236 THE LAND OF THE LION 
‘asleep, and while I am asleep something speaks. It says, 
‘your cattle will die, you will find honey, the elephants are 
coming.’ I wake up, there is no one there who could 
have spoken to me, it must be God.” 
Then he turned to me and said, ‘‘We black men do not 
know, but you white men know everything; what do you 
think of God?” It was a sobering and most searching 
question. When we were leaving them, without any request 
made, the Morans and Laiock formed a column and broke 
into a dancing song and dance. The chief’s son, a fine youth 
of whom the old man was evidently proud, was marshall 
‘and leader. It was the finest, clearest song I have heard 
in Africa, and they danced well. The first song was the song 
‘to the women: 
“Ob women you need not fear, 
These are our friends, not enemies.” 
The second to the birds: 
“Ab birds, you will not feed on men, 
You may fly away. There is no war.’ 
Of the upper Cherangang N’dorobo I have already said 
something. Their customs of circumcision, the high regard 
for truth, the purity of the women, so far as strangers are con- 
‘cerned, are identical with those of their neighbours, the Elgoa. 
They have, however, little regard for the bodies of their 
dead; and unless a man has gained great power among 
them, they treat the corpse as all dead are treated, leaving 
it to beast and bird. 
Simple, truthful and most lovable peoples these untouched 
East Africans surely are. Where their customs are vicious, 
where they err grossly, they do so innocently; they but 
follow in the steps of those who have gone before. Perpetual 
war they have been for ages accustomed to, and in 
warfare they are ruthless, like all savage peoples, yet 
they are far from cruel, and, as they have told me 
again and again, except where a man seeks to purge himself 
’ 
