Origin of the Kikuyu—The family—Circumcision—Marriage—Land
tenure—Missionaries
It may be of interest to the general reader if I give, in a single
chapter, a brief account of the manners and customs of the Kikuyu
people, and some description of the country in which they live. It must
be borne in mind that the information contained in this section is not
the result of direct questioning of the people, as it is well known to
all who have any _real_ knowledge of the African native that to ask
directly for information of this sort from him simply results in the
acquisition of a large amount of information which, however interesting
it may be to read, contains the smallest possible proportion of actual
truth. Therefore, the account of the Kikuyu and their country given in
the following pages is the result of my own personal knowledge and
observation during the period of my residence among them. It may not be
as picturesque as some other published accounts, but I am prepared to
vouch for its accuracy.
Owing to the fact that no accurate map of this part of Africa has yet
been prepared, it is a matter of some difficulty to give exactly the
boundaries and dimensions of the Kikuyu country; but, roughly speaking,
it is bounded on the north by a line which almost coincides with the
Equator; on the west by the Aberdare Range, a range of bamboo-covered
hills, uninhabited by any tribe; on the south by a kind of debatable
land, forming part of the Athi Plain, extending from Nairobi to Fort
Hall, to the south of which lies the Wakamba country; on the east, for a
considerable distance by the Tana River, beyond which it only extends
for a short distance towards the north-east. These boundaries may have
been somewhat modified since the opening up of the country by the
Government of British East Africa, but in the main they are still
correct. The area of this district would be about four thousand square
miles.
As I never attempted to take any sort of census during my “reign,” I can
only give approximately the population, but I should say, as far as I
was able to ascertain, that the total number of the tribe would be about
half a million—rather more than less—of whom the women outnumbered the
men considerably, the constant warfare tending to keep the number of the
male population at a fairly steady figure.
The accounts given of the origin of the Kikuyu tribe vary considerably,
and the nigger’s talent for fiction, and his readiness to oblige any
one—particularly a white man—who asks for a legend, make it extremely
difficult to distinguish where truth ends and fiction begins; but I will
give the two principal accounts as they were given to me, and my own
opinion of the credibility of both, and let the reader judge for
himself.
The first story is that given me by Karuri, the chief who was my first
friend among these interesting people, who was certainly one of the most
intelligent natives I have ever come in contact with. His account was
that the original inhabitants of the country, a tribe called the Asi,
were hunters who took no interest in agriculture, and that the Kikuyu
were a tribe who came into the country, and purchased tracts of land
from the Asi for purposes of cultivation. Gradually more and more of the
Kikuyu came in until they had cleared most of the forest land of which
the country originally consisted, while the Asi were gradually absorbed
into the Kikuyu tribe by marriage, or wandered farther afield in search
of the game which the increasing population and the clearing of the
forests had driven away to new retreats. Karuri himself based his
strongest claim to his chieftaincy on the fact that he was a direct
descendant of these Asi.
The other account, which was given me by a headman named Kasu, now a
powerful chief under the new regime, reminds one somewhat of the story
of Ishmael. The legend runs that a Masai warrior, living on the borders
of what is now the Kikuyu country, but was then a vast forest, inhabited
by a race of dwarfs, of whom the Kikuyu speak as the Maswatch-wanya, was
in the habit of ill-treating one of his wives to such an extent that she
used from time to time to take refuge among the dwarfs, returning to her
husband’s kraal after each flight. Finally his treatment became so bad
that she fled to the dwarfs and remained there, giving birth to a son
shortly after her definite settlement among them. Later on, the story
runs, she had children to her own son, which children intermarried with
the Maswatch-wanya, and from their offspring the present Kikuyu race
derive their descent.
Of the two accounts, my observation would lead me to look for the truth
rather in the direction of the latter than the former. In the first
place, as I think I have before pointed out, a strong physical
resemblance exists between the Kikuyu and the Masai; the former, indeed,
might almost be taken for a shorter, more stockily built branch of the
latter race, while I could easily pick out a hundred Kikuyu who, mixed
with an equal number of Masai, could not be told from the latter, even
by an expert. Again, the weapons and war-dress of the two races are
identical—a fact which to any one who is aware of the unique character
of the Masai weapons is a strong point in itself. Further, when actually
on the war-path—and _only_ then—the Kikuyu are in the habit of singing a
Masai war-song, in the Masai tongue, referring to a former noted warrior
chief of the Masai named Bartion. Again, their manner of circumcising
the young men is exactly the same as that practised by the Masai, which
differs from the custom of any other race, as I shall show later on. The
name for God, Ngai, is the same in both peoples, and they both have a
similar custom of retiring to a so-called “sacred grove” in the bush,
where they slaughter a sheep, which is afterwards roasted and eaten in
honour of their god.
