BANTU NEGROES 



581 



to suffer from skin diseases, due possibly to poor food, much of their 

 sustenance being derived from sorghum porridge and elensine * (" ruimbi "). 

 The Banyoro differ in physical appearance from the Katoro, the 

 Bakonjo, and the Bairo. This is due to a greater fundamental mixture 

 in the past between the.-e negroes and Ifaniitic and Nilotic invaders of 

 Un3'oro. As a rule the Banyoro are rather nice-looking negroes, tall and 

 well-i)roportioned, with faces which would be very pleasing were it not a 

 custom amongst them (a cu^-tou) 

 -which, as a rule, is not met with 

 fouth of Unyoro proper) to extract 

 the four lower Incisors : this is a 

 practice learnt, no doubt, from the 

 neighbouring Nilotic tribes. As in- 

 dividuals of both sexes grow old, 

 their upper incisor teeth, having r.o 

 opposition, grow long and project 

 from the gum in a slanting mannei-. 

 which gives the mouth an ugly hippo- 

 potamine appearance. Tlie Banyoro 

 do not circamcise, nor are they as 

 a rule given to ornamenting the 

 skin by raising weals or cicatrises. 

 On the whole it may be said that 

 the Banyoro are not very dissimilar 

 in a])pearance to the average in- 

 habitant of Uganda,;^ftnd,"as will be 

 seen in Chapter XX., there is a 

 fairly close relationship between the 

 Urunyoro and Luganda languages. 

 They are not a nakecl people, liut 

 wear much the same amount of 

 clothing' as is worn in Uganda, 

 though the bark-cloth manufactured 

 is inferior in quality, and a much 



larger proportion of the people wear skins. Both skins and bark-cloth, 

 however, are rapidly being replaced bv the calico of India and America. 

 It is, however, still the custom in Unyoro that a man and woman of 

 whatever rank nuist, for at least four days after the marriage ceremony, 

 ■wear native-made bavk-cloths. In the north of Unyoro, however, especially 

 amongst the Bachiope (Japalua), absolute nuditt/ is the characteristic of 

 both sexes, no doubt owing to their Nilotic afhnities and the influence of 



* ? Poini'sctiiiit. 



325. A WOMAN OK TOHO 



