48 EASTERN ETHIOPIA iv 



containing food, drink, or charms. The Wavuma are 

 extremely superstitious, and whilst there is good reason 

 to believe that much of their fetish worship is harmless, 

 in some instances it was attended with disgusting acts 

 of cruelty. The charms placed in these little fetish 

 huts are chiefly scraps of bark, l:iits of iron ore found 

 among the meadow, bundles of l)anana bast, and 

 different kinds of dried berries. 



Many curious customs prevail among these j)eople. 

 The national dress for men is a robe made of bark 

 cloth, but a woman's consists of a banana leaf. 

 Cunningham points out the advantages of this simple 

 attire : it is easily renewed, and always clean. In this 

 respect the naked natives are angelic when compared 

 with tribes which wear bark cloth from month to month 

 and from year to year, without changing it. Un- 

 fortunately bark cloth cannot be washed. A woman in 

 Buvuma must not sit on a chair ; even when no men 

 are present : she must sit on the floor. 



On some of the islands (Buvuma and Busiri) the 

 incisors are removed, and the dentist who removes them 

 receives a fee of two kauri shells. The removal of the 

 teeth interferes with distinct pronunciation. 



The boats used by the Baganda and by the natives 

 of the Buvuma and Sesse Islands are of great interest, 

 for, though of peculiar construction, they have been 

 brought to a state of perfection. 



The keel of the boat is formed from a tree trunk 

 shaped externally with a hatchet and hollowed in- 

 ternally, in part by burning and in part by hatchets : 

 the keel is pi'olonged. beyond the boat anteriorly in the 

 form of a long sharp peak. The depth of the boat 

 is increased by the addition of lateral planks about an inch 

 thick. These the boat-builders hewfroni tree trunks : they 

 have no saws : the planks are sewn to the tree forming 

 the keel and to each other by means of wattle fil;>re, the 

 holes for the threads being made in the planks with red, 

 hot awls. Two tiers of planks are added to each keel- 



