Page:Two kings of Uganda.djvu/111

earls, Pokino of Budu, Kangao of Bulemezi, Sekebobo of Kyagwe, Mukwenda of Singo, Kyimbugwe, keeper of the palace, Kasuju, keeper of the king's children, and possibly other principal chiefs, such as Mugema, Kibare, and Gabunga, the latter being Lord High Admiral of the king's great war canoes.

It will be simpler, perhaps, if I first try to explain how one candidate for the throne may be more likely to succeed than another. The Baganda are split up into families called Ebyika, or clans. Every Kyika (clan) has, so to speak, its distinguishing crest. There is the kyika of the grasshopper, "Ensenane ; " the kyika of the sheep, " Endiga ;" the kyika of the crocodile, "Engonya," and so on. It is a curious thing that no person may eat the animal after which his kyika or clan is named. The kyika of the king is the royal tribe of the Bahuma, or Balangira (princes), as they are called in Buganda. Hence we can understand how it is the Bahuma herdsmen, though utterly despised in Buganda, are yet called princes, and have the royal privilege of paring their nails to a point, and of wearing brass and copper rings upon their ankles. Strange to say, there is a rule that a man or woman must not marry in their own kyika, and marriages with cousins are viewed as marriages with sisters, and are strictly forbidden. Now every kyika presents the reigning king with one or more virgins, "Bawala," as concubines or wives, and the child of the wife given by a particular kyika to the king is that kyika's protégé, and con-