172 STALKS ABROAD 



and a delusion at present, and until some philanthro- 

 pist erects a switch-back railway above it, will 

 continue to be so. It runs for the most part up and 

 down steep hills, covered with shambas and banana 

 plantations, and intersected by streams of varying 

 size. At times we had great difficulty in getting the 

 ponies over these latter, as the rocky banks sloped 

 very steeply and the foothold in many places was 

 bad. From one of them I saw a big eel taken. It 

 must have measured quite four feet long and looked 

 rather like a conger. 



The natives, of whom we passed many, were a 

 source of great interest until familiarity somewhat 

 staled their variety. They were many of them fine- 

 looking men, stained with a mixture of red earth and 

 the sticky juice of the castor-oil plant. Nearly all 

 the able-bodied men carried arms. A sword in a red 

 sheath on the hip ; a bright spear with a long narrow 

 blade, and a knobkerrie was the usual equipment, 

 though a bow sometimes took the place of the spear. 

 These, though formidable-looking weapons, were very 

 soft. Once, when after a wounded hartebeest, being 

 somewhat short of cartridges, I told a Kikuyu guide, 

 who was with me, to stab the animal with his spear. 

 He threw it with all his strength at a few paces 

 distant, and drove the weapon a couple of hand- 

 breadths into the beast's shoulder. By the time he 

 had finished extricating it the weapon was crumpled 

 up like a piece of cardboard. 



Many of the Wa Kikuyu have a loop on the sword- 



