THE SOUTHERN GUASO NYERO 



mimosas. Here, as everywhere in this country until 

 we had passed the barrier of the Narossara moun- 

 tains, the common houseflies were a plague. They 

 follow the Masai cattle. I can give you no better 

 idea of their numbers than to tell you two isolated 

 facts; I killed twenty-one at one blow; and in the 

 morning before sunrise the apex of our tent held a 

 solid black mass of the creatures running the length 

 of the ridge pole, and from half an inch to two 

 inches deep! Every pack was black with them on 

 the march; and the wagon carried its millions. 

 When the shadow of a branch would cross that 

 slowly lumbering vehicle, the swarm would rise and 

 bumble around distractedly for a moment before 

 settling down again. They fairly made a nimbus 

 of darkness. 



After we had made camp we saw a number of 

 Masai warriors hovering about the opposite bank, 

 but they did not venture across. Some of their 

 women did, however, and came cheerfully into camp. 

 These most interesting people are worth more than 

 a casual word, so I shall reserve my observations on 

 them until a later chapter. One of our porters, a 

 big Baganda named Sabakaki, was suffering severely 

 from pains in the chest that subsequently developed 

 into pleurisy. From the Masai women we tried to 

 buy some of the milk they carried in gourds. At 



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