t>0 



26 ELEPHANT-HUNTING [ch. x 



up, though often barefooted. Straight, slender Somahs, 

 with clear-cut features, were in attendance on the 

 horses. Native negroes, of many different tribes, flocked 

 to the racecourse and its neighbourhood. Tiie Swahilis, 

 and those among the others who aspired toward civili- 

 zation, were well clad, the men in half European 

 costume, the women in flowing, parti-coloured robes. 

 But most of them were clad, or unclad, just as they' 

 always had been. AVakambas, with filed teeth, crouched 

 in circles on the ground. Kikuyus passed, the men each 

 with a blanket hung round the shoulders and girdles 

 of chains, and armlets and anklets of solid metal ; the 

 older women bent under burdens they carried on the 

 back, half of them, in addition, with babies slung some- 

 where round them, while now and then an unmarried 

 girl would have her face painted with ochre and ver- 

 milion. A small party of Masai warriors kept close 

 together, each clutching his sinning, long-bladed, war- 

 spear, their hair daubed red and twisted into strings. 

 A large band of Kavirondos, stark naked, with shield 

 and spear and head-dress of nodding plumes, held a 

 dance near the race-track. As for the races themselves, 

 they were carried on in the most sporting spirit, and 

 only the Australian poet Patterson could adequately 

 write of them. 



On August 4 1 returned to Lake Naivasha, stopphig 

 on the way at Kijabe to lay the corner-stone of the new 

 mission building. JMearns and Loring had stayed at 

 Naivasha, and had collected many birds and small 

 mammals. That night they took me out on a spring- 

 haas hunt. Thanks to Kermit, we had discovered that 

 the way to get this curious and purely nocturnal animal 

 was by " shining " it with a lantern at night, just as in 

 our own country deer, coons, owls, and other creatures 



