NZOIA PLATEAU AND ITS TRIBES 235 



such truthfulness would be among our own western cattle 

 owners! Ask the owners of small herds, that try to keep 

 their property intact in the neighbourhood of great ones, 

 ask the men who really know what goes on before the Indians 

 are goaded into killing some rancher's cattle, if they think 

 western truthfulness approaches the standard of the " hea- 

 then" Elgoa. 



If a case comes up, when the chief or old men doubt 

 the truth of the story ; if, for example, a homicide has gone 

 to war, and comes home declaring he has killed three women, 

 and so is absolved from the tribal "ban," and his fellow 

 soldiers doubt him or think he has killed but one or two at 

 most, the matter comes before the chief. He sends the 

 homicide to the woods to kill a hare. He then takes a piece 

 of the hare 's skin and buries it in the earth at the door of 

 the hut the suspected liar lives in. He then says, "The goats 

 will tread over that skin day and night for ten days ; if you 

 are a liar you will die before the tenth. " I could not find 

 out from them what the significance of this "goat's tread- 

 ing," etc., was. They simply said it had been their custom 

 for ages, and that it was effectual, "for the liar died." I 

 should think he probably did die. They often used the 

 word God, pointing to the sky. They speak of God's 

 will, "if God is kind" to them they will get honey, kill 

 elephant, escape death in war, or have no visitation of the 

 cattle sickness, etc., etc. But further than that they seem 

 to have no idea of the Divine. They have no religious 

 ceremonies except the initiation of the young people. No 

 idols or fetishes of any sort. There are some crags on Elgo 

 highly metaliferous on which they believe no man can 

 stand in a storm and live. This, so far as I could find, 

 is the only spot to which any of the tribe ascribe a sacred 

 (if it could be so called) significance. 



I asked them what they meant by God. And how 

 they knew there was a God and the old man said, "I fall 



