INTERESTING LEGEND 



appointed that I was unable to visit it, but lack of 

 food rendered any delay out of the question, and I 

 was reluctantly compelled to press onward, I do not 

 know how much truth there was in their statement, 

 but I cannot see what object they could have had 

 in lying about it, and their story, which was told me 

 with much detail, sounded not only possible but quite 

 probable. Very curious in this connection is the 

 fable, commonly told and believed by native hunters 

 in Jubaland and the Lorian, that elephants, when they 

 know they are about to die, always trek to a large 

 swamp lying between the Uaso Nyiro and the Tana 

 River and end their days there. If this swamp really 

 exists, and is a favourite haunt of elephants, it may 

 have given rise to this interesting legend. 



In payment for their services I gave them some 

 beads, coffee and tobacco, in addition to a full " tobe " 

 of cotton cloth. They were delighted with their 

 present, and thanked me effusively, saying that I had 

 been a father to them, and that this, their first ac- 

 quaintance with the "ferinji" (white man), had been 

 indeed a pleasant experience, and in future, instead of 

 avoiding them, they would offer themselves as guides 

 to every " safari " that came that way ! 



In the afternoon I went on again, and at dusk 

 pitched camp at the foot of a heap of volcanic rock 

 not far from the river. There was an abundance of 

 grass and water, but little or no game, nor any fresh 

 spoor. 



On leaving this camp, the whole aspect of the 

 country changed with startling abruptness. The bush 

 ceased, and gave place to stony hills of volcanic 

 formation, covered with stunted thorn trees, while the 

 river narrowed and ran between high banks along 



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