THE ARMS AND HUTS OF THE WANYORO. 293 
der from house to house singing ; and are occasionally 
rather importunate beggars, refusing to leave without 
some present. A set of them lived near us at Un- 
yoro, and seemed to have cattle of their own, so that 
they do not entirely depend upon begging for subsist- 
ence. The natives all respect them very much, never 
refusing them food when they call, and treating them 
as religious devotees. Any one may join their num- 
ber by attending to certain forms ; and the family of 
a Bandwa does not necessarily follow the same occu- 
pation. I knew one of them the captain of a band of 
soldiers. This whole country was once occupied by 
people of this class, called Wichwezee, who, according 
to tradition, suddenly disappeared underground ! 
The arms used by the Wanyoro were the poorest 
we had anywhere seen. Bows and arrows are un- 
known, although their neighbours at Karague make 
them their chief weapon. The spear is small and 
weak, with a thin six -feet -long handle of ordinary 
wood. Excellent spear - heads are hawked for sale 
in the southern borders, but the Waganda, a richer 
people, buy them up. A party of soldiers, wretched 
representatives, dashed into our camp one day to 
rescue us from the Waganda. They wore each a 
handkerchief of bark-cloth tied round the head, high 
in front like a Highland bonnet, and dirty rags of the 
same material covered their loins. Bead ornaments 
round the neck were worn by such as possessed means 
to obtain them. Others wore flattened pellets, larger 
than garden -peas, made of polished iron or ivory, 
and strung round the ankles. 
The huts or hovels of the country were wretched ; 
but there was this excuse for the people, that no wood 
