MYSTERIOUS WHITE RACES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12859, 6 May 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

MYSTERIOUS WHITE RACES.

The idea that in remote parts of the tropics, amidst the dark-skinned races, there exist mysterious isolated white tribes bearing a strong resemblance to Europeans lias -long possessed a curious fascination for the- Old World. The early adventurers in Central and (Southern America brought homo many tales of extraordinary cities beyond the mountains, and vague stories afloat in South Africa thirty or forty years ago furnished Mr. Rider Haggard with a theme for one of his best-known novels, " Allan Quaterlnain." Similar legends are met with in almost all the less-explored parts of the globe, and they have always certain features in common. The isolated while peoples almost invariably inhabit a mountainous region in a vague, "interior'*— the' "just beyond;" they hold aloof .from the surrounding races; they are seldom seen, and yet are definitely slated to be more civilised and belter educated than the darker masses whom they avoid. Who they are and. whence they came no one knows; native tables 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 at the beginning of the twentieth century the possibility of the existence of a. genuine 'white race is not altogether scoffed at. J l is less than two years ago that an American officer engaged in the operations against the Moros in the Philippines collecteel apparently substantial evidence relating to a mysterious tribe in the island of Mindanao. The mountainous district in the centre of this island has never been explored, and even the coast is not well known. Bub along the seaboard many stories are told of the tierce white people who have their home in the forest-clad mountains of the interior. Eye-witnesses depose to having seen a strange, fair-complexioned girl loitering near a coast village, a girl who lied 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 United States officer was so impressed that he determined to conduct an exploring party across the centre of the island. But apparently the. mysterious white folk had vanished, for the world has as yet heard nothing of bis search being crowned with success.

Arabia, however, tail with more reason boast of a- white tribe. For years stories of such a race have been told in the Persian Gulf, and the Rev. S. M. Zwemer, an American missionary stationed at Muscat, alluded some lime ago to "'collet-house babble in Eastern Oman concerning a mysterious race of -iigbt-complexioned people who live somewhere in the mountains, shun strangers, and speak a language of their own." Various theories have been propounded to explain the fable : but probably the explanation is to be found in the narrative of a journey made in Oman in 1876 by Colonel S. B. Miles, published some lime ago in the Geographical Journal. Colonel Miles, in the course of his travels nearly thirty 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 gnat clilV, and was inhabited by a people of lighter skin than the rest of the (vibes of the interior. They rarely descended to the plains, and refused to mix or intermarry with the Arabs. Colonel M'iles found they;were the descendants of a portion of the Persian army which invaded Oman in the tenth century. The isolation of the town and the curious behaviour of its people through so many generations would undoubtedly give rise to exaggerated stories in the bazaars on the distant coast, and in this case the origin of the fable maybe regarded as fairly certain. Unfortunately for the romance of the world it. seems practically impossible for stories of this character to have the origins novelists would wish. The. world is comparatively small to-day. The trail of the explorer is over every land from Paraguay to Tibet. Forbidden lands are entered; hidden cities exist only in the imagination of the lictionist. In a period when trains | run to Bokhara ami the Great African Lakes, when the tourist appears at Khartoum-, and Uiassa itself is threatened, 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 Kuno; 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. Mr. Rider Haggard's splendid race are probably only the Ba-hinia originally discovered by Speke in Southwestern Uganda. At least. Sir Harry Johnston claims to have discovered in them the clue to many of the mysterious while race legends found in the Dark Continent, Ho was engaged in nothing more thrilling than a tour of inspection to Ankole when he canto across them. They are of a very light complexion, and are (he "aristocrats" of this region. Sir Harry Johnston says they arc " obviously descended from a Gala, Somali, or other Hamitic stock," and adds that some of I hem are more like Egyptians than is the case with Galas and Somalis. Romance disappears before the tread of the explorer, 'the Dark Continent is dink no more.— Chambers' Journal.