WITH A PREHISTORIC PEOPLE.*

R. AND Mns. RourrarmuE have enjoyed a most interesting experience, which they have embodied in a volume that should take high rank in anthropological literature. For a period of five and a half years, extending with a break from 1902 to 1909, they lived in the midst of a primitive people who form part of the population of British East Africa, but are shielded in a native " reservation " from the inrush of European

traveller and settler. The A-ki-kd-yu occupy a territory to the north of Kilimanjaro, and to the east of Lake Victoria Nyanza ; Nairobi is just within their boundaries on the south- east, the Kenya mountain range is on their north-east, and the railway from Mombasa to the Great Lake traverses their country from south-east to north-west. When Mr. Routledge first went there in 1902 the province was practically unknown

and its people unsubdued ; except for a few fixed points,

it had no boundaries even ; of its political organisation, of its social life and customs, of the arts and crafts of the people, and of their religious beliefs, the reports were scanty and conflicting.

Mr. and Mrs. Routledge make good this deficiency, and both of them possess remarkable qualifications for the task,— the gift of keen observation, the power of recording in accurate language what they saw, and the faculty of winning the confidence and affection of the African native. Mr. Routledge's methods can best be described in his own words:

"1 travelled about the country shooting, photographing, collect- ing, and taking notes, and not only never on any occasion had any serious trouble with the natives, but on the contrary became great friends with various influential men over a wide extent of country. In particular the younger and only brother of one of the principal chiefs became my inseparable companion. He was an especially bright, attractive lad of about seventeen, widely known and universally popular, and by him I was chaperoned in Hi-kti-yu society. Where he could not introduce me himself, as in the case of certain rites, his influence was such that I always found myself committed to the care of an influential sponsor. Much information regarding native custom was gathered from my various retainers during long rides and shooting expeditions about the country when the conversation naturally turned on the subjects around us ; but the most fruitful season was in the evening, when I made it a practice to have a big fire in front of my tent and every one was welcome. They sat around it in order of social consideration, talking among themselves. I presently joined in the conversation, perhaps asking a question, and so induced one man to give an explanation which would be corrected and amplified by the others. In this manner I also got in touch with local gossip, and learnt what was going on in the neighbour- hood—festivals, dances, markets and the like. Invitations would be given and expeditions made, and these in their turn opened out 'fresh woods and pastures new:"

When Mrs. Routledge joined him on his second visit to Ki-ka-yu he was reinforced by a companion who not only shared his enthusiasm for the native friends to whom he introduced her but was enabled to gain information in avenues which were closed to her husband. By visiting among the huts and coming into contact with the women and the domestic routine, she was enabled to throw light on a side of African life which is of necessity closed to the traveller of the masculine sex. And she found her way to the hearts and tongues of her native friends by telling them that " when we were back in England the white women would wish me to tell them about the women of Ki-kii-yu, for we all now belonged to the same great white chief."

The opportunity afforded by a study of the A-ki-kii-yu was one that is seldom granted to the anthropologist; it revealed a veritable page from the past, a people who stand to-day in their civilisation and methods at the point where our ancestors stood in earliest times :-

" Present at trial by ordeal, the life of our Saxon forefathers becomes a living reality ; watching the potmaker and the smith, the hand of the clock is put back yet farther, and the dead of Britain's tumuli go once more about their avocations."

We have only to compare the drawing of a pot made by Ki-kii-yu women in 1908 with that of a cinerary urn of the earliest bronze period taken from a barrow at Roke Down, Dorset, to be convinced of the parallelism. In hut-building, bridge-building, fire-making, string-making, iron-making, wire-drawing, chain-making we see a people at the beginnings fro-m which the arts and crafts of all civilised nations have developed, and which of themselves mark no inconsiderable * With a Prehistoric People the A-ki-k&-gts of British East Africa. Being Some Account of the Method of life and Mode of Thought Found Beistent amongst a Nation on its First Contact with European Ctroefiaatwn. By W. Scoresby Rout- ledge and Katherine Routledgo (born Pease). With Illustrations and a Map. London; Edward Arnold. [21s. net.]

advance in the process of evolution. In describing a bridge built by the A-ki-kii-yn, in which the whole structure is made of tree trunks and tough creepers, and where every part yields till each cord comes to do some share of the work, Mr. Routledge dwells on the admirable result attained by the simplest means. And he points out that they soundness of the principle and practice is shown by the fact that in the grounds of the Staff College at Camberley is a large demon- stration bridge constructed of planks, posts, and wire identical in every respect with the one described in the text.

