iVM) BANTU NEGROES 



with ])luiiibago, and canic^d in a })retty basketwork cover. Beer or 1 anana 

 wine is usually carried in tfourds. The cows are generally milked into 

 n long wooden funnel, from which the milk is poured into one of the 

 wooden vessels for storage. The milk vessels are also surrounded 

 sometimes by a neat netting of string, by means of whicli they can be 

 susj (ended on a rafter. I give a photograph here of a beautiful piece of 

 pottery made by the Bahima in Ankole, with a basketwork stopper. The 

 clay has been blackened with plumbago, and attains a beautiful shiny 

 gloss. It has been deeply incised with a graceful pattern. A certain 

 amount of tobacco is smoked, as well as what is taken by the men as 

 .snuff. The women appear to smoke a great deal, especially when old. 

 The pipes, however, are often of rude manufacture, with rough clay bowls. 

 I did not notice among tl;e-m the handsomely worked pipes made in 

 Uganda. 



As musical instruments the Bahima use flutes (similar to those of 

 Uganda), lyres, and drums. Oreat importance is attached to the drums. 

 In the modern Kingdom of Ankole there are three special drums 

 considered to be hundreds of years old, and invested with fetishistic 

 properties. The drum, in fact, is often taken as the symbol of sovereign 

 power. In Ankole proper the big drum is called " Bugendanwe." A 

 smaller drum placed alongside it is styled its wife, and a yet smaller one 

 its prime minister. Attached to the big drum is an ornamental >tafif 

 or walking-stick and a bundle of " medicine " composed of dry herbs, 

 peculiarly shaped sticks, and the skins of two genets stuffed with grass. 

 These drums are made like those of Uganda — a great hollowed block of 

 whitish wood which tapers towards the base, and over the mouth of which 

 a piece of ox skin has been strained. But the wooden body of the drum in 

 these special cases is carved with patterns, and is further ornamented by the 

 symmetrical cords of twisted hide which hold the skin firmly in po-ition 

 over the mouth of the drum. 



The Bahima are perhaps a more moral people than the surrounding 

 negi'oes, and there is generally chastity amongst the young women before 

 marriage. They are domineering in attitude towards subject negro races, 

 and are a very proud people, but are generally courteous towards 

 Europeans, with whom they claim a certain kinship in origin. They are 

 usually very honest and truthful. Unfortunately, when of nearly pure 

 Ilima blood they tend to be indolent, a feeling of pride and national 

 superiority preventing them fro:n indulging in much manual labour. The 

 men of Hima blood are born gentlemen, and one is so struck with their 

 handsome bearing and charming manners as to desire ardently that this 

 fine race may not come to extinction. Of this there is great danger, as 

 the women of pure Hima blood are not very fertile, and the men augment 



