TREKKING THROUGH THE THIRST 155 



water, so, by dawn, they were unyoked and driven down to 

 drink before the drift was attempted, the wagons being left 

 a mile or two back. The approaches to the drift were steep 

 and difficult, and, with two spans to each, the wagons 

 swayed and plunged, over the twisted bowlder-choked trails 

 down into the river-bed, crossed it, and, with lurching and 

 straining, men shouting and whips cracking, drew slowly 

 up the opposite bank. 



After a day's rest, we pushed on, in two days' easy travel- 

 ling, to the Guaso Nyero of the south. Our camps were 

 pleasant, by running streams of swift water; one was really 

 beautiful, in a grassy bend of a rapid little river, by huge 

 African yew-trees, with wooded cliffs in front. It was 

 cool, rainy weather, with overcast skies and misty morn- 

 ings, so that it seemed strangely unlike the tropics. The 

 country was alive with herds of Masai cattle, sheep, and 

 donkeys. The Masai, herdsmen by profession and war- 

 riors by preference, with their great spears and ox-hide 

 shields, were stalwart savages, and showed the mixture 

 of types common to this part of Africa, which is the edge 

 of an ethnic whirlpool. Some of them were of seemingly 

 pure negro type; others except in their black skin had 

 little negro about them, their features being as clear-cut 

 as those of ebony Nilotic Arabs. They were dignified, 

 but friendly and civil, shaking hands as soon as they came 

 up to us. 



On the Guaso Nyero was a settler from South Africa, 

 with his family; and we met another settler travelling with 

 a big flock of sheep which he had bought for trading pur- 

 poses. The latter, while journeying over our route with 

 cattle, a month before, had been attacked by lions one night. 



