MYSTERIOUS TRIBES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 207, 10 December 1910, Page 9

MYSTERIOUS TRIBES.

WHITE RACES IN AFRICA. There always has existed a curious fascination for the civilised world in the idea that in remote parts of tne tropits, amid the dark-skinned races, there exist mysterious isolated white tribes bearing a strong resemblance to the civilised branches of the Caucasian races. The early adventurers in Central and South America brought home many tales of extraordinary cities beyond the mountains, and vague stories afloat in South Africa forty years ago furnished Rider Haggard with a theme for one of his best novels. Similar legends are met in almost all the less explored parts of the globe, and they have always certain features in common. The isolated white people almost invariably inhabit a mountainous region in a vague "interior," always the "just beyond"; they hold aloof from the surrounding races;'they are seldom seen, [ and yet are definitely stated to be More civilised and better educated than the I darker masses, whom they avoid. Who they are and whence they came no one knows; native fables afford no explanation. Once it was thought that forgotten white explorers might have built up unknown kingdoms in the wild places of the earth, but upon examination these theories vanish as rapidly as,| do the white tribes themselves, and the ultimate explanation is almost prosaic. Yet so strong a hold has the idea gained that even in the beginning of the twentieth century the possibility of the white races is not altogether scoffed at. It is less than seven years ago that an American officer engaged in the opera-, tions against the Moros in the Philippines collected apparently substantial evidence relating to a mysterious white rate in the island' oi Mindanao. The; mountainous dlstrict in the centre of this

But along the seaboard many stories are told of the fierce white people who have their home in the forest-clad mountains of the interior. Eye-witnesses deto having seen a strange fair-com-plexioned girl, who fled towards the hills as soon as she was addressed. Other men and women of a light-complexioned race are said to have been seen by more venturesome natives who were bold enough to approach the wild mountain district. The American officer was so impressed that' he determined to conduct an exploring party across the centre of 1 the island. But apparently the mysterious white folk had vanished, for the world has yet heard nothing of his search being crowned with success. Arabia, however, can with more reason boast of a white tribe. For years stories of such a race have been told in the Persian Gulf, and a missionary stationed at Muscat alluded some years ago to "coffee-house babble, in Eastern Oman concerning a mysterious race of lightcomplexioned people, who live somewhere in the mountains, shun strangers, and speak a language all their own." i Various theories have been propounded to explain the fable; but probably the explanation is to be ifound in the narrative of a journey made in Oman in 1876 by Colonel S. B. Miles, a British officer. Colonel Miles, in the course of his travels nearly thirty-five years ago, came across a town named Sheraizi in the heart of *the Green Mountains. This strange place was perched like an eagle's nest on the top of a great cliff, and was inhabited by people of lighter skin than the rest of the tribes of the interior. They rarely descended to the plains and refused to mix or intermarry with the Arabs. Colonel Miles found they were descendants of a portion of the Persian army that invaded Oman in the tenth century. The isolation of the town and the curious behaviour of its people gave rise to exaggerated stories in the bazaars on the distant coast, and in this case the origin of the fable may be regarded as fairly certain. Unfortunately for the romance of the world it seems practically impossjble for stories of this character to have the origin novelists would wish. The world is comparatively small to-day. The trail of the explorer is over every land from Paraguay to Thibet. Forbidden lands are entered, hidden cities exist only in the imagination of the fiction writer. In a period when trains run to Bokhara and the great African lakes, when the tourist appears at Khartoum, and Lhassa itself is entered, there is no room for a mysterious' white race. Even the Dark Continent is no longer allowed to have its mysteries. The photographer sits on the battered walls of Kano; the Fulani emperors have passed away. One may no longer believe in the existence of a strange white people in the ■heart of equatorial Africa. Rider Haggard's splendid race is probably only the Ba-hima, originally discovered by Speke in South-Western Uganda. At least, Sir Harry Johnston claims to have discovered in them the due to many of the mysterious white race legends found in th« Dark Continent. He was engaged in nothing more thrilling than a tour of inspection of Ankole when he came across them. They are of a very light complexion and are the aristocrats of this region. Sir Harry holds that they are obviously descended from a Gala, Somali, or other Hamitic stock, and adds that some of them are more like Egyptians than is the case with Galas and Somalis. Thus does romance disappear before the tread of the explorer.