138 IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA chap. 



On the next day we arrived at Nyeri after a 

 comfortable march along a good road. I hoped to 

 find here some fifty donkeys which I had ordered 

 from Baringo to enable me to carry food supplies 

 onward through the nyika. The moment we 

 arrived, therefore, I inquired of the official in 

 charge, but he had heard nothing of them, so I at 

 once sent a Masai runner on to Rumuruti to get 

 news of them, and impressed on him the necessity 

 of doing the journey in record Masai time. I did 

 not wish to set out for Rumuruti myself, and possibly 

 miss the donkeys if they were coming through by a 

 different road. 



While awaiting the runner's return we made a 

 few trips in the neighbourhood, which is reputed to 

 be well stocked in bushbuck. We, however, saw 

 none, but we did not explore the country towards 

 Kenya very thoroughly. The whole district is 

 very beautiful, the glades, valleys, and streamlets 

 in the forest towards the great snow-capped peak 

 being particularly lovely. I was told by a man in 

 my safari who had been up on the mountain that 

 in the dense forest belt which encircles it there 

 lives a race of pygmies. On my expressing dis- 

 belief, the man assured me that it was quite true, 

 as he declared that he had seen them himself at 

 close quarters. However, as I knew the man to 

 be a great coward, I concluded that what he saw 



