THE NANDI : THEIR LANGUAGE AND FOLK-LORE.
The Nandi : their Language and Polk-lore. By A. C. Hollis. With Introduction by Sir Charles Eliot. (The Clarendon Press. 16s. net.)—Mr. Hollis, already known for his work on the Masai, has followed it up with another treatise dealing with the cognate tribe of the Nandi. This people, for some time one of the most troublesome elements in the Uganda Protectorate, has now been taught a respect for order, and Mr. Hollis anticipates a more prosperous future for them. They BO3M to occupy an intellectual level which gives at least some promise of response to a wise and considerate treatment. Mr. Hollis's volume contains a sketch of the history of the people and of their customs, social and religious. Then we have specimens of their folk-lore, and finally a grammar and vocabulary. We must be content with expressing our sense of the energy and industry with which the author has dealt with the subject. It is no small service that is done to the Empire when its subject-races are studied in this fashion. The Nandi are, as has been said, akin to the Masai, and seeing "The Story of the Creation' among the legends, we looked for something of the Mosaic colouring that the Masai myths have been said to possess. Hero there is nothing of the kind. God, we are told, found on the earth man, the elephant, and the thunder. The thunder flies up to heaven to get out of man's way ; the elephant despises him because he is small, and is shot with a poisoned arrow. Here we have the usual childish type from which the Mosaic cosmogony is so conspicuously different.
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