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2 O^ess^.'^"- Glass \ /#' «^ Book: k.' r '^ K' Plate I PastoralSuk(type 1). Frontispiece THE SUK THEIR LANGUAGE AND FOLKLORE BY MERVYN W. H. BEECH WITH INTRODUCTION BY SIR CHARLES ELIOT OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1911 ^ .^ HENEY FROWDE PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK TORONTO, AND MELBOURNE PREFACE The following pages are the result of investigations which I made, during a period of a little over a year, whilst I was acting District Commissioner of Baringo, East Africa. Itwas not my original intention to publish in the present work the material contained in PartI; it being sketchyand incomplete. That I have done so is due partly to the fact that I felt some account of the Suk to be necessaryas an introduction to their — language, and partly to the fact that my return to the Suk — country being uncertain I thought it a pity to withhold for an indefinite period such few itemsof interestas I had already collected. Among the difficulties encountered in compiling Part II I may mention the following as being most prominent. In the first place there was the lack of competent interpreters. Very few Suk speak any Suahili at all, and those fewwho do possess but a very limited vocabulary, and scarcely any idea of the value of the prefixes, which constitute so important an element in that language. Secondly, there is a great difierence of opinion among the Suk themselves as to the pronunciation of vowels employed in their verbs. In the Vocabulary every care has been taken to make the spelling consistent throughout, and with this in view the words have been frequently rewritten, and, after I had myself learned to speak the language, revised with the help of some twenty Suk collectively. The opinion of the majority of these has been accepted as final in any disputed cases of spelling. My best thanks are due to Sir Charles Eliot, not only for the Introduction to this work, but also for his kindly advice a 2 iv PREFACE and criticism. To Mr. A. C. Hollis I am also much indebted for several suggestions, and for the loan of MSS. dealing with kindred languages, notably Turkana while his book on the ; Nandi, on which I have tried as far as possible to model the present work, has been invaluable to me. I have also to thank Mr. W. Pickford, district Commissioner, Ravine, and Hon. A. Bruce, assistant district Commissioner, Baringo, for several excellent photographs. Where not otherwise stated the photographswere taken by the author. Finally, I express the hope that the result may prove of some practical as well as philological benefit. However imperfect the investigation may be, at least it cannot fail to simplify the work of any one intending to learn the language of the Suk : and the acquisition of the language is, I believe, the first step towards understandingthe manners and customs of such a people and thence getting into touch with their life, character, and environment. I can testify from experience in both Borneo and Africa that a knowledge, however rudi- mentary, of the actual language of a tribe, as opposed to the recognized medium, which is foreign alike to adminis- trator and administered, to employer and employed, has a remarkable effect towards removing the suspicions of the natives, and, indeed, towards enlisting their sympathies. M. W. H. B. Great Beai^ings.