Death of the king. The Banyoro, in common with other known tribes of Africa, would not allow their king to lie ill of any serious sickness. They sought to end his life while he was in full strength: indeed, the king himself would, when he felt his strength declining through age, or when he feared he was about to fall ill, end his life by taking poison. The king's chief wife kept herbs ready to hand and prepared a cup at his bidding; he swallowed the drug and in a few moments he was dead. Under other circumstances, for example, when suffering from any slight indisposition, the king kept his bed and was attended by his chief wife who obtained assistance from a chief and a medicine-man, and they nursed him until he was able to resume his duties, such slight ailments seldom confining the king to his room for more than one or two days. If after two days the king did not recover his general health, he adopted the usual custom of his predecessors by ending his life. The wife who administered the poison-cup called one or two of the leading chiefs when the king was dead and made known to them the real state of affairs, and they kept the king's death secret until they could make preparations for the wars which would inevitably follow when the princes learned that their father was dead and the contest for the vacant throne began.