I02 ACROSS LANDS OF KIKUYU AND MASAI part ii 



out of sight of the first kraal, their love of mischief became too 

 much for them. They drove up some donkeys towards us ; 

 these brayed to ours, which tried to dash off to join the others. 

 One broke through our line, threw its load, and succeeded in 

 reaching the herd. The El-Moran tried to pillage the load, 

 but Omari and I reached it as soon as they did, and by striking 

 the butt end of our rifles on their naked feet, sent a few of them 

 limping away. As it was obvious that there was nothing like 

 bluff for impressing the Masai, I ordered the El-Moran to go 

 and catch the donkey. I said they were trying to steal it, and 

 that if they did not bring it back I would seize three other 

 donkeys and burn the kraal. They soon brought back our pack 

 animal, and after this behaved much better. They made, how- 

 ever, another attempt to seize a load while we were crossing a 

 stream. As we had to march in square, and were much annoyed 

 by the Masai, we only made four miles that day. We had to 

 pitch our tents amid some rocks about a mile from the north- 

 eastern corner of the lake. There was no thorn scrub with 

 which to make a zeriba, so we arranged the tents in a small 

 circle and filled up the interspaces with boulders and baggage. 



Late in the afternoon a powerful force of Masai in full war 

 costume marched up to camp and said they had been sent to 

 dance to us. I put some marks on the ground at a little 

 distance from the camp, and said they were not to come nearer 

 to us than these. I insisted on a Masai elder taking a seat on 

 a box before me, and saw that all the men were at their posts 

 with their rifles ready and the reserve ammunition boxes in a 

 convenient place. Then I gave permission for the dance to 

 begin. It was certainly extremely picturesque ; the men were 

 all armed with great shovel-headed spears, with heads varying 

 from 30 inches to 3 feet in length, and spikes a little longer ; 

 they carried thick oval shields 4 feet in height, which were 

 coloured in various patterns. They had rattles on their ankles 

 and their arms ; their fingers were protected by bright iron 

 knuckle-dusters ; their heads were adorned with aureoles of 

 feathers. At first they simply leapt into the air, throwing 

 their heads violently backwards and forwards, and making a 

 series of guttural grunts. Then they marked time with their 

 feet while they hurled their spears upward, giving them a twist 

 which made them flash in the sunlight. Meanwhile they 



