BANTU NEGROES 091 



The pat 'rnal grandfather gives a name to the cliild This naming is 

 a verv peculiar function. A great deal depends on tiie name given, and 

 there are certain foods forbidden to families l)earing certain names. For 

 instance, if a child is called LudiKja. it must never eat the flesh (jf an 

 otter; a man named Mdi/aii/d cannot eat the flesh of a sheep; nor can 

 one who is called Kateiidd eat the Profopterus (lung-fish). The ]irohil)ition 

 extends to the man's descendants for all time. liut it does not include^ his 

 wife or wives. They may have a prohibition of their own inherited from 

 their father, but the sons or daughters are only involved in the prohibition 

 of their father: the prohibition (if any) which ap})lies to their mother 

 does not affect them. These restrictions regarding diet are no doubt 

 connected with the totem or sacred symbol of the clan ("kika") to 

 which any person belongs. 



A jNluganda woman may not eat fowls. If she is a single woman, and 

 living in a house of her own, she may eat ^gg^^ ; but if she marries, she 

 ceases by custom to eat eggs, though her husband may do so. 



Mutton is also prohibited to all ^Muganda women. If they ate 

 forbidden food they would suffer something like a loss of caste, and they 

 assert that if either a man or woman ate food which was forbidden by 

 caste, he or she would become covered with ulcers. In regard to beef or 

 veal, there is no name involving a prohibition. Any one may eat it. 



Allusion has already been made in connection with Unyoro to the 

 fact that the people of Unyoro and I'ganda ai*e divided into clans 

 which have as their totems — these totems being sacred or lieraldic 

 objects — beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, or vegetables which in some 

 way or other are identified with the original founders of the clan. In 

 Uganda proper and its southern province of Buddu there are twenty-nine 

 clans with the following totems : — 



No. I.Uganda designation. En;.;lisli etiuivaltnt. 



1. Xsenene .... Grasshopper. 



2. Mamba Lung-fish {Protopterus). 



3. Fumbi Ljicaon dog (Cape hunting dog). 



4. Njovu Flejihant. 



5. Xonge Otter. 



6. >i'go Leopard. 



7. Mporogoma .... Lion. 



8. Butiko Mushroom. 



9. Musvi Ground-rat, an octodont rodent {Thvyonomys 



swinderenianus). 



10. Enkima White-nosed monkey {Cercopithecm petmirist'X or 



rut'oi'iriJis). 



11. Mvubu Hii)popotamus. 



12. Kobe A creeping ])lant with a fruit like a chestnut or 



potato. 



