has been the principal exponent, namely,
the view that the Indonesian stock was largely, probably
predominantly, of Caucasic origin. In our chapter on animistic
beliefs concerning animals and plants, and in the chapter on religion,
we have shown that the Kayans believe in a multiplicity of
anthropomorphic deities which, with Laki Tenangan at the head of a
galaxy of subordinate gods and goddesses presiding over special
departments of nature, strangely resembles the group of divine beings
who, in the imagination of the fathers of ]Ejuropean culture, dwelt in
Olympus. And we have shown that the system of divination practised
by the Kayans (the taking of omens from the flight and cries of birds,
and the system of augury by entrails of sacrificial victims) strangely
resembles, even in many details, the corresponding system practised
by the early Eomans. Our suggestion is, then, that these two systems
may have had a common root; that, while the Aryans carried the
system westward into Europe, the Indonesians, or some Caucasic
people which has been merged in the .Indonesian stock carried it
eastward; and that the Kayans, with their strong conservative
tendencies, and their serious religious temperament, and strong
tribal organization, have, of all Indonesians, preserved most faithfully
this ancient religious system and have imparted it in a more or less
partial manner to the tribes to whom they have given so much else of
culture, custom, and belief.
" It is perhaps not without significance in this connection that
the Karens, whom we regard as the nearest relatives of the Kayans,
were found to worship a Supreme Being, and have proved peculiarly
apt pupils of the Christian missionaries who have long laboured among
them.
" By way of crowning the indiscretion of the foregoing paragraphs,
we point out that there are certain faint indications of linguistic
support for this speculative suggestion. Bali, which, as we have
explained, is used. by the Kayans and Kenyahs to denote whatever
is sacred or is connected with religious practices, is undoubtedly a
word of Sanskrit derivation. Flaki, the name of the bird of most
importance in augury, bears a suggestive resemblance to the German
falke and the Latin falco. The Kayan word for omen is aman, the
'resemblance of which to the Latin word is striking. Are these
177
resemblances merely accidental? If more of the words connected with
the religious beliefs and practices could be shown to exhibit equally
close resemblances, we should be justified in saying — ^No."*
These suggestions have been inserted here in full as we believe
that these chapters will supply some of the evidence for which our
authors are looking in support of the theories which they have put
forward. We only wish to make two small comments. The probable
Semitic origin of the words Bali and Flaki have already been dealt
with, but we venture to think that the Kayan word for omen, aman,
also bears a Semitic character and is possibly derived from the
Hebrew word amen meaning truth.
Whilst fully realizing the importance that should be attached to
the uplifting influence of such a people as the Kayans on the
pre-existing Bornean tribes (who were evidently more degraded before
the arrival of the Kayans) it is impossible, on considering the evidence
that has now been brought foward, to accept this influence as more
than uplifting; for if, as we believe, the tribes of the Kenyahs,
Klemantans, Punans and Muruts, are Edomites, they must have held
their religious traditions from the first, and the influence of the
Kayans therefore, would have been limited to merely reviving their
ancient religious beliefs which had become lax in consequence of the
level to which they may have sunk.
Chapter VIII.
EDOM AND BORNEO— HISTOEICAL AND RACIAL.
We have but scanty historical data concerning the ancient
Edomites, but the little we have all seems to point to them having
been highly cultured with pronounced capacities for trade and
commerce, and a maritime people of considerable importance. ITieir
g^eographical position-^at the head of the Elanitio Gulf of the Bed
Sea certainly supports this latter supposiion.
When the Hebrew Kingdom first came into existence, David
invaded and conquered Edom, leaving Joab there for six months
" until he had cut off every male in Edom " and then garrisoned
the country, no doubt to prevent the possibility of fugitives returning
* H.mD., II., 255.
178
and consequent insurrections. The Edomites, as possessors of the
valuable ports of Ezion-geber and Eiath at the head of the Blanitic Gulf,
had no doubt availed themselves of such posts of vantage for an exten-
sive trade with the Indian Ocean, and by this means had achieved that
importance as a sea-faring nation that tradition assigns to them. The
primary reason for David's attack was probably the annexation of the
Edomite port's, thus furthering Ms imperialistic policy by acquiring
their valuable over-seas trade for his own, and we find in the records
of the following reign that a merchant navy of considerable importance
Was established there by Solomon and his friend Hiram, king of Tyre.
