-* By the Njiri Lakes 



encrusted and glittering in its whiteness, surrounded 

 by the sedgy lakes and lagoons, leaving behind me 

 everything I could do without, especially the asses and 

 cattle, which would have been fly-bitten to death. Wood 

 for burning and fresh water had to be fetched by day. 

 The ground was only covered here and there by scanty 

 grass growing in plots, broken by patches of quite bare 

 soil. The sand was blown into dune-like hills by the 

 wind, and small isolated ponds, quite without vegetation, 

 lay scattered all round the camp. 



From the reeds of the regular marshes upon the brink 

 of which the camp-tents were pitched, clouds of flies 

 swarmed every night in search of their prey. Hundreds of 

 them were to be found in the tent itself, and were not easy 

 to scare away. These flies, and the ibises enlivening 

 the neighbouring air with their soft call, are unfailing 

 accessories to this lonely life upon the marshes. 



Photographic work, here particularly troublesome, 

 begins in the evening and entails the wearing of clothes 

 more suited to the Arctic regions. One's body thus saved 

 from the stings of the bloodthirsty insects, one has to 

 protect one's face and hands as best one may. Even so, 

 one must be prepared to be stung dozens of times in the 

 course of an evening. 



My blacks, although stretched out at their ease in the 

 smoke of the smouldering camp-fire, were not able to close 

 an eye during the night. During the day they made up 

 for this by sleeping in the blazing sunshine upon some 

 bare sandy spot. 



In such circumstances carpe diem is a good motto. 



93 



