202 AFRICA SPEAKS 



During my convalescent period at Kapsabet we 

 put in a few interesting days with the Nandi totos, or 

 boys. One time we took the Hon cub out and turned 

 him loose, offering a prize to the fu-st boy who caught 

 him. He was full of pep, and there was certainly a 

 mad scramble and plenty of excitement before he was 

 overtaken and captured. With these totos as com- 

 panions, I often strolled into the deep forest, where I 

 seated myself on a recumbent tree trunk, and gather- 

 ing my little friends about, would swap stories. I 

 tried to explain to them how far away my village was, 

 tried to describe the mighty expanse of ocean, the big 

 ships, and the tall buildings, but am afraid they doubted 

 my veracity. 



In return for these fantastic tales they related to 

 me some of the Nandi folklore, repeating the stories 

 told by their mothers and by the elders of the village. 

 There was the narrative of the origin of the leopard 

 and the hyena: 



*'A Hon once had two cubs, who, when out one day, 

 came upon some warriors in war paint. ' Let us paint 

 ourselves Hke those men,' said one cub. So they pro- 

 cured some paint and one cub painted black spots on 

 the other cub. When this was done the other cub 

 started to paint his companion, but just then they 

 heard a cry of, 'A goat has been lost,' and thereupon 

 the spotted cub threw the paint pot over his friend, 

 and ran to see if he could find the goat. The spotted 

 cub became the leopard and the other one, whose coat 

 had only been streaked with paint, became the hyena." 



They told me that cattle were once like human 

 beings, with feet Hke men, that they lived with men 

 and could talk like men. Dogs also at one time were 