The difficulties of working so far from libraries and scientific
centres have already been referred to, and they are very obvious when
it comes to dealing with the obscure history of such a forgotten race as
the Edoraites. The waiter happens however to have amongst
his books an old history in six volumes called '* An
Universal History from the Earliest Account of Time to the Present ;
compiled from original authors " printed in London, MDCCXXXVl.
The compilers devote a chapter to the history of the Edomites, the
contents of which are mostly gathered from the Biblical accounts, but
reference is also made to these people under other headings. The
following extracts from these authorities are given for what they may
be worth, and the writer regrets that he is not in the position to
attest their accuracy. Their chief value is that they distinctly show
how in ancient times a tradition existed that the Edomites were a
mercantile people of importance even though the reputation that they
seem to have held was perhaps exaggerated and may have been
embroidered with legendary embellishnjents in the course of time.
The high state of culture and material prosperity of the ancient
Edomites is referred to by ancient writers such as Strabo, Diodorus,
Siculus and others, and would also seem to be confirmed by what
has been revealed by modern aroheological research of their ancient
country and in particular of their capital Petra. Having suggested
that the Edomites had risen to considerable power and wealth
in consequence of their enterprising spirit in navigation and
trade the authors go on to say: — "But in the very meridian,
as we think, of their glory, they were humbled by conquest,
and the chief of them driven from their homes by the
cruelties of a foreign invasion; which, how they drew it upon
them we have scarce any room, to guess. (Footnote : Indeed
there is but very little room to guess at what might positively
have been the cause of this ruin executed upon the Edomites; but
probably, David treating with them for some of the advantages of
Elath and Ezion-geber, they refused to hearken to him, and thereby
provoked him to wrest those important places, the only marts of the
very rich commodities he wanted, out of their hands). But so it
179
was, that they became involved in a war with king David, in
which they were defeated in the Valley of Salt with the loss of eighteen
thousand men; and, though this battle seems to have decided the fate
of the kingdom, yet the Edomites were not suffered to live, but were
massacred wherever they could be found for six months together by
Joab, who slew all the males that came into his hand; so that happy
were they who could escape into strange countries. So Edom was
awed by the conquerors' garrisons, wasted and depopulated, while its
ancient inhabitants were dispersed into several parts And
others that dealt in shipping, took the longest way they could to
escape the rage of the conqueror, and went towards, or into the
Persian Gulf (see Sir Isaac Nevrton's Chronol. of anc. kingd. amended,
p. 104, 105.): in a word, they were dispersed into all parts, there
being no safety for them in their native place."* With regard to
the supremacy that the compilers of the history in question claim for
the ancient Edomites in the Bed Sea, they say as follows: — " It is
presumed that they (i.e., the Egyptians) had anciently the
sovereignty of the Red Sea, by which means they engrossed all the
trade of the Indies, and other parts which were then carried on that
way. (Vid. Huet, ubi supr. c. 48). They seem indeed to have been
dispossessed of it, if what Philostratus (De vita ApoUonia, 1. 8. c. 35.)
relates be true, by a certain prince named Erythras, (who some
imagme to be the same with Esau or Edom) for he being master of
the Rod Sea, made a law, or regulation, that the Egyptians should
not enter that sea with any ships of war, and with no more than one
merchant ship at a time. To evade which the Egyptians built a
vessel so large and capacious, that it might supply the place of
several."** and again " we observe the Edomites to have been
so well able to defend the right they claimed of the Empire of the lied
Sea, that the Egyptians were anciently unable to dispute it with them,
and were obliged to submit to such conditions as the Edomites were
pleased to allow them, which are said to have been hard enough ; for
they were allowed but one vessel of burthen wherewith they sailed
to the Indies, and not so much as one galley. Elath was particularly
so considerable a place as to give name to the easternmost of the gulfs
which terminate the Eed Sea, and had the famous metropolis of Petra,
ten miles to the westward of it (Euseb. Onon Urbium and Lecorum ad
vocem Ancd.), as is said from very good authority which has been
followed by some geographers of first note."+ It is improbable that
* A. H., Vol. I., 814, 315. ** ID., 226. t ID., 310.
180
Edom ever held such absolute and autocratic sway over the Bed Bea,
but it is quite possible that she made some agreement with Egypt by
which she undertook the Eastern carrying-trade for that nation, for
the Egyptians themselves never seem to have been great seamen.