These points, to my mind, all go to show a connexion between the Kikuyu
and the Masai, rather than, as some inquirers argue, between the Kikuyu
and the Wakamba. Of course, in the districts bordering on the Wakamba
country, where it has been customary for the two tribes to seize one
another’s women in their frequent raids, many of the Kikuyu show traces
of Wakamba blood, while on the Masai border the traces of Masai
influence are stronger than in the districts more remote; but I am not
arguing on the basis of the border districts, but from the race as a
whole. Again, the Wakamba, though not now known to be cannibals, still
follow the practice prevalent among cannibal tribes of filing the teeth
to a sharp point—a practice unknown both to the Masai and the Kikuyu.
The Wakamba also are eaters of raw meat, while the Masai, though
blood-drinkers, always cook their meat, and the Kikuyu are practically
vegetarians. In the manner of dressing the hair, too, the Kikuyu follow
the Masai fashion of plaiting strands of bark fibre into the hair, which
is then done up in a sort of pigtail, while the Wakamba wear the
covering provided by Nature without any fancy additions.
Another custom common to both the Masai and Kikuyu, though not practised
by the Wakamba, is that of wearing the most extraordinary ear ornaments,
which, as mentioned earlier in the book, are sometimes as large as a
condensed milk tin, and are worn passed through holes specially made in
the lobe of the ear. The practice is to pierce the lobe of the boys’
ears some time in early childhood, and from that time onwards the
aperture then made is gradually enlarged by the wearing of a succession
of wooden plugs or discs of graduated sizes, until an object as large as
a large-sized condensed milk tin can be easily passed through it. This
operation extends over some years, and the natural result is to convert
the ring of flesh into what looks like—and as far as feeling is
concerned, might as well be—a leather loop, which sometimes hangs down
far enough to touch the shoulder. It is the great ambition of every
Kikuyu youth to be able to wear a bigger ear ornament than his
neighbour, and, in order to attain the desired end, I have known them to
pass a straight stick of wood through the hole in the lobe of one ear,
across the back of the neck, through the lobe of the other, thus keeping
them both constantly stretched.
[Illustration: WAKAMBA WOMEN]
The country itself is very rough, and it is often a matter of difficulty
to find a level piece sufficiently large to pitch one’s camp on. It is
situated at an elevation of some six thousand feet above sea-level, and
consists of a series of ranges of low hills, divided by deep valleys,
through most of which flows a stream of greater or less magnitude, none
of which ever seem to become quite dried up, even in the driest of dry
seasons. On account of the comparatively temperate climate, due to the
elevation, and of the extreme fertility of the soil, the country is an
ideal spot for the native agriculturist, who gets his two crops a year
with a minimum of labour. Consequently the country is very thickly
populated; in fact, I do not know any part where, on raising the tribal
war-cry, I could not, in an extremely short space of time, gather at
least a couple of thousand fighting men. The principal crops are the
sweet potato, _kigwa_ (a kind of yam of very large dimensions), and
_ndoma_ (a vegetable something after the fashion of a turnip, with
leaves from three to four feet long and about eighteen inches wide at
their widest part). Bananas are the only fruit that I ever came across,
but they grow large quantities of sugar-cane, beans of various kinds
(from my fondness for which in preference to sweet potatoes I got my
native name of Karanjai, or “The eater of beans”) , and another
vegetable, which seemed to be a cross between a bean and a pea and which
grew on a bush; of grains they have several, of which the principal are
maize, _matama_, which is the same as the Indian dhurra and is found all
over Africa, _umkanori_, which resembles canary-seed in appearance, and
_mawhali_, a somewhat similar seed to the umkanori, from which the
fermented gruel known as ujuru is made. The Kikuyu seem to be possessed
of a perfect mania for cultivation, their practice being to work a plot
of ground until it begins to show signs of exhaustion, when it is
allowed to lie fallow or used only for grazing stock for a period of
seven years, new ground being broken to take its place in the meanwhile.
