THE BONI 



Their followers build huge mounds of earth about 

 20 feet high above their graves, and they then 

 surround it with a strongly built fence, made of logs 

 of wood placed horizontally between heavy upright 

 posts. 



No account of the inhabitants of Jubaland would 

 be complete without a reference to that interesting 

 and little-known tribe, the Boni. These strange 

 people originally inhabited the southern regions of 

 Abyssinia, whence they have made their way south- 

 west into the district of Arnoleh in Jubaland. They 

 are hardly a thousand in all, and their numbers are 

 fast diminishing, so that in a few years they will 

 probably have disappeared completely, or have 

 become merged among the Somali. They live in 

 subjection to the latter, unmolested so long as they 

 pay a tribute of one tusk from every elephant killed. 

 Under this agreement they are allowed to hunt 

 where they wish. By some the Waboni are believed 

 to be the original inhabitants of this part of British 

 East Africa. At any rate, they depend entirely on 

 hunting for their food, as do the Wandorobo of 

 the Kenya country. Their knowledge of bush-craft 

 is perfectly astonishing, and as hunters and trackers 

 I have never seen their equals. They have been 

 much harassed and persecuted by the young Somali, 

 and are consequently very shy and suspicious of 

 strangers, preferring to make their homes in the 

 most impenetrable bush, in which they immediately 

 take refuge at the slightest sign of danger. 



According to Captain R. E. Salkeld, who has 

 spent twelve years in Jubaland, many of the Waboni 

 are the property of a private individual of a Somali 

 tribe, and I was warned that should I engage a 



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