THE KIKUYU 
53 
never to let any native have a legitimate grievance, by 
attempting to keep in touch with any possible desires or 
complaints, and by preventing as far as possible any 
labourer or body of labourers from becoming indispens¬ 
able. Remember that towards the end of the month 
you have the whip-hand of your labourer, but at the 
beginning of the month, when he has your money and 
you want his services, he has the whip-hand of you. 
Again, they are intensely lazy and cunning withal. 
Thus, should they be engaged on a piece of work such 
as weeding and be left without supervision, they will 
station a couple of their number on posts of observation, 
probably up trees, and sleep, smoke, or eat until 
such time as he cries, in schoolboy language, 
“cave.” To cope with this it is necessary whenever 
possible to use task work, and I believe that there 
are very few kinds of work to which the system 
cannot be applied. Moreover, they are able to 
see and appreciate the justice of it. Their use 
of poison is not endearing; but the strong measures 
taken by the Government are bearing fruit, and it is 
to be hoped that as a crime a few years may see 
the end of it. As poisoners they are extremely 
expert and brew of the same more than one kind. In 
common with other forest tribes, the shooting of 
poisoned arrows was the traditional method of 
warfare. The poison used is obtained from a small 
bush-like tree, which is fairly common throughout 
Kikuyu, and is generally given a “ sweetener ” by 
the addition of poison obtained from snakes and 
spiders. When fresh, it is extremely deadly, and 
experiments have proved that the minutest prick will 
kill a sheep in from two to ten minutes. There 
have undoubtedly been cases of both cattle and 
