CHAP. XVII THE KIKUYU 351 



banana, grain, and beer under trees ; but that is apparently their only 

 religious rite. Circumcision is practised, but possibly only for sanitary 

 reasons.^ The natives possess charms, but no idols. They do not 

 protect their fields by the elaborate fetiches used by the Wa-nyika and 

 Wa-giriama of the coast. Nor do they, in dealing with strangers, 

 insist on the complicated religious observances practised by the 

 Kikuyu. 



They appear to have some idea of immortality, though I could learn 

 nothing at all definite upon this subject. The dead bodies of chiefs 

 are not thrown to the hyenas as with the Masai, but they are carefully 

 buried. A householder is always buried under his hut, and his wife 

 in front of the door, after which the hut is abandoned. The bodies 

 of less important members of the tribe are simply thrown to the 

 hyenas. 



The Wa-kamba make very plucky soldiers. Armed only with 

 inferior spears, and trusting mainly to bows and poisoned arrows, they 

 hold their mountain fastnesses against the Masai and Somali, of whom 

 the latter are beginning to press them from the north. The Wa-kamba 

 themselves at times undertake raids upon their inveterate foes, the 

 Masai and Kikuyu, and also upon the inoffensive and defenceless 

 Wa-pokomo of the Tana. But as a rule they are peaceful law-abiding 

 people, who prefer cultivation and trade to war and pillage. If only 

 granted adequate protection they will no doubt steadily increase in 

 numbers and wealth, furnish an inexhaustible supply of cheap food 

 and efficient labour, and become one of the most important agents 

 in the development of the eastern portion of our East African 

 dominions.- 



{b) The Negroid Races 



I. The Kikuyu 



The Kikuyu occupy a narrow belt of hilly forest country extendino- 

 from the southern slopes of Kenya, south-westward to the edge of the 

 Rift Valley at the hill of Ngongo Bagas. They thus serve as a buffer 

 state between the Wa-kamba and the Masai of the district of Naivasha. 

 They are usually regarded as normal Bantu ; Stuhlmann,'' for example, 

 places them with the Wa-kamba and the Wa-taita in the " Younger 

 Bantu " group. They appear to me, however, to be more nearly 

 related to the Masai, and to be a race containing both Bantu and 



^ It should be noticed that this is entire and not performed as in the Masai and 

 Kikuyu. As the natives have continually to ford streams and wade through swamps 

 abounding in the larva of Dilliarzia hcetnaUiria, the rite no doubt lessens the dancrer of 

 incurring hasmaturia. 



^ The Wa-taita, Wa-daicho, Wa-nyika, Wa-giriania, and their allies, are the principal 

 remaining groups of Bantu in Eastern British East Africa. Respecting these I have 

 nothing material to add to previous descriptions. 



' F. Stuhlmann, Mit Einin Pasha, p. 848. 



