230 THE LAND: OF THE LION 
most interesting. We had an Elgoa native with us. Soon 
as we stepped out of the forest path, into the dazzling sun- 
shine, he mounted the rock and gave the tribal cry, a long 
falsetto call. Some hidden Elgoa warrior on the lookout, 
from some other vantage point which I could not see, took 
it up; then another and still farther away another; and far 
off you heard the cries echoing amid the craggy sides of the 
great steep. Soon armed men came panting up. They 
knew H. and welcomed him, spitting on their hands before 
they shook ours, as their custom is if they wish to show 
that they thoroughly approve of the stranger. The gray- 
headed chief came in about half an hour from somewhere. 
H. knew him well, he had been his guide before after 
elephant. A well-knit man, capable and shrewd; but for 
his colour he might very well have posed for a south-of-Ireland 
peasant, a splendid hunter in years gone by; now I fear 
that as he had some cattle, and shambas to grow whimby, 
and sons to collect honey wherewith to compound their 
much-loved and very strong beer, he does far more drinking 
than hunting. 
Not one hut could we see, as we examined the valley’s 
slopes and level floor. These people hide their houses, 
as do the N’dorobo. They have only one village proper, 
some twenty miles to the south, and in the valley. The 
Elgoa have defended themselves with great bravery and 
complete success against tribes like the Nandi, far more 
numerous than they, from which, by the way, they are 
probably an offshoot. The valley beneath them, or rather 
their part of it, they have not always been able to hold as 
their own. But no one has driven them from the precipitous 
slope, where their little dwellings and gardens are so well 
hidden. The forest belt on their westward side has served 
them well as a defence in times long past against that interest- 
ing and almost forgotten people who held the plateau with 
their stone kraals; and in later days against the raiding Nandi. 
