CIO BANTU NEGROES 



with the ]jahima. In the royal family of I'^^aiida the features are quite 

 neu^ro (though in a pleasant foim). and the skin is a peculiar golden 

 brown. The hair of the head, if allowed to grow, becomes very thick, but 

 it is usually ctit sliort. There is a moderate growth of hair on the body, 

 much the same as in the West African Negroes. 



The I^aganda never circumcise unless they are converted to ^Nluhamma- 

 danism. Jjefore the advent of Islam, the teaching of which began to 

 penetrate the country about fortv years ago, there were, of course, no 

 circumcised men amongst the Baganda. I'hey had, indeed, a great dislike 

 to this rite ; and it was possibly the imposition of circumcision which in 

 the earlier days made .Muhammadanism so un})()pular. and wliich to a 

 great extent has kept it from spreading at the present day. Likewise the 

 Baganda neither knock out their front teeth nor sharpen them to points, 

 as is done by the forest tril)es. the Banyoro. and the Nilotic 2Segroes ; nor 

 do they drill or mutilate the ears, or cicatrise the body with raised scars. 



It would almost seem as though the Baganda had lost much of their 

 original vigour as a race through the effects of former debauchery and the 

 appalling ravages caused among them by syphilis. It is difficult to over- 

 estimate the damage done by this last disease. The French Bishop. 

 Monseigneur Streicher. writing to the author of this hook, describes this 

 disease as '• une jjlaie desastreuse pour le jjays.'' Dr. Cook, of tlie Church 

 JMissionary [Society, in one of his reports to the Bishop of Uganda in 1901. 

 remarked. •• In Uganda syphilis is universal." .So ft\r as can be ascertained, 

 this plague did not exist in the country until communications were opened 

 up with the Zanzibar coast-lands and with the Sudan provinces of Egvpt 

 between 1850 and 18^iO. It would be rash to say that the malady was 

 unknown to the country before these dates, but it was certainly introduced 

 in a new and ravaging form bv the Arabs and Nubians. Now it is becoming- 

 somewhat more benign, but is appearing in a congenital form amongst the 

 children. Mothers do not recognise this malady when it breaks out in their 

 offspring, but attribute it to the results of their having eaten salt during 

 pregnancy. If the child dies of this disease, the mother is beaten, as it is 

 taken to be her fault. Monseigneur Streicher. who knows intimately the 

 Banyoro and Baganda. informs me that although this same terrible disease is 

 equally present in Unyoro. it does not appear among the children. 



The same authority lias drawn the present writer's attention repeatedly 

 to the stationary character of the Baganda populatiim at the present day. 

 The Kingdom of Uganda in the time of Mutesa. though then of smaller 

 extent politically than at the present day. pvol)ably numbered 4.000.000 

 people. In 1901 I was not able to e>timate the j.opulation at much over 

 1,000,000. Thi> decrease is partly due to the appalling bloodshed and 

 massacres which went on 1ietween 18()0 and 1898 and were caustMi bv the 