The Western trade was at one time undertaken chiefly by the
Phoenicians, and we know that as early as about 1250 B.C. the
Phoenicians had been allowed to form a colony at Memphis, the head-
quarters for the overseas trade, and had built a temple there, dedicated
to their goddess Ashtart, and perhaps that it was owing to some such
alliance between Edom and Egypt, and the consequent settlement oi
large numbers of Edomites along the coast, that their deity Usoos
and his female counterpart came to be included in the Egyptian
pantheon. As to the possibility of the Phoenicians themselves having
settled on the Eed Sea, Professor G. Bawlinson says: — " But the
only indication which we have of any such settlement is contained in
the name ' Baal-Zephon,' which is Phoenico-Egyptian, attached to a
place on the border of the Gulf of Suez (Exod. xiv. 2, 9; Num. xxxiii.
7.); and this indication is too weak to be regarded as actual proof
They may at some periods have held possession of Elath at the head
of the Gulf of Akbak (I Kgs. IX. 26, 28; XXII. 48.), whence they
seem to have made joint voyages with the Israelites; but Elath was
usually claimed and held by Edom."*
Too little credit, it would seem, has been accorded to the
possibilities and probabilities in remote antiquity of maritime enter-
prises in the direction of the Indian Ocean and beyond, and also to
the needs for colonization that must have arisen from time to time
amongst the peoples of Western Asia, crowded as they were within
an area, the habitable portion of which was about the size of present-
day France. That these peoples required outlets for their superfluous
population is obvious, and it is only natural to suppose that those who
held access to the sea would have found such an outlet in over-seas
colonies. We find that early in their history the Phoenicians were
founding colonies; first within the bounds of the Mediterranean, but
later they extended their colonizing enterprises into the land on the
Atlantic, as far north as the Scilly Isles and Cornwall, where they
had established a settlement in order to work the tin and copper ore
there. The same was the case with the Greeks, who, fairly early in
their history, found their land too small and were obliged to send out
their superfluous population to found colonies both in other parts of
the Mediterranean and on the shores of the Black Sea. This need for
expansion is seen, in the first place from the migrations at a fairly
early date from the over-crowded regions of Mesopotamia of tlie
• G.E.. 70.
181
peoples who founded the kingdom of Syria, of the Phoeniciane, and
again of the Hebrews from Ur of the Chaldees. What actually caused
the migration of the Phoenicians from their early abode on the Gull
of Persia to the borders of the Mediterranean, is not known, but it is
possible that they were evicted from their position by a stronger race
who, coveting the valuable over-seas trade that they had founded,
took it for themselves, exactly as at a later time king David of Israel
evicted the Edomites from their position on the Elanitic Gulf of the
Bed Sea.
It would seem that, in the centuries preceding the Christian era,
the more southern portions of India and also Ceylon were being
colonised by the nations of northern India, which shows that
possibilities existed for colonies being established there at an earlier
period by the peoples of the Gulf of Persia and the Eed Sea, though to
what extent they may have availed themselves of these possibilities
we cannot tell. Already, in very early times, the people ol
Mesopotamia had founded a flourishing over-seas trade beyond the
Gulf of Persia, and that they must have been extremely enterprising,
can be gathered from the fact that the first Sargon records in his
inscriptions that his ships sailed across the western sea, i.e., the
Mediterranean. The Egyptians traded by sea with the land of Punt a
thousand years earlier than this. It is most probable that the
Phoenicians, while still a sea-faring people on the Gulf of Persia, should
have founded colonies in distant parts of the Eastern seas just aa
they did at a later period in the Atlantic. King Solomon's navy which
sailed from Ezion-geber to Tarshish for gold and silver, ivory, apes
and peacock's, went out every third year, and as it cannot be supposed
that they laid up for longer periods than necessary in the home ports,
these voyages will have carried them very far afield, for had they
merely sailed within the limits of the Arabian Sea and the western
coast of India they would have been home within the year. These
voyages must, therefore, have been undertaken into regions well
beyond Ceylon, or into any part of the Bay of Bengal, and, when it
is considered that the distance from Ceylon to the Straits of Malacca
is about the same as from Palestine to the Straits of Messina,
Solomon's fleet could easily have sailed as far as into the Malay
Archipelago and even into the Pacific and back again within the limit
of the three years. That Tarshish should have been either the
TarsesBus in Spain, or Carthage, as some have supposed, is out of the
question when both the character of the merchandise and the duration
of the voyage are considered. In this connection Ophir should be
mentioned. There is no reason why Josephus should not Save known
what he was talking about when, speaking of Solomon's fleet, he says
that it went " to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the
Aurea Chersonesus which belongs to India, to fetch him gold." 'llie
182
manner in which Josephus makes this statement certainly implies
