LATUKA  , a tribe of

negroid stock inhabiting the mountainous country E. of Gondokoro on the upper Nile . They have received a tinge of Hamitic blood from the Galla people, and have high foreheads, large eyes, straight noses and thick but not pouting lips . They are believed by Sir H . H . Johnston to be the original and purest type of the great Masai people, and are assimilated to the Nilotic negro races in customs . Like their neighbours the Bari and Shilluk tribes, they despise clothing, though the important chiefs have adopted Arab attire . Their country is fertile, and they cultivate tobacco, durra and other crops . Their villages are numerous, and some are of considerable size . Tarangole, for instance, on the Khor Kohs, has upwards of three thousand huts, and sheds for many thousands of cattle . The Latuka are industrious and especially noted for skill as smiths . Emin Pasha stated that the lion was so little dreaded by the Latuka that on one being caught in a leopard trap they hastily set it free .