All the Kikuyu keep stock of some kind, either sheep, cattle, or
goats—sometimes all three—which are principally used as currency for the
purpose of paying fines and buying wives, the quantity of meat eaten
being very small.
The system of government is somewhat peculiar, but appeared to be a form
of the feudal system, based on the family. A village generally consists
of members of one family, the headman being the father, who had
originally settled in that particular spot with his wives. Each wife has
her own hut, her own _shamba_, or allotment for cultivation, and her own
storehouse, in which the proceeds of her labour are kept. Each woman
lives in her own hut, with her family round her, until the boys are old
enough to marry, when they set up their own hut, or huts, according to
the number of wives in which they are wealthy enough to indulge. The
headman or patriarch of the family, in my time, ruled the village, and,
within bounds, had the right of punishing any breach of discipline—even
to the extent of killing a disobedient son and burning his huts. The
women are well treated, and, as they perform all the work of the family,
with the exception of clearing new ground for cultivation, prefer to
marry a man with two or three other wives rather than a bachelor, as the
work of keeping their lord and master in comfort is thus rendered
lighter.
Marriage is, as in most savage tribes, by purchase, the usual purchase
price of a woman being thirty sheep. There is no marriage ceremony in
vogue among them, but after the handing over of the girl by her father
in exchange for the sheep a feast is usually held to celebrate the
event. Occasionally the husband is allowed to make the payments on the
instalment plan, but this is not encouraged, as it is apt to lead to
quarrelling and disagreements. The youthful marriages common among such
tribes do not prevail among the Kikuyu, as no man is allowed to marry
until he has been circumcised, which operation usually takes place about
the age of seventeen or eighteen, and he does not generally take a wife
until two or three years later; while the usual age for marriage among
the women is eighteen, though the operation which corresponds to
circumcision in their case is performed as soon as they reach the age of
puberty.
This practice of circumcision of the males at such a late age appears to
prevail only among the Masai and Kikuyu, all other African races, so far
as I can learn, following the Jewish custom and performing the operation
during infancy. The method of performing the operation in vogue with
these two tribes also differs from that in use elsewhere, so that a
description of it may be of interest. On the day fixed for the ceremony
the boys all turn out some time before daylight and are taken down to
the river, where they have to stand for half an hour up to the waist in
the ice-cold water until they are absolutely numb with the cold. They
are then taken out and led to the operator, who nearly severs the
foreskin with two cuts of his knife, then, folding the severed portion
back, secures it on the under side with a thorn driven through the
flesh. The boy then returns to his village and rests for a few days
until the wound is healed. No boy is supposed to utter a sound during
the operation, and it is probable that the numbing effect of the icy
bath prevents their feeling any or very much pain. In the case of the
girls also the bath in the cold river is a preliminary to the operation,
and neither boys nor girls ever seem to suffer any serious consequences
from this rough-and-ready operation. In the case of the girls the
operation, which consists of the excision of the clitoris, is performed
by an old woman, whose special duty it is to perform the operation with
one of the razors used for shaving the head.
The various sections of the tribe are ruled by chiefs, of whom the
principal during my stay in the country were Wagombi, Karkerrie, and
Karuri, but in addition to these there were innumerable petty
chieftains, many of whom owed no allegiance to any higher authority in
the country. Kingship, or chiefship, seemed to be decided mainly on the
principle that might is right, though it was of great advantage for a
candidate for the headship of any section of the tribe to have a
reputation for magic—or medicine, as they call it. Wealth and
intelligence also counted for something, and a chief who had proved
himself a brave warrior and good administrator would generally be
allowed to retain his headship of a district so long as he lived, though
it did not follow that his son would succeed to his honours unless he
were capable of taking hold of the reins of government with a firm hand.
In spite of the apparent uncertainty of succession, there is seldom any
trouble with regard to it, as it is generally pretty well known some
time before a vacancy takes place who the next chief will be, although I
never found that there was any sort of election to the office.
