20 THE EASTERN PROVINCE 



not a laugh, as people make out, but a long-drawn falsetto wail ending in 

 a whoop. It must be expressed by this notation : — 



U - u - u ■ 



It sounds exactly wluit one might imagine to be the mocking cry of a 

 ghoul; and but for the fact that we now find that the ghoul myth has 

 a very solid human origin (since there are depraved peo2)le all over Africa 

 at the present dav who have a mania for eating cori)se-flesh,* and this 

 trait m.ay also have cropped out in pre-]Muhamniadan days in Arabia and 

 Persia), one might very well imagine that the idea of the ghoul arose from 

 the hysena, as that of the har})y probably did from the vulture. 



The hills of the termites, or " white ants," are not only familiar in their 

 general outline to all who ha\e visited tropical Africa, but even to the 

 untravelled reader of books describing African ex})loration. Therefore ev^n 

 the uninitiated would be struck by the extraordinary height and formation 

 of the termite hills round about the Baringo District. This peculiar 

 shape of ant-hill commences as soon as one has descended from the upper 

 part of the Kift Valley to the level of J^ake Earingo, and I believe 

 continues northwards towards Abyssinia. 



I^ake Baringo has a fine clump of mountains — the Karosi Hills — at its 

 north end, otherwise it is not a very ^picturesque lake. On the eastern 

 banks are hills and mountains which rise in terraces to the edge of the 

 Laikipia Escarpment. North of Baringo the country becomes increasingly 

 arid, though it rather inclines to rise in altitude for some distance along 

 the Rift Valley. There is, however, quite a sudden drop in level towards 

 Lake Sugota, which lies in a hole, and is half mud-marsh and half lake ; t 

 and also in the valley of the River Kerio, which for a long distance up 

 its course lies not very high above the level of Lake Rudolf (1,250 feet). 

 All tlie country bordering Lake Rudolf is poor in vegetation, while in 

 parts there are absolute sandy deserts or plains of loose gravel without 

 vegetation. Except in the vicinity of permanent watercourses, the scrub 

 is mainly composed of that intolerable " wait-a-bit " thorn, an abominable 

 species of acacia which in very dry regions remains for years without 

 leaves until saluted by the rain. tSalt lagoons (covered with waterfowl), 

 salt lakelets, and the dried-up beds of pools, white witli natron salt, 



* See Chapter XVI. 



t Sometimes, indeed, the natives report that Lake Sugota is quite dry. It Avas, 

 however, a large sheet of water when seen by officers on my staff in the early spring 

 of 1901. There is said to he an active volcano near the north end of Sugota. 



