THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 277 



and women work in the fields at this the rush season, 

 though generally the woman does the labour. A banana 

 leaf skirt is the sign of husbandry, and is only donned 

 when farming is on. There is a good deal of system in 

 the way old bean stalks, etc., are gathered in rows and 

 finally disposed of by burning. In addition to the bean 

 fields and grain fields are many large banana groves. 



At the bridge we found a native spear market, and a 

 native general market. The latter consists in bringing 

 what you have to sell or barter and displaying it under 

 a suitable tree. Here we procured a guide. The net- 

 work of hills from here to the slopes proper of Kenia is 

 so complicated, the cafions between them so deep, and 

 the cultivation so shifting that even Kongoni, who 

 had been up here several times, would not undertake to 

 find the way. We marched until about noon, the foot- 

 hills getting gradually higher; then camped in an old 

 bean field. Rained heavily in the afternoon ; but at 5 130 

 Kenia broke through the clouds, glittering like an opal- 

 escent jewel of a mountain far in the depths of an 

 African evening sky. Feeling seedy. 



Four hours fifty minutes; 12 miles; morning, 64; noon, 

 94; night, 66. 



October 31. — We now began to thread our way along 

 high rounded ridges between which were tremendous 

 canons and dashing streams of water. The huts clung 

 to the side hills, or were perched atop the divides. A 

 high growth of bracken or blackberry^ vines clothed all 



