IV.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO : II. QI 



Victoria and Albert Nyanza. At present, or rather before the 



recent extension of the British administration to 



East Central Africa, these peoples were constituted t riIns. LaCUS " 



in a number of separate kingdoms, the most power- 



ful of which were Buganda (Uganda), Bunyoro (Unyoro), and 



Karagwe. But they remember a time when all these now scat- 



tered fragments formed parts of a mighty monarchy, the vast 



Kitwara Empire, which comprised the whole of the lake-studded 



plateau between the Ruwenzori range and Kavirondoland. 



The story is differently told in the different States, each nation 

 being eager to twist it to its own glorification ; but 

 all are agreed that the founder of the empire was Traditions 



Kintu, "The Blameless," at once priest, patriarch The 



r L Legend. 



and ruler of the land, who came from the north 

 hundreds of years ago, with one wife, one cow, one goat, one 

 sheep, one chicken, one banana-root, and one sweet potato. At 

 first all was waste, an uninhabited wilderness, but it was soon 

 miraculously peopled, stocked, and planted with what he had 

 brought with him, the potato being apportioned to Bunyoro, the 

 banana to Buganda, and these form the staple food of those lands 

 to this day. 



Then the people waxed wicked, and Kintu, weary of their 

 evil ways and daily bloodshed, took the original wife, cow, and 

 other things, and went away in the night and was seen no more. 

 But nobody believed him dead, and a long line of his mythical 

 successors appear to have spent the time they could spare from 

 strife and wars and evil deeds in looking for the lost Kintu. 

 Kimera, one of these, was a mighty giant of such strength and 

 weight that he left his footprints on the rocks where he trod, as 

 may still be seen on a cliff not far from Ulagalla, the old capital 

 of Buganda. There was also a magician, Kibaga, who could fly 

 aloft and kill the Banyoro people (this is the Buaganda version) by 

 hurling stones down upon them, and for his services received in 

 marriage a beautiful Banyoro captive, who, another Delilah, found 

 out his secret, and betrayed him to her people. 



At last came king Ma'anda, who pretended to be a great 

 hunter, but it was only to roam the woodlands in search of 

 Kintu, and thus have tidings of him. One day a peasant, obeying 



