Kikuyu

“ It is incredible that oxen should distinguish; but, then, it is also incredible that trout should distinguish the nice differences in artificial flies.
After the start has been made successfully, the craft must be kept under way. To an unbiassed bystander the whole affair looks insane. The wagon creaks and sways and groans and cries aloud as it bumps over great boulders in the way; the leading Kikuyu dances nimbly and shrills remarks at the nearest cattle; the tail Kikuyu winds energetically back and forth on his little handle, and tries to keep his feet. ”

“ The A’kikuyu know when they are beaten, and a few hours after a life-and-death struggle with one, in which they had been vanquished, they will come into one’s camp and talk over it with a primitive frankness which I think delightful. Of course, should matters go the other way, they would just as cheerfully dance over your dismembered corpse, and should a favourable opportunity arise they would not hesitate to attempt any underhand trick ”

“ In the old days, when the Kikuyu used to fight the Masai, Njau’s father, who was a great magician, was a specialist at making medicine to enable his people to check the Masai invasions, and when they came, to ensure victory for the Kikuyu. The knowledge of this art is said to have come down from his ancestors.
This magic is called mwita, and its most important instrument is a kiheto, or small piece of iron obtained from a smith. A small clay pot is made in which the kiheto is placed and some medicine called njeku, and this is brought to the path by which the Masai usually came to attack. ”

“ Natives attribute marvellous powers to him, and it is pretty certain that once he has detected a criminal no Kikuyu has any doubt as to his guilt, neither would they think that any man poisoned by him had been unjustly dealt with. It is not very surprising that this cunning medicine man, with his uncomfortable supernatural powers and his science of detection, should not enjoy great popularity, and that there should be rather a feeling of distrust between him and his people. ”

“ According to the natural organisation of the Kikuyu tribe every youth, as he grows up, gradually passes through the various grades of tribal life. He commences as a kihe, an uncircumcised boy, and after circumcision becomes a mwanake, and finally a muthuri. He has to be initiated, step by step, into each grade according to the ritual of the tribe, and payment has to be made for entry into each stage. ”

“ Of course, at the present day, my name is little more than a legend among the Kikuyu, around which many wonderful stories have been built up by the people. In the nine years which have elapsed since I left the country many of the older men who knew me have died, while the rising generation, who, as children, only knew of me as the most powerful influence in the province, have only vague memories of actual happenings, which they have gradually embroidered until I should have great difficulty in recognizing some of the occurrences myself in their present form. ”

“ Several of the clans in Kikuyu are alleged to possess specimens of this bead, each one being in charge of a particular elder; they are said to be reddish in colour and rather long in shape.1 Endeavours have been made to get a specimen for examination, but it has not been possible to locate one; the elders state that they have not seen one used for some years. A chuma cha mchugu must not be kept in a house, but is hidden away in the bush—in this particular it is like the kithathi. ”

“ This is a case for the medicine man, who has to be called in to perform a lustration ceremony to purify them; the offending son is not affected. Sprigs of the mahoroa, muchatha, and mitei bushes are bound up together and dipped in water, and the water is sprinkled over the couple, a little being also sprinkled at the gate of the village. This only applies to those circumcised Kikuyu fashion. It is curious to note that practically the same custom is observed by the A-Kamba.
(60) If a Kikuyu native kills a man belonging to another tribe he is not thahu ”

“ Muga-wa-diga said that he would accompany me to Tato, where, he told me, there was a lot of ivory; so I decided to go to Tato first, and then go round to Wagombi’s country.
While at Muga-wa-diga’s I made the acquaintance of a young chief named Katuni, or the Lion, who was by far the tallest Kikuyu I had ever seen—being considerably over six feet in height—and got quite friendly with him, and he brought me, among other things, a lot of honey. All the Kikuyu keep bees, and you can see the hives hanging on the trees, sometimes five or six on a tree, all over the country. ”

