EANTU NEGROES 



589 



entered tliese lands at different periods in remote and relatively recent 

 times, and which in the modified and more negroid form of the l^ahima 

 constitutes the aristocracy to-dav of all the lands between the Victoria 



333. A FAT-TAILKl) ^iHKKl' F1U>.M l.WOKO 



Nile on the north and Tanganyika on the south. The " mut-hwezi," or priest, 

 who conducts this worship of ancestral spirits (each tribe or clan has 

 its own ancestral spirit, who is sometimes confused with the totem) is 

 equivalent to the sorcerer, medicine man, or witch doctor so common 

 everywhere in Kegro Africa. But besides the accredited priest of the clan, 

 many individuals may set up to be doctors in white or black magic. More 

 will be said about the religious beliefs of the Banyoro when the Bahima 

 aristocracy are dealt with in the latter part of this chapter, since the 

 Bahima seem to have largely developed the religious beliefs and practices 

 of the aboriginal Negroes. 



The ferocious thunderstorms which occur in Unyoro, as in most other 

 parts of the Uganda Protectorate, are not unnaturally associated somewhat 

 specially with the manifestation of spiritual power. Cases of people being 

 struck by lightning are far from uncommon, and whenever such an event 

 occurs it is a signal among the Banyoro for a great ceremony connected 

 with the worship of the "Bachwe/i." The individual killed by lightning 

 is not moved from where he fell dead, but nine witches or old women 

 are sent for.* These old women surround the body on all sides, each of 

 them holding a spear which is pointed downwards towards the earth. The 



* The reader may note with interest how in Unyoro and Ankole in the religious 

 practices of the people the number 9 constantly occurs as a sacred number. 