The chief, once accepted, is autocratic in the ordinary details of
government, trying all cases himself and pronouncing sentence, from
which there is no appeal; but in matters of moment affecting the general
welfare of the people he is aided in coming to a decision by the
counsels of the assembled elders of his district, a body something after
the fashion of the old Saxon Witan.
For ordinary infractions of the law, or offences against his authority
as chief, he pronounced such punishment as his discretion and judgment
dictated; but for cases of wounding or murder a regular scale of fines
was laid down—fining being the usual punishment, except in cases of open
rebellion. Open rebellion generally entailed a descent on the offenders
by the chief’s warriors, and the wiping out of the rebellious villages
and their inhabitants. For an ordinary case of wounding the fine was ten
sheep, while for the murder of a woman it was thirty sheep—the price
which her husband would have had to pay for her on marriage—and for a
man a hundred sheep. The tenure of land is very simple, the freehold
being vested in the man who takes the trouble to make the clearing, and
as there is plenty of space for all, and the wants of the people are
few, anything in the shape of agrarian agitation is unknown; in fact,
during the whole of my stay in the country I never knew any instance of
a dispute over land.
It must be borne in mind that many great changes have taken place in the
Kikuyu country, and in British East Africa generally, since the period,
some ten years since, covered by this book. In the days when I started
on my first contract for the conveyance of food to the troops engaged in
the suppression of the Soudanese mutiny, the spot on which Nairobi, the
present capital of the colony, stands was simply a patch of swampy
ground on the edge of the plain which extends to the borders of the
hilly Kikuyu country. Here the railway construction people pitched one
of their settlements and put up a station, and from this has risen the
town of some fifteen thousand inhabitants, of whom fully one thousand
are white, a larger proportion than can be found in any settlement of
the same age on the continent of Africa, while I may add that everything
points to an increased rather than a diminished rate of progression!
Nairobi is no bush settlement, where one expects to “rough it” as part
of the ordinary daily routine. On leaving the train one can engage a
cab, or even a motor, to drive one to a good hotel; if you know any one
in the town, you can be put up for an excellent club; while one’s
commercial requirements are met by a fine post-office, banks of good
standing, and stores where one may obtain anything that the most
fastidious European or savage tastes can require.
Undoubtedly the colony of British East Africa has everything in its
favour and, given ordinary luck, has a great future before it. The
climate is everything that the European settler could desire. Being
about six thousand feet above sea-level, the country is not subjected to
the extremes of heat and wet which prevail in other parts of the
continent, but has merely a good average rainfall, while the temperature
seldom exceeds 75° in the shade, even in the hottest weather. The soil,
particularly in the Kikuyu district, is extremely fertile, and will grow
almost any European vegetable, and most European fruits, in addition to
wheat, coffee, cocoa, tea, sugar, and tobacco, as well as cotton,
rubber, sisal hemp, sansovera fibre, and, of course, on the coast, the
ubiquitous cocoanut. On the whole, British East Africa presents as good
an opportunity to the man of limited capital, with a capacity for work,
as any spot to be found in the length and breadth of the British Empire.
In addition to agriculture, such industries as cattle-farming,
sheep-farming, pig-breeding, and ostrich-farming are already being
carried on with great success. Under the wise administration of the
present Governor, Sir Percy Girouard, the prospects of the country are
improving by leaps and bounds. This is principally due to two important
factors: the encouragement given by the Governor to capitalists willing
to invest money in the colony; and his full and frank recognition, for
the first time in the history of the colony, that the future of this
valuable dependency lies in the hands of the settlers, rather than in
those of the official caste.
The value of land is rapidly increasing, and estates which, ten years
ago, could have been bought for 2s. 8d. an acre are now fetching 20s. an
acre, though grants may still be obtained from the Government land
office.
In the Kikuyu country itself vast changes have, of course, taken place
in the ten years which have elapsed since I was supreme there. Four or
five Government stations have been established, roads have been opened
up in various directions, while many white settlers have come in, and
are doing well, in addition to the swarm of missionaries of various
sects who have settled all over the country; in fact, I gave my own
house to one of the first, I think I may say the first—a Roman Catholic
priest—who came into the country. The people themselves have settled
down quietly under the new conditions, and pay the hut-tax regularly,
which is a by no means inconsiderable item in the annual revenue of the
colony. The Kikuyu are excellent workers, and are now to be met with in
every part of the dependency, and in almost every trade, while the
chiefs have taken to building stone houses in place of their native
huts, and riding mules. In my opinion the Kikuyu will ultimately become
the most important among the native races of this part of the continent,
owing to their greater intelligence, industry, and adaptability.
