BANTU NEGROES 691 



The paternal grandfather gives a name to the child. This naming is 

 a very peculiar function. A great deal depends on the name given, and 

 there are certain foods forbidden to families bearing certain names. For 

 instance, if a child is called Luavga, it must never eat the flesh of an 

 otter ; a man named Mayan ja cannot eat the flesh of a sheep ; nor can 

 one who is called Katenda eat the Protopterus (lung-fish). The prohibition 

 extends to the man's descendants for all time, but it does not include his 

 wife or wives. They may have a prohibition of their own inherited from 

 their father, but the sons or daughters are only involved in the prohibition 

 of their father: the prohibition (if any) which applies to their mother 

 does not affect them. These restrictions regarding diet are no doubt 

 connected with the totem or sacred symbol of the clan ("kika") to 

 which any person belongs. 



A M Uganda woman may not eat fowls. If she is a single woman, and 

 living in a house of her own, she may eat eggs ; but if she marries, she 

 ceases by custom to eat eggs, though her husband may do so. 



Mutton is also prohibited to all Muganda women. If they ate 

 forbidden food they would suffer something like a loss of caste, and they 

 assert that if either a man cr woman ate food which was forbidden by 

 caste, he or she would become covered with ulcers. In regard to beef or 

 veal, there is no name involving a prohibition. Any one may eat it. 



Allusion has already been made in connection with Unyoro to the 

 fact that the people of Unyoro and Uganda are divided into clans 

 which have as their totems — these totems being sacred or heraldic 

 objects— beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, or vegetables which in some 

 way or other are identified with the original founders of the clan. In 

 Uganda proper and its southern province of Buddu there are twenty-nine 

 clans with the followinsr totems: — 



No. I.uganda designation 



1. Nsenene 



2. Mamba . 



3. Fumbi . 



4. Njovu . 



5. Nonge . 



6. Ngo 



7. Mporogoma . 



8. Butiko . 



9. Mustt . 



English equivalent. 



. Grasshopper. 



. Lung-fish {Protopterus). 



. Li/caon dog (Cape hunting dog). 



. Elephant. 



. Otter. 



. Leopard. 



. Lion. 



. Mushroom. 



. Ground-rat, an octodont rodent {Thryotwmys 

 sw aider enianus). 



10. Enkima. . . . . White-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus petaurista or 



rufoviridis). 



11. Mvubu Hippopotamus. 



12. Kobe A creeping plant with a fruit like a chestnut or 



potato. 



