BRITISH EAST AFRICA 243 



set out for Embu. It was a two days' march, and 

 on the first evening we camped by a Wa Kikuyu 

 village. We gave a concert in the evening which 

 pleased our guests enormously. " Tobermory " was 

 easily first favourite but Harry Lauder was always 

 popular. They thought the Toreador song from 

 " Carmen " very amusing, and roared with laughter at 

 the top notes ! The next day opened with a nasty 

 drizzling rain which at intervals broke into heavy 

 showers. About noon we reached Embu. It is, like 

 all other stations, perched on a hill-top flanked by 

 a deep ravine, the raison d'etre of course being the 

 river at the bottom. It consists of a narrow line 

 of stone buildings fronted by flower beds and the 

 usual beehive cluster of huts laid out in orderly lines. 

 Mr. Phillips, of the K.A.R.'s, welcomed us as though 

 we were old friends, and that evening we dined with 

 him. The talk turned on game, as was inevitable. 

 He told us that lately he had found two dead harte- 

 beest which had been killed by lions on the Tana 

 plains. He followed the tracks of the latter animals 

 and found a young, partly grown lion-cub dead, with 

 its head smashed in. The shikari's explanation was 

 that one of the parents, the mother, had killed it 

 because "it wouldn't carry its share of the meat!" 

 Rather a Spartan mode of discipline ! 



The gramophone, of course, came on with the 

 dessert, and a native sergeant coming in with his 

 daily report was asked to stop. He stood stiffly at 

 attention whilst we put on the never-failing " Tober- 



