NILOTIC NEGROES 



779 



corpses arc generally 

 are invariably buried. 



son under those conditions, when he grows up. has attributed to him 

 the marriage-price of his sisters, which becomes Ids own property. As 

 regards the naming of children, it is considered very unlucky to give a 

 good or well-sounding name at birth. Children are therefore called by 

 contemptuous or even disgusting appellations ("Piece of Dung" being a 

 nut infrequent name), or are given the names of beasts, such as dog, 

 leopard, giraffe, and so forth. 



After death women are seldom buried. Their 

 thrown to the hyaenas. Men, on the other hand, 

 and generally in a trench dug 

 outside the door of their house, 

 where their corpse is laid in a 

 sleeping position. 



The people have only the vaguest 

 notion of a God — in fact, some of 

 these tribes are said to have no 

 actual conception of an overruling 

 Deity. There is some worship or 

 remembrance of ancestors amongst 

 them, chiefly evidenced by little 

 fetish temples — conical roofs of 

 thatch over a circle of upright 

 sticks — to be found in most of 

 the villages. Round about these 

 temples they will tie long loops 

 of string, from which pieces of 

 grass hang downwards. The medicine 

 men are generally the chiefs. They 

 have much the same omens as those 

 that are described in the preceding 

 chapter among the Kavirondo. 



The Acholi in their dances imitate beasts somewhat elaborately. They 

 generally sing and dance at the same time, and the men carry small 

 drums under the arm. which they tap with the fingers. 



The manners and customs of the Ja-luo, a fragment of the Nilotic 

 peoples which is now isolated, are very similar to those of the Aluru (to 

 the north-west of the Albert Nyanza) and the Japalua (incorrectly called 

 " Shefalu "'), who live in the northern part of Unyoro. It would seem, 

 indeed, as though at some time or other the Ja-luo of Southern Kavirondo 

 had not come down direct from the north-west, from the Lango country 

 where their nearest relations reside at the \ resent day. but that a large 

 tribe of Nilotic people closely allied to the Acholi and Lango had formerly 



426. A LANGO CHIEF WEARING A HELMET OF 

 KAURI SHELLS 



