68i BANTU NEGROES 



(huiiiiners ; the " Nsase," who rattled the gourds full of dry peas; the 

 " liuinilele," or flute-])layers ; the " Bakonderi," or trumpeters; the 

 " J^ananga,'' or harpers; tlie whistlers; the singers. There was the 

 " Sabakaki," or doorkeeper; the " Mutuba," or head bark-cloth manu- 

 facturer; the " ]Musali," or king's guide (on journeys); the " Sabadu,'' or 

 overseer of the slaves ; and the " ^lumboa," or principal hangman. The 

 \ mother of the king became and remains still a great person in the land. 

 She is entitled the " ^Vamasole," and keeps a little court of her own. The 

 King's eldest or chosen sister, both in Uganda and in Unyoro, was another 

 personage of great importance at the court. She is generally called 

 " Nalinya," or the " Dubuga." The princesses, as distinguished from the 

 king's sisters, are sometimes called " Eambeja." A personage of great 

 importance under the old regime was the woman, the midwife, who had 

 charge of the king's navel string. 



The word for •• king, supreme chief," in Luganda is said to have been 

 originally '" ^Nlukabya." " Oku-kabya " means in Luganda "' to make a person 

 cry or weep " : seeing the barbarities inflicted by the best kings of Uganda it 

 is not impossible that the etymology of the word '"king" — '-^Mukabva" — 

 is " one who causes people to weep." The word, however, is never heaixl 

 now, and for it has long since been substituted '• Kabaka," which is said 

 to mean emperor rather than king — that is to say, a monarch over monarchs : 

 " -baka " means "to catch, sm'prise. take unawares." I do not know whether 

 there is any connection between the two Mords. " Ka-," of course, is 

 merely a prefix. "Mubaka," with a different prefix, means an envoy, 

 a messenger. 



Tlie kings of Uganda kept up their prestige, maintained their wealth, 

 and asserted their influence over the aristocracy by the continual raids 

 they made over the adjacent countries of Busoga. Bukedi. Unyoro. Toro, 

 Ankole, and even Ruanda. On the north-east they penetrated as raiders 

 as far as the western slopes of Mount Elgon. They stood in too great 

 dread of the ^lasai and Xandi to pursue their ravages any farther in that 

 direction. The limit of their power to the west at times was only the 

 wall of the Congo Forest. Mr. Lionel Decle, in his extended explorations 

 of the country immediately north of Tanganyika, found in a \illage an 

 ancient Uganda shield, supposed to have been there about a hundred 

 years, and according to the traditions of the natives it was obtained from 

 one of the warriors of a Uganda expedition who fell in battle against the 

 peojile of Burundi. These jjowerful Negro kings maintained a certain 

 civilisation and a considerable amount of law and order in the territories 

 which they governed. But they imt no limits to their lust and cruelty. 

 The })recincts of their courts were constantly stained with human blood, 

 execution for perfectly trifling offences being a daily occurrence. Stanley 



