350 NATIVES OF EASTERN BRITISH EAST AFRICA part in 



The Wa-kamba are very keen business people, and not only enjoy 

 bargaining with passing caravans, but themselves conduct expeditions 

 to the coast. They carry down grain, tobacco, ivory, and gum, and 

 drive with them herds of cattle, goats, and sheep. These native 

 caravans go to Melindi or Mombasa, where they exchange their goods 

 for beads, brass, and cloth. During this trade they have acquired a 

 good many customs and ideas from the Suahili. Thus they use the 

 " mkono " or hand, i.e. the length from the elbow to the finger-tip, 

 as their unit of measurement. They count up to ten, but always 

 use the graphic symbols at the same time ; thus the numbers from 

 one to five are counted on the fingers of one hand, the figures from 

 six to ten are shown by clasping the extra number of fingers in the 

 other hand. 



The language of the tribe, or Ki-kamba, is very imperfectly known. 

 A dictionary by Krapf ^ was issued by the Church Missionary Society, 

 from information supplied by a native at Mombasa. This man 

 first gave Krapf a Ki-taita vocabulary, and was then urged to continue 

 with Ki-kamba. He appears to have supplied one out of his imagina- 

 tion. Mr. Ainsworth can get no recognition of the words from the 

 natives of his district, and he points out that many of them have a 

 suspicious resemblance to Ki-taita. The language is Bantu, and the 

 following comparative list of geographical terms (generally among the 

 most primitive words in a language) show that Ki-kamba is very 

 different from Ki-suahili, Masai, and Kikuyu : — ■ 



In some respects the language is rich, as shown by the following 

 list of names of the different stages of man, supplied me by Mr. 

 Ainsworth : — 



Kana. 

 Evezi. 



Mwant' o' theli. 



Mwaniki. 



Mwanto mere. 



Mvinto. 



Gungu. 



Mwintu maka or kibeti. 



Baby. 



Lad. 



Middle-aged man. 



Warrior. 



Elder. 



Fashionable young lady who has had no children. 



Woman who has had one child. 



Elderly woman who has had more than one child. 



The religion of the Wa-kamba is primitive and indefinite. They 

 have a certain hazy notion of a god, whom, like the Masai and 

 Kikuyu, they call Ngai ; but they know little about him, and very 

 seldom invoke his aid. If they want rain they place offerings of 



^ Compai-ative Vocabulary of East African Languages, 1850. 