that the whereabout of the Aurea Chersonesus, its being identical
with the ancient Ophir, and the fact that it belonged to India though it
was not India proper, were well established facts in his day, and that
it was a land famous for its gold is evident from the name that was
given it in later times. It is most improbable that Solomon's sailors
were pioneers and we can take it for granted that the Edomites had
already laid the foundations of the trade which the Israelitish-
Phoenician fleet took over, and very possibly in these distant parts
the Edomites had already founded colonies to which those would have
tied who escaped by sea from the ruthless treatment that was accorded
to their conquered land by King David. That the Edomites should
have had settlements as far afield as the Malay and the adjoining
archipelago is really quite as possible as that the Phoenicians should
have had a colony in Britain. What other settlements may have been
founded in the Bay of Bengal, the Indies, or even beyond, as a result
of the gpreat wars that for centuries so ruthlessly harassed the peoples
of Western Asia is a very interesting field for conjecture; that those
who lived on the sea-boards of the Gulf of Persia and the upper end
of the Bed Sea and thus had the disposal of shipping made use of
this in order to escape from their oppressors, is most probable. In
this manner the people of Sidon fled and took refuge in Tyre when
they were attacked by the Philistines, and our eighteenth century
historians appear to know that the Edomites made use of their
shipping to get away from the brutal treatment of Joab.
The possession of ships suitable for these long voyages need hardly
be questioned, nor the knowledge of the ancient navigators, which
was doubtless quite as efficient as that of the Vikings who sailed to
Iceland and Greenland, and, as it is believed, also to America, or of
Columbus in the 15th century. We know that about 4000 B.C. the
Egyptians were building ships 170 feet in length, and almost as early
as that they traded with the countries at the southern end of the Red
Sea; theire can hardly be any doubt that the art of shipbuilding must
have developed between that time and 1500 B.C. With regard to
sailing in the Indian Ocean we need only consider the trade carried
on at the present day between India and the coast of Africa in the
small Arab dhows, to appreciate what was possible to those earlier
mariners whose civilization and knowledge was certainly greater than
that of the men who ply this trade to-day. A far more remarkable
and romantic phenomenon of navigation and colonization than that
which has been sugg^ted above is pointed out by Perry as having
taken place in the Pacific in early times in our era. Here it was the
question for the first explorers of finding infinitesimal spots in the
huge wilderness of the Pacific Ocean and that without the guidance or
shelter of any continental coast-lines. We give the following short
183
quotation from Perry and a glance at the map will explain the rest.
" The Polynesians are first heard of in Samoa and Fiji, whioh is half
Polynesian and half Melanesian, about A.D. 450 About the year
A.D. 650, great voyages of discovery began from this region out into
the eastern Pacific. Tu-te-rangi-atea, brother of Hui-te-rangiora, first
reached Tahiti, and built a great house in the island of Eaiatea, probably
the great marae of Opoa which was celebrated all over eastern Polynesia
as the sacred meeting-place of all the tribes of those parts.' Many
islands were discovered by these men from the west, and a list of them
IB preserved in the genealogies. Hawaii was settled in A.D. 650, so far
as can be told. ProbablyEaster Island was colonized about then; and
the Marquesas in A.D. 675. The date of the first colonization of New
Zealand is uncertain; it may have been visited during the first great
movement out from Fiji and elsewhere about A.D. 650 in the time of
Hui-te-rangiora. Mention is made of the visit to New Zealand of a
Polynesian voyager, Maku, about A.D. 850; but Maori nobility trace
their descent to men who came from Earatonga about A.D. 1350."*
Before closing this chapter we wish to indicate the possibility
that the physical type of the Bomeans may not differ so much from
that of the ancient Edomites as might, on first consideration, be
expected. The physical types of the Bomeans require to be noticed;.
we will, therefore, give the following particulars gathered from Hose
and McDougall. Leaving on one side, for a moment, the fact that the
Ibans and the Kayans constitute, in a way, a separate group, and also
that they immigrated into Borneo at a more recent date, we learn
that " from a very early period the island has been inhabited in all
parts by a people of a common origin whose surviving descendants
are the tribes we have classed as Klemantan, Kenyahs, and
Punan. .... It seems not improbable that at this early period,
perhaps one preceding the separation of Borneo, Sumatra, and Java
from the mainland, this people was scattered over a large part of
this area. For in several of the wilder parts, where the great forest
areas remain untouched, bands of nomads closely resembling the
Punan of Borneo are still to be found, notably the Orang Kubu of
Sumatra, and perhaps the Bantiks of northern Celebes It
is impossible to make any confident assertion as to the affinities of
this widely diffused people from which we believe the Punan, tJie
Kenyahs, and Klemantans to be descended, but the physical
characters of these tribes, in respect of which they differ but slightly
from one another, lead us to suppose that it was formed by a
* W.J.P., 106.
