THE KINGDOM OF ANKOLE IN UGANDA 127
their herds from animal and human enemies, were individually superior fighting men. Constant raiding and counter-raiding developed a military discipline which could be expanded and put to political uses. The organization of the Bahima kraal was a larger collective enterprise than the Bairu homestead. The unilateral ekyika or lineage offered wider political and military co-operation than the relatively smaller Bairu oruganda or extended family. Thus, even without a further development of the political organization, the Bahima had the advantage in righting experience and co-operation.
Once the Bahima of Ankole had conquered the Bairu and had imposed their will through a state organization, they were faced by a new situation, they had to defend their country, their cattle and the Bairu subjects from external attack. Defence forces and counter-raiding were not a guarantee of security. The most satisfactory method of preventing aggression lay in the permanent subjugation of raiders. Conquest of other cattle people, less strongly organized, became a necessary feature of state defence. Here again we can contrast the situation in which the Bahima found themselves with that met by the Masai. The Masai were pre-eminently cattle-raiders, making sudden attacks upon the villages and homesteads of their settled neighbours, taking what cattle and goods they could find, and then retreating to their plains. They did not invade the territory of their neighbours, for they did not require expansion of their pasture lands, nor was the land of their neighbours, like that of the Kikuyu and the Kavir-ondo, ideal cattle country. Furthermore, the Masai were not subjected to permanent pressure by the surrounding tribes. They were primarily attackers and not attacked.
While conquest of surrounding cattle people was imposed by the needs of defence, it had its aspect of economic profit. It paid to dominate these weaker groups, for tribute in cattle could be extracted from them. Conquered cattle people came under the rule of a king's representative, who undertook the collection of tribute and its presentation to the king. An interesting feature of these conquered cattle people was that, being Bahima, they soon amalgamated with their conquerors. The Bahima of Empororo, who were formerly independent, were conquered and for a time paid regular tribute, but, with the increase of pressure from Ruanda, they fought along with their conquerors and were