An ivory trader in North Kenia

by A. Arkell-Hardwick

They wear a good many beads as ornaments, which are carefully worked into necklaces and armlets of artistic design, and not put on haphazard, as is the custom of the surrounding tribes, and of those south of the Waso Nyiro. The beads are usually strung on hair from the tail of the giraffe, which is as stiff as thin wire. With this they make broad collars and bands for the arms and ankles, the beads being arranged in geometrical designs, such as squares and triangles, of different colours, red and white being the favourites. The demand for seninge (iron wire) was extraordinary, though serutia (brass wire) ran it a close second. Copper wire, strange to say, they would not look at.

They are circumcized in the Mohammedan manner, and, in addition, they are mutilated in a most extraordinary fashion by having their navels cut out, leaving a deep hole. They are the only tribe mutilated in this manner with the exception of the Marle, who inhabit the district north of “Basso Ebor” (Lake Stephanie), and who are probably an offshoot of the Rendili.

The Rendili women are singularly graceful and good looking, with arch, gentle manners and soft expressive eyes. They wear a good many ornaments, principally bead necklaces and armlets of coloured beadwork. Their hair is allowed to grow in short curls. One or two I saw wore it cut very close, with the exception of a ridge of hair on the top of the head, extending from the centre of the forehead backwards over the crown to the nape of the neck, which was left uncut. Whether they were Turkana women who had intermarried with the Rendili or not, I am unable to say, it being the custom of the Turkana women to dress their hair in that manner; though, on the other hand, the fashion might have been merely copied from them by the Rendili women.

The Rendili women also wear cloth. Their garments were of much less generous proportions than those of their lords and masters; but they wore more ornaments, the Venetian beads we carried being in great demand for that purpose. They also wore armlets and leg ornaments of brass and iron wire, the iron wire especially being much sought after. They do not use skins for clothing, though they cure them and use them for sleeping-mats, and also for trading with the Reshiat and Wa’embe. The skins are cured by the women, who, after the skin is sufficiently sun-dried, fasten it by the four corners to a convenient bush, and scrape the hair from it with a broad chisel-shaped iron tool, afterwards softening it by rubbing it between the hands.

El Hakim bought several cornelian beads from the women, evidently of native manufacture. They were roughly hexahedral in shape, and were cleanly pierced, with no little skill, to admit of their being strung on a thread. We could not discover from whence they had obtained them. It is possible that they may have filtered through from Zeila or Berbera on the Somali coast, where they had been brought by Arab or Hindoo traders.

The Rendili women, unlike the Masai, are remarkably chaste, the morals of the tribe as a whole being apparently of a comparatively high standard. Polygamy is practised, but it is not very much en évidence.

A point which struck me very much was their fondness for children. For some reason, perhaps on account of the small-pox, the birth-rate by no means equalled the deaths, and children were consequently very scarce. What children they possessed they fairly worshipped. Everything was done for their comfort and pleasure that their adoring parents could devise. This love of children extended to the offspring of other tribes, and they were perfectly willing to adopt any child they could get hold of.

Both Lemoro and Lokomogo—two of the principal chiefs—asked us on several occasions to sell them two or three of the boys who acted as servants to our Swahilis, but we declined to do so, as it was, to our minds, too much like slave dealing. We gave some of the boys permission to stop with the Rendili if they felt so inclined, but only two of them tried it; and they came back a few days later, saying the life was too quiet for them.

Ismail Robli, we had good reason to believe, sold some boys to Lemoro, and we were afterwards the means of rescuing one little chap, who came into camp saying that Ismail had sold him to that chief, though he did not want to stop with the Rendili. We protected him during a somewhat stormy scene in our camp with old Lemoro, who said he had given Ismail two camels for the boy. When we taxed Ismail, he, of course, denied it, saying that the boy had deserted to the Rendili, and that the two camels were only a present from Lemoro. However, we kept the boy, who belonged to M’thara, and had left there with Ismail’s safari as a servant to one of his porters, and on our return to M’thara sent him to M’Dominuki with an account of the affair, and he was ultimately restored to his home. After this incident Ismail tried to do us what mischief he could by causing friction between ourselves and the Rendili, but was happily unsuccessful, though he nevertheless caused us some anxious moments.

The Rendili have no definite religion so far as I could ascertain. Mr. Chanler mentions a story current among them about a man and a woman who settled somewhere in the north of Samburuland a very long time ago, and from whom the Rendili are descended; very similar to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. They show traces of contact with Mohammedans by their use of the word “Allah” as an exclamation of astonishment, though seeming not to know its meaning.