184
blending of CaucasiG and Monogoloid elements, the features of tlje
former predominating in the race thus formed."*
The Kay ana, according to tradition, arrived in Borneo in the
fourteenth century, or at no distant date in history. They are
supposed to have migrated to Borneo from the base of the Irrawadi
by way of Tenasserim, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra. The
Kay ana are thus represented as being of the same stock as the
Koran, the Chins, and the Kakhyens of Burmah, as also of the
Nagaa of Manipur and of the Naga Hills of Assam, "It seems
highly probable that all these, together with the Kayans, are
surviving branches of a people which occupied a large area of south-
eastern Asia, more especially, the basin of the Irrawadi, for a
considerable period before the first of the successive invasions which
have given rise to the existing Burmese and Shan nations. The
physical characters of all of them are consistent with the view taken
above, namely, that they represent the original Indonesian
population of which the Klemantans of Borneo are the pure type,
modified by later infusions of Mongol blood. In all these occur
individuals who are described as being of almost purely Caucasio
type and very light in colour.**
The general conclusion would seem that these peoples are an
admixture of Caucasian and Mongoloid elements in which the former
strongly predominates.
On the assumption that certain of the tribes of Borneo may be
ancient Edomites, we venture to suggest that the admixture of
Oaucaaic and Mongoloid blood may abeady, in the main have taken
place prior to their leaving the land of their origin. Western Asia. The
possibilities that existed in ancient Canaan for the forming of mixed
races was seemingly unlimited when one takes into account the different
peoples that existed within its borders and in the countries
immediately adjoining. We thus find living intermixed, or as near
neighbours, the following elements. Besides the Semites, i.e., the
Hebrews themselves, there were the Amorites — a blonde race with
blue eyes, light, red hair, and handsome regular features — , the
Philistines — a people supposed to have come from Krete via Egypt — ,
the ancient, pre-historic, neolithic Canaanites, and, not least, the
Mongoloid Hittites. Close to their borders were the Egyptians and
the " Cushites " or black-skinned negroes, and the Nubians. With
all these peoples the Edomites would have come in more or less
close and intimate contact, though above all with the Amorites, who
* H.mD., 11., 225, 226. ** ID., 237.
185
were, it is believed, identical with the Horites, and with the Hittites,
their near neighbours to the north. They seem from the first to
have had very little dealings with their Semitic kinsmen the
Israelites. '
Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites, was, according to the little
we know of him, an interesting and curious character. He
evidently set no store by the traditions of his race; he despised his
birthright, and, when he came to marrying, he rejected the women
of his own people, and of his wives, two were Hittites, one a Horite,
another an Ishmaelite, who, though a grand-daughter of Abraham,
was by an Egyptian mother. Esau himself was " red," and this
is possibly explained by the fact that his mother was a Syrian with
probably an infusion of " blond " Amorite blood. Of the Hittites,
modern archeological research has much to tell. What is of
particular interest is that they were of a Mongoloid type, and, if we
are to believe the Egyptian paintings, their skins were yellow. In
a little book, recently re-issued. Professor Sayce speaks of the
Hittites, " with their yellow skin and Mongoloid features," and
says: — " Mr. Tomkins has called the Hittite face ' snouty.' It is
marked by an excessive prognathism, which we look for in vain
among the other populations of Western Asia. The nose is straight,
though somewhat broad, the lips full, the cheek-bones high, the
eyebrows fairly prominent, the forehead receding like the chin, and
the face hairless In figure the Hittite was stout and thick-
limbed, and apparently of no great height."* We are further told
that, besides his skin being yellow and his features Mongoloid, his
hair and eyes were black. It would appear that in the days of
Abraham and his immediate descendants, no other Semitic peoples
existed in the southern portions of Canaan, and therefore Isaac, and
his son Jacob also, were obliged to go to their kinsfolk in Syria to
get wives of their own race. This, as we have seen, Esau did not
trouble to do, and in all probability his sons and further descendants
considered the question of race as little as he did himself. That no
friendship existed between the Edomites and the Horites amongst
whom they lived, is evident from from the fact that they fairly soon
destroyed them. (Deut. II. 12. 22.). A certain portion of them
they possibly absorbed. Though Esau himself took a Horite woman
for a wife, his sons evidently did not consider them good enough
for them, for we find that Eliphaz had a Horite only as concubine,
even though she was the daughter of one of their chiefs
(Gen. XXXIV.); this would seem to indicate that the Edomites took
their wives elsewhere. That they would have followed the example
of their ancestor and in many cases sought them amongst the
* A.H.S., 192.
