76 ON THE UGANDA ROAD part n 



that he had imitated a hyena's cry to throw us off our guard. 

 This was just possible, so we kept a sharp lookout till morning. 



Our next camp was beside a dry river-bed, at a place of 

 which the name has two different forms according to the two 

 different hypotheses as to its meaning. One etymology makes it 

 Mto wa Undei, meaning the country of hawks, while the other 

 derives the name from that of the son of a great chief of the 

 Wa-kamba, who was killed here by the Masai ; according to 

 this, the more probable theory, the name should be spelt Mtoto 

 wa Ande. 



We were here near the borders of the district of Kikumbuliu, 

 the first inhabited by the Wa-kamba. Early next day we came 

 to their plantations or shambas. We passed through these, 

 and camped beside some wells dug by the Suahili traders, in a 

 valley known as Masongaleni. As our food supply was again 

 nearly exhausted, Omari proposed that we should rest here for 

 a day to buy a fresh stock, instead of at Kibwezi, where it was 

 said to be very expensive. We therefore fired a couple of 

 shots as a signal that food was wanted, and as an invitation to 

 the natives to come in and open a market or " soko." Women 

 soon appeared with calabashes of flour and plaited baskets with 

 grain. After a long discussion the price was fixed at fifteen 

 strings of small pink beads for six kibaba, or about nine pounds, 

 of beans. As each woman brought only two or three kibaba, 

 the purchase of as much food as we wanted proceeded very 

 slowly. We could not get enough that day, so I left Omari to 

 continue the market, and went on with a few men to Kibwezi. 

 I was anxious to get a day's rest there in order to see the 

 experimental plantation of the East African Scottish Mission, 

 and have a chat with the missionaries. The station is situated 

 in some woods on an old lava sheet around the sources of the 

 river Kibwezi. 



The rain fell in torrents as we crossed a swamp and entered 

 the Mission grounds. But this had become too familiar to 

 diminish the pleasure which the sight of the fine timber trees of 

 this oasis gave me. Any one who has experienced the delight 

 of suddenly entering one of the chestnut groves of the Italian 

 slopes of the Alps, after weeks among the monotonous fir-woods 

 of the Swiss highlands, will understand the joy with which, 

 after weeks in miserable scrub, I entered the forest of Kibwezi. 



