On my asking one of these old frauds what became of the sheep, he explained that he would eat it himself, as if any one else ventured to touch the meat, he would die at once. When I said that I should have no objection to eating a leg, and was certain that no ill consequence would follow, he replied: “Of course you could eat it quite safely. You are a great witch doctor like myself; but if any of these savages ate it, they would die at once!”
In the meantime, I made friends, by Pigasangi, with those natives with whom I had tried, on my first journey through the country, to make arrangements for that ceremony, and who said at the time, it will be remembered, they would wait. This enabled me to open up fresh food stations, and altogether my enterprise in that direction was progressing very satisfactorily. The only people who now caused me any trouble were the Kalyera, with whom I had always to be cautious when passing the borders of their country, as they were continually on the war-path, and I heard that they had lately extended their operations into close proximity to the railway, where they had been giving a lot of trouble by robbing and killing the Indians engaged on its construction.
Living, as I did, in close touch with the everyday life of the natives, I became well acquainted with their manners and habits of living, and I also managed to learn a good deal of their genealogy. I found that the Kikuyu tribe was divided into a number of clans, or _mahirriga_, each of which bore a distinctive heraldic sign on their shields. The origin of these clans was wrapped in mystery, none of the natives with whom I discussed the question being able to tell me how they originally came into existence, or what was their real purpose. The word “clan,” as we understand it, suggests unity and combination, but this certainly was not the interpretation of the term accepted by the members of these Kikuyu clans, the members of which were mixed up indiscriminately, and scattered all over the country. They all knew to which of the clans they belonged, and there the connexion seemed to end, so far as I could gather. The only similar instance of such “clans” that I can call to mind is the “clan” system which formerly existed among the Red Indians of North America, where men of different, and often hostile, tribes might belong to the same “clan,” the clans being known by the names of various animals, such as bear, wolf, fox, &c.