CHAPTER V. 
THE KIKUYU 
The Kikuyu tribe is, for the purpose of the white 
settler, undoubtedly the most important in the 
Protectorate. This is because it provides, and will 
provide, the greatest proportion of the unskilled 
labour. 
This tribe inhabit a very large tract of country 
extending to the Equator in the north, the slopes of 
Kenia to the east, Nairobi and Fort Smith to the 
south, and the railway line to the west. The plural 
of the name should be properly Wa-Kikuyu, i.e. a 
Kikuyu or two Kikuyu, but the Wa-Kikuyu, in referring 
to the tribe ; as a matter of fact, however, they are 
usually, though ungrammatically, alluded to as “ the 
Kikuyu.” Oddly enough, their neighbours, the 
Wa-Kamba, are usually called Wa-Kamba, both 
singularly and generically. If the kindred tribes at 
Meru and Embu be included, the full tribe numbers 
roughly a million, and is rather more numerous than 
the Kavirondo and four times as great as any other 
tribe ; moreover, they are increasing very rapidly. 
In point of physique they are poor, the men 
perhaps averaging 5 ft 4 in. and the women 5 ft. It 
must be borne in mind, however, that, if one judges 
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