74 A DESCRIPTION OF THE WANYORO. 



the vertex of the triangle being in the middle of the naii. 

 All cuttings of the hair and nails are carefully stored under 

 the bed, and afterwards strewn about amongst the tall grass. 

 All the Wanyoro extract the four lower incisor teeth, the 

 Wakidi (Lango) one or two incisors, as also do the inhabitants 

 of Chope (Shuli), but the Waganda do not extract any. 



Brother, sister, brother-in-law, and son-in-law are the re- 

 cognised grades of relationship. I have never noticed any 

 intimate connection between more distant relations. 



The food of the Wanyoro consists principally of vegetables, 

 bananas, sweet potatoes, Helmia bulbifera, gourds, corchorus, 

 purslane, &c. All these are made into a porridge with ground 

 sesame seeds, except bananas, which are plucked before they 

 are ripe and roasted. Ripe bananas are seldom eaten ; they 

 are used to make mwdnge, an intoxicating drink. Eleusine 

 corn, finer-grained and of a paler colour than that grown 

 farther north, is rubbed into flour with hot water, which 

 removes its bitterness. When meat is to be had, it is eaten, 

 even if very high ; the bones are broken in pieces and boiled 

 with the meat, and then the marrow is eaten, but it is much 

 disliked when raw. Marrow, with termites (uswa) and sesame, 

 is made into a dish " of which a man leaves nothing for his 

 children." Blood boiled with butter and salt is only eaten if 

 meat is scarce, and then but by few. Milk is drunk fresh and 

 unboiled. Game (antelopes, &c.) is a favourite food, while 

 elephant's flesh is never eaten, and hippopotamus meat is 

 shunned, as it is thought to produce skin diseases. Many of 

 the Wanyoro (in the lake districts) are industrious fishers, and 

 eat fish with great gusto ; but others entirely avoid and despise 

 it, as well as fowls and eggs. 



Salt is obtained in large quantities near the Albert Lake, 

 at Kibiro and Mbakovia, by lixiviation from the clayey soil, 

 and is taken for sale as far as Uganda. It is for the most 

 part grey and dirty, and has a strong taste of saltpetre,, but 

 from the same district good white salt can be obtained. The 

 poorer people prepare salt by soaking the ashes of papyrus and 

 rushes in water. The lye is filtered through a vessel filled 

 with hay, having a bottom pierced with numerous holes, and 

 is used in a liquid state. All the Wanyoro eat salt. Fire 



