THE COUNTRY 363 
any idea of educating or improving him, and is naturally 
dreaded by the helpless being he so ruthlessly tramples on. 
Can a weak local government, such as this grudgingly 
supported by Downing Street, successfully mediate between 
two elements so opposed in tradition and interest? 
The policy that would seem to offer, “‘for the present 
distress,” the best prospects of success is one of closed dis- 
tricts. This plan has been adopted in the case of the 
Massai and there is some hope that it may be extended so 
as to shield the far more helpless, and fully as interesting 
peoples of Mount Elgao and Nzoia plateau. 
The lands reserved for the Massai are closed to every- 
one, sportsman or traveller, unless he has procured from 
the lieutenant-governor a permit to enter them; any others 
found within such boundaries, are subject to arrest. 
If Elgao, Maraquette, Cherangang, N’dorobo, Kam- 
asea, Suk and Karamojo countries were declared closed, 
these people would be saved from the Boer intrusion that 
now threatens them, and the Boers themselves would 
lose nothing by the limitation, for the land they are crowd- 
ing into, the finest perhaps in B. E. A., is a “‘no man’s 
land,” and has been for years merely the battle ground of 
the tribes. 
The country occupied by the tribes I name borders 
the rich plateau of the Nzoia; just now the plateau is 
covered with herds of game, more numerous, probably, 
than anywhere else in Africa. As soon as the land is 
settled, these herds will disappear, the remnants of them 
will seek grazing farther from Boer settlements, in the 
drier, less valuable regions bordering the plateau. If the 
Boer is allowed, he will surely follow them into such 
retreats and then most certainly we shall hear of native 
disturbances. 
Tribes like the Karamojo, Kamasea, and Suk, are 
still so far away and occupy so rough a country, that just 
