NOMADS, "wanderers," primitive pastoral people who have no settled territory.
Nomads seem to exist in every large territory. Some, like the gypsies (q.v.), becoming international. There are Asiatic nomads of all types, the chief being the Mongols whose nomadism became highly specialized. The Basques (q.v.) are generally supposed to have been nomads from a remote corner of Asia and the report that shifting colonies of Euskera stock are to this day found in South America supports this view.
Northern Asia is the wide home of numerous wandering tribes whose very names have only recently been recorded. These tribes have a definite relation with the settled peoples over whose terri tory they roam, as is the case with the African nomads (see be low). Indo-China (q.v.), has its nomad peoples, and South-west China is an area over which several nomad stocks wander. The change from nomadism to a settled state of occupation in well defined areas is rare but not unknown.
Nomads proper are those who roam over different territories in actual quest of sustenance ; as the name implies, they are pas toral people depending on grazing for their animals and edible roots and fruits for themselves. (See BUSHMEN.) These nomads have extraordinary powers of adaptability and can support long periods of hunger. The Australian aborigines are sufficiently skilled in woodcraft to trap animals by simply stealing upon them quietly and using the most primitive weapons. The pampas In dians are horseback nomads and wander to and fro over large tracts of territory.
The Bedawin (Bedouins) or Arabs of the desert are among the most familiar of all pastoral nomads, and their nomadism has no known beginning. In times of drought and food shortage such nomads as these and the Hottentots (q.v.), are compelled to raid their agricultural settled neighbours. The Kirghiz, an Altai people, are the prominent nomads of Central Asia and their ballads tell of their love of wandering and their passion for their horses, their only tangible possessions.
In recent years much attention has been directed to the nomads of East Africa, as it is believed that from these sprang the original individual peoples of Africa. Some of these nomads are pygmies.
It is probable that at one time they all spoke a distinct language and that many still preserve their own language, while using the language of the tribes among whom they reside. The pygmies of the upper Welle speak the Mbuba language in a manner markedly different from the Mbuba pronunciation, substituting for certain consonants a curious gasp or hiatus almost approximating to a click. The Sanya of north-east Kenya and certain of the Watta are also said to use clicks. The Sandawe (q.v.) of Tanganyika Territory, whose skulls possess distinctly Hottentot characters, retain the typical Bushman clicks and gutturals. Rarely has the tribal name been ascertained, the different nomadic groups being called by the names bestowed on them by neighbouring tribes, but the persistence of some of these appellations is remarkable. Some form of the name Twa is widespread among the Bantu : thus the Bushmen of South Africa are known to their neighbours as Abatoa and Batwa is common throughout the Congo and Uganda. The word is said to mean "Bushdwellers," and is prob ably unconnected with the Watta of southern Abyssinia which is derived from an old Cushitic root meaning "Wanderers." Aka is a name, given to geographically distinct groups of nomads.
In the mountainous forest country of south-west Uganda we find semi-pygmy hunters known as Batwa, and the name reap pears on the upper slopes of mount Elgon at an altitude of from 9,000—I I,000ft., where they build earth-roofed huts and live principally on rats, other small mammals and honey.
The Sanya and Choni, hunting tribes living on the banks of the Sabaki and the Tana in Kenya, are also known as Watta to the Galla. They are similar to the Boni of Jubaland, and together with the Midgan and the Sandawe, who also practise circumcision, are the only nomad communities who practice clitoridectomy.