CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS 329 



instead of going to the shore he is bound in an igloe 

 and left there by his people. While still in this bound 

 condition he is said to ascend through the roof of the 

 igloe and to meet and hold communion with Cood- 

 la-pom-e-o ; and, having arranged matters with him, 

 he returns to earth, re-enters the igloe through the 

 door, and reports the result of this interview." 



The natives of the Uganda Protectorate have many 

 curious superstitions, some of which the Rev. A. L. 

 Kitching describes in his volume on the peoples of 

 this part of Africa. 1 He says: "Apart from the 

 regular acts of propitiation practised from time to time 

 as occasion demands, there are innumerable little trifles 

 of superstition which enter into every department of 

 daily life. If a dog runs up on to the roof of 

 a house in Mwenge, that house must be at once 

 vacated and not again occupied. In Patiko if you 

 wish to make your hens lay plenty of eggs you take 

 half a dozen egg-shells, pass a small stock through 

 them, and plant them above the doorway of your house. 

 Among the Teso if a potter finds his pots are cracking 

 unduly in the baking he at once takes steps to counter- 

 act this tendency by throwing into the hole from which 

 he digs his clay a young chicken. 



Many of these superstitions gather round the dread 

 of the ever-threatening lightning flash, so destructive 

 to life and property in all tropical Africa. If a village 

 in Patiko has recently suffered, ropes made of twisted 

 grass, like English hay- bands, are strung from peak 

 to peak of the houses throughout the circle of dwellings 

 to ward off further strokes. If a person has been 

 struck or badly shaken by a narrow escape, an elaborate 

 1 See Bibliography, 21. 



