/.) 



BANTU NEGKOES 



of (lance is given after sdnie kind of sexual initiation ceremony, at wliicli 

 men and women dance together.* Each dancer lias a stick from which 

 the bark has been removed in alternate rings. The jieople dance in a 

 circle, shake their shoulders, and slowly revolve with ahrQjit movements 

 and much stamping. After a wed<ling there is a dance in which women 

 alone perform. Finally, it is said that a dance takes ])lace in seasons of 

 drought to propitiate the good spirit and bring down rain. 



In langiiage the Kavirondii are closely allied to the ugly Masalia 



i^i«^^f#^v«feK3 





* -.^l _<af 'fi^' 



r^ 



M 



^^■^^^ 



402. .\ Il.iXf'E I.N- K.WIKO.XDO 



l)eo])le of West Elgon, but in physiciue they are almost typically Bantu 



so far as any Bantu type of Negro can be defined. They almost certainly 

 entered their preterit habitat a long while ago from the north or north- 

 west. They did not, as ^Ir. Hobley thinks, advance to their present sites- 

 from the south end of Lake A'ictoria, and the sujiposition on which this 

 theory is based — namely, special relationship between the Kavirondo and 

 Kinyamwezi dialects— is an incorrect one. All the Kavirondo dialects are 

 much more closely related to Luganda and Urunyoro than they are to 



* Mr. Ho'jlcy says '■ circunieision," hut as the Kavirondo do not circuiiieise he 

 possibly means some cereinony cuiincctcd with the arrival at riuberty of boys or 

 girls. 



