AN IVORY TRADER IN NORTHKENIA
THE AUTHOR.
AN IVORY TRADER IN
NORTH KENIA
THE RECORD OF AN EXPEDITION THROUGH
KIKUYU TO GALLA-LAND IN EAST
EQUATORIAL AFRICA
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE RENDILI AND
BURKENEJI TRIBES
BY
A. ARKELL-HARDWICK, F.R.G.S.
WITH TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
PHOTOGRAPHS, AND A MAP
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1903
All rights reserved
To
COLONEL COLIN HARDING, C.M.G.
OF THE
BRITISH SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE
TO WHOSE KIND ENCOURAGEMENT WHEN IN COMMAND OF
FORT CHICKWAKA, MASHONALAND
THE AUTHOR OWES HIS LATER EFFORTS TO
GAIN COLONIAL EXPERIENCE
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED
[Pg vii]
PREFACE
Although there may be no justification for the productionof this work, the reader will perhaps deal leniently withme under the “First Offenders Act.” Among the variousreasons which prompted me to commit the crime of addinga contribution to the World’s literature is the fact thatlittle or nothing is known concerning certain peculiar tribes;to wit, the Rendili and Burkeneji. They are a nomadicpeople whose origin is as yet wrapped in mystery. Inaddition to this, an account of the trials and difficultiesto be encountered in the endeavour to obtain that rapidlyvanishing commodity, ivory, will perhaps please those intowhose hands this work may fall who delight in “movingaccidents by flood and field.”
It has been to me a source of lasting regret that agreat many of my photographic negatives were in someway or other unfortunately lost on our homeward journey,and as usually happens on such occasions, they were thoseI valued most, inasmuch as they included all my photographsof the lower course of the Waso Nyiro River andalso those of the Rendili and Burkeneji peoples. I am,however, greatly indebted to Mr. Hazeltine Frost, M.R.P.S.,[Pg viii]of Muswell Hill, N., for the care and skill with whichhe has rendered some of the remaining badly mutilatednegatives suitable for the purposes of illustration.
In the course of this narrative it will be observed thatI name the people of the various countries or districtsthrough which we passed by prefixing Wa- to the nameof the district they inhabit. This is in accordance withSwahili practice, as they generally designate a native by thename of his country prefixed by an M’, which in this casedenotes a man, the plural of M’ being Wa-. The pluralof M’Kamba, or inhabitant