600 BANTU NEGROES 



who came out and greeted him heartily. The chair on -which he sat in the house 

 was afterwards called Kaiezire. Wamala died, and Lukedi became king. Lukedi 

 made a great feast and sacrifice to the "Bachwezi " as a propitiatory offering. He first 

 sent for nine fowls and killed them, one cow without blemish, and one sheep. 

 These also were killed, and the intestines of these animals were taken and placed 

 on the side of the main road. Several men were then placed to watch to see 

 that no insect touched them. After some time Lukedi sent a messenger with two 

 large bark-cloths to wrap them up in. After this he selected nine cows, nine 

 elderly women, nine young women, nine loads of beads. These things were then 

 taken to the top of a large hill called Abulu. The women and cows were then 

 killed, and their bones burnt with fire ; the beads were made into a head-dress, and 

 Lukedi wore it, and the ashes from the bones of the women were scattered upon his 

 head. And the sacrifice was finished, and the " Bachwezi '' propitiated. 



The real reading of Unyoro's past history seems to ran on these 

 lines : Long ago, perhaps 2,000 or 3,000 years back, began a series of 

 invasions of L'nyoro by a cattle-keeping Gala people from the north-east, 

 the ancestors of the modern Bahima. These folk appear to have come 

 from the north-east, or countries to the south of Abyssinia and the west 

 of Somaliland. Apparently they came round the north end of Lake 

 Rudolf and then directed their course south-westwards into the countries 

 which are now known vaguely to the Baganda as Bukedi (or the Land of 

 Nakedness). But the land of Bukedi was then, as now (though not perhaps 

 to the same extent), peopled by a warlike race of Nilotic Negroes, the 

 modern Acholi, Lango, Umiro, etc., and (according to tradition) the 

 Bahima did not find the means of settling down comfortably in these 

 lands to the cast and north of the Victoria Nile. So they crossed over 

 into Unyoro, but for various reasons — possibly the hostility of the Bantu 

 Negroes who had preceded them — did not at first remain there, but 

 pushed steadily south till they reached the healthier plateaux of Toro, 

 Ankole. and Karagwe.* It is possible that in all these lands to the west 

 and south-west of the Victoria Nyanza they did not meet with such a 

 determined resistance from the former occupants of the soil, who may have 

 been the pioneers of the Bantu Negroes, and Pygmies, like those of the 

 Congo Forest, In those healthy uplands which lie between the west coast 

 of the Victoria Nyanza and the vicinity of Tanganyika the Gala invaders 

 of Equatorial Africa dwelt in security with their herds of long-horned 

 cattle, increased and multiplied, and began to stretch out their hands 

 towards the north as well as the south and east (to a great extent the 

 Congo forest barred their progress westwards). Their juoneers, much 



■ They may also — possibly did do so — have pursued the line of least resistance 

 by crossing the Nile at the outlet of Lake Albert, journeying along the western 

 coast of that lake, and so on up the Semliki Valley to Ankole, keeping to the east 

 of the Congo Forest. 



