VI 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



255 



The portion of the Jombeni range which we first 

 visited, and where we secured Motio, is the most cov- 

 ered by forests, and therefore is the most recently set- 

 tled portion of the range. We found people engaged 

 in making clearings in the forest and founding new 

 settlements ; which is evidence that the land already 

 under cultivation did not yield sufficient for the needs 

 of the growing tribe. 



The language of the people throughout the Jombeni 

 range is much the same, and is akin to that spoken 

 by the dwellers on Mount Kenya. Probably, therefore, 

 the inhabitants of the Jombeni range are offshoots of 

 the Kikuyu who inhabit the slopes of Mount Kenya. 

 Naturally, then, it is to be supposed that they first en- 

 tered into possession of the portion of the range lying 

 nearest the home from which they had set out. Immi- 

 gration must have taken place many years ago; for 

 the Jombeni range, when I visited it, was but sparsely 

 covered with forests, and the principal forest lay at the 

 northern end of the range. 



In the better portion of the Embe country, I found 

 that land was not only held by individual proprietors, 

 but that a certain amount of territory was held in 

 common by the inhabitants of one, and, in some cases, 

 of several villages. On these commons were pastured 

 the flocks of the people by whom the land was held. 



It is to be supposed that this condition of affairs 

 was arrived at in much the following manner. When 

 the first pioneers reached the country, each family 

 made a clearing for itself, and reserved some land in 

 the immediate neighbourhood to be used as pasture for 

 its flocks. As the population grew, and the land 