“ Unfortunately, however, I have to mourn his loss, for he died at Nairobi in 1911. Such a man is difficult to replace; his speciality was Kikuyu political organisation and customs, and, although a coast native, he was deeply esteemed by all the people of Southern Kikuyu. ”

“ Gethaka (Kikuyu) : The portion of a ridge in Kikuyu owned by a particular family, the title to possession of this being obtained from the Dorobo, the original occupants of the forest. Some regard it as a freehold right, others maintain that the Kikuyu only acquired the right to cut the forest in order to make shambas, or gardens. The gethaka rights are, however, very real possessions in the eyes of the Kikuyu.
Huku (Kikuyu) : A mole-like rodent—Tachyorctes sp. ”

“ In this way, they could add to their reputation as wizards, for wizards the Kikuyus believed them to be.
“The next number is going to be one of those Hawaiian things,” he whispered to Frank, as the strains of a familiar Sousa march drew near their conclusion. “Let’s announce to Chief Ruku-Ru that we are about to summon out of the air a piece of music for the especial benefit of the wonderful Kikuyu dancers of whom we have heard so much.” ”

“ Unlike the Masai, the Wa Kikuyu have a fairly good idea of agriculture, and grow crops of m'tama (a kind of native grain from which flour is made) , sugar-cane, sweet potatoes, and tobacco.
The Wa Kikuyu have the reputation of being a very cowardly and treacherous people, and they have undoubtedly committed some very cruel deeds. A friend of mine, Captain Haslem, with whom I lived for a few months at Tsavo, was barbarously murdered by some members of this tribe. ”

“ In Kitui, as in Kikuyu, it is most unlucky for twins to be born if they are the first children of the marriage. In former times one was buried alive, but this cruel custom has apparently died out. It is, however, still believed that if they are girls and both live, the mother will die, and if the twins are boys and they survive, the father will die. It is supposed that the evil effect can be mitigated to some extent if, three days after their birth, the father cohabits with the mother; the parents also kill a goat and are smeared with the tatha, or stomach contents. ”

“ A Kikuyu Oracle.—There lives in South Kikuyu-land an elder named Kichura or Thiga wa Wairumbi wa Kaumo of the Kachiko clan and the Njenga generation or rika, who is credited with the extraordinary power of being the recipient of messages from the Supreme Being, and in consequence possesses the gift of prophecy. ”

“ The cult of the smith does not appear to be as highly developed in Ukamba as in Kikuyu, for his powers are more limited; he wears no mark of his trade, and he does not dedicate the weapons he forges, as is done by the Kikuyu smiths.
If, however, a man steals a smith’s stone anvil or any tool from his smithy, the smith can curse him by saying: “So-and-so has stolen my anvil, and I curse him, and if he eats this season’s food he will die,” and it is firmly believed that the thief will die before the harvest is reaped. ”

“ It appears that when certain medicine is made in the village the owner has only to pull out a few tail hairs from a beast and it will always return to his village.
Occasionally in a Kikuyu village the vertebra of an ox may be seen transfixed on the stick which surmounts a grain hut. This is a charm to keep butterflies away from the village, as it is believed that these insects carry sickness to the goats and sheep.
Fear of old Women.—Old women in Kikuyu are much feared, particularly those who are blind, toothless, and decrepit; they are often believed to possess magic power. ”

“ From Mombasa on the east coast they had made their way on the railroad to Nairobi. This small but important settlement, which was the administrative center of Kenya Colony, marked their last touch with civilization.
Procuring bearers and guides, they had thence set out afoot into the Kikuyu country. Day had followed day without striking incident. The Kikuyus are a peaceful people, above the average of African intelligence, inhabiting a magnificent country abounding in streams, uplands and forest. It is one of the most healthful and fertile of regions. ”