Of course, at the present day, my name is little more than a legend
among the Kikuyu, around which many wonderful stories have been built up
by the people. In the nine years which have elapsed since I left the
country many of the older men who knew me have died, while the rising
generation, who, as children, only knew of me as the most powerful
influence in the province, have only vague memories of actual
happenings, which they have gradually embroidered until I should have
great difficulty in recognizing some of the occurrences myself in their
present form.
A book of this sort will probably be looked upon as incomplete without
some expression of opinion as to the value of missions and the
missionary influence. It must not be inferred from the various remarks
scattered through the book that I am one of that fairly numerous body
who, with considerable experience to back their opinion, profess to
regard the missionary as the worst curse that can fall on a newly-opened
country, but I do say that the whole system on which these missions are
conducted requires to be thoroughly revised. The primary mistake, from
which most of the trouble springs, is the assumption, to which all
missionaries seem to be officially compelled to subscribe, that the
African negro is, or can be made by education, the moral and
intellectual equal of the white man, and that by teaching him to read
and write and say the Lord’s Prayer by rote the inherent characteristics
resulting from centuries of savagery can be utterly nullified in the
course of a year or two. The deliberate and considered opinion of those
best qualified to know, the men who have to live among these people, not
for a year or two, but for a lifetime, brought into constant and more
really intimate contact with them than the great majority of
missionaries, is, that education in the narrow meaning of the term is a
very doubtful blessing to the average negro compared with the enormous
benefits to be conferred by a sound course of industrial training. As an
instance in point, let us take the case of Uganda, where the missionary
has had a free hand, such as he has probably had in no other part of the
world, for the last twenty years. Yet, after all this time, there is
hardly a single Uganda artisan to be found—and those of poor quality—in
Uganda itself; British East Africa has to look to the native of India to
find the skilled artisans required for the service of the community. And
it must be borne in mind that the Waganda are undoubtedly the most
intelligent of all the native races of East Africa, so that the settler
may fairly consider himself justified when he charges the missionaries
with neglecting, practically entirely, one of the greatest aids to the
civilization of the native that he could possibly use. The native,
properly trained to handicrafts, and able to understand the advantage of
skill in his particular line, would be much more likely, as his means
increased, to see the advantages of civilization, and to appreciate the
benefits of that education which, as often as not, now lands him in
jail; while the civilized negro, become a really useful member of the
community, would also be much more likely to prove a satisfactory
convert to Christianity than the material at present paraded as such, of
whom the average white man with experience of Africa will tell you that
he would not have a “mission native” as a servant at any price.
Let the missionaries turn their minds and funds to the industrial, as
well as the moral and religious, instruction of the natives, and they
will find every settler in the land prepared to support their efforts,
while the Empire will, undoubtedly, benefit enormously in every way.
Finally, one of the greatest difficulties which hampers the development
of our African colonies, and renders the task of the administrator who
really _does_ know something of the work he has taken in hand a
heart-breaking one, is the utter inability of the good people at home to
realize the absolutely irrefutable truth contained in Kipling’s
statement that “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain
shall meet.” The average missionary and new-comer to Africa generally
arrives with his mind stored with the statements contained in the
reports of missionary societies or the books of well-to-do
globe-trotters, and is firmly convinced that he knows all there is to be
known about the country and its people. When he has been a year or two
in the country he will, if he has any remnants of common sense left,
begin to realize that it is about time he began to try to learn
something of the people among whom his lot is cast; while at the end of
ten, fifteen, or more years he will frankly confess the utter
impossibility of the white man ever being able to, as an able African
administrator once put it, “get inside the negro’s skin,” and really
know him thoroughly. I question if there have ever, in the history of
the world, been twenty pure-bred whites altogether who have really known
the native of Africa, and if you hear a man boasting that he “knows the
nigger thoroughly,” you may safely put him down as a man of very limited
experience of the negroid races.
