628 



BANTU NEGROES 



photograph gives examples of Hima spears mixed with a few of the 

 ruder weapons of the Bairo. The bow is about four feet long, with a 

 string made of the gut of cattle, antelopes, or sheep. The arrows are 

 about eighteen inches long, with barbed heads, but as a rule not poisoned. 

 The quiver in which the arrows are kept is sometimes a very artistic 



piece of workmanship. It is 

 made of hard white wood, like 

 a long tube with wooden caps 

 at each end, and is slung by 



(a string across the shoulders. 

 The white wood is burnt into 

 by red-hot irons, and in this 

 kind of pokerwork striking 

 designs of black cover the 

 white wood. Inside the quiver 

 a tire-stick is usually kept, 

 as well as a selection of 

 arrows. 



The shield of Ankole proper 

 and some of the surrounding 

 countries is small, very convex, 

 made of tight basketwork, and 

 with a large central boss of 

 wood, or in some cases of iron. 

 Along the eastern coast-lands 

 of Lake Albert Edward the 

 shield, presumably of the Bairo, 

 is larger, not quite so convex, 

 and is made of hippopotamus 

 hide. Both shields are oval in 

 shape. 



As regards implements 

 rather than weapons, the Bahima 

 use a small sickle (illustrated 

 in the photograph of weapons) 

 and a broad knife-blade fitted 

 on to the end of a long pole with which they can chop at the 

 branches of trees. As they never by any chance till the ground, they 

 have no hoes or agricultural implements. Occasionally long knives are 

 carried in rather pretty basketwork sheathes. In many of the Hima 

 villages of Ankole there are smithies, generally separated from the rest of 

 the village by a low fence. Ironstone containing iron ore is broken into 



350. HIMA OLIVER AND ARROWS 



