UGANDA JOURNAL.


condition, one of the elders says, ber (good) and the others all answer in unison
ber. If in examining the bowels there is found an abnormality, it is removed,
pierced with a thorn, and then thrown into the forest.

 The significance of this act has reference to the formula pronounced in the
offering of the victim. Nothing of an injurious nature must befall the parents of
the ancestors. On account of the sacrifice offered to them, the ancestors must
take care to prevent evils from descending upon the village, and troubling the
inhabitants.
 Anyone may do the cutting. The one who does begins with the forelegs,
starting with the right foreleg first. Then the hind legs are cut. Some say that
it is immaterial whether one starts with the front or the hind legs.
 Slicing a piece of meat from the loin (akic), they roast it over a slow fire.
There are some also who roast pieces of meat from the chest or the liver.
 While these functions are transpiring, the wife of the Won Abila is helped
by the other women of the relations, in preparing bread. The preparation is made
in the hut of her husband. When the meat and the bread are ready, the same
elder, the master of ceremonies, prepares the food in one pot (atabo) only. It
makes no difference if it was previously used. In procession, they go and place it
under the temple. Again they slice the loins or the chest of the goat, and they
cook it in the house of the Won Abila. This second portion of meat which is
not roasted, but simply parboiled, is called amal. The master of ceremonies
cuts it, and it is then taken to the elder, who attends to the cooking of it.
 When this second portion is also cooked, the same master of ceremonies
enters the hut, removes it from the fire, and places it in two pots. These two equal
shares of meat and of bread are carried by the elder and an assistant, and placed
in front of the Abila. Upon these and upon the food previously offered, these
words are pronounced by the elder:
 Cam mewu dong en.
 Here is your food.
 Wek kom lotino obed ma yot.
 Let the body of the children be healthy.
 Ki mon meggi ginong nyodo.
 And may the women bear children.
 Wek nyingwu pe orweny.
 That, your name may not disappear.
 Good health for the living, and very particularly for the young, is earnestly
besought, and also that the women of the relations may bear children. They
ardently wish also, that their Name may be perpetuated to future generations.
This request is always made, for all natives are very anxious to have numerous
children, and this invocation is made again at the end of the ceremony.