A White King in East Africa: The Remarkable Adventures of John Boyes, Trader and Soldier of Fortune, Who Became King of the Savage Wa-KikuyuBoyes, John
History
A White King in East Africa: The Remarkable Adventures of John Boyes, Trader and Soldier of Fortune, Who Became King of the Savage Wa-Kikuyu
Boyes, John
Africa, East; Kikuyu (African people)
They grow a calabash which serves them for almost every household
purpose, such as storing liquid, carrying water, or as a drinking
vessel. For carrying grain or other purposes of that kind they make a
bag from the fibre which they obtain from certain trees, and which
varies in size according to the purpose for which it is required; while
for cooking or for storing large quantities of water they use
earthenware pots, which are made in certain districts of the Kikuyu
country in practically the same way as pottery was made in the early
days in our own country, being fashioned out of a particular kind of
clay and then burnt to harden them. The method of cooking is very much
the same throughout Africa, a small fire being made within a triangle,
composed of three large stones. An old camp may always be recognized by
these three stones, which show where the fire was made for cooking,
although all other traces of the camp may have disappeared under a
luxuriant growth of grass, several feet high.
The Kikuyu make all their own weapons—spears, swords, and arrows—from
the iron which is found in various parts of the country, and which they
smelt in the old-fashioned way. I found that the style of bellows used
by them was the same as those I had seen in other parts of Africa, being
made out of a sheepskin, fashioned to a pointed bag, which, when opened,
admitted the air and expelled it again when pressed down. Two sets of
bellows were worked together, one with each hand. The native blacksmith
uses a large stone as an anvil, and possesses a variety of hammers, some
of them being simply ordinary pieces of stone, while others are in the
form of a dumb-bell, which he grasps in the middle when striking with
it. Singularly enough, the tongs which he uses to hold the heated iron
are practically the same as those used by the English blacksmith. As the
smith is, of course, paid for his labour in kind, he charges one sheep
for a spear, while a sword may be had for the same price. I found that a
lot of the iron-wire which I brought into the country was worked up into
swords and spears, possibly because it entailed less labour than the
working up of the native iron. In addition to the fighting weapons, they
made iron rings and chains, which were worn as ornaments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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