CHAPTER II 



July 7. — Worked all the morning at N. T. & Co.'s 



store fitting saddles to donkeys — our safari kit was all 



made ready yesterday. At 12:45 the men set out; and 



at 2:25 we got off with the beasts. Started out over 



the hills past Government House, over a new piece of 



road on which some hundreds of Kikuyus were working 



strictly by hand, and so out to a rolling wooded green 



country of glades and openings, tiny streams, and 



speckled sunHght. Little forest paths led off in all 



directions. Natives were singing and chanting near 



and far. There were many birds. Toward evening 



we passed a long safari of native women, each bent 



forward under a load of firewood that weighed sixty to 



eighty pounds. Even the littlest little girls carried 



their share. They seemed cheerful, and were taking 



the really hard work as a tremendous joke. We passed 



them strung out singly or in groups, for upward of half 



an hour; then their road turned off from ours; and still 



they had not ceased. Camped after nine miles near the 



mountain of N'gong. Vanderweyer 's farm is near 



here ; and there are staying the guides he promised us to 



take us across the dry country to his trading homa on 



the Narossara River. M 'ganga went over to see them. 



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