BANTU NEGROES 695 



for instance, " This is your brother, this is your friend, this is your cousin, 

 this is so-and-so," till all have been formally presented. And all who are 

 thus introduced henceforth acknowledge the man chosen to be ' ; Musika " 

 as the heir and successor to the deceased. 



The widows of the deceased do not become the wives of the heir. They 

 have a lien on the house and gardens, and he must build them huts, and in 

 return they till the gardens and cook his food. One of the uncles generally 

 sends a young daughter to live with the old women, but as this girl is cousin 

 of the heir he must not make any overtures to her. Cousins cannot enter the 

 same house, and must not eat out of the same dish. A man cannot marry 

 his cousin. The widows may receive the attentions of other men in their 

 new houses, and may marry without in any way consulting the wishes of 

 the heir. They are not allowed to enter his house, but they may cook his 

 food in their house and carry it to his door. If they marry there is no 

 offering of beer given to the heir, as there was to their fathers when they 

 were married originally. 



The Baganda are very quick at mastering and speaking other languages. 

 They have only begun to tackle English the last two or three years, because 

 hitherto it did not lie within the policy adopted by the two missionary 

 societies that these people should be taught a European language. As 

 soon, however, as the missionaries realised how completely this ignorance 

 would shut off the intelligent Baganda from performing their due share in 

 the administration of their country under European supervision, they at 

 once set to work to give lessons in English to those who desired to pass 

 beyond the elementary instruction in Luganda. The following extract from 

 my notebook may be of interest in this connection. It is in the hand- 

 writing of the prime minister of Uganda, Apolo Kagwa. He once made 

 a steamer voyage with me on the lake. Much of his spare time was spent 

 in writing in an exercise-book. He tore out a piece of this book one day 

 to assist me in noting down the names of the Baganda clans. On the reverse, 

 side of my note I found this fragment in his own handwriting. This man 

 was patiently teaching himself English by means of a Luganda-English 

 exercise-book furnished to him by the Church Missionary Society : — 



"I have tolled him and he refused" (" Namubulide nagana "). 



" Have you finish to eat ? " (" Mumaze okulya ? "). 



"We have finished" ("Tumaze"). 



The Baganda take readily to arithmetic, and are wonderfully quick at 

 sums. Before European or Arab civilisation came anywhere near them they 

 had already developed the expressions for numerals in their own tongue 

 to a considerable degree. The calculation is decimal. They have words for 

 every multiple of ten up to twenty millions. For anything beyond twenty 

 millions they employ a word — " akatabalika" — which means "beyond count." 

 VOL. II. 15 



