he twins sits down on the right side of the
hut, and the inmates make him offerings of beads, oxen, and so forth.
When he has thus gone the round of the village, he repairs to the
neighbouring villages, where the same ceremonies are repeated. It is
often a year before he returns to his own village, and when he does so
he brings back with him a great quantity of offerings. Henceforth the
father of the twins enjoys all the privileges of a priestly chief; he
may sacrifice at the holy fire, and he may represent and even succeed
the chief in the office of priest for the village. The twins themselves
are eligible for the same office. If a chief dies a natural death, he is
succeeded in his priestly function by his twin son; whereas the
chieftainship passes to the chief's legal heir, who is properly the son
of his eldest sister, and who thenceforth assumes the name of the twin.
A twin is bound by no taboo; he may eat of all flesh offered in
sacrifice; he may drink of the milk of every holy cow, just like the
chief and the priest themselves.[89]

[86] J. M. M. van der Burgt, _Dictionnaire Francais-Kirundi_
(Bois-le-Duc, 1903), pp. 324 _sq._; H. Meyer, _Die Barundi_
(Leipzig, 1916), pp. 110 _sq._

[87] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 242.

[88] Colle, _Les Baluba_ (Brussels, 1913), i. 253-255.

[89] J. Irle, _Die Herero_ (Guetersloh, 1906), pp. 96-99.

In these cases we are not told that twins and their parents are supposed
to be endowed with a power of multiplying the herds and generally of
increasing the supply of food by the prolific influence which they
diffuse about them; but the analogy of the customs and beliefs of the
Baganda concerning the birth of twins renders the supposition probable.
At least on this hypothesis we can readily understand the round of
visits which the parents, or one of them, pay to the surrounding towns
or villages, and the presents which are made to them. If they indeed
possess a power of imparting fertility and abundance wherever they go,
it is obviously in everybody's interest to be visited by them, and
clearly, on the same supposition, it is everybody's duty to make some
return to them for the wonderful benefits which they have conferred.

Similarly we may perhaps suppose that the rounds which the Areois went
from island to island, dancing, singing, and playing their tricks
wherever they stopped, were believed to quicken the fruits of the earth,
and possibly als