48 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

r* people, and they use many herbs as medicines : but the remedy most frequently employed is cupping, the operation being performed with a disregard of anatomy which would shock a European doctor. Cow's horns are used as cupping-glasses, and a large amount of blood is nearly always taken, leaving the patient very weak for several days.

Small-pox makes great ravages at times ; temporary madness is also common among the Wanyoro, and venereal disease is widely spread; they date its appearance from the reign of Kamrasi, some thirty years ago ; it travelled from east to west. The " medicine " men act as singers and dancers at festivities, but the dances are most indecent.

There are no graveyards, and no coffins ; the dead are buried in their own yard, the men on the left, and the women on the right of the door. It is the custom to shave the head as a sign of mourning.

Polygamy is universal, even the poorest man having two or three wives.

' A good-looking woman costs four cows, or is sometimes bought for cowrieshells ; a less good-looking one can be obtained for two or three cows.

The women marry very young, and should they not have children, they are sometimes returned to their father, who gives back some of the cows paid for them.

Girls subject to fits are difficult to dispose of, and are often given away.