THE KIKUYU 



49 



they have a wonderfully fine stock of the jumping flea 

 and the burrowing jigger. 



The Wa-Kikuyu are fond of dancing. Some of 

 their dances, such as those given at the circumcision 

 festivities, are peculiar, but their usual dances have 

 little besides indecency to distinguish them. Very 

 little inducement will set them off dancing, and both 

 officials, from the Governor downwards and also 

 shooters and globe-trotters, are pretty sure to be 

 regaled with an " Ngoma " at any native centre. The 

 object of such an Ngoma is partly to work off their 

 animal spirits and to display their finery and partly in 

 expectation of favours to come ; and in this spirit it is 

 usually understood. One youthful big game shooter, 

 however, received their advances in a different spirit. 

 He, with his wife and party, were encamped within a 

 few miles of Fort Hall. Towards dusk the usual 

 procession of greased and painted warriors and 

 maidens appeared. Hastily our young friend formed 

 his delighted porters into a square and received the 

 flabbergasted dancers not with the customary rupee 

 but with shots over their heads. They fled in dismay. 

 I was pleased to see from a review that appeared in a 

 fashionable paper that the party while travelling an 

 unexplored part of darkest Africa had been assailed 

 by a savage tribe, which, however, was repulsed by 

 their coolness and courage. 



They die principally from old age, starvation, 

 pneumonia, and venereal disease. When, as occa- 

 sionally happens, the crops fail entirely, the improvi- 

 dent native suffers heavily from famine, and in the 

 past the mortality has been dreadful. At the present 

 time, the Government take the matter in hand and 

 minimise the death-rate as far as possible by importing 



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