NAIOKOTUKU 



"They say they will eat nothing but sheep," he 

 reported. 



We remembered old Naiokotuku's promise of 

 sending us sheep, sneered cynically at the faith of 

 savages, and grimly set forth to see what we could 

 buy in the surrounding country. But we wronged 

 the old man. Less than a mile from camp we met 

 men driving in as presents not one, but two, sheep. 

 So we abandoned our shopping tour and returned to 

 camp. By the time one of the sheep had been made 

 into mutton it was too late to start. The Masai 

 showed symptoms of desiring to go back to the 

 village for the night. This did not please us. We 

 called them up, and began extravagantly to admire 

 their weapons, begging to examine them. Once we 

 had them in our hands we craftily discoursed as 

 follows : 



"These are beautiful weapons, the most beautiful 

 we have ever seen. Since you are going to spend 

 the night in our camp, and since we greatly fear 

 that some of our men might steal these beautiful 

 weapons, we will ourselves guard them for you 

 carefully from theft until morning." 



So saying, we deposited them inside the tent. 

 Then we knew we had our Masai safe. They would 

 never dream of leaving while the most cherished of 

 their possessions were in hostage. 



335 



