THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 77 



in friendly fashion. Then we crawled out and con- 

 tinued our tour. 



Some of the wealthier houses had little bomas about 

 them. All had pear-shaped jet-black masses of some 

 substance that looked like asphalt drying in the sun; 

 these we ascertained to be manufactured tobacco. Met 

 and grinned at many gaudily painted warriors and 

 old men. Coveys of naked children scrambled like 

 goats up the mountainside ahead of us, and perched 

 on crags to gaze down at us. Everybody was most 

 friendly. 



Finally we inquired for the chief and were led down 

 to a naked old fellow sitting on a piece of skin. He ^as 

 the most ancient piece of humanity I have ever beheld, 

 a mere skeleton, his joints twice the size of his limbs, 

 his skin a wrinkled parchment, his eyes bleared. We 

 stood and stared at him, but he never looked up. 



"Nothing to do here," said Cuninghame, but had 

 Sanguiki address him in Masai. 



The skeleton rattled and a slow, deliberate, power- 

 ful voice issued from it. 



"I am chief not only of this village," Sanguiki 

 translated, "but of another village far away there, and 

 another great village, nearer, there. I am a great 

 chief." 



By this time three younger old men, evidently prime 

 ministers, came up, accompanied by a half-dozen war- 

 riors. One had a delightfully quizzical humorous 



