306 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



Near this camp were the remains of the boma or 

 home camp of Arthur Neiiman, once the most famous 

 elephant-hunter between the Tana and Lake Rudolf. 

 Neuman, whose native name was Nyama Yango, was a 

 strange moody man, who died by his own hand. He 

 was a mighty hunter, of bold and ad\ enture-ioving 

 temper. With whites he was unsocial, living in this 

 far-off region exactly like a native, and all alone among 

 the natives, living in some respects too much like a 

 native. But, from the native standpoint, and without 

 making any effort to turn the natives into anything 

 except what they were, he did them good, and left a 

 deep impression on their minds. They talked to us 

 often about him in many different places ; tliey would 

 not believe that he was dead, and when assured it M^as 

 so, they showed real grief At Meru Boma. when we 

 saw the Meru tribesmen dance, one of the songs they | 

 sang was : " Since Nyama Yango came, our sheep graze 

 untouched by the Samburu ;" and, rather curiously, the 

 Samburu sing a similar song, reciting how he saved 

 them from the fear of having their herds raided by the 

 nomads farther north. 



After leaving this camp we journeyed up the Guaso 

 Nyero for several days. The current was rapid and 

 muddy, and there were beds of reeds and of the tall, 

 graceful papyrus. The coimtry round about was a mass 

 of stony, broken hills, and the river wound down among 

 these, occasionally cutting its way through deep gorges 

 and its course being continually broken by rapids. 

 Whenever on our hunts we had to cross it, we shouted 

 and splashed, and even fired shots, to scare the croco- 

 diles. I shot one on a sandbar in the river. The man 

 the rhino lia^ wounded was carried along on a litter 

 with the safari. 



