272 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



Goiivimali the gun-bearers, Simba the sais, and Kiboko 

 the skinner, looked down on their wild and totally 

 uncivilized brethren. They would not associate with 

 the " shenzis," as they called them — that is, savages or 

 bush people. But the " shenzis " always amused and 

 interested me, and this was especially true on the after- 

 noon in question. Soon after we had started campwards 

 with the skin and meat of the oryx, we encountered a 

 succession of thunderstorms. The rain came down in 

 a deluge, so that the water stood ankle-deep on the 

 flats, the lightning flashed continuously on every side, 

 and the terriflc peals of thunder made one continuous 

 roll. At flrst it maddened my horse ; but the un- 

 interrupted blaze and roar, just because uninterrupted, 

 ended by making him feel that there was nothing to 

 be done, and he plodded stolidly forward through the 

 driving storm. My regular attendants accepted it with 

 an entire philosophy, which was finally copied by the 

 Kikuyus, who at first felt frightened. One of them 

 had an old umbrella which he shared with a crony. 

 He himself was carrying the marabou stork ; his crony 

 had long strips of raw oryx meat wound in a swollen 

 girdle about his waist ; neither had a stitch on save the 

 blankets which were wrapped round their throats, and 

 they clasped each other in a tight embrace as they 

 walked along under the battered old umbrella. 



In this desolate and lonely land the majesty of the 

 storms impressed on the beholder a sense of awe and 

 solemn exaltation. Tossing their crests, and riven by 

 lightning, they gathered in their wrath from every 

 quarter of the heavens, and darkness was before and 

 under them ; then, in the lull of a moment, they might 

 break apart, while the sun turned the rain to silver, and 

 the rainbows were set in the sky ; but always they 



