AN OUT-PATIENT 195 



men who were suffering from inflamed eyes. But I could not 

 wait. 



We marched all day along the ridge that formed the water- 

 parting between the rivers that drain the southern slopes of 

 Kenya, and those to the west that form the main source of 

 the Tana. The streams to our left flowed into the Ilyaini, 

 and those to the west into the Thegana. Our course was in 

 the main to the south-south-east. Though the trail ran up as 

 well as down, we descended 400 feet during the day. We left 

 the hill of Tuntum about three or four miles to the west. The 

 leader of the Kikuyu opposition, who lived there, looked very 

 much relieved when he saw we did not take the path that 

 led to it. He drank a deep draught of " pombe," rolled off in a 

 state of drunken jollity, and troubled us no more. 



We camped on a piece of open heath country in Kithunguli, 

 at the height of 5440 feet. At the village close by, the people 

 were all more or less drunk. Some natives came in for 

 medicine, amongst them a man ill with smallpox. The 

 moment my men saw him they fled, shouting, " Ndui, ndui " 

 (Smallpox). I seized the man by the neck and ran him out 

 of camp. With the aid of a porter named Stahabu, who knew 

 some Kikuyu, and was so much pockmarked that he was also 

 safe, I explained the difference between in-patients and out- 

 patients. The native was told that he was one of the latter, and 

 that if he tried to return to camp he would be shot ; if he kept 

 away, I promised to come out and see him again next morning 

 before we started. The rest of the afternoon was occupied in 

 a similar series of evictions. The Kikuyu were all intoxicated, 

 and more than usually quarrelsome. The warriors came rolling 

 into camp, shouting unintelligible cries, and flourishing their 

 " simes," heavy double-edged, somewhat lance-shaped, swords. 

 If one of the men had laid hands on them, he would probably 

 have been cut down at once. Fortunately they were so much 

 in awe of me that I easily ejected them and ran them out of 

 camp. A noisy crowd of women and children were got rid off 

 with little effort. I went towards them to speak to them, and 

 as I did so took off my pith helmet. Apparently they thought 

 I was taking off part of my head, for the whole crowd fled 

 with a shriek of terror. The natives made several of the usual 

 attempts to snatch goods and bolt with them, but the people 



