loo ACROSS LANDS OF KIKUYU AND MASAI part ii 



energies to strengthening the camp, cutting down any thorn 

 bushes that would have afforded shelter to the enemy, and add- 

 ing them to our thorn zeriba. Omari then came into my tent 

 to discuss matters. He said the Masai were certainly present in 

 great force, and for some reason or other were determined not 

 to allow us to proceed. The interpreter Ramathan said he 

 had passed Naivasha several times before, and had never seen 

 so many kraals, such great herds of cattle, nor experienced 

 such a hostile reception. With his usual cowardice he begged 

 me to return. Omari was also very ill at ease, but with his 

 usual pluck said that whatever I decided on should be done. 

 Everybody on the coast had told me that if we met Masai 

 parties on the war-path, we should have to fight them ; but that, 

 except on Laikipia, the people of the villages would be friendly. 

 The porters only the day before had said that we should find 

 the Masai here most amiable ; they would come up to camp, 

 we should shake hands and spit on one another ; they would 

 sell us food and trinkets, and we should go in and out of their 

 kraals like brothers. We were therefore all of us much dis- 

 concerted by our reception. The Masai never offered to shake 

 hands, much less did they spit on us ; and until these two expres- 

 sions of peace and goodwill had been made, we knew we could 

 not trust the people. We could not quite understand it, so we 

 made every preparation to repel attack, and stood to arms all 

 night. It poured with rain, and this added to the discomfort 

 of our situation. We kept the fires burning, and piles of wet 

 grass beside them, so as to smother them in case of an attack. 



Rain was still falling heavily at dawn, and it was useless to 

 think of continuing our march until it left off. To encourage 

 the men, we served out an extra ration of food and let them 

 prepare breakfast. Some Masai children were sent out to 

 watch us, but we saw no one else till about eight o'clock. The 

 elders and the El-Moran then visited us, and once again the 

 game of brag and bluster was resumed. They repeated their 

 taunts as to the weakness of our numbers, and boasted that 

 they had massacred caravans of twenty times our strength. 

 They said they had done this with much smaller forces than 

 they could now bring into the field, for they claimed to have 

 9000 warriors on the shores of Naivasha. Any hesitation or 

 offer of hongo would have been mistaken for weakness, and 