The ultimate solution of the negro problem lies, not in the “poor
coloured brother” direction, but in training him in handicrafts, and
thus making him a useful, productive member of the community; and as
soon as this fact is recognized, and carried to its logical result, so
soon will the “colour problem”- -which at present weighs heavily on the
mind of every thinking white man who really realizes what it means—cease
to be the ever-present bogey of our African Administration.
And here for the moment I will end my story. It was my intention, when I
first started to write this account of my experiences among the Kikuyu,
to have extended the period of this book to the times of my more recent
adventures on the African continent. I found, however, that space would
not allow me to include all I wished to put down in writing in one small
volume. I have, I think, much more to relate which might be of interest
to the general reader. I have spent the last ten years of my life either
exploring in the wilds of the Dark Continent or have been occupied as a
professional hunter of big game, and should this book of mine find any
favour with the public, I hope in a short time to recommence my labours
as an author again.
My next experience immediately after the facts related in this book was
to take the Governor of British East Africa, Sir Charles Eliot, on a
personally conducted tour to the scenes of my adventures and throughout
the wilder parts of his domain. Later, many stirring adventures with
lion and elephant have been my lot. My wanderings have led me across the
desert from British East Africa into Abyssinia, into the Congo territory
and elsewhere. I hope some of the adventures which befell me in these
travels may, in the future, prove interesting to the public.
[Illustration:
MAP OF THE
WA-KIKUYU LAND
]
INDEX
Adcock, 21
Africander Corps, 27
Animal life, 272-8
Ants, plague of, 130-1
Asi, the, 297
Askari, the, 40
Athi plain, the, 47
Baden-Powell, General Sir R. S. S., 30
Bamboo forests, 78-9, 122, 272
Banana growing, 302
Bartier, 134, 154-5, 217-21, 224
Bartion, 299
Bee-keeping, 161
Bongo, the, 273
Boyes, John, early days, 2;
goes to sea, 3-4;
first adventure, 4-5;
escapade at Heligoland, 5-6;
Hull to Liverpool, 6-7;
Rotterdam escapade, 8;
sails as A.B., 9;
illness at Laguna, 9-11;
joining the R.N.R., 12;
West Africa, 12-15;
disappointment regarding certificate, 15;
Africa, 15, 16;
work on the railway, 18, 19;
bound for Bulawayo, 21-6;
joins Matabeleland Mounted Police, 26-7;
work with Africander Corps, 27-30;
first stores, 31;
holiday at East London, 32;
goes on the stage, 32;
goes to sea again, 32;
bound for Mombasa, 33-6;
transport caravans, 38-41, 44-5;
adventures with lions, 44, 59, 60, 69, 70, 274-5;
loss of stores, 55-7;
end of the journey, 60;
desertion of natives, 61-2;
Rice transport, 71-4;
into the Kikuyu country, 76-91;
trading, 87-90, 137, 142-7, 163-4, 198-9;
settling of native quarrels, 93-5;
cementing relationship, 97-9;
teaching the natives self-protection, 106-8;
precautions against attack, 108-9;
a second house, 111-12;
attacked by natives, 112-14;
his standing with natives, 118-20, 126-9;
trouble with natives, 137-42;
his death prophesied, 145;
tricking the natives, 166-7;
plot and attack, 167-74;
disappearance of cattle, 174-7;
rain at last, 178;
desire to establish peace, 179, 216;
camp in Wagambi’s country, 185-6;