186
daughters of the Hittites, their near neighbours in southern Judea is
probable, and in this way the Edomites would have gained a strong
infusion of Mongoloid blood and racial characteristics. It was no
doubt from this Hittite colony that Esau had obtained his two first
wives, Adah and Judith.. It is particularly interesting to note the
portion of this settlement located on and around Mount Hebron, for
it became the possession of the Edomite clan of the Calabites. It
is significant that Caleb the spy, who was an Edomite of the tribe
of Kenaz, made a special request that Mount Hebron, which would
have included the surrounding district, should be given to him as his
inheritance in reward for his services. That he particularly chose
this portion may have been due to the fact that he and his people
had been intimately allied with the Hittites of that district whom he
may have wished to save fnnn the wholesale extinction that the
Isrsielitee endeavoured to mete out to the peoples of Canaan, for
we find that he made a special point of driving away the other people
who were established within the region of his new domains (Jos. XV.
14.). In all probability the Edomites had always been on terms of
friendship with their near neighbours, from whom the father of their
race had chosen two of his wives. It may also be supposed that at
the approach of the ruthless Israelites a certain portion of the Hittites
fled and took refuge with the Edomites. Thus much points to the
probability that the Edomites had a strong admixture of Hittite
blood, and with the absorption of a portion of the Horites — who,
as we have said, are believed to have been of the same race as the
Amorites, as well as with slighter admixtures with other Canaanitish
races and possibly with the Egyptians, they were certain a very
mixed race, which may, like the Bomeans of to-day, be broadly
described as of Gaucasio and Mongoloid origin, the former strongly
predominating.
Chapter IX.
CONCLUSION.
Before bring this to a close we wish to point out some other
customs amongst the peoples which have now been considered, as
they seem to be closely related to those of the ancient Western
Asiatics and EgyptiasA.
There is a curious bridal custom of the Bunyoro's in the
Uganda Protectorate; when the bridegroom gives his promise that
he will care for the bride, he confirms this promise by placing his
187
hand on the inside of her thigh. We find the exact equivalent in
Gen. XLVII. 27. where Jacob in making his son Joseph solemnly
promise that he would take his body back to Canaan to be buried
there, made his son place his hand on the inside of his thigh when
the promise was given.
It has been seen how bark-cloth is used in Africa in connection
with the burial of the dead. Bark-cloth is also used by the Bomean
tribes and worn when in mourning. This material seems to be the
equivalent of the sack-cloth worn in mourning by the ancient
Hebrews, and it is very probable that this sack-cloth was made out
of the bark of trees and was the same as the bark-cloth made to-day
by the natives of Africa and Borneo.
We should like to call particular attention tc the Bomean
custom of jar-burial, which is so strikingly typical oi ancient Western
Asiatic and later-day Egyptian practice.
The Bomean customs relating to adoption are very reminiscent
of ancient Hebrew practice. " When the appointed day arrives the
woman sits in her room propped up and with a cloth round her, in
the attitude generally adopted during deUvery. The child is pushed
forward from behind between the woman's legs, and if it is a young
child, it is put to the breast and encouraged to suck."* The
Egyptian custom of sucking at the breast as a rite in the ceremony
of adoption has already been noticed, but the earlier portion of the
procedure now described is best compared with the Hebrew practice
related in Gen. XXX. 3. " and she shall bear upon my knees that
I may also have children by her. ' ' The intention in both cases is
obviously the same, i.e., to suggest by various outward acts the fact
that the child adopted is to be looked upon as if it were physically the
child of the woman who adopts it.
Again, the customs of the Bomeans, very similar to those of
the African tribes under review, with regard to purifications after
battle, after death, etc., and of the worship at the time of the new
moon, are typically Western Asiatic.
The custom of removing all hair from the face and body, we
find, both amongst the natives of Kenya Colony and those of Borneo,
was a well-known practice in ancient Egypt and probably also
amongst the Canaanitish peoples.
