154 AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
bride to Bagyendanwa, where an omururu would show him the drum-stick, omurisyo, as a symbol of fertility and would give the groom bark cloth, milk pots, and millet. When a princess was married, the sacred spear, nyamaringa, was shown to the newly married couple and the groom would be given a cow called 'cow of the sacred spear'. Any couple who had a long and successful marriage with many children would go to the drum and thank it for its help and make an offering of beer and millet or a cow. Children who had been born to a couple through the goodwill of Bagyendanwa were called bene Bagyendanwa, or children of the drum. They were considered more fortunate than other children and certain to accumulate large herds and to be successful raiders.
Bagyendanwa^ like the Mugabe, provided a certain amount of economic help to people in dire distress. Offerings of cattle and food accumulated at the shrine of the drum. Some of the food was consumed by the Abaruru drum-keepers and the slaves who fetched wood and water, but much of it found its way back to the people of Ankole. Cows were milked, bull calves were slaughtered, and the beer and millet accumulated in greater quantities than were needed to supply these attendants. At marriages food and cattle were given away, as we have seen. But more important than these gifts of the drum were the cattle which were given to Bahima who had lost their herds through raids or disease and the food which was given to Bairu who had suffered from crop-failure. The case of a person in distress was heard by the head drum-keeper, who decided whether the person had a just cause or not. It was said that no person was helped if he had rich relatives who could help or if he were a favourite of the Mugabe. Here, again, we see the power and importance of the Abaruru drum-keepers. They were believed to have, not only the magical power of Bagyendanwa, but also the capacity for justice and the discernment of human wrong and weakness. The shrine of Bagyendanwa provided a centre for the saving of surplus wealth and for the redistribution of it in times of economic stress.
It has been mentioned that the cult of Bagyendanwa acted as a unifying agent in the political organization of Ankole. How, specifically, did the drum cult perform this function? The particular teleological purposes carried out by the drum do not, in themselves, explain this integrative action. The drum, through