CHAP. VI A WILD EAST SHOW 103 



shouted a kind of song without words, to the accompaniment 

 of the music of their rattles. Next they marched and ran in 

 Indian file, twining in and out in a series of complex evolutions, 

 and finally arranging themselves so that the designs on their 

 leather shields were symmetrically disposed. Then they 

 executed the last dance performed before starting on a war 

 raid ; they followed this by a series of sham rushes at the 

 camp. As they came on roaring and shouting, their bodies 

 covered by their shields, and their long spears raised over their 

 heads, they presented a weird spectacle. We watched them 

 with breathless anxiety, expecting every moment that a sham 

 rush would become a real one. My revolver covered the head 

 of the Masai elder, while the men prepared to close the breeches 

 of their rifles, which were kept not quite closed, so that if a 

 trigger were pulled accidentally no harm would be done. After 

 this, the Masai gave us the dance with which they celebrate 

 victory ; I told them I wanted to see that, but that they need 

 not trouble to perform their dance after a defeat, as, if they did 

 not behave better than they had done the day before, they 

 would soon dance it in earnest. At the close of this " Wild 

 East Show " I distributed among the dancers a couple of 

 shillings' worth of beads, with which they went away apparently 

 contented. 



The Masai elder offered to stay with us in camp, as a sign 

 of friendship and to protect us from interference by any of 

 the El-Moran. I said I should be most happy to entertain 

 him for a night, but that our guns were our protectors, and to 

 them alone did we trust. I had a long chat with our guest in 

 the evening, and found out from him what I imagined to be 

 the explanation of the hostile attitude of the usually friendly 

 Masai of Naivasha. He said they were preparing for a great 

 war raid, but would not tell us against whom. They appeared 

 to think that the garrison of Fort Smith had heard of this, 

 and that I was being sent on to hasten the caravan returning 

 from Uganda, in order to stop the raid. Major Smith, how- 

 ever, who knows the Naivasha Masai very well, afterwards told 

 me that they are sometimes very bumptious and troublesome ; 

 that they planned an attack on the Railway Survey, and tried 

 at night to surprise the camp of Mr. Newman, the famous 

 rifle shot, when on his way back from Uganda. It is therefore 



