Introduction: This book is an effort to record the writer's observations of the manners and customs of a primitive and interesting group of tribes who dwell o the southern slopes of Mount Kenya. Development in that part of Africa is proceeding so rapidly that it is important to describe as much as possible of the fast disappearing native methods of life; even since the accompanying notes and photographs were taken changes have taken place and much has already vanished forever. Since the various tribes with which this book deals are small in number and limited in area, it is obvious that their own peculiar customs can have little chance of survival i the face of the general intermixture of tries taking place under European administration.