CHAP. IX KIKUYU PRECAUTIONS i6i 



the necessary supply of food was brought in on the morrow. 

 Lomweri and lyutha, our two blood-brothers, were told to be 

 ready at dawn next day to guide us through the forests to 

 Ndoro. When the time came to start, the guides insisted on 

 delay, and as it was raining, and was bitterly cold, we did not 

 object. Later on, just as we were starting, a party of warriors, 

 in full war array, emerged from the woods and marched quickly 

 towards us. We prepared to receive them, and I led Lomweri 

 a few paces in front of our line ; I levelled my revolver at his 

 head, and signed to him to order the men to stop. He did so, 

 and they obeyed at once. Lomweri sat on the ground, and 

 looked calmly up at me, far less frightened than I should have 

 been had the muzzle of a powerful revolver been almost touch- 

 ing my ear. The leader of the warriors came up, and explained 

 that their women were collecting firewood in the forests, and 

 they were going out to protect them from Masai — a statement 

 received by the porters with a shout of incredulous laughter. 

 I remarked that it was only right for women to be protected 

 during the discharge of their domestic duties, and that we 

 should be delighted to help in this good work. Extra cartridges 

 accordingly were served out with the greatest possible ostenta- 

 tion, and the warriors filed off along a path through the forest. 

 We waited for some time, and then followed them, marching 

 with every precaution, and keeping a strict guard upon the 

 guides. Progress was therefore slow. At three o'clock the two 

 Kikuyu led us to a clearing, where they proposed we should 

 stop for the night. From the point of view of defence, this 

 place was a model of everything a camp ought not to be. So 

 we continued our march ; we crossed the deep gorge of the 

 Guaso Thegu, and camped at sunset, on the open plains at the 

 western foot of Mount Kenya. 



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