430 
TIIE KILIMANJARO EXPEDITION. 
the hole is widened until the distended flap of skin 
nearly reaches the shoulder. When this result has 
been attained, many rings of beads are inserted, and 
continue to weigh down the distorted ear, the outer 
auricle of which is further pierced and hung with 
beads of a larger kind. This hanging the ears with 
beads is peculiar to the Wa-taita, the other mountain 
races in the vicinity employing for the like purpose 
fine iron chains, bolts of wood, or rings of wood or 
ivory. There are but slight traces of religion among 
them. They are afraid of spirits, who are supposed 
to dwell in large forest trees, and perhaps for the 
reason that their dead are always buried in the forest. 
The country is but slightly wooded, but on the hill¬ 
tops clumps of high trees are religiously conserved. 
The baobabs among these people, as among other East 
African races, are looked upon as particularly the 
abode of spirits. The word for God in their language 
is Mulungu , but I more than suspect it is a borrowed 
term from the coast tribes, and that JEJruiva, “ sun,” 
is their true conception of an over-ruling deity. Among 
the Wa-pare, the Wa-gweno, the Wa-taveita, and the 
Wa-caga the word for “ sun ” and “ God ” is identical. 
Mulungu is in use among the A-nika and the A-kamba, 
and Muungu and Mungo among the Wa-swahili and 
the Wa-pokomo. All these variants descend from an 
original form, Mu-n-hulu-n-Jculu , which is most closely 
preserved in the modern Zulu U-nhulunkulu . The 
adjective -hulu in nearly all Bantu tongues has the 
meaning of “ great” or “old.” To this was added the 
n prefix, then the personal prefix mu, so that finally 
the combination meant the “ old, old one,” for great 
and old in this sense are almost synonymous, and 
Bleek conjectures the term to have been a relic of 
