1. Hezikiah M'Mukiri, MOS 26. [BACK]

2. Bernardi, Mugwe , and personal communication, Turin, Italy, July 1969. The concept of the Mugwe as "transmitter of blessings" is my own. [BACK]

3. Adamson, Bwana Game , 8, describes the automatic cursing system of the Ogiek in terms identical to that of Meru hunters. Corroborated in personal communication, November 1969-November 1970. [BACK]

4. The complete itemized contents of an antelope-skin carrier, said to have belonged to an A-Athi "witch doctor" (i.e., curse remover) was turned in to the British Museum, circa 1920, by Lt. G. St. J. Orde-Browne, at that time assistant district commissioner of Cuka (formerly Chuka) (i.e., the Mwimbi-Muthambi-Cuka regions), and subsequent author of The Vanishing Tribes of Kenya . [BACK]

5. Chant used in South Imenti by M'Nkanata M'Mkatemia (see MOS 46), one of that region's oldest honey hunters. Informant recalls that chants were "bought" (in exchange for millet beer) from Ogiek hunters at the time of the Michubu age-set (1750s). [BACK]

6. Blackburn, "A Preliminary Report of Research on the Ogiek Tribe," and Rosen, "A Preliminary Report of Research among the Mukogodo, Laikipiak District. [BACK]

7. Adamson, A Lifetime with Lions (American title for Bwana Game ), 86-87, and subsequent personal communication, 1969-1970. [BACK]

8. See Mathiu wa Gacece (Northeast Imenti), MOS 42; M'Mwongera wa Kabutai (Northeast Imenti), MOS 41; M'Nkanata M'Mkatemia (South Imenti), MOS 46; Daudi M'Mungaria (South Imenti), MOS 47; Majogu wa Mathiu (Northeast Imenti), MOS 44; and several others all former A-Athi or descended from A-Athi clans or both. [BACK]

9. See note 8 above. [BACK]

10. See note 8 above. [BACK]

11. Fadiman, ''The Meru Peoples," 153-73, deals with Mount Kenya's earlier occupants in greater detail.

12. Ibid.; H. S. K. Mwaniki, personal correspondence, 1970s. Fragmentary traditions collected from Tigania and Northeast Imenti also record the presence of a single Bantu-speaking people, whom they know as Michimikuru. Traditions collected by Mwaniki among the Bantu-speaking Mbeere, who live adjacent to the Embu of Mount Kenya, suggest that at least one section of their tribe was once called Michimikuru, did live on the Tigania Plain, and was driven south. [BACK]

11. Fadiman, ''The Meru Peoples," 153-73, deals with Mount Kenya's earlier occupants in greater detail.

12. Ibid.; H. S. K. Mwaniki, personal correspondence, 1970s. Fragmentary traditions collected from Tigania and Northeast Imenti also record the presence of a single Bantu-speaking people, whom they know as Michimikuru. Traditions collected by Mwaniki among the Bantu-speaking Mbeere, who live adjacent to the Embu of Mount Kenya, suggest that at least one section of their tribe was once called Michimikuru, did live on the Tigania Plain, and was driven south. [BACK]

13. Alan H. Jacobs, research director, Institute of Africa Studies, University of Nairobi, 1968-1972, in a personal communication, has suggested the following sketch of the language relationships referred to in classifying Mount Kenya's earlier (pre-Bantu-speaking) occupants:

14. J. G. Hopkins, assistant district commissioner, Meru, 1917-1918. Report on Mwoko (Muoko) burial customs, 25 April 1919, Meru political records, Kenya National Archives (hereinafter KNA), Nairobi, Kenya, and personal correspondence with Hopkins, Pretoria, South Africa, June—December 1970. [BACK]

15. Rev. A. J. Hopkins, missionary, United Methodist Mission, Meru District, mid-1920s. Letter, 16 May 1924, to C. S. Dobbs, district commissioner, Meru, describing similarities between the alleged Muoko burials and those of the Tana River Galla with which he had grown familiar through prior postings. Lambert Papers. Copy in my possession. [BACK]

16. J. G. H. Hopkins, Lambert Papers. Hopkins collected the earliest versions of the "Mwoko [Muoko] Tradition," recounted here in abbreviated form. Corroborated by contemporary oral informants, Tigania. [BACK]

17. Mahner, "The Insider and the Outsider," 9, and personal discussions, 1970. Corroborated by oral informants, Tigania. [BACK]

18. The following researchers, among others, have collected "Gumba" (Agumba) oral traditions among the Meru, Embu, Mbeere, Cuka, Mwimbi, and Muthambi peoples of Mount Kenya: Routledge, With A Prehistoric People , 4; Kenyatta, Facing Mt. Kenya , 23-24; Lambert, Systems of Land Tenure , 63-93; Leakey, Stone Age Cultures , 198 ff.; Orde-Browne, The Vanishing Tribes of Kenya , 21, 63-64 (Mwimbi-Muthambi-Cuka); Muriuki, A History of the Kikuyu , 23, 37-46, 54-68, 87, 111; and Mwaniki, The Living History of Embu and Mbeere . [BACK]

19. R. D. F Taylor, "The Gumba and Gumba Pits of Fort Hall District, Kenya," Azania 1 (1966): 111. Taylor describes the Gumba (Agumba) pits of Gikuyu in detail. Comparative data from Meru is based on my personal examination. [BACK]

20. Blackburn, "Preliminary Report of Research on the Ogiek Tribe," 10-11 (weapons). [BACK]

21. Maguire, " 'El-Torobo,' Tanganika Notes and Records," 8-13.

22. Ibid. [BACK]

21. Maguire, " 'El-Torobo,' Tanganika Notes and Records," 8-13.

22. Ibid. [BACK]

23. Source for II Mosiro word list is Maguire (see note 21 above); for Kiriita, see Lambert, Systems of Land Tenure , 80. The Umpua word list is from Muriuki Muriithi (MOS 32), a Mwimbi elder then (1969) in his early eighties. [BACK]

24. Blackburn, "A Preliminary Report of Research on the Ogiek Tribe." [BACK]

25. Alan H. Jacobs, personal letter, 8 February 1987. Much of the Maasai (01 Maa) material presented in this section was derived through extensive discussions with Professor Jacobs, research director, Institute of Africa Studies, University of Nairobi, 1968-1972, and the major Maasai scholar of this century. In 1972, Jacobs classified and estimated the number of speakers of the major Maa-speaking groups as: II Maasai (Kenya, Tanzania), 226,000; Arusha (Tanzania), 97,000; Samburu (Kenya), 58,000; Baraguyu (Tanzania), 29,000; Ogiek (Dorobo) (Kenya, Tanzania), 22,000; Njemps (Kenya), 7,000.

26. Ibid. [BACK]

25. Alan H. Jacobs, personal letter, 8 February 1987. Much of the Maasai (01 Maa) material presented in this section was derived through extensive discussions with Professor Jacobs, research director, Institute of Africa Studies, University of Nairobi, 1968-1972, and the major Maasai scholar of this century. In 1972, Jacobs classified and estimated the number of speakers of the major Maa-speaking groups as: II Maasai (Kenya, Tanzania), 226,000; Arusha (Tanzania), 97,000; Samburu (Kenya), 58,000; Baraguyu (Tanzania), 29,000; Ogiek (Dorobo) (Kenya, Tanzania), 22,000; Njemps (Kenya), 7,000.

26. Ibid. [BACK]

27. Fadiman, Oral History , provides detailed information regarding Meru methods of warfare up to the conquest by Great Britain. [BACK]

28. See note 25 above. [BACK]