The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-11 00:00:00

Ethnological Society.

The last meeting of the season of this society was
held yesterday evening in their rooms in St. Mar-
tin's-place—the president, Mr. J. Crawfard, in the
chair.

The first paper was read by Mr. S. W. BAKER,
" On the Tribes of the Nile Basin," in which he de-
scribed many of the native tribes in the centre of
Africa with whom he and Mrs. Baker came in con-
tact during his exploration of the sources of the Nile.
He confined himself principally to a description of
those tribes which appear to have been completely
shut out from the world's history, having been
barred out from the earliest ages from the rest of
the world by the almost interminable marsh through
which the White Nile winds its course. Without
any exception they are without a belief in a Su-
preme Being, nor have they any form of idolatry or
superstition. The men are perfectly naked, appa-
rently not knowing that they are so ; the girls, up
to the age of about 15, are also entirely naked, after
which period they wear a slight fringe of a few
inches in length. They are physically strong, ex-
ceedingly tall and muscular ; they build small cir-
cular huts, congregate in villages, and generally cul-
tivate a small amount of grain (dhurra) on the
drier portions of their land. There is no actual
negro type, excepting the woolly hair; the fore-
head is rather low, the head broad, the back of the
skull heavy, but neither is the jaw prominent
nor are the lips extraordinarily full, nor is the
nose flattened. They possess large herds of cat-
tle, which they never kill, contenting themselves
with bleeding them periodically, sometimes
drinking the blood raw, sometimes boiling
it. Milk is their chief diet, invariably mixed with
cow's urine. They catch game in pitfalls, spear fish
with harpoons, by casting at random, and they are
continually at war with neighbouring tribes owing
to razzias upon their herds. They have no laws of
marriage, the number of a man's wives depending
upon his wealth in cattle, a wife being invariably
purchased for her value in cows. This may be
accepted as a general outline of the tribes bordering
the White Nile. They are armed with lances, some
with bows and arrows, clubs of iron wood, and they
are governed by chiefs, none of whom appear to
have much control over their subjects. Glass beads,
and both copper and iron rings, iron hoes, and lance
heads are the common articles of barter. They
work in iron, forming lances, arrow heads carefully
barbed, and they prepare charcoal for smith's work.
Their ornaments consist of beads, iron rings, with
which the women load their ankles, and strings of
rounded pieces of river shells wound round their
waists and necks. In some countries, such as the
Shir, where no iron ore exists, the arrowheads are
formed of hard wood. The absence of articles and
weapons of metal in no way proves their excess of
savagedom : having no metals to work there are no
blacksmiths. The hard wood supplies the want of
iron, as the hard stone is used by the New Zea-
lander, and fling stones formerly served for arrow
heads. The Kytch tribe is the exception to all others
in abject misery and in the lowest state of savage-
dom. They never cultivate, probably owing to the
miserable marsh, which would render it impossible.
Thus they are dependent upon fishing and trapping
for their existence, neither of which appears to be
productive, as the natives ere a race of skeletons.
They wander over the country searching for lizards,
mice, snakes, locusts, and white ants. Hours are
spent in digging field mice from their burrows.
The men are of course naked, and their hair is
stained red by a plaster of cow dung and wood
ashes, the change of colour being the effect of the
potash. The women are equally naked as the men,'
not having the slight attempt at clothing common
among other tribes. Should a man become old his
eldest son occupies the place of his father in the
domestic establishment, and succeeds to his parent's
wives. Nothing can be lower in the human race
than this wretched tribe ; there is hardly a remove
in advance of the chimpanzee, except the power of
speech. In the sth degree of North latitude the
Bari tribe commences, and the natives of that dis-
trict are far superior to the three previously de-
scribed. The country is dry and fertile, and diver-
sified by mountains. The men and women are tall
and muscular, the mountains are rich in iron ore,
which they smelt and work with great dexterity.
They cultivate the ground and use manure for their
crops. Their huts are, like those of all African
tribes, circular, having a low doorway, about two
feet high, like the entrance to a dog kennel. Mr.
Baker attaches considerable importance to the gene-
rally circular form of the huts of the African tribes,
as characteristic of their similarity. The distinc-
tions of tribes are marked, almost without excep-
tion, by distinctions in head-dress,which in all cases
is accompanied by a distinct language. On reach-
ing the western head of the Nile, in North latitude
2 deg. 15 min., a sudden change takes place. The
river is the boundary of savagedom, and on cross-
ing the ferry to the south bank Mr. Baker came to
people differing totally in their appearance and
habits from those on the north. That country,
named Unyoro, is governed by a despot, and it ex-
hibits a degree of order and civilisation unknown to
the northern tribes. Nakedness is considered a
disgrace, and both men and women are carefully
clothed with bark cloth or prepared skins. They
are excellent smiths, they draw fire, and make good
knives and lances ; cultivate the ground with
great care, grow tobacco, and indulge in the use
of double pipes, two bowls being united to a single
stem, and they aro thus enabled to smoke two qua-
lites of tobacco at one time. Their huts, though
circular, are much larger and more lofty than those
of the other tribes, and have an entrance six feet
high, with portico. Mr. Baker then proceeded to
notice the tribes on the borders of Abyssinia, who
are in a still superior state of civilisation. The
Abyssinian affluents of the Nile, he observed, sprung
from a land inhabited by the only independent
Christian country in the whole of Africa, among
whom reading and writing are common, and where
the features and form of the inhabitants are closely
allied to the European, forming a strong contrast to
the tribes who inhabit the banks of the White Nile.
Dr. BEKE made some remarks on the retrogression
of civilisation among the African tribes. In his
opinion they are becoming more and more savage,
and he asserted that nearly all travellers in Africa
were of that opinion. He referred to the period,
1,500 years ago, when the people of Abyssinia were
in a highly enlightened condition, and far above the
state of civilisation now existing there. Dr. Beke
produced a letter which he had that day received
from the Emperor Theodore, in which it was stated
that the captives had been liberated.
Lieutenant-Colonel FYTC lIE then read a paper on
the aborigines of the Andaman Islands, giving an
account of the conduct of three of the natives who
had been captured and attempted to be civilised,
but whom it was found impossible to accustom to
the habits of civilisation, the wearing of clothes
having the effect of producing consumption. After
having been instructed as much as it was possible,
they were sent back to their tribe.

Dr. MO CET also mentioned the attempts that had
been made to civilise some of the Andaman islanders,
Which, in the case of a young girl, had proved very
successful.
Mr. CULL read an obituary notice of the late Dr.
Conolly, one of the early founders of the Ethno-
logical Society.
Mr. CRAWFURD then adjourned the meeting till
November next.

Br. Charles H. Stedman, a widely known and
lately.
highly esteemed physician of Boston, died in, that city