On the political organisation Mr. Routledge has found it very difficult to procure exact or trustworthy information. To use his own illustration,

"the willing and intelligent M'ki-kd-yu, eadeavotuing to make clear to an Englishman the working of his tribal rule, finds him- self in much the same position as an agricultural labourer at home trying to explain to a foreigner the ways of Local Government." , And the task is made the harder by the fact that the six years of British occupation—it cannot justly be called con- quest—have materially affected the status of chieftainship. " Ki-ka-yu polity," we are told, " is local government run mad." The unit of all life is the homestead, the dwelling- place of the family. In the days before the Pax Britannica a number of these homesteads, varying from two to ten, would unite for military purposes under a leader or headman. But now that, for the time at any rate, the Masai are held from raiding, this organisation only endures for the vexation of travellers, who find their caravans swollen by groups of natives who refuse to acknowledge any leadership but that of their own appointed headman. For all civil purposes the bead of the homestead is ipso facto ruler. There is no council of the nation; the regions concerned sre too small for the question of representation to arise ; the government is patriarchal, or, as far as it attains to the dignity of a State, in the hands of the councils of old men, who meet, confer, and act in varying numbers, according to the interest or exigencies of the case :- "Owing to the very simple needs of the A-ki-lni-yn, a large population can support itself by agriculture in comparatively limited space, the result being to combine, from the point of now of the black man, all the advantages associated in the mind of the white man with both town and country life. The greater part of may thus be said to be one vast garden city of the most approved type."

But the authors are apprehensive lest the inevitable desire for the increase of luxury may cause a drift to the towns :—

" The charm which Nairobi had for our Swahili retainers was most striking. It will be an evil day for the A-ki-kil-yu if they also fall under the baneful attraction of the native bazaar in connection with European centres of population."

Such a result would be especially deplorable in view of the fact that the A-ki-Ii-yu are summed up as "being exception- ally good native material, but of so plastic a character that if badly handled at the outset it is spoiled permanently." They are naturally merry, loquacious, and laughter-loving ; ready to forget and free from vindictiveness, but acutely sensitive to the hectoring rudeness of the baser sort of European. Well treated, they are honest to an extraordinary degree, intelligent, trustful, and truthful. In contact with the white man of " the damned nigger" school of thought and manner they become stupid and untrustworthy, tricky and treacherous. The authors speak in very high terms of their code of manners, their politeness, and their respect for the aged:— "Even the children, though never harshly treated or spoken to, behave considerately and courteously ; very differently from the little European wild beasts who are permitted by their parents to conduct themselves in such a way as to render life a scourge to all the other passengers on board the mail steamer to East Africa."

In all respects they form a strong contrast with their hereditary foes, the Masai, for whom Mr. and Mrs. Routledge have no words too strong. They are described as by nature greed personified, horse-thieves and liars, absolutely devoid of the sense of gratitude or the spirit of hospitality, and useful for fighting purposes under limited and special conditions. " For any form of manual labour the Masai is mentally disinclined. He is material that civilization cannot grind up in her mill."

The sections which Mr. and Mrs. Routledge devote to religion, magic, and folk-lore are modestly deseribed by them as " a record of field observation," and they hazard no con- clusions of their own. But in no field of investigation is the accurate, unbiassed observation and collation of facts more needed or less common than in the comparative study of religions ; and the methods followed in this volume have won high praise from so competent an authority as Mr. R. R. Marett, of Exeter College, Oxford. The ceremonies which precede the full initiation of boy or girl into the tribe, the spectacular dances, and that most mysterious of Ki-kii-yu rites, the symbolical second birth, are recounted with a com- pleteness of detail which leaves nothing to be desired ; but in the last instance the narrators have had to content themselves with hearsay, for no amount of bribery or use of personal influence prevailed to admit either Mr. or Mrs. Routledge to witness it. The greatest reluctance was shown to talk about the ceremony, and the knowledge of its existence was solely derived from natives who had freed themselves from tradition by coming under the influence of Christianity. Mrs. Routledge has preserved a fascinating collection of folk- tales contributed by all sorts and conditions of men and women, down to the little boy who gave her the legend of " The Elephants and the Hyenas." We can well understand that few incidents in her African travels are remembered more tenderly than the gatherings round the camp-fire when tongues are unloosed after dusk has fallen. The writers have left on our mind a very clear impression of an exceedingly interesting people, and it is satisfactory to know that they look hopefully to the future. " The A-ki-kii-yu," they say in conclusion, "are displaying in a marked degree those qualities that a native race must exhibit if it is to survive. Hard- working, intelligent, and adaptable, peaceful and prolific, the M'ki-kii-yu is the coming man under the altered conditions of to-day."