HABITS AND CUSTOMS OF THE WA-GANDA. 83 



But according to the English missionaries it really amounts to 5,000,000, that is to 

 say, nearly 200 persons per mile, a density almost one-fourth more than that of 

 France. However, a still more remarkable statement of Messrs. Felkin and Wilson 

 throws some doubt upon the value of these provisional estimates. According to 

 them, the women are three and a-half times more numerous than the men, a social 

 phenomenon elsewhere without parallel. Hitherto all the regular statistics have 

 shown that the sexes are nearly equal, either witli a slight overplus for the women, 

 as in all the coimtries of Europe and the New World, or with a small excess for the 

 men, as in Japan. English travellers seem to think that this extraordinary dispro- 

 portion may be due at once to natural and political causes. The births of girls far 

 exceeds those of boys, as is evident from the groups of children playing before the 

 huts, the dangers of the battlefield and the massacres of the captives accounting for 

 the rest. On their successful expeditions the Wa-Ganda warriors, like their neigh- 

 bours, kill the men and carry off the women, who are afterwards divided amongst 

 the conquerors. 



In U-Granda, as in most of the other states of the plateau, the power belongs 

 to the Wa-Huma nation, although the majority of the inhabitants are the Wa-Ganda, 

 who have given their name to the state. They are true Negroes, with almost black 

 complexion and short woolly hair, above the average height, and endowed with 

 uncommon muscular strength. The women are distinguished by their small hands 

 and feet. The Wa-Nyambo, who come from Karagwe and the adjacent provinces, 

 and who are for the most part pastors, are more slender in appearance than the 

 natives. But the Wa-Soga, immigrants from the countries situated to the east of the 

 Somerset Nile, equal the Wa-Ganda in stature and in strength, while they are even 

 of a darker complexion. Amongst these various peoples albinos are very numerous ; 

 nevertheless they are exhibited as curiosities in the huts of the chiefs. The 

 practices of tattooing the face, distending the lobe of the ear, or filing the teeth to 

 a point, common amongst other African tribes, are here unknown, all voluntary 

 mutilation being forbidden under pain of death. Nor do the Wa-Ganda grease 

 the body with fat, and they are in other respects of cleanly habits and given to 

 frequent ablutions. The most dreaded disease is small-pox, probably imported 

 from the eastern coast. It spares few persons when it presents itself in an epidemic 

 form. A few scattered cases of leprosy are to be found here and there, persons 

 frequently being seen with their black skins covered with white blotches, like those 

 of the Mexican Pintados. 



Habits and Customs or the Wa-Ganda. 



The chief food of the Wa-Ganda is the banana, of which they possess several 

 varieties, amongst others the Ethiopian musae ensete. It is prepared by them in 

 various ways, being even made into flour and a fermented liquor which they brew 

 from it. Sweet potatoes, haricots, various kinds of gourds and tomatoes, maize, 

 millet, papaw fruit, rice, and vegetables introduced by the Arabs, are amongst their 

 alimentary plants. The cofEee-shrub is also cultivated, but yields a very small 



