r>:52 BANTU NEGROES 



felt (luriiit;- iiiclcinent weather, when rain is falling in alnindance and the 

 air is eool and dani]). It is tlionglit bv the Bahima that the sj)irits are 

 })ropitiated it" fetish houses are erected for their frequentation. It is 

 believed bv most of them that the food placed on the clay floors of these 

 little dwellings is really consumed by the spirits, though, as a matter of 

 fact, it is cai-ried off liy rats and other scavengers. 



Apart I'roiu all this, however, the Bahima have a profound belief in 

 witchcraft, and until two years ago the country of Ankole was continually 

 agitated by the "'smelling out" of witches and wizards and their execution. 

 A prominent chief in Ankole had even to be removed by the present 

 writer from that country and sent into exile on the east shore of the lake 

 because he was continually accusing harmless individuals of witchcraft 

 practices and having them executed. He himself was a great priest of the 

 Bachwezi. There are, in fact, many fetish men or priests amongst the 

 Bahima who, besides carrying on the worship of the spirits and indulging 

 in witchcraft on their own account, also act as doctors or " medicine men." 

 They collect a certain kind of grass, of which they make hay. This hay is 

 put into a jar of mead or banana wine, or beer made from sorghum, and 

 left for twenty-four hours in one of the many fetish huts. The liquor is- 

 afterwards removed and drunk as a medicine. The fetish men also cut 

 little oval-shaped pieces or cubes of wood, and, after muttering an incanta- 

 tion over them, sell them to persons who are ill or who are troubled by 

 bad dreams, to be worn round the neck as a charm. Nearly every adult 

 Hima in Ankole wears one or more of these diamond or cube-shaped pieces 

 of wood hung from the neck, generally on a ring made from the tendons 

 of an elephant. 



As regards marriarje, this ceremony is usually conducted as follows : 

 The young INIuhima who wants to marry must first obtain the permission 

 of his tribal chief or of the head-man whom he follows. His father, or 

 in some cases his chief, then provides about ten cattle, and these are 

 delivered over to the father of the girl, whose consent has generally been 

 obtained before the present is made. The bridegroom then builds a 

 house and decorates the exterior with black and white clay. When the 

 bouse is finished, the bride's father takes her there, and at the same time 

 ])rings back three out of the ten head of cattle. A marriage feast at the 

 bridegroom's house follows the arrival of the bride. 



The Bahima do not, as a rule, bury their dead, but tie the corpse to 

 a branch and expose it in the grass at some distance from the village to 

 be eaten by hyaaias. Chiefs, lujwever, are buried in the ground at the 

 bottom of the huts in which then' li\ed. 



The J5ahima of Ankole are, as I have already stated, divided into 

 lav ijrinc'qjal clans and into at least three important minor states, one 



