XXXIII 

 OVER THE LIKIPIA ESCARPMENT 



OWING to an outbreak of bubonic plague, 

 and consequent quarantine, we had recruited 

 our men outside Nairobi and had sent them, in 

 charge of Cuninghame, to a little station up the 

 line. 



Billy and I saw to the loading of our equipment 

 on the train, and at two o'clock, in solitary state, 

 set forth. Our only attendants were Mohamet and 

 Memba Sasa, who had been fumigated and in- 

 oculated and generally Red-Crossed for the purpose. 



The little narrow-gauge train doubled and twisted 

 in its climb up the range overlooking Nairobi and 

 the Athi Plains. Fields of corn grew so tall as 

 partially to conceal villages of round, grass-thatched 

 huts with conical roofs; we looked down into deep 

 ravines where grew the broad-leaved bananas; the 

 steep hillsides had all been carefully cultivated. 

 Savages leaning on spears watched us puff heavily 

 by. Women, richly ornamented with copper wire or 

 beads, toiled along bent under loads carried by 



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