ELEPHANT HUNTING 235 



rite of circumcision were stained a ghastly white, and their 

 bodies fantastically painted. The warriors wore bead neck- 

 laces and waist belts and armlets of brass and steel, and 

 spurred anklets of monkey skin. Some wore head-dresses 

 made out of a lion's mane or from the long black and white 

 fur of the Colobus monkey; others had plumes stuck in 

 their red-daubed hair. They chanted in unison a deep- 

 toned chorus, and danced ryhthmically in rings, while 

 the drums throbbed and the horns blared; and they 

 danced by us in column, springing and chanting. The 

 women shrilled applause, and danced in groups by 

 themselves. The Masai circled and swung in a panther- 

 like dance of their own, and the measure, and their own 

 fierce singing and calling, maddened them until two of their 

 number, their eyes staring, their faces working, went into 

 fits of berserker frenzy, and were disarmed at once to pre- 

 vent mischief. Some of the tribesmen held wilder dances 

 still in the evening, by the light of fires that blazed in a 

 grove where their thatched huts stood. 



The second day after reaching Neri the clouds lifted 

 and we dried our damp clothes and blankets. Through 

 the bright sunlight we saw in front of us the high rock 

 peaks of Kenia, and shining among them the fields of ever- 

 lasting snow which feed her glaciers; for beautiful, lofty 

 Kenia is one of the glacier-bearing mountains of the equator. 

 Here Kermit and Tarlton went northward on a safari of 

 their own, while Cuninghame, Heller, and I headed for 

 Kenia itself. For two days we travelled through a well- 

 peopled country. The fields of corn always called mealies 

 in Africa of beans, and sweet potatoes, with occasional 

 plantations of bananas, touched one another in almost un- 



