THE NATIVES OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 



to-day as they used to be, and where missionary influence 

 is predominant they are disappearing altogether. 



The SwahiH young man can, if he has not all the ready 

 cash necessary for buying his bride, do so on the " install- 

 ment plan," if her father thinks that he is reliable enough 

 to pay his debts. One of the gun bearers I employed had 

 thus bought his wife, still owing his father-in-law seventy- 

 five rupees, or twenty-five dollars. As he had not paid this 

 at the stated time, the father-in-law went to Nairobi and 

 took his daughter away in spite of her tears and protests, 

 but he was honest enough to deposit the money, already 

 paid for her, with the firm which had secured the gun 

 bearer for me. 



Farther back from the coast lives the Wanika tribe, 

 which cultivates the ground to a certain extent, keeps 

 herds of sheep and goats, and has a great many chickens. 

 These people are also very fond of hunting, and they are 

 said to be quite successful in killing even big game with 

 bows and arrows. They live in grass huts in small com- 

 munities, only two or three families building together, and 

 when they are tired of one place, they simply pull up their 

 stakes and move to another. Most of the men of this 

 race go entirely naked, and the women wear nothing but 

 a small, shirtlike loin cloth of either muslin, or skin, 

 whereas the children run around in their " Adamitic " 

 costumes. 



Higher up the Uganda Railroad, after the great unin- 

 habited Taru Desert has been crossed, live, on both sides 

 of the line, the Wateita people, who are both herdsmen 

 and agriculturists. In former days these people were quite 

 wealthy; but, partly owing to the raids of the warlike 



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