IX 
WA-KIKUYU 
09 
find their way in through apertures at either end. 
The boxes are ornamented with poker-work or with a 
clan design so that the owner is known. The object of 
the honey barrel is to induce the wild bees to build 
the comb therein ; it is then safe from birds. 
The huts are simple one-chambered dwellings. The 
walls consist of a ring of posts stuck into the ground 
to support the roof: the interspaces between the posts 
are filled with wattling and the wall thus formed is 
bedaubed with clay. The roof-poles extend beyond the 
wall, so when the hut is thatched with dried reeds or 
grass the overhanging portion of the roof, which is 
supported by additional series of poles, forms a 
verandah. These huts have no windows and the 
entrance lacks a door, but at night a wickerwork 
arrangement something like a hurdle, made from a 
tough creeper, is placed against it and wedged in 
position by a piece of timber. These huts, though 
built of such frail material, will, if looked after, last for 
many years, but a deserted hut soon falls to pieces. 
A great destroying agent is the termite : and these 
huts readily catch fire. 
The Masai formerly stopped caravans which the 
Arabs, ivory dealers, and slave raiders conducted 
through their lands, and demanded toll; the Wa-Kikuyu, 
on the other hand, pilfered where they could, but they 
preferred to barter with the Arabs and supply them 
with grain and food. The bartering with caravans, as 
all readers of Thomson’s journey through Masailand 
know, is done by the women. 
The Wa-Kikuyu have regular market days : on such 
occasions ornaments and weapons are bartered : iron ore 
and charcoal are offered for exchange : firewood and 
grain may be obtained : men can buy beer, and gossip 
is universal. Such things as salt, string, bananas, 
birds’ skins, earthenware pots, fat, knives, gourds, sugar 
cane, honey barrels, feathers, tobacco, hides, and skins 
are there for those who need them. 
