SPEAR AND SHIELD 167 



We were now in the high country, and when we 

 started at dawn next day, a cold mist was falling. 

 We drove through this for many miles, and I shivered all 

 the way in spite of my heavy sheepskin coat. As we 

 were in a strange district and I was not exactly sure of 

 the directions, I was much reheved when we encoun- 

 tered a signpost. I was so stiff with the cold that I 

 could hardly straighten up, but after swinging my arms 

 for a few moments to start my blood circulating, I 

 strolled over to find that tliis post marked the equator I 

 This information failed to warm me up, however, so I 

 hurried on, and after travehng nearly one hundred 

 miles over a shppery landscape, pulled into Kapsabet 

 just before noontime. 



The District Commissioner and his lovely French 

 wife invited me to a most enjoyable lunch, after which 

 I selected fifteen Nandi spearmen from the several 

 hundred whom the D. C. had collected near the Council 

 House. I regretted that I could not take more of 

 these men along, but, unfortunately, we had no way of 

 transporting them. 



After loading the warriors and their equipment on 

 board, we started back, arriving the same night at 

 Eldama Ravine. We had driven one hundred sixty- 

 eight miles that day over mountains and veldt, through 

 rain and mist, besides bumping over the frozen equator 

 several times. 



I was struck by the fact that at no time during this 

 journey had I encountered game herds; nothing 

 but flocks of storks and golden-crested cranes and 

 a few ducks and geese. The country was >^'ild enough, 

 but the cold of the high altitude evidently fails to meet 

 the requirements of many species, although I under- 



10 



