134 EXCURSIONS FROM NJEMPS part ii 



of friendship nor my offers of strings of beads would tempt 

 them near us. We could easily have cut off their retreat to 

 their skin coracle, but forced friendship would have been useless, 

 and we let them get into their tub and paddle off. 



Our march back along the east shore was rendered un- 

 pleasant by the vast extent of swamp through which we had to 

 wade ; the route to Njemps twice followed by Teleki was now 

 so flooded that it was impassable. The deviation to the south 

 that this rendered necessary, and a delay caused by a hunt for 

 Philip, who had lost himself, to my great annoyance lost us a 

 day. We had to keep along an old lake terrace on the eastern 

 side of the Rift Valley, and wade a swamp that ran up 

 " Summuran Bay " into a fault valley into the hills ; we crossed 

 the lower slopes of the terraced ridges of Lolbogo, forded the 

 swift and muddy Mudoleto, and finally struck the path from 

 Maji Moto, by which we had originally reached Njemps. 



I was welcomed back most cordially by Kizizi, who said he 

 had been seriously alarmed as to my safety ; he had arrested 

 the porters, kept them inside the village, and seized their loads. 

 As they had not been able to get any food, they were now 

 starved into tameness and submission. Though Omari had 

 promised to send back a native, there was no news from him. 

 Sokoni, the chief of the guides at Njemps, had returned from 

 Kamasia the day before and came in to see me. I had 

 messages to him from Mr. Martin, and we had an interesting 

 chat. He remembered Mr. Thomson's visit very well, and had 

 acted as Teleki's guide in the march to Basso Narok ; he told 

 me several stories of the hardships of that expedition, during 

 which he had several times abandoned all hope of return. The 

 information he gave me about Elgeyo and Kamasia was most 

 disquieting, and some of his remarks increased my distrust of 

 the coast-traders, and regret that I had allowed Omari to go 

 off alone. I therefore resolved to follow him, and told my 

 " stalwarts " they could rest in Njemps, and ordered the rebels 

 to be ready to start next day for the hills. Wadi Hamis had 

 the impudence to protest against my going with only five men 

 against " such Waschenzi " as the people of Kamasia. As he 

 was speaking, there came back to me the memory of a scene 

 in a geyser basin in the Rockies, at the end of some hours of 

 waiting for an eruption which did not come off ; my guide had 



