TRACKERS OF THE CHERINGANI HILLS 



307 



hills and the lower country under the guidance of capable and trustworthy 

 natives. This plan as a rule worked well, but often the camp was denuded 

 of all porters for days together, in order to keep up the ration supply. 



How the Cheringani have preserved their tribal life (they only number 

 a few hundreds) is a mystery. Perhaps their preservation is chiefly owing 

 to two things: their poverty and their poison. They are not, or have not 

 been, owners of herds, and not to own herds in Africa is at least to avoid 



Bull buffalo head. The expedition had been given government permission to shoot 

 three buffalo for a group in the Museum 



having to pay heavy insurance risks. Four-fifths of the fighting done be- 

 tween tribe and tribe has been about cattle. Until the English came, the 

 very existence of the cattle-owning people had been altogether dependent 

 on its organization for war as among the Masai, or on its possession of a 

 country in which the herds could be hidden or defended from the powerful 

 cattle-raider. The Masai for instance, the great cattle-owning tribe, have for 

 the first article of the tribal creed, " In the beginning God gave all cattle to 



