Ill 
RACES AND CLASSES 
25 
share ; they are therefore, for our purpose, the most 
important. The Masai, however, have both histori¬ 
cally and politically been such an important factor, not 
to say stumbling-block, in the development of the 
country that they too demand and deserve considerable 
notice. 
The Kikuyu and Kavirondo on the one hand, and 
the Masai with to a lesser degree the Nandi, Lumbwa 
and Sotik, on the other, seem to show the distinct 
characteristics presented to us in Jacob and Esau. 
The difference is most marked if we take the Kikuyu 
and the Masai. The former, as I shall show, are sly, 
cunning, deceitful, cowardly, and devoid of all sense of 
honour, yet through their brains and numbers economi¬ 
cally useful. As a tribe they seem to resemble the 
character which is depicted to us in the person of 
Jacob. The Masai are picturesque, brave to a degree, 
boastful, quarrelsome, comparatively faithful and 
honourable, and yet economically useless. They 
represent Esau, and as far as anything can be 
humanly certain, it is certain that they too will lose 
their birthright. 
These two, the leading types, will therefore be taken 
at more length and we will dismiss the remainder 
shortly. 
The Kavirondo —form the second largest source 
from which labour can be drawn, and for agricultural 
purposes undoubtedly the best. Although they are 
nearly always alluded to as one tribe, yet Kavirondo 
in reality are divided very sharply, not only into two 
tribes, but into two races: the Nilotic Kavirondo and 
the Bantu Kavirondo. Yet the two sections, though 
so ethnologically different, have almost exactly similar 
customs and habits, and, unless expressly stated other- 