When considering ceremonial customs and laws amongst nartive
tribes, it has been usual in the past for Europeans who have come
in intimate contact with certain natives to compare these with
those of the Mosaic law, with the result that much speculation has
» H.mD., I., 78. ^ ~"
168
aris^i as to whether the native tribes in different parts of the world
may be the dispersed tribes of the Israehtes. It is far from the
writer's intention to dispute such possibilities; he only wishes to
point out that these particular sinailarities, which we have already
noticed, are by no means sufficient evidence in themselves to prove
the exact origin of such tribes; such evidence can only be of
secondary importance, and only of value as support for other proofs,
and for this reason native ceremonial customs have been dwelt but
lightly on in these pages. It is well to mention that the ceremonial
law found amongst some of the tribes of Africa, strongly reminds one
both in the completeness of its organization, and in many remarkable
details, of the Mosaic law, even though it is apparent that
it has, with the course of time, xmdergone the same process of
degeneration as we find to be the case in a more general way with
everything else connected with these people. It must be remembered
that Mosaic ceremonial law was to a great extent founded on the
code of Khammurabi — ^to which no doubt the ceremonial laws of
Egypt were very similar — modified and purified, and given to the
Jews as a concession, in place of the far simpler form of service
which, one realizes, is the ideal that is the foundation of the pure
worship of the one God Jehovah. The code of Khammurabi from
about 2000 B.C. and onward governed all the peoples of Western
Asia, and, in its more degenerate form, it would appear to be
governing " native " tribes in almost every portion of the world
to-day. That the peoples of Western Asia were scattered to the
" four winds " as the result of centuries of ruthless warfare, when
tribes and peoples were carried away into captivity or fled to escape
this dreaded fate, is undoubted, and this study seems to show that
they have wandered very far afield. Indeed, the extent to which
they may have travelled, carrying with them their Western Asiatic
civilization in its simpler forms and peopling and colonizing the most
widespread and far distant parts of the globe is probably much
greater than one has dared to iniagine.
The writer ventures to state his belief that not only all the
so-called " Hansitic " and "Nilotic" tribes of Kenya Colony, but
also such tribes as the Kikuyu, Akamba and other alUed races, are
Western Asiatics, who have in historic times immigrated into this
portion of Africa. Apd he beUeves further that these Western
Asiatics— peoples of Canfian and Syria in particular — are to be foubd
scattered over wide portions of the continent of Africa and even
far down into the soqth.
The very changed physical characteristioB of these peoples may,
the writer believes, be putly ascribed to the changed environment
and conditions of life wbic^ came about on their migrating into these
regicwa, and that the circumstances which, not least, effected such
189
alteration of physical type, may be sought in the flagrant violation
of 80 many of the laws of nature, suoh as that of completely shaving
the head from earliest childhood, and of exposing all parts of the
human body to the full force of a tropical sun. Such serious
infractions of natural laws must inevitably produce a corresponding
violent re-action on the part of nature, in order to bring about a
modification of the physical frame to enable it to conform to new
conditions. No doubt, too, their moral and mental degradation will
have had something to answer for in this respect. But another
factor to be taken into consideration in this connection, and one that
has in all probability had very far-reaching results in the formation
of present-day racial characteristics amongst those African tribes
which we have been considering, is that of the action of the law of
the survival of the fittest. Infant mortality amongst these African
natives is, as is well-known, very high, and, in all probability, it
has always been so. That the Semitic and other Western Asiatic
tribes which have wandered down into Africa have suffered an
infusion of Negro blood is evident, but we do not believe that this
has been so great as to account directly for the proportion of negroid
characteristics to be found amongst these tribes to-day. We are
rather inclined to believe that under the law of the survival of the
fittest, the negroid blood has survived at the cost of the Asiatic, as
more resistant to the diseases and the rigorous climatic conditions
of tropical countries.
Another point that pwrticularly intejtested jfche writer in
connection with the present study, is the importance of establishing
what is the true relationship between food-producing peoples and
food-gathering peoples. He feels it is of vital consequence if a
correct understanding of the problems of the spread of civilizations
and the distribution of mankind over the surface of the earth is to be
obtained. In the course of his studies a good deal of light has been
thrown on this subject. We have already referred to the drawbacks
of working out the problems dealt with in this review, when far
from the great centres of civilization and science, with pll the
facilities that they hold; but there are also some counter-balancing
advantages in being on the spot, surrounded by native life, and
hving as the writer does in touch both with food-producing and
food-gathering tribes, and he has been able to arrive at certain
conclusions with regard to their relation to one another which he
believes to be of value, and which he hopes to publish before long.
