In \\'ildest Africa -9^ 



Weltering- place for the day is a long way oft'", and that 

 the borders of the lake seem to me to be fever-haunted. 



A queer kind of shepherd, in truth, for these wild 

 herds! I fear he would be very like a wolf, or rather — 

 to be zoologically and geographically precise — a leopard, 

 in sheep's clothing ! 



Again I was alone ; the disturber of my peace had not 

 frio;htened awav the animals. vSo, as I was re-'ainincr 

 strength rapidly. I decided to halt here for a few days. 

 This meant having to provide for oneself in the most 

 primitive way. for I was short of some of the most neces- 

 sary provisions and supplies. But in such conditions the 

 decision was not difticult to take. I shall not easily forget 

 the days I spent there. 



The plateau of the \olcanic lakes Naiwasha, Elmenteita 

 and Nakuro, standing nearly 6,000 feet above the sea, 

 presents to the spectator all the austere, stern, and strange 

 charm peculiar to the INIasai uplands. 



Sonie ten years have gone by since that exj)edition 

 of mine, and nil is now changed. Up to that time only 

 the natives had lived in these districts. I'^ew Europeans 

 had penetrated into these solitudes ; but now a track of 

 iron rails links the Indian Ocean with the Central African 

 lake basin, and the slirill whistle of the locomotive sounds 

 in the equatorial wilderness. Wherever the influence of 

 the railway extends, the Masai, whom 1 then learned to 

 know, ha\e disappeared. Reservations have been assigned 

 to them, like the Indians of North America. 



INIy former comi)anion on my travels, Alfred Kaiser, 

 describes, not without a certam feeling of sadness, how he 



40 



