This Is The Most Southerly Kingdom Of The Wahuma, Though Not The
Farthest Spread Of Its People, For We Find
The Watusi, who are
emigrants from Karague of the same stock, overlooking the
Tanganyika Lake from the hills of Uhha,
And tending their cattle
all over Unyamuezi under the protection of the native negro
chiefs; and we also hear that the Wapoka of Fipa, south of the
Rukwa Lake are the same. How or when their name became changed
from Wahuma to Watusi no one is able to explain; but, again
deducing the past from the present, we cannot help suspecting
that, in the same way as this change has taken place, the name
Galla may have been changed from Hubshi, and Wahuma from Gallas.
But though in these southern regions the name of the clan has
been changed, the princes still retain the title of Wahinda as in
Karague, instead of Wawitu as in Unyoro, and are considered of
such noble breed that many of the pure negro chiefs delight in
saying, I am a Mhinda, or prince, to the confusion of travellers,
which confusion is increased by the Wahuma habits of conforming
to the regulations of the different countries they adopt. For
instance, the Wahuma of Uganda and Karague, though so close to
Unyoro, do not extract their lower incisors; and though the
Wanyoro only use the spear in war, the Wahuma in Karague are the
most expert archers in Africa. We are thus left only the one
very distinguishing mark, the physical appearance of this
remarkable race, partaking even more of the phlegmatic nature of
the Shemitic father than the nervous boisterous temperament of
the Hamitic mother, as a certain clue to their Shem-Hamitic
origin.
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