into hostile country, 199-202;
the Wanderobo country, 203-15;
help for the Goanese, 217-24;
fight against the Chinga, 224-32;
its effects, 234-5;
stores taken to Naivasha, 240;
settling down, 240-3;
taking starving natives to Karuri’s, 248-51;
life in a native village, 253-4;
adventures with animals, 273-8;
interviews Government officials, 280-3;
summons of, 284-7;
in Mombasa jail, 288-9;
on bail, 289-91;
his trial and acquittal, 291;
officialdom, 291-4;
a post under Government, 294;
general survey, 295-315
“British Mission to Uganda” quoted, 49-52
Building a house, 90-1
Cachukia, 238-9
Caranja, 132
Chinga, the, 152, 216-32, 234
Circumcision, practice of, 304-5
Clock, native wonder at, 166-7, 173
Colonial fruit and produce stores, Bulawayo, 31
Cooking customs, 268-9
Coptic Church, the, 263
Cow, value of the, 163
Dances of natives, 104-5, 264-5
“Dead Donkey Camp,” 74
Dhow, the Arab, 33-6
Dick, Mr., 56
Drinking, _see_ Njohi
Drought, _see_ Rain-famine
Durban, 32
East London, 32
Eating customs, _see_ Food
Eleminteita, Lake, 58-9
Elephants, natives killed by, 272;
hunting of, 165-6
Eliot, Sir Chas., 294, 315
Elliott, G. F. Scott, quoted, 52-3
Elstop, 30-1
Engelfingin, 2
Equator Camp, 60-1
Famine, 247-50
Findlay, 116-17
Fire-stick, the, 89, 90
Flour, bartering of, 87-8, 114
Food of the Kikuyu, 267-8
Food stores, 142, 146, 240
Fort Smith, 50
Frielich, 31
Gibbons, 39, 46, 53, 60-1, 66, 71, 116-17, 144, 199
Gilkinson, Mr., 252
Girouard, Sir Percy, 292, 294, 308
Goanese, the, 216-24, 234
Gorges, Captain, 77, 88
Government, the Kikuyu system of, 302-3
Grant, 23-5, 27
“Great Rift Valley, The,” 52
Gregory, Professor, 52
Guard-keeping, 106-7
Guasa Nyero River, 189, 205, 213
Hall, 278
Hall, Mr. F. G., 281-2, 285-6
Hand-shaking, native custom of, 128
Heligoland, 5
Henga, 154-5
Hicks Pasha, 66
Honey-bird, the, 207-8
Hospital arrangements at Laguna, 9-11
Hubner, 42
Industries of B. E. Africa, 308-9
“Isle of War,” _see_ Mombasa
Ivory, trading for, 144, 146, 163-6, 178, 187, 198, 203, 212, 233
Juganowa Makura, 133-5
Kalyera, the, 122, 124-5, 132-5, 136, 149-50, 248, 259, 294
“Karanjai,” 126, 127, 132-3
Karkerrie, 144, 160-3, 166-7, 170-3, 179, 191-4, 231, 235, 305
Karuri, 81-2, 85-8, 92, 94-5, 145, 150, 179, 229, 233, 235, 237-9,
245-6, 255-6, 297, 305
Kasu, 297
Katuni, 161-2, 173, 178
Kedong Valley, 54, 77-8, 88
Kikuyu, the, 49-53, 74-5, 76-99, 102, 127, &c., 152-5, 183, 259-60,
264-71, 295-315
Kikuyu tribe, origin of the, 92-3, 296-300;
chiefship of, 305-6;
punishments of, 306-7
Kilemongai, 262
Kinangop plain, 75, 78-9, 276
Kipling quoted, 313
Kismayu, 173
_Knight of St. John_, 7
Kolb, Dr., 212-13
Laguna, 9
Laikipia plain, 183
_Lake Simcoe_, 9, 11-12
Leopard, adventure with a, 276-8
Lions, coolies, fear of, 42;
audacity of, 42-3;
adventures with, 42-4, 48, 59, 69-70, 274-6
Liverpool, 7
Longanot, 262
Longfield, Captain, 281-2, 285-6
Mabrook Camp, 71
McLellan, Mr., 294
Mahigga, 219
Majuba Hill, 18
Maklutsi, 22-3
Man-eating lions, 51, _see_ Lions
Market, native, 192-3
Marriage customs, 265-6, 303-4
Martin, 51-2, 60
Masai, the, 49, 54-7, 65, 73, 93;
attack on the Kikuyu, 112-14;
their relation with the Kikuyu, 298-300
Maswatch-wanya, the, 92, 160
Matabele, the, 26;
first war, 28
Matabeleland Mounted Police, 26-7
_Matama_, 302
_Mawhali_, 302
Mberri, 279-83
Measurements, native standard of, 164-5
Medicine, 159-60, _see also under_ Poisons
