THE KIKUYU 53 



never to let any native have a legitimate grievance, by 

 attempting to keep in touch with any possible desires or 

 complaints, and by preventing as far as possible any 

 labourer or body of labourers from becoming indispens- 

 able. Remember that towards the end of the month 

 you have the whip-hand of your labourer, but at the 

 beginning of the month, when he has your money and 

 you want his services, he has the whip-hand of you. 

 Again, they are intensely lazy and cunning withal. 

 Thus, should they be engaged on a piece of work such 

 as weeding and be left without supervision, they will 

 station a couple of their number on posts of observation, 

 probably up trees, and sleep, smoke, or eat until 

 such time as he cries, in schoolboy language, 

 "cave." To cope with this it is necessary whenever 

 possible to use task work, and I believe that there 

 are very few kinds of work to which the system 

 cannot be applied. Moreover, they are able to 

 see and appreciate the justice of it. Their use 

 of poison is not endearing ; but the strong measures 

 taken by the Government are bearing fruit, and it is 

 to be hoped that as a crime a few years may see 

 the end of it. As poisoners they are extremely 

 expert and brew of the same more than one kind. In 

 common with other forest tribes, the shooting of 

 poisoned arrows was the traditional method of 

 warfare. The poison used is obtained from a small 

 bush-like tree, which is fairly common throughout 

 Kikuyu, and is generally given a "sweetener" by 

 the addition of poison obtained from snakes and 

 spiders. When fresh, it is extremely deadly, and 

 experiments have proved that the minutest prick will 

 kill a sheep in from two to ten minutes. There 

 have undoubtedly been cases of both cattle and 



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