KAVIRONDO 65 



surrender proved inadequate. It is difficult to know for certain 

 the details of the disaster, or who were the parties really respon- 

 sible for the bloodshed, whether the fault lay with our men or 

 with the natives. Most of the men that were sent never returned ; 

 they were massacred by the Wakitosh, and the whole of Kitosh 

 became insecure. 



A number of new ol^cials just then arrived opportunely from 

 the coast ; and one of these, a first-class transport officer, was 

 placed in charge of the district. He had to wait some time 

 before the Government was able to send a sufficiently strong 

 force to assert British authority effectively over the Wakitosh. 

 The expedition was commanded by Mr. W. Grant, and accom- 

 panied by a military officer, the civil officer of the district, and 

 myself as the medical officer. It consisted of only a few hun- 

 dred Soudanese soldiers, but there were several thousand armed 

 native allies, consisting of Waganda, Wasoga, Masai, and friendly 

 Wakavirondo, quite willing, in anticipation of loot, to join in 

 arms against their own kindred. 



The Kavirondo live in villages most of which are fortified. 

 The village is circular, and defended by a high wall of earth ; 

 a deep trench surrounds the wall. There are at least two 

 entrances, and if the village is large there may be five or six. 

 When the village owns a considerable number of cattle, an open 

 space is left in the centre with sheds for housing it. The huts 

 are arranged close along the wall, with their doors opening 

 towards the central space of the village. Where the popula- 

 tion is particularly dense, there are a great many other huts 

 crowding the inner space. These are fenced off from each 

 other in such an intricate manner, that a stranger would not 

 find it easy to pass from one hut to another. Every hut has 

 one or more outdoor corn-stores of the usual pattern, viz., a 

 bi<£ basket on trestles with a conical grass-thatched cover. 



The massacre by the Wakitosh, followed by the disaster which 

 overtook Mr. West in Nandi, had also rendered the natives of 

 Kabras hostile. A message reached us at Mumia's that the 

 natives, having found out that white men were mortal (Mr. 

 West was speared and killed in a treacherous night-attack), had 

 determined to prevent in future any white man from passing 

 throu<7h their countrv. It shows what curious notions some of 

 these savages had hitherto held with regard to white men. 



The whole district now became insecure, and the Europeans 



E 



