healthy. I fancy they do it for the sake of the salt
in the blood. Giraffe and antelope are hunted on
horseback, and are the oiily game eaten.
Their shields are made of the hides of animals, or
of wicker work. The iron work on their spears,
knives, etc., is done for the most part by the smiths
in their villages; but they prefer to purchase these
articles from the neighbouring tribes, as the work of
their own smiths is not of the best.
Over each village a chief presides in the councils
of peace as well as of war. His office is elective, not
hereditary. A man of wealth and position is rarely
elected to the office of chief. Popularity, gift of language,
and skill in war are the three prime requisites;
but after a man has once been made chief he soon
becomes rich; for he levies a tax upon the flocks and
herds of his village, until his property at least equals
that of any other member of the small community.
The number of strings of beads around a man’s
neck indicates the number of men he has slain in
battle. The chief of the village gives the warrior a
goat and a quantity of milk for each slain enemy, i
My informant also told me that for the preceding
five or six years the relations of the Rendile and the
Borana had been strained. The Rendile appeared
greatly to dread the Borana, who in their opinion were
the most powerful tribe in their neighbourhood.
The Borana people are said to be separated into
two divisions, the larger of which is called Rrapp.
The Rrapp, despite the recent plague, still had a great
number of cattle. They were reigned over by a chief
named Kalo, and have many horses; but at the same
time they cultivate the soil to some degree. Both the
Borana and the Rrapp wear short breeches made of
coarse Galla cloth.
From Kome to Borana the road is good only during
the rainy season; in dry weather it is impassable
by reason of the lack of water en route. A journey
of one month from Kome would be required to reach
these people. We therefore have fixed their whereabouts
in the neighbourhood of the Juba River.
G u a s o N y i r o R i v e r , n e a r w h e r e w e f o u n d R e n d i l e
Neither Lieutenant von Hohnel nor I was able to
come to any satisfactory conclusion as to the origin
of the Rendile, or as to the African family to which
their tribe belonged. In the matter of appearance,
their prevailing light colour, straight hair, blue eyes,
and the custom of cutting out the navel led us to
conclude that they were closely connected with neither
the Somali nor the Galla. Lieutenant von Hohnel
had visited Harrar, and had there seen many Abyssin-
ians, whose appearance, he said, was very different
from that of the Rendile. The language of the Ren