THE KINGDOM OF ANKOLE IN UGANDA 153
Not only did Bagyendanwa help people in their endeavours, but he was also believed to punish evil-doers and to avenge wrongs. If a man felt that he had been wronged by some one, but could not prove his case before the Mugabe, he would go to the drum and beseech it to punish his enemy. The common occasions for thus appealing to the drum were theft, adultery, sorcery, and slander. The Bairu, it is claimed, sought justice more often from the drum than did the Bahima, for the Mugabe was * often deaf to the complaints of his serfs'. Bagyendanwa punished people by making them ill, letting their cattle die and by causing wild animals to destroy their cattle and crops. If through divination a man found that the drum was punishing him because he had wronged some one, he would go to the person whom he had wronged and compensate him for the loss or damage he had incurred. Sometimes the two men who had come to terms thus would go to the shrine of Bagyendanwa and offer to him and swear by the drum not to harm each other again. Such men would continue to offer to the drum for some time afterwards, for, they said, £he had brought peace where there had been hate'. For all requests and answers offerings had to be made.
Even though nothing had gone wrong, the people would sometimes take offerings to the drum in order to solicit protection against the evil devices of men and spirits and the malignant forces which every Munyankole believes to reside in the world at large and which are revealed to him through omens and signs. The wealthier a man is, the greater is the danger around him and the greater and more frequent must his offerings be to the drum. Wealthy chiefs who were envied by rivals were particularly careful to make large offerings of cattle in order that evil would not be spoken about them to the Mugabe.
Bagyendanwa is also said to induce fertility in barren women. In the past, women who had no children would take an offering to the drum and ask it to make them fertile. The Abaruru, clansmen who were the drum-keepers, also had the power to induce such fertility, and upon request supplied charms made from plant medicines which had been prepared in the shrine and which contained powers associated with the drum. Besides having the power to induce fertility, Bagyendanwa looked with favour upon marriages and showered gifts upon important people after their marriage feast. When the son of a chief married, he went with his