Taveta. 
355 
creepers present a rich and most inviting field for 
the botanist. 
Taveta, in the hands of an industrious people, might 
be made to yield a vast increase; in the hands of a 
cultivated race it might be turned into a paradise of 
woodlands, meadows, and gardens. 
The people of Taveta, that is to say, the present 
community, are a mixture of Wakuavi and Wataveta. 
Originally the Wataveta are of the same stock as the 
Wakahe and the Waarusha, and all are doubtless 
allied to the Wachaga, though circumstances have 
divided them into separate peoples, and kept them 
apart from each other. 
The Wakuavi, on the other hand, were originally 
entirely distinct, though they are now mingling so 
freely with the Wataveta. The Wakuavi formerly 
occupied the whole of the plains around the base of 
Mount Kilima Njaro, also the extensive tracts lying 
between Taveta and Jipe, on the one hand, and the 
Taita mountains, on the other. In those days the 
Wataveta seem to have been on friendly terms with the 
Wakuavi, a state of things which doubtless arose out 
of some mutual dependence existing between the two 
peoples. In the course of time the Masai, emerging 
from the west, swept over the open plains, smote the 
Wakuavi and scattered them to the winds, leaving, 
however, the Wataveta in their forest fastnesses in 
perfect security. The Wakuavi, robbed of their all and 
completely broken up, some wandered this way and 
some that, while many turning to their friends the 
Wataveta, asked and found refuge with them. Ever 
since, the two peoples have lived together, assimilat- 
ing more and more to each other's habits and modes 
