The other members of this family are (a) the Somauli, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, about Cape Guardafui and (b) the Gallas, or Ilmorma, a pastoral people spread over a vast area to the south of Abyssinia, and who so encroach upon that country that they are in a fair way of reducing it altogether.
The Gallas, like the Danakil, and the Danakil, like the Somauli and Gallas, are a pastoral people—pastoral, locomotive, wild, and intractable—with manners that remind us of the Arab of Asia, the Kaffre of Southern Africa, or of the Berber of the Desert of Sahara; and it is these whom they resemble, more or less closely, in their forms—more or less closely in their social constitution. Like all such populations, they fall into numerous tribes, each under the influence of their chief; with the spirit of blood, or pedigree, running strong amongst them. Every man belongs to his tribe, or class, and is proud of being attached to it. Of the Danakil alone, more than fifty of these tribual divisions are known by name.
In respect to creed the Danakil are what the neighbourhood of Arabia leads us to expect, Mahometans, more or less incompletely converted; and this is the general rule for the eastern coast of Africa—the coast, but not the interior. In the interior we get amongst pagans. On the other hand, Abyssinia and some of the parts about it are Christian. Dr. Beke considered that he found traces of a corrupt and displaced Christianity among the Gallas.
The fact of the neighbourhood of Arabia having determined a large portion of the eastern coast of Africa to Mahometanism explains the meaning of the words Kaffre, and Caffraria, or Kafferland. Kaffre, in the mouth of an Arab, means Infidel. It means Infidel not only in the mouth of an Arab, but in that of any Mahometan. In different languages it takes different forms, and is applied to different populations. In Persia it expressed the old Fire-worshippers, since Guebre is but another form of it. In Cabul it denotes the occupants of a district to the north of Peshawur, wherein the natives still reject Mahometanism, and, so doing, are Kafirs, their country being Kaferistan. In Turkey it generally means a Christian—since Giaour is neither more nor less than Kafir in the mouth of a Turk.
But to return to Eastern Africa. Where the Arab influence ceases, the land of the Kaffres begins.
Of these Kaffres more may be seen in [group VII].
The black figure (modelled from life) is evidently more negro than aught else. The hair is crisp, to say the least of it, and the skin black; the open and patulous character of the nostrils, and their lateral position, claim attention. They are by no means exaggerated.
The youth from whom the figure was taken belonged to the Msegurra tribe; of which I can only state that it is an occupant of some part of the back of the coast of Zanzibar, or Mozambique.
The present group prepares us for a Kaffre; let it also prepare us for a negro one. That all Africans are not negroes may be seen from the figures before us. The negro form is by no means universal—not even in the hottest parts of Africa—not even between the tropics: it is only in the lower levels that the true negro is to be found. Look for him amongst the high pastures of the mountains, look for him even on the hot but arid plateaus of the desert, and you search in vain. Tribes with dark skins you may find, tribes with hair more or less wavy, or frizzly, tribes with features heavy, massive, and coarse—but the true and typical negro, with his short woolly hair, and his thick projecting lips you will not find. Wherever he is the occupant, the soil is alluvial, and the heat of the atmosphere is combined with moisture. Wherever the land gets high and dry, the inhabitant is brown rather than black, and long-haired rather than frizzly headed. His features, too, become more prominent.