PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 55] 



The men practise circumcision, but they are not given to knocking out 

 any of their front teeth, which is such a widespread custom in varying 

 degrees amongst the Nile Negroes and some of the adjoining Bantu trites. 

 As regards clothing, the women often go perfectly naked, and at most, 

 even on the confines of civilisation, wear a small hunch of leaves tucked 

 into a girdle. The men do not generally affect complete nudity, and are 

 seldom seen without at any rate a small piece of bark-cloth, which is 

 passed through their string girdle in front and brought back between 

 the legs to the string girdle at the back. Mantles of monkey skin 

 are often added, especially on the lofty regions, where the climate can 

 become at times very cold. A string to which amulets or little medicine- 

 horns are attached is worn by every man. 



The huts of the Lendu seem more to resemble those of the Aluru and 

 Nile people than the dwellings of the forest folk in that the thatch is 

 generally of grass and disposed in overlapping rings like flounces. The 

 doorway, however, is prolonged into a porch, a condition very characteristic 

 of the huts in the forest. The fireplace is in the middle, there is one 

 bedstead at the furthest end of the hut opposite the doorway, and generally 

 another bedstead (for a wife) inside a little enclosure which is surrounded 

 by a reed screen on the left-hand side of the interior. The Lendu do not 

 appear to be cannibals. Their food consists of grain (maize and sorghum), 

 beans, collocasia arums, and various kinds of spinach grown in then- 

 plantations, of bananas (when they live near the forest), and of the 

 produce of their herds of goats, sheep, and cattle. As regards domestic 

 animals, a few of the Lendu far away from the Albert Nyanza still possess 

 cattle (it is said). Those dwelling in the forest keep none, and those 

 anywhere near the Semliki Valley or the shores of Lake Albert have lost 

 their cattle at the hands of the Banyoro. They keep goats, often of a 

 long-haired variety, sheep, and fowls, besides pariah clogs, which they use 

 in hunting. Slain animals are roughly cut up, and large pieces of flesh 

 with the hair still adhering to the skin are roasted over the fire. The Lendu 

 are fond of hunting. 



They are adroit in basket-making and mat-weaving. They plait baskets 

 in such large quantities that they use them as articles of barter with other 

 races less well supplied. They make pottery which resembles somewhat 

 closely the types found in Uganda and in the Nile Province. Their musical 

 instruments are also very similar to those of Uganda, and have the same 

 origin — namely, from the countries of the Upper Nile. Dr. Stuhlmann in 

 his notes on these people gives an interesting account of the ceremonious 

 way in which the huts are built, the men undertaking definite portions of 

 the work and the women the rest. Stuhlmann states that when a house 

 is built it is the husband who must first introduce fire. 



VOL. II. 6 



