i84 IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA chap. 



During our many talks together I heard from 

 Abbudi a great deal of his own personal history. 



He could not remember anything about his 

 mother, who was probably carried off by smallpox 

 when he was a baby, but his father seems to have 

 been a terrible old martinet, who frequently chastised 

 him for his misdeeds. It was his chief duty as a 

 boy to guard the goats and sheep, and bring them 

 back safely to the manyatta in the evening. As a 

 rule he enjoyed doing this very much and felt very 

 important as he proudly stood with one leg drawn 

 up and resting against the knee, keeping guard over 

 his flock and holding his bow and arrow ready to 

 warn off any intruder. 



Sometimes, however, when he was not sufficiently 

 vigilant he got into trouble. One day when he was 

 about ten years old he was out as usual herding 

 some goats, but instead of keeping guard as he 

 ought to have done, he went comfortably to sleep 

 under the shade of a tree, leaving the goats to take 

 care of themselves, with the result that a leopard 

 came and killed three of them ! When the owner 

 came out and saw what had happened, he went in 

 search of Abbudi and having found him beat him, 

 as he said, " Kabisa, kabisa'' which means with a 

 very heavy hand, and only that he eventually 

 grovelled to the ground and seized some grass, it 

 would have fared very badly with him. As soon as 



