751 



BANTU NEGllOES 



of chance is given after some kind of sexual initiation ceremony, at which 

 men and women dance together.* Each dancer lias a stick from which 

 tlie hark has been removed in alternate rings. The people dance in a 

 circle, shake their shoulders, and slowly revolve with abrupt movements 

 and much stamping. After a wedding there is a dance in which women 

 alone perform. Finally, it is said that a dance takes jalace in seasons of 

 drought to propitiate the good spirit and bring down rain. 



In language the Kavirondo are closely allied to the ugly Masaba 



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402. A DANCK IN KAVIKOXDO 



peo]>le of West Elgon, but in physique they are almost typically Bantu — 

 so far as any 15antu type of Negro can be defined. They almost certainly 

 entered their present habitat a long while ago from the north or north- 

 west. They did not, as Mr. Hobley thinks, advance to their present sites 

 from the south end of I^ke Victoria, and the supposition on which this 

 theory is based — namely, special relationship between the Kavirondo and 

 Kinyamwezi dialects— is an incorrect one. All the Kavirondo dialects are 

 much more closely related to ]. Uganda and I'runyoro than they are to 



* Mr. HoMey says "circumcision," but as the Kavirondo do not circumcise he 

 possibly means some ceremony connected uitli tlio arrival at laiberty of boys 01- 

 girls. 



