MEN OF THE TREES 



which I now give him will be his passport and that he 

 will be received by all other Kiamas. "Thai," repeated 

 the three hundred. "I call you all to witness that the 

 Matati Stick wants him." "Thai, Thai, Thai," said the 

 elders. Upon this the staff of office was handed to me. 



The whole ceremony was deeply impressive. I had 

 gone prepared to be interested, but I was now deeply 

 moved by the general feeling of good will, concentrated 

 upon me. I stood there in their midst holding the staff 

 of office and the bunch of Muchoraway leaves, while 

 the oldest veterans gathered around to salute me accord- 

 ing to the tradition of the Kiama. 



I did not wait for the after sacrifice as I had an 

 important engagement in Nairobi, but bidding them 

 farewell until another day I stepped into my car which 

 was now waiting for me and drove the remaining seven- 

 teen miles to the capital town. Upon my arrival at the 

 Hotel where I was lunching with friends I found an 

 interested crowd had gathered. The news of my initia- 

 tion had gone ahead of me and interested tribesmen 

 had gathered to greet me. At the entrance of the hotel 

 four or five hundred had lined up on either side of the 

 steps and again I experienced a renewed feeling of good 

 will which from then onwards, wherever I travelled in 

 Equatorical Africa, accompanied me, for such is the 

 power of the Kiama. 



The Kiama is actually an ancient inter-tribal insti- 

 tution which closely guards the secrets of the past 

 handed down by word of mouth through its members 



136 



