( 193 ) CHAPTEK VIII.

GOVERNMENT AND LANGUAGE OF THE WAGANDA.

THE government of Uganda is a very perfect form of the feudal system. The king is theoretically owner of all the land, but this has become, to a great extent, a legal fiction, and the three leading chiefs of the country are practically the owners. .

The Waganda may be roughly divided into four great classes, viz. : slaves ; bakopi, or peasants, who form the bulk of the population; batongoli, or chiefs of the second rank, and bakiingu, or chiefs of the first rank. The bakopi are in many respects the most important class, partly on account of their numbers, partly because they supply the soldiers who have made the name of the Waganda to be feared and hated in all the neighbouring countries.

It is from their ranks also that the second order of chiefs, the batongoli, is recruited, and the sons of batongoli, their rank not being hereditary, become again bakopi. It is also, I believe, among these peasants that the efforts of the missionary will be most successful, and that h'3re again, as in numberless instances, history will repeat itself, and that the VOL. i. o