84 ON THE UGANDA ROAD part ii 



therefore going back at once. I promised, however, that if 

 they brought their present down to camp, they should be 

 suitably rewarded. Of course it never came. The idea was 

 simply to delay our return till dark, when we should have 

 been at their mercy. 



As we had ascended by the south-east ridge, the return 

 was made down the south face. We rejoined the porters 

 and marched back to camp. On the way I let the porters 

 help themselves to some sugar-cane, as a protest against the 

 behaviour of the natives. The men grumbled at not being 

 allowed to loot a village, for they said sugar-cane was " water 

 and not food." Had I then known the whole story of the past 

 treatment of European caravans by these Wa-kilungu, I 

 might not have been contented with the mere seizure of a few 

 sugar-canes. I only knew that the people here had quarrelled 

 with a caravan, and been severely chastised in consequence by 

 Mr. Ainsworth and Captain Nelson. I therefore thought that 

 the natives were indulging in a not unnatural fit of the sulks, 

 and hoped, by leaving them alone, to help them to a happier frame 

 of mind. So we fasted once again, and next day, with belts 

 drawn one hole tighter, marched on to a more friendly clan. 



We obtained abundance of food at Zuni, where the natives 

 told us the people of Kilungu were not Wa-kamba. Mr. 

 Ainsworth subsequently informed me that they were reported 

 to be Kikuyu who had been driven from their own country 

 and had settled at Kilungu. They now speak a Kikamba 

 patois, but their features are far more of the Kikuyu than of 

 the Kikamba type. 



At this camp an incident occurred which very literally 

 clouded my prestige among the men. It was their Christ- 

 mas Day, and they were all eager to get the first glimpse of 

 the new moon. An eclipse of the sun was due the same day, 

 as predicted by the Greenwich Almanac. On the west coast 

 it was a total eclipse, but in this region it was only partial, as 

 the sun set half an hour after the moon's shadow began to 

 creep across the solar disc. I had said nothing about it, as 

 the weather was so bad that I expected we should not be able 

 to see it. The afternoon of the eclipse, however, was so bright 

 and cloudless that I was tempted to prophesy. So when the 

 men told me about their new moon, I said a piece of the sun 