“ Among the Kikuyu there is a council, or kiama, of old women in every district; they collect goats periodically and present them to the elders of ukuru, or priestly class. They occasionally fine troublesome women, and the fine, usually a goat, has to be obtained by the culprit either by extra work or by begging one from her father. The men fear the women’s kiama, as it is believed that the members of it have the power to bewitch people. ”

“ At Kikuyu Station we came to a halt. Kikuyu Station ordinarily embarks about two passengers a month, I suppose. Now it was utterly swamped with business, for on it had descended all our safari of thirty-nine men and three mules. Thirty of the thirty-nine yelled and shrieked and got in the wrong place, as usual. C. and the train men and the stationmaster and our responsible boys heaved and tugged and directed, ordered, commanded. At length the human element was loaded to its places and locked in. Then the mules had to be urged up a very narrow gang-lank into a dangerous-looking car. ”

“ The Kikuyu, like nearly all other African tribes, are polygamous, and the general rule seems to be that any ordinary individual may have three or four wives, though, as marriage is simply a question of paying so much for the woman, the number is apt to vary with the man’s wealth, some of the bigger chiefs having as many as twenty or thirty. They do not, of course, regard women in the same way that we do, but look upon them more in the light of slaves, the value of a wife being reckoned at 266about thirty sheep. ”

“ Close to Kyambu there lives a medicine man of the name of Kamiri wa Itherero who is said to be one of the most renowned of all Kikuyu. Like most medicine men, Kamiri is possessed of more character than most of his countrymen, and this is shown by his manner and appearance to a far greater extent than is usually the case among other natives. He is one of the few members of the senior generation of Maina, which in itself is a claim to veneration; this means that he has practically withdrawn from the council of elders, and that he must be a man of considerable age. ”

“ Again, their manner of circumcising the young men is exactly the same as that practised by the Masai, which differs from the custom of any other race, as I shall show later on. The name for God, Ngai, is the same in both peoples, and they both have a similar custom of retiring to a so-called “sacred grove” in the bush, where they slaughter a sheep, which is afterwards roasted and eaten in honour of their god.
These points, to my mind, all go to show a connexion between the Kikuyu and the Masai, rather than, as some inquirers argue, between the Kikuyu and the Wakamba. ”

“ The Kikuyu were formerly only allowed to eat the following wild animals and birds before being circumcised: partridges (ngware) , pigeon (ndutwa) , and hyrax (mi-kami) . Many will not eat wild game throughout their lives, and people follow the custom they have been brought up to observe; those that eat it probably had Asi or Dorobo ancestors. ”

“ The Wakamba also are eaters of raw meat, while the Masai, though blood-drinkers, always cook their meat, and the Kikuyu are practically vegetarians. In the manner of dressing the hair, too, the Kikuyu follow the Masai fashion of plaiting strands of bark fibre into the hair, which is then done up in a sort of pigtail, while the Wakamba wear the covering provided by Nature without any fancy additions. ”

“ Mr C. Dundas, writing on this subject, says with regard to the Kikuyu people: “The fear of thahu is always present, a man may be subject to it without knowing the cause. When anyone goes on a journey [143] he cannot tell whether he may not have contracted thahu in strange houses and villages, and therefore when he returns he will kill a goat for purification before he enters his village. ”

“ The accounts given of the origin of the Kikuyu tribe vary considerably, and the nigger’s 297talent for fiction, and his readiness to oblige any one—particularly a white man—who asks for a legend, make it extremely difficult to distinguish where truth ends and fiction begins ”

“ Among the Kikuyu if a married woman does not prove fertile a medicine man takes her to a mukeo, mukenyia, or muthakwa tree, and there suffocates a mwati (a young ewe which has not yet borne a kid) ; the elders of the husband’s clan take the small intestine of the mwati and twine it around the woman [198] and the tree, the intestine being then cut through with a sharp splinter of wood. The ceremony concludes with the anointing of the woman on the forehead with castor oil, and some fat from the carcase of the mwati is melted and poured out at the foot of the tree. ”