BANTU NEGROES 



735 



wood placed upright in a serried row. The roof is large and low spreading, 

 not very high at the apex (the hut of course is round) and with a very 

 low pitch. The apex of the roof is surmounted by a carved pole (often 

 stuck through an earthenware pot), and this pole is obviously a phallus. 

 Very frequently the pole is run through the skull of an antelope. 



The cooking is done inside the house, and by women. Only if a party 

 of Kavirondo is on the road and it is a case of force majeure will the* 

 men do the cooking and make their kitchen in the open if no shelter is 

 obtainable. The cooking vessels, of course, are earthen pots. The food, 



39 2 



IX A KAVIKO.N'DO VILLAGE 



when cooked, is served up in small baskets. A father does not eat with 

 his sons, nor do brothers eat together ; women invariably partake of their 

 food after the men have done. No woman would eat with a man under 

 ordinary circumstances. They are rather more omnivorous than most of 

 the other tribes in the Uganda Protectorate. A good deal of grain 

 (sorghum, eleusine, and maize) is cultivated, and the flour of sorghum is 

 a considerable staple in their diet. Bananas, beans, and peas are also 

 cultivated and eaten. It is said that the cultivation of the banana is on 

 the increase. At the time the present writer passed through the 

 Kavirondo country he was struck with the magnificent fields of sorghum 



