Twice ToldA. C. Hollis, The Nandi (1909), p. 41: the devil called Chemosit
- Language
- English
- Read from
- p. 41, religious beliefs
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
The earliest text we found in which the name Chemosit appears. Alfred Claud Hollis, a colonial official who had written The Masai (1905), gathered the Nandi material from Nandi men he names in his preface, two of them political prisoners; the preface is dated October 1908. The book was published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1909, with an introduction by Sir Charles Eliot.
There is also a devil called Chemosit, who is supposed to live on the earth and to prowl round searching to devour people, especially children. He is said to be half man, half bird, to have only one leg but nine buttocks, and his mouth, which is red, is supposed to shine at night like a lamp. He propels himself by means of a stick which resembles a spear and which he uses as a crutch. His method of catching children is to sing a song at night-time near where they are living, and the children seeing the light and hearing the music think that a dance is being held, and are lured on to their destruction.
Notes
- Transcribed from the page image of the Internet Archive scan. The paragraph follows the story of a man who visited the land of the spirits and precedes a paragraph on the Nandi’s prayers. “Chemosit” is in italics in the print.
- Hollis does not call Chemosit an animal and links it to no animal. Sir Charles Eliot’s introduction (p. xx) calls it “a demon” and “a fantastically shaped ogre rather than a spirit”.
- Hollis names three Nandi informants in the preface, Ar-ap-Sirtoi, Ar-ap-Kuna and Ar-ap-Chepsiet, and credits Chepsiet for most of the customs and the vocabulary. He does not say which informant gave this passage.
- Luck (Journal no. 26, August 1926) quotes this passage from Hollis in full. Orchardson (Journal no. 28, January 1927) says the crutch “is quite unknown” among the Kipsigis he asked.