764 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
notices that the same story told by an old man and a young one> 
although having one and the same main idea, yet varies considerably 
in detail and style. This is less the case when the stories are told 
by professional story-tellers or sung by the hards. In such cases 
almost identical sequence is followed, the same sentences and 
modes of expression being preserved as accurately as the incidents 
themselves. 
The founder of Uganda is said to have been Kintu, and the 
account the people give of his arrival in the country is shortly as 
follows Many years ago Kintu with his wife, one cow, one goat, 
one sheep, one banana root, and one sweet potato, crossed the Kile 
at Foweira, and arrived on the borders of Victoria Nyanza. He 
settled there, planting his banana and sweet potato, which grew 
with extraordinary rapidity — in fact, the sweet potato grew so fast 
that the people say the tendrils could he seen creeping along the 
ground. His wife bore him four children at a birth each year, and 
so precocious were they that at two years of age the female children 
bore sons and daughters. The cattle likewise multiplied as rapidly. 
The country in this way soon became populated, till at last Kintu 
was obliged to send many of the families away; he gave each 
family a piece of the original banana root and potato plant, and 
they populated the surrounding districts. Kintu appears to have 
been a kind of priest ; he was very humane, and could not hear 
the sight of blood; even cattle killed for necessary food were 
slaughtered at some distance from his dwelling. As time went on 
and age began to tell upon the monarch, his children caused him 
considerable trouble. They became drunken and quarrelsome, and 
even murdered one another, and at length being unable to witness 
their wickedness longer, Kintu departed at night-time with his wife, 
and their original cow, goat, sheep, banana root, and sweet potato. 
His sons sought him three days without success, and then his 
eldest son took up the reins of power. Tradition says that each 
succeeding king lived in the hope of one day finding Kintu, and 
many an expedition, instigated by various kings, searched the whole 
country through and through without success. It was not until 
the reign of Maanda that news of Kintu arrived. It happened 
thus. A peasant one day, some distance from home and fatigued 
by hard work, passed the night alone in the forest. He dreamed 
