thought I was casting an evil
spell over them when he saw me taking photographs of them as they
grazed peacefully on the sweet grass which covered the plateau.

Like most other natives of Africa, the Wa Taita are exceedingly
superstitious, and this failing is turned to good account by the
all-powerful "witch-doctor" or "medicine-man." It is, for instance, an
extraordinary sight to see the absolute faith with which a Ki Taita
will blow the simba-dawa, or "lion medicine ", to the four points of
the compass before lying down to sleep in the open. This dawa--which
is, of course, obtainable only from the witch-doctor--consists simply
of a little black powder, usually carried in a tiny horn stuck through
a slit in the ear; but the Ki Taita firmly believes that a few grains
of this dust blown round him from the palm of the hand is a complete
safeguard against raging lions seeking whom they may devour; and after
the blowing ceremony he will lie down to sleep in perfect confidence,
even in the midst of a man-eater's district. In the nature of things,
moreover, he never loses this touching faith in the efficacy of the
witch-doctor's charm; for if he is attacked by a lion, the brute sees
to it that he does not live to become an unbeliever, while if he is not
attacked, it is of course quite clear that it is to the dawa that he
owes his immunity.

For the rest, the Wa Taita are essentially a peace-loving and
industrious people; and, indeed, before the arrival of the British in
the country, they hardly ever ventured down from their mountain
fastnesses, owing to their dread of the warlike Masai. Each man has as
many wives as he can afford to pay for in sheep or cattle; he provides
each spouse with a separate establishment, but the family huts are
clustered together, and as a rule all live in perfect harmony. The most
curious custom of the tribe is the filing of the front teeth into sharp
points, which gives the whole face a most peculiar and rather
diabolical expression. As usual, their ideas of costume are rather
primitive; the men sometimes wear a scrap of cloth round the loins,
while the women content themselves with the same or with a short kilt.
Both sexes adorn themselves with a great quantity of copper or iron
wire coiled round their arms and legs, and smear their bodies all over
with grease, the men adding red clay to the mixture. Many of the women
also wear dozens of rows of beads, while their ears are hung with
pieces of c