Menzini, 78-9, 149
Miles, Sergeant, 76
Milk, superstitions about, 135-6
Missionaries, 309-14
Mombasa, 36-7, 288-9
Monkey, the Colobus, 273
Mount Kenia, 108, 143, 183-4, 159-60, 242
Mud-fish, 24-5
Muga-wa-diga, 156-8, 161-2, 173, 178, 191-5
Mule, native astonishment of, 150
Music of the Kikuyu, 102-5
Nandi, the, 61
Nairobi, 47-8, 148, 287, 307-8
Naivasha, 74-5, 88, 114-5, 122, 125, 240, 275
Naivasha, Lake, 58
Nakuru, 60, 71
“Naturalist in Mid-Africa, A,” quoted, 52-3
News, transmission of, 66-7
Ngai, 92, 127, 133, 197, 260-3
Ngoma, 197, 260
Niekerk, Captain Van, 27
Njohi, drinking of, 142-3, 161-2, 193-4
Njora River, 62
Nyeri, 173
O’Hara, 42
Olomondo, 189-90, 193-6, 203, 206, 213-15
Ornaments of the Kikuyu, 270-1
Paget, Colonel, 28
Perenti, 42-3
Pigasangi, 97-9, 178-9, 187, 191-8
Poisons, native, 118-20
Poisons of Karuri, 245-6
Population of the Kakuyu, 296
Portal, Sir Gerald, quoted, 49-52
Prophesying by natives, 159-60
Rain-famine, 247-8
Rain-maker, chief, 219, 235-8, 239-40
Rain-makers, 155, _see_ Witch-doctors
Rain-making to order, 166-7, 210-11
Ravine, Fort, 60
Religious observances, 197-8, 255-8, 261-3
Rial, 42-3, 65
Rudolph, natives of Lake, 263
Salisbury, 23
Salt, native liking for, 129;
method of obtaining, 129-39;
substitute for, 130
Selous, F. C., 30
Shangani Patrol, 27-8
Shimoni, 36
Sin-vomiting, 257-8
Smallpox, outbreak of, 243-5
Smith, Claude, 289-90
Smith, Major, 60
Somali traders, difficulties with, 239-43
South Africa, 17
Spitting, custom of, 263-4
Standerton, 19-20
Superstitions of natives, 135-6, 143, 182, 207-8, 210, 213-14, 245-7,
262
Swahili, the, 39-40, 65, 184, 209, 251
Sword, method of wearing the, 90, 127, 237
Tato, 109, 110, 144, 163-77, 216
Tea, native liking for, 129
Teck, Prince Alexander of, 28
Thieves, native method of protection from, 246-7
Thompson, Joseph, 52
Tobacco-growing, 271
Trading, difficulties of, 240-3
Trading stations, 124
Trading with natives, 87-90, 137, 142, 146-7, 163-4, 198-9
Treachery of natives, 90-1, 127
Turkana country, 106
Uganda Railway, 36, 38, 41, 54, 71
_Umkanori_, 302
Umvunga Drift, 30
Uwini, 28-9
Vegetation in Kikuyu country, 301-2, 308
Vincent, 278
Wagombi, 108, 143, 160-1, 178-88, 190-8, 202-4, 215, 231, 235, 294, 305
Wakamba, 45, 119-20, 299-300
Wake, Captain, 294
Wa-Kikuyu, _see_ Kikuyu
Walsh, Mr. and Mrs., 114-15
Wanderobo tribe, the, 165, 189-90, 203-5
Water, locating of, 72-3
Wattle, planting of Black, 240-1
Weapons of the Kikuyu, 269-70
Wilson, Major, 28
Witch-doctors, 143-5, 159-60, _see_ Poisons
Women, protection of, 275-6
Wunjaggi, 125, 127-8
Yorks and Lancs Regiment, 28
Zanzibar, 32
Zebra, the, 73
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Note
The author refers to Laguna, Brazil, as ‘Laguña’. However, the index
correctly removes the tilde. To avoid confusion, the text was corrected.
The Index entry on p. 316, for John Boyes, garbles two subentries on
line breaks: ‘join- the R.N.R.’ and ‘disappointment regards -ing
certificate’. It seems probable that the ‘-ing’ was simply misplaced.
The entires have been corrected to appear as ‘joining the R.N.R.’ and
‘disappointment regards certificate’.
The references here are to the page and line in the original.
9.21 and on arriving at Lagu[ñ/n]a Replaced.
92.12 conversations with Ka[r]uri Inserted.
316.25 join[ing] the R.N.R. Added.
316.27 disappointment regards[ ing] Removed.