THE U-NYOEO TERRITORY. 98 



the daughters following their mother's profession. The wives of the king and 

 chiefs would regard themselves as degraded by manual labour, their whole ambition 

 being to grow corpulent and acquire double the weight of their humbler sisters. 

 Few of the Wa-Nyoro women give birth to more than two or three children. 



Islam has already penetrated into TJ-Nyoro. But although many of the chiefs 

 have become converts, the bulk of the people have accepted of the new religion 

 little beyond its prescriptions regarding prohibited food. The " medicine-men " 

 still universally practise magic, seeking to secure the favour of "the great wizard" 

 and of the spirit-world by means of charms, incantations, and dances. The fortune- 

 tellers, belonging to a wandering caste compared by Erain-Bey to the European 

 gypsies, are also frequently consulted. The " evil eye " is much dreaded, especially 

 that of old women, whose glance suffices to poison food and drink. All disorders 

 are attributed to sorcery, and in order to recover the patient spits three times in 

 the face of every woman he meets, the cure being effected when he reaches the 

 actual delinquent. Every event, from the meeting of a wild beast to the motion 

 of a leaf, has its auspicious or unfavourable meaning, so that the people spend their 

 lives in studying the aspect of vegetation, the flight of birds, the state of the 

 firmament, and all other outward phenomena. No one ever retraces his steps, and 

 if he has to return he chooses a path parallel to the first, or else opens a new way 

 through the bush. The blacksmith accompanies his work with a song, the words of 

 which enter into the metal and endow it with its peculiar properties. Two men swear 

 friendship by mingling their blood and dipping a coffee-berry in the mixture 

 in order to assimilate their respective qualities. Between two uterine brothers 

 mutual trust is unbounded and never betrayed. Hence the king selects his 

 most intimate ministers amongst those united to him by the brotherhood of con- 

 sanguinity. The nocturnal dances, celebrated by the flickering light of torches 

 or the lurid flame of the stake, are said to produce an ineffaceable impression. The 

 wizards, daubed with ochre, decked with fantastic finery, conjuring the demons by 

 their wild gesticulations, leaps, and shouts, flitting about in the glare and suddenly 

 plunging into the surrounding gloom, appear themselves like spectres of the 

 night, or fantastic beings from another world. The Wa-Nyoro have also a 

 warlike dance like that of their kindred, the southern Zulus, and, like them also, 

 make war with assegai, spear, and shield. 



U-Nyoro is also occupied by peoples of other stocks, the most powerful of which 

 are the Lango or Longo, who hold both sides of the Nile between Foweira and 

 Magungo. These are probably of the same origin as the Wa-Huma, and even still 

 speak a Galla dialect. They enjoy full freedom, forming independent communities 

 in the midst of the Wa-Nyoro, and recognising the authority of the chiefs only 

 during their warlike expeditions. They are otherwise specially devoted to the 

 offices of the toilet, spending long hours in arranging their elegant or imposing 

 head-dresses. The prevailing fashion is a kind of helmet, in which every lock of 

 hair is interlaced with many-coloured wools, and terminating in a superstructure 

 of plumes, wreaths of shells or glass beads, or curved projections in imitation of 

 buffalo horns. Whole years are required to bring some of these sumptuous head- 



