CHAPTER V. 



THE KIKUYU 



The Kikuyu tribe is, for the purpose of the white 

 settler, undoubtedly the most important in the 

 Protectorate. This is because it provides, and will 

 provide, the greatest proportion of the unskilled 

 labour. 



This tribe inhabit a very large tract of country 

 extending to the Equator in the north, the slopes of 

 Kenia to the east, Nairobi and Fort Smith to the 

 south, and the railway line to the west. The plural 

 of the name should be properly Wa-Kikuyu, i.e. a 

 Kikuyu or two Kikuyu, but the Wa-Kikuyu, in referring 

 to the tribe ; as a matter of fact, however, they are 

 usually, though ungrammatically, alluded to as " the 

 Kikuyu." Oddly enough, their neighbours, the 

 Wa-Kamba, are usually called Wa-Kamba, both 

 singularly and generically. If the kindred tribes at 

 Meru and Embu be included, the full tribe numbers 

 roughly a million, and is rather more numerous than 

 the Kavirondo and four times as great as any other 

 tribe ; moreover, they are increasing very rapidly. 



In point of physique they are poor, the men 

 perhaps averaging 5 ft 4 in. and the women 5 ft. It 

 must be borne in mind, however, that, if one judges 



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