He only wishes to add here that he is convinced that the food-
gathering tribes of this portion of Africa are not any more
" primitive " than are the food-producing tribes but that instead,
they are, as he hopes to show, only more degenerate than the others.
Curiously enough the study of this question would seem to produoe
190
further evidence in support of what may have been proved here aa
to the origin of the native races which are the subject of this review.
But, if the wfriter's thesis proves to be correct, another point
of interest of quite a different character arises, namely — ^the
possibility of visuaUzing and reconstructing much in the life and
mentality of the ancient peoples of Egypt and Western Asia, through
the study of, and by comparison with the life and mentality of
native tribes to-day. When all due allowances for cultural
degradation are made, there seems to be a residue common both
to the modern, degenerated descendants, and to their ancient
ancestors which is remarkable.
In bringing this to a conclusion the writer feels that he cannot
do better than subscribe to the opinions expressed in the following
quotations from Perry's " The Children of the Sun ": —
" The general attitude and methods of this school of thought have
been well summarized by Elvers in his small pamphlet on " History
and Ethnology," which should be universally read by those
interested in these studies. He speaks of the time, ten years or
more ago, when the historical method of study began under the
influence of himself and Eliot Smith. ' At this more remote period
anthropology — I use the term anthiropology advisedly — was wholly
under the domination of a crude evolutionary standpoint. The aim
of the anthropologist was to work out a scheme of human progress
according to which language, social organization, reUgion, and
material art had developed through the action of certain principles
or laws. It was assumed that the manifold peoples of the earth
represented stages in this process of evolution, and it was supposed
that by the comparative study of the culture of these different
peoples it would be possible to formulate the laws by which the
process of evolution had been directed and governed. It was
assumed the time-order of different elements of culture had been
everywhere the same; that if matrilineal institutions preceded
patrilineal in Europe and Asia, this must also have been the case
in Oceania and America; that if cremation is later than inhumation
in India, it has also been later everywhere else. This assumption
was fortified by attempts to show that there were reasons, usually
psychological in nature, according to which there was something in
the universal constitution of the human mind, or in some condition
of the environment, or inherent in the constitutiom of human society,
which made it necessary that patrilineal institutions should have
grown out of matrilineal, and that inhumation should be earlier than
cremation. Moreover, it was assumed as an essential part of the
general framework of the science that, after the original dispersal of
mankind, or possibly owing to the independent evolution of different
191
main varieties of Man, large portions of the earth had been out off
from intercourse with others, so that the process of evolution had
taken place in them independently. When similarities, even in
minute points of detail, were found in these regions, supposed to be
wholly isolated from one another, it was held that they were due Co
the uniformity in the constitution of the human mind, which, working
on similar lines, had brought forth similar products, whether in
social organization, religion, or material culture."
" This position is being hotly contested, as is evident to any
reader of this book. As Eivers says in the pamphlet just quoted,
when speaking of the rise of the historical school, and of its attitude
towards the older " evolutionary " school of thought: ' The
adherents of the recent movement to which I have referred regwd
the whole of this construction with its main supports of mental
uniformity and orderly sequence as built upon the sand. It is
claimed that there has been no such isolation of one part of the earth
from the other as has been assumed by the advocates of independent
evolution, but that means of navigation have been capable, for
longer periods than has been supposed, of carrying man to any part
of the earth. The wide-spread similarities of culture are, it is held,
due in the main, if not wholly, to the spread of customs and
institutions from some centre in which local conditions favoured
their development.' This group challenges the other to show that
it is right in using evidence indiscriminately from all over the earth
without regard to time or place, and demands stricter canons of
evidence. It asserts that it can be shown that certain less advanced
communities are derived from those more advanced and wants to
know where such a process stops.
" The quarrel therefore, between the two schools centres round
culture degradation. Tylor recognised the importance of this process.
He remarks that: — ' It would be a valuable contribution to the
study of civilization to have the action of decUne and fall investigated
on a wider and more exact basis of evidence than has yet been
attempted. The cases here stated are probably but part of the long
series which might be brought forward to prove degeneration of
culture to have been by no means the primary cause of the existence
of barbarism and savagery in the world, but a secondary action largely
and deeply affecting the general development of civilization I .... *
The writer hopes in his next publication to show what this
primary cause may have been.
* W.J.P., 467-469. ~
192
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193
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