STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MAN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 274, 15 August 1919, Page 7

STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MAN

MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA.' The Rev. John Roscoe, who has undertaken an ethnological mission to Central Africa on behalf of tho Royal Society, has sailed from England for Mombasa, says the "Times." Mr. Roscoe, before he became rector of Ovinjjtnn,/ Norfolk, had spent 25 years in Central Africa—mostly in tho tfganna Protcctorate-and his works on tho £agan<la and Northern Bantu rank among the classics of anthropology. Tho object of the expedition, the funds for which have been supplied by Mr. R. J. Mackie, of Glasgow, is the • study of certain African races. which are 'still comparatively unaffected by European civilisation, especially various' pastoral tribes.. Of these, tho Bahima and Banyoi'o, who dwell in the region of the JSUe headquarters, ace perhaps the be«t known.

Irom .Mombasa. Mr. Roscoe will pay short visits to the Galla and Kikuyn, and then settle down to the investigation of the pastoral tribe.? to the west and north of Victoria Nyanza. He hopes (o extend his researches to the pomilous and luthorto little known tribes of Mount Llgon, of whom some are said to be still cannibals. Mr. Roscoo will descend the valley of the Nile, to Khartum investigating somo of the Nilotic tribes who belong to « different stock from the Bantu tribes.of the Uganda Protectorate. He will return to England bv Egypt. . It is expected'that the expedition will last about two years. Anthropolcists are confident that, in the skilful and experienced hands of ita leader, it will yield a large and valuable accession to our knowledge of the tribes in question. Apart from the purely scientific resuite of the expedition, it is honed.that the '■ information acquired concerning these pastoral, tribes will prove of nrac" tical utility, by enabling the Government to -pursue an enlightened policy for the economic development of the country by means of cattle-breeding nml dairy produce. 'IV conception and organisation of the expedition are chiefly duo to Sir ,T. G. Frnzer, the well-known author of "The Golden Bough." It has been decided bv the Supremo Court at Washington that the property /of lion-resident citizens of tho United ' States is to be subject, to income tax. „ Lieutenant Fontan, who left Villacon- ' Way bv air and attempted to fly from . I'mis to Dakar, .West.Africa, was forced, . owing to engine trouble, to descend in SeulluTii Spain. Miss Jane Jeffrey, an English woman / Hi" 'has been serving with the American Kod. Cross as a nurse, has been awarded the American Distinguished Service Cross.