V 
THE KIKUYU 
49 
they have a wonderfully fine stock of the jumping flea 
and the burrowing jigger. 
The Wa-Kikuyu are fond of dancing. Some of 
their dances, such as those given at the circumcision 
festivities, are peculiar, but their usual dances have 
little besides indecency to distinguish them. Very 
little inducement will set them off dancing, and both 
officials, from the Governor downwards and also 
shooters and globe-trotters, are pretty sure to be 
regaled with an “ Ngoma ” at any native centre. The 
object of such an Ngoma is partly to work off their 
animal spirits and to display their finery and partly in 
expectation of favours to come ; and in this spirit it is 
usually understood. One youthful big game shooter, 
however, received their advances in a different spirit. 
He, with his wife and party, were encamped within a 
few miles of Fort Hall. Towards dusk the usual 
procession of greased and painted warriors and 
maidens appeared. Hastily our young friend formed 
his delighted porters into a square and received the 
flabbergasted dancers not with the customary rupee 
but with shots over their heads. They fled in dismay. 
I was pleased to see from a review that appeared in a 
fashionable paper that the party while travelling an 
unexplored part of darkest Africa had been assailed 
by a savage tribe, which, however, was repulsed by 
their coolness and courage. 
They die principally from old age, starvation, 
pneumonia, and venereal disease. When, as occa¬ 
sionally happens, the crops fail entirely, the improvi¬ 
dent native suffers heavily from famine, and in the 
past the mortality has been dreadful. At the present 
time, the Government take the matter in hand and 
minimise the death-rate as far as possible by importing 
E 
