BANTU NEGROES 



669 



bodies. White ants* at the time when they begin to fly from the ant- 

 hills are much liked. Here, as on Lake Nyasa, the kungu fly (a minute 

 species of gnat) rises in its millions from the lake waters, and is 

 collected by the Baganda on screens of matting, made into paste and 

 eaten as an agreeable condiment. 



The Baganda keep as domestic animals the ox. goat, sheep, fowls, and 

 dogs. Here and there may 

 be an occasional cat, the de- 

 scendant of breeds introduced 

 by Europeans, or coming from 

 the Egyptian establishments on 

 the Nile. The cattle are usually 

 of the humped zebu type. In 

 the west and south long-horned 

 Ankole oxen or half-breeds 

 between these Gala cattle and 

 the zebu are met with ; but 

 as a rule the Gala oxen do not 

 thrive in the damp, hot climate 

 of Uganda. The cattle of a 

 chief are always herded for him 

 by a Muhima, the Baganda not 

 being very skilled in the care 

 of cattle. Cattle-keeping, in- 

 deed, has never taken the same 

 hold over these eaters of the 

 banana as has been the case 

 with the people of less dis- 

 tinctly negro character to the 

 east and to the west. The 

 Baganda nowadays appreciate 

 milk more through the teach- 

 ing of Europeans than from any 

 original fondness for this liquid. 



The vessels in which the fresh milk is kept are generally filled with wood 

 ash to cleanse them, and are smoked over a fire to keep them sweet. This 

 gives the milk a very smoky (though not a very disagreeable) flavour. It is 

 doubtful whether they made butter or '* ghi " on their own account before 

 being taught to do so fifty years ago by Arab traders. Their goats and sheep 

 are of the ordinary type common to tropical Africa, the sheep, of course, 



* The flying termites enter considerably into Uganda and Unyoro folk-lore as a 

 delicacy that is universally relished by men and beast?. 



375- AN UGANDA SHIELD 



