322 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



heads ami knives. Brass is purchased from trading 

 caravans, and worked into beads, earrings, and 

 bracelets. A small circular brass disk about an inch 

 in diameter is usually worn on the middle of the 

 forehead. 



The produce of the plantations of each kraal is 

 the common property of its members: a share for 

 food is served out to each household and the rest 

 sold, the goods received in exchange belonging to the 

 whole kraal. Private property is said to be limited 

 to clothes and weapons. 



The tribe is governed by meetings of the elders, 

 and though there is a chief over each district his 

 power is limited. Punishments are only given after 

 conviction by a jury of elders, after the accused has 

 been confronted with his accuser and allowed full 

 opportunities for defence. Capital punishment is in- 

 flicted only for very serious crimes. 



The religion of the Wakamba is primitive. There 

 is a vague belief in a great spirit, known by the 

 Masai name Xgai. In times of drought offerings of 

 plantains, grain, and beer are placed under sacred trees. 

 Circumcision is practised, but not as amongst the 

 Masai and Kikuyn. All the Wakamba carry a charm, 

 but they do not appear to have wooden human 

 images like the coast tribes. The medicine-men 

 appear to exercise comparatively little power. 



THE PEOPLE OF UGANDA AND THEIR ALLIES. 



On the north-western shore of the Victoria Nyanza 

 is the kingdom of Uganda, which is remarkable 

 among the states of Equatorial Africa for its central- 

 ised government and organised political institutions. 

 The main basis of the people of Uganda is Bantu; 

 but in Uganda there are scattered groups of a race 

 known as the Wahuma, who are Ilamites allied to the Gallas. The political organisation of 

 Uganda is no doubt due to the conquest of this region by a race of Wahuma invaders. 

 Thus Speke, the first European to visit Uganda, reported that "the government is in the 

 hands of foreigners, who had invaded and taken possession of the country, leaving the 

 agricultural aborigines to till the ground, whilst the junior members of the usurping clans 

 herded cattle." The conquerors no doubt came from the north-east, as appears from the 

 evidence of their physical structure and language. 



Speke was so impressed by the resemblance of the Wahuma of Uganda to the Abyssinians 

 that he maintained that both those races and the Gallas were the same. And Lugard reports 

 a remark by Dualla Idris, the greatest of native caravan headmen, to the effect that the 

 Wasoga resemble the Abyssinians in dress and in many of their customs as, for instance, their 

 method of salutation. 



The eastern origin of the Wahuma is, moreover, directly affirmed by native traditions. 

 Baker describes a remarkable Unyoro custom which survived until the coronation of its last 

 independent ruler, the now exiled Kabaregga. Before a new king succeeds to the throne he 

 has to sleep for two nights east of the Nile, and then march back by the path used by the 



Photo by Mr. Ernest Gedyt] [Linlborough. 



AN ELGON CHIEF. 



