THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



kept in the father's hut; but the girls Hve with their re- 

 spective mothers. It is a strange thing that if a " well-to- 

 do " man has only one wife, she will give him no rest until 

 he has taken at least one more. This for the selfish reason 

 that as long as she is the only wife she has to do all the 

 work alone, as her husband could not keep any female 

 servants. But if the man has two or more wives the work 

 is divided among them, and the old " mamma " has the 

 upper hand over the rest. The men themselves do not, as 

 a rule, care to work in gardens or to carry wood and 

 water, or milk the cows, but they herd the cattle, work as 

 porters, and like to fight. 



The chief arms of the Kikuju are a splendid knifelike 

 sword called " panga," his knob stick, long spear, and his 

 bow with poisoned arrows. The knob stick is one single 

 piece of hard wood, cut thin at one end and then gradually 

 increasing in size until it measures from ten to fifteen 

 inches in circumference at the club end. These heavy 

 weapons are most powerful, and men have told me that 

 they have killed both human enemies and dangerous ani- 

 mals, such as leopards and even lions, with a single blow 

 of the deadly knob stick. They are also experts in using 

 their long, heavy spears, and are very clever with their 

 bows. They secure the poison for the arrows by boiling 

 the leaves and young shoots of a certain tree for a long 

 time and then dip the arrows in the thick sediment. The 

 fruit of this tree is perfectly delicious, and, strange to say, 

 absolutely harmless to eat, being enjoyed greatly by both 

 men and elephants. It resembles a small plum and is, 

 when ripe, very juicy and of a rich purple color. 



From time immemorial the Kikuju race, which in- 



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