128 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



For the rest, the Wa Taita are essentially a 

 peace-loving and industrious people ; and, indeed, 

 before the arrival of the British in the country, they 

 hardly ever ventured down from their mountain 

 fastnesses, owing to their dread of the warlike 

 Masai. Each man has as many wives as he can 

 afford to pay for in sheep or cattle ; he provides 

 each spouse with a separate establishment, but the 

 family huts are clustered together, and as a rule all 

 live in perfect harmony. The most curious custom 

 of the tribe is the filing of the front teeth into sharp 

 points, which gives the whole face a most peculiar 

 and rather diabolical expression. As usual, their 

 ideas of costume are rather primitive ; the men 

 sometimes wear a scrap of cloth round the loins, 

 while the women content themselves with the same 

 or with a short kilt. Both sexes adorn themselves 

 with a great quantity of copper or iron wire coiled 

 round their arms and legs, and smear their bodies 

 all over with grease, the men adding red clay to the 

 mixture. Many of the women also wear dozens of 

 rows of beads, while their ears are hung with pieces 

 of chain and other fantastic ornaments. The men 

 always carry bows and poisoned arrows, as well as 

 a seemie (a short, roughly-fashioned sword) hung on 

 a leathern thong round the waist. A three-legged 

 stool is also an important part of their equipment, 

 and is slung on the shoulder when on the march. 



