Identifier: throughugandatom00purv (find matches)
Title: Through Uganda to Mount Elgon
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Purvis, John Bremner
Subjects: Ethnology Missions
Publisher: London (etc.) : F. T. Unwin
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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Text Appearing Before Image:
almost surrounds Masaba, and gives the
country an uninviting appearance; but no
sooner has this been crossed than Masaba is
seen to be a land of plenty, beauty, and,
because of its primitive simplicity, a land of
wonder. The long elephant-grass of Uganda and
Usoga is absent, and as far as the eye can
reach almost every foot of ground seems
to be under cultivation, whilst innumer-
able clusters of houses are visible in every
valley and on what appear to be inaccessible
hills. We left the last Government post more than
twenty miles west of Masaba, but nowhere else
in Africa did I receive a more hearty welcome
or meet with a more kindly disposed people
than in this country, where the people were
living as they had lived right along from the
past ages, and are described by the late Com-
missioner of Uganda, Sir H. H. Johnston, as
perhaps the wildest people to be found any-
where within the limits of the Uganda Protec-
torate. They are wilder even than the Congo
dwarfs. Such a character almost appalled one, but
Text Appearing After Image:

AN OLD MASABA PATRIARCH.
269

Primitive People and Customs 271

four years of life among them proved them
not only very kindly but very capable of
development.
A primitive, pastoral, Bantu-speaking people,
they are known as Bamasaba or Bagishu, but
distinguish themselves as a race apart from
others by the name Basani, i.e., men, whilst
all men of uncircumcised nations are called
Basindi, i.e., boys.
There is an annual festival of circumcision,
when all youths who wish to be recognised as
full members of the clan, warriors, and men
to be reckoned with, parade, dressed in ward
ress, and march from village to village to
make public their brave decision.
They are fêted by young and old for days
before the actual operation, and they visit the
sacred grove of the clan, and, having made
their offerings, receive through their witch-
doctor the blessing of the spirits.
The final operation is carried out by adepts,
who receive a fowl from each lad.
This operation is performed in public, not in
one centre, but in various places situate as
near as possible to the homes of the young
men concerned.

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