54 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CHAP. 
ostriches being wantonly destroyed. Now, however, 
it has very rightly been made a punishable offence for 
a native to have such poison in his possession, and it is 
hoped before long definitely to stamp out this crime. 
The Kikuyu is also well versed in the manufacture of 
poison to be taken internally. There have been one 
or two instances in which Europeans, and I fear a 
good many in which natives who were loyal to their 
white employers, have been made away with by this 
method. I have come across more than one instance 
in which the threat of poisoning a Kikuyu foreman 
was made, and undoubtedly one in which the threat 
was carried out. It is, unfortunately, extremely difficult 
to prove, both because all Kikuyu evidence is un¬ 
reliable, and because the hyaena offers the customary 
mode of burial, a mode prejudicial to post-mortems. 
With regard to their cruelty, I will give one very 
common offence which has apparently escaped Mr. 
Routledge’s observation, when enumerating the 
Kikuyus virtues. When a desire for meat seizes the 
Kikuyu herdsman and he thinks that the chance of 
detection is slight, he will select his opportunity and 
force a sharp-pointed stick or a cleft-stick with a stone 
in the cleft up the anus of an unfortunate animal, until 
the bowels are pierced. The stick is then broken off 
short and left in. In a day or two the animal dies a 
death of frightful agony. The herd then reports 
that a bullock has died of disease, and if the owner is 
young and ignorant the carcase is thrown away, and 
the revels commence. As a word of advice, let me 
suggest that in the case of the death of any head of 
stock the owner thoroughly satisfy himself as to the 
cause, and having done so let him see that the carcase 
is entirely destroyed. 
