IV.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO : II. 93 



resulting in the present pax Britannica, and the conversion of 

 large numbers, some to Islam, others to one form or another 

 of Christianity. At times it might have been difficult to see 

 much religion in the ferocity of the contending factions ; but 

 since the establishment of harmony by the secular arm, real 

 progress has been made, and the Waganda especially have dis- 

 played a remarkable capacity as well as eagerness to acquire 

 a knowledge of letters and of religious principles, both in the 

 Protestant and the Roman Catholic communities. Printing- 

 presses, busily worked by native hands, are needed to meet the 

 steadily increasing demand for a vernacular literature, in a region 

 where blood had flowed continually from the disappearance of 

 "Kintu" till the British occupation. 



To the admixture of the Hamitic and Negro elements 

 amongst the Lacustrians may perhaps be attributed 



. J r . Political 



the curious blend of primitive and higher institu- and Social 

 tions in these communities. At the head of the 

 State was a Kabaka, king or emperor, although the title was also 

 borne by the queen-mother and the queen-sister. This autocrat 

 had his Lutiko, " Privy Council," of which ex qfficio members 

 were the already mentioned Katikiro, Prime Minister or Chan- 

 cellor, the Balangira and Bambaja, royal princes and princesses, 

 the Chief Butler and Chief Baker, and others of high rank, such 

 as the Lord High Admiral and Commander-in-Chief, who attended 

 the grand levees in fine, gold-embroidered cloth robes. The 

 whole State was thoroughly organised with " Earls," great feudal 

 lords at the head of the five provinces, and three distinct social 

 classes, the JBataka, or landed gentry, the Batopi^ peasants or 

 serfs, and the Badii^ slaves or helots without any rights. 



Yet beneath all this parade of higher political and social 

 institutions, the people are still to some extent in 

 the tribal state, being divided into ebyika, or clans, system 11 

 each with its animal crest or totem, which may not 

 be eaten by them, and with their exogamous (extra-tribal) marriage 

 rites and restrictions, just as amongst the Australian savages. 

 There are the Ensenane or "Grasshoppers," the Endiga^ "Sheep," 

 the Engonya, " Crocodiles," while the king's clan is the royal tribe 

 of the Balangira, " Princes," that is, the Wahuma, as the term is 



