308 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
the late Colonel Abbay, who was running the local hotel. He was 
a great sport and went right out of his way to help me and in all 
was instrumental in getting me three East African Bare-throated 
Francolins, one Vulturine Guinea-fowl, six Kenya Crested Guinea- 
fowl, three Kenya Crested Porcupines, and a number of Jackson’s 
Chameleons—all of which he presented. 
He had most of these on hand when IJ arrived, and I was par- 
ticularly struck with the porcupines, which all had black-and-red 
quills instead of the usual black-and-white. It is known that 
around Isiolo, in the dry country, all the porcupines have this 
peculiarity, and Colonel Abbay made a special effort to get some 
for me. The red in the quills undoubtedly comes about through 
the animals eating some local plant or root that is rich in a 
madder-like substance, for when these same porcupines shed their 
quills in captivity the new ones were of the normal black-and- 
white pattern. In the course of time the unshed red quills gradu- 
ally became lighter in color, and by the time I reached home the 
three porcupines looked like any normal specimens except for a 
very few remaining red quills. 
The Jackson’s Chameleons in the Meru district have particu- 
larly long horns and are most striking creatures. As soon as I got 
back to Nairobi I sent them off by air to the London Zoo and they 
were all on show in perfect condition two days later. 
At first Colonel Abbay had great difficulty in getting the Meru 
natives to bring in these creatures uninjured, and most of them 
arrived with broken jawbones. Nearly all tribes fear the chame- 
leon, but can usually be induced to bring them in uninjured on 
long sticks. However, the Meru have a definite hatred for the 
animal, due to a legend which blames the chameleon for their 
backwardness and troubles, and consequently they have an urge 
to mutilate every one they see. 
The legend runs that in the dim past a witch doctor told the 
Meru people about a lake situated on the slopes of Mount Kenya 
whose waters were supposed to have magical powers. (It is today 
a sacred lake.) He said that if the people bathed in these waters 
they would turn white, but the tribe was so large that there was 
not enough water for them all to bathe in. Some method had to 
be devised to decide who should be the fortunate people, and it 
