712 



BANTU NEGEOES 



whii'li its thvoat is cut. Goats and sheep are killed by suffocation. The 

 snout is seized and firmly lield until the creature expires from want of 

 breath. The Kavirondo are inordinately fond of their cattle, and a chief 

 will frequently bemoan the loss of one of his cows with more genuine 

 and heartfelt grief than he would display if he lost a wife or a child. 

 Some of these people depart from ordinary negro custom in being slightly 

 inclined to tame and domesticate birds and beasts. I have already 

 mentioned that quails are kept in cages to decoy other quails into the 

 snares. These little birds are carefully fed. and will sometimes live for 

 several years in ca])tivity. Crowned cranes often haunt the })recincts of 

 Kavirondo villages, and are jjrotected, if not tame. One chief kept a 

 couple of hen ostriches in his village. Apiculture is carried on by most 

 of the Kavirondo. who take i^^reat trouble about housing their bees. In 

 districts where trees are scarce the hives (which are cylinders of wood or 

 bark) are placed on the roofs of the huts. The flavour of the honey is 

 often spoilt through a custom of boiling it. which is done (amongst other 

 reasons) to extract the wax mixed up in the honey. 



Before the advent of the British power the various clans and tribes 

 into wliieh the ]^)antu Kavirondo are di\ided were constantly at war one 

 with the other. The Kavirondo also had to withstand attacks from the 

 ^lasai, Xandi. and Lango people, so that, although compared to other 

 peoples in the east and north of the Protectorate they may be termed 

 a peact^ful race of rjenial savages, they were still inm-ed to warfare, and 

 could often turn out sturdy warriors. Their weapons are spears with 

 rather long, flat blades without blood-courses, and also spears with a short, 

 leaf-shaped blade, bows and arrows, and wooden clubs. Their broad- 

 bladed swords (tapering towards the hilt) were probably liorrowed from 

 the Masai. The people speaking Kavirondo dialects on the islands 

 opposite the Xyala coast use slings, from which they hurl stones with 

 great force. These slings are similar to the ones used by the Bavuma. 

 They did not usually poison their arrows, except in the chase, to kill the 

 larger beasts. Shields are a long oval (vide Fig. 399) made of stiff, 

 thick leather, with a boss in front whick is part of the handle behind. 

 The rim of the shield is turned back, and the shield is slightly convex 

 in shape. Formerly the liide used was that of the buffalo, which animal 

 is now to all intents and purposes extinct in the Kavirondo country. The 

 shields are now made from ox hide or from tlie skin of the Orycteropus 

 ( ant bear). 



<Jf course many of the Kavirondo n(jw possess guns, and the introduction 

 of this weapon has largely modified their warfare. I should think it 

 unlikely in the past that the Kavirondo ever undertook offensive operations 

 against tribes on their borders. They were content to live and let live, 



