BANTU NEGROES 



71^ 



the back of the head on the third rung, while the second bar serves as a 

 support to the back. 



The articles of diet of the Basoga are slightly more varied than 

 amongst the Baganda. In addition to the banana, which is the favourite 

 food of those who dwell anywhere near the Victoria Nyanza, the country 

 grows the sweet potato, ground- 

 nut, two or three kinds of beans, 

 eleusine, and sorghum. The grain 

 of the sorghum and eleusine 

 cereals is principally used for 

 making beer. Tobacco is grown 

 of excellent quality. The sugar- 

 cane is cultivated, and its stalks 

 are used for the sake of its sweet 

 juice, but no sugar is made from 

 it. The people also grow a few 

 yams and some sesamum, or 

 oil-seed. They gather co'ffee from 

 the wild bushes in the forest, 

 and in parts of the country 

 the cotton-plant is cultivated, 

 though I have not been able to 

 ascertain that they spin this into 

 thread. 



As domestic ctnimcds they 

 keep cattle of the humped, short- 

 horned type, small fat-tailed 

 sheep, goats, and fowls. The 

 goat seen in Busoga is often of 

 the long-haired, " Skye-terrier " 

 type, already mentioned as coming 

 from the regions to the west 

 of the Upper Nile. The natives 

 nowadays catch and tame the 

 young of the grey parrot for 



sale to European or Swahili caravans. The people keep dogs, and some- 

 times use them for hunting. 



There is nothing remarkable about their viarriage ceremonies. The 

 wife is simply purchased from her father by a present of live-stock, 

 together with a few iron hoes, and perhajjs two or three pots of beer. 

 Amongst the peasants a wife may be purchased for a goat. 



When a chief dies his grave is dug in his own house, and his body 



380. A JIUSOGA 



