242 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



goats and small boys to fill in, although there is plenty 

 of open country all about, and water is always distant. 



Our guides knew no Swahili, so we followed them 

 blindly. They took us by all sorts of winding and 

 devious paths, native fashion, and finally set us down, 

 about noon, among some superheated rocks. After an 

 interval a girl appeared with a calabash of water and 

 about a bushel of peanuts, on both of which our men 

 fell eagerly. She motioned us to follow, and went on, 

 her wire "neck ruff" bobbing at every step.* Our 

 boys shouted loudly with delight over having a "M- 

 angozi monumuki/' a "lady guide." We followed her 

 for an hour through some very hot places, down and 

 out of canons and ravines in the skirts of the hills. 

 Then she stopped us in a nice little rock furnace and 

 disappeared. 



We waited. To us came a finely built, bright-looking, 

 middle-aged man, with a deep bass voice, who spoke 

 Swahili. He informed us that he was a widower, lived 

 alone with his four children, and knew where there 

 were buffalo. 



Did he know where there was water and shade for 

 camp? 



Led us a mile into the bottom of a caiion and we 

 settled gratefully into a good old-fashioned high forest, 

 with looping vines as big as a man's leg, and thick 



* These curious wire affairs are coiled like the mainspring of a watch and 

 stand out eight to twelve inches. 



