ix WA-KIKUYU 109 



find their way in through apertures at either end. 

 The boxes are ornamented with poker-work or with a 

 clan design so that the owner is known. The object of 

 the honey barrel is to induce the wild bees to build 

 the comb therein ; it is then safe from birds. 



The huts are simple one-chambered dwellings. The 

 walls consist of a ring of posts stuck into the ground 

 to support the roof : the interspaces between the posts 

 are filled with wattling and the wall thus formed is 

 bedaubed with clay. The roof-poles extend beyond the 

 wall, so when the hut is thatched with dried reeds or 

 grass the overhanging portion of the roof, which is 

 supported by additional series of poles, forms a 

 verandah. These huts have no windows and the 

 entrance lacks a door, but at night a wickerwork 

 arrangement something like a hurdle, made from a 

 tough creeper, is placed against it and wedged in 

 position by a piece of timber. These huts, though 

 built of such frail material, will, if looked after, last for 

 many years, but a deserted hut soon falls to pieces. 

 A great destroying agent is the termite : and these 

 huts readily catch fire. 



The Masai formerly stopped caravans which the 

 Arabs, ivory dealers, and slave raiders conducted 

 through their lands, and demanded toll ; the Wa-Kikuyu, 

 on the other hand, pilfered where they could, but they 

 preferred to barter with the Arabs and supply them 

 with grain and food. The bartering with caravans, as 

 all readers of Thomson's journey through Masailand 

 know, is done by the women. 



The Wa-Kikuyu have regular market days : on such 

 occasions ornaments and weapons are bartered : iron ore 

 and charcoal are offered for exchange : firewood and 

 grain may be obtained : men can buy beer, and gossip 

 is universal. Such things as salt, string, bananas, 

 birds' skins, earthenware pots, fat, knives, gourds, sugar 

 cane, honey barrels, feathers, tobacco, hides, and skins 

 are there for those who need them. 



