147 
1891 - 92 .] Dr R. W. Felkin on the Wanyoro Tribe. 
courteous and friendly one to another. Both men and women salute 
each other at morning and night, saying Good-morning (Rairote ; 
ans. Daahante) ; Good-evening (Geroha ; ans. Gerobera). When 
people meet in the road, if of equal rank, they say the word 
“Merembe,” followed by each party giving vent to a series of curious 
nasal grunts of satisfaction. If a man of low rank meets one who 
is his superior in the street, he is expected either to kneel or to bend 
forward, supporting his body with his hands on his knees until his 
superior has passed. There are special forms of salutation for great 
chiefs, the customary address to the King being “Kgunzono Kali” 
(I greet the highest). The common people when expressing thanks 
use the word “ Vebbala,” the higher classes the word “ Nkuebas.” 
If a person has been to a drinking-party, when he leaves he salutes 
the host with the word “ Kkuada ” (thank you), and is answered by 
the salutation “ Rainni.” In all classes of society dried coffee- 
berries are offered when meeting or during conversation, and among 
the higher classes, after drinking beer, coffee-beans are used to remove 
the odour of the liquor. When strangers arrive at a hut the people 
sitting before its door always rise, and, after the customary saluta- 
tions, beer, water, or food is produced, should the stranger require it. 
The women do not as a rule sit with the men, but form groups to 
themselves, and among the higher classes the sexes eat apart. The 
Wanyoro always wash their hands before eating ; the viands are all 
covered with grass mats whilst being carried from the cooking- 
place, to prevent them from being bewitched by the evil eye. 
Kabrega may not eat poultry, and the chiefs are expected to refrain 
from this article of diet. Wooden spoons are used in eating, but the 
fingers serve the purpose of knives and forks. After meals, ablutions 
are customary. 
Food . — The diet is principally vegetable, and consists of sweet 
potatoes, gourds, roasted bananas, durrah, eleusine, manioc, and 
various leguminous plants, coffee, sugar-cane, several species of beans, 
one of solanum, tullabone, sesamum, maize, cassava. When meat is 
scarce, blood boiled with butter and salt is eaten. Game and goats 
are very commonly partaken of, as well as fish and eggs. Beef can 
as a rule only be afforded by the rich. Elephant’s flesh, and also 
crocodile and hippopotamus flesh, are not eaten, the latter being sup- 
posed to produce skin diseases. The Wanyoro are very fond of salt. 
