CHAPTER V 

 JUJA FARM; HIPPO AND LEOPARD 



AT Juja Farm we were welcomed with the most gener- 

 ous hospitality by my fellow-countryman and his wife, Mr. 

 and Mrs. W. N. McMillan. Selous had been staying with 

 them, and one afternoon I had already ridden over from 

 Sir Alfred's ranch to take tea with them at their other house, 

 on the beautiful Mua hills. 



Juja Farm lies on the edge of the Athi Plains, and the 

 house stands near the junction of the Nairobi and Rewero 

 Rivers. The house, like almost all East African houses, 

 was of one story, a broad, vine-shaded veranda running 

 around it. There were numerous out-buildings of every 

 kind; there were flocks and herds, cornfields, a vegetable 

 garden, and, immediately in front of the house, a very 

 pretty flower garden, carefully tended by unsmiling Ki- 

 kuyu savages. All day long these odd creatures worked 

 at the grass and among the flower beds; according to the 

 custom of their tribe their ears were slit so as to enable 

 them to stretch the lobes to an almost unbelievable extent, 

 and in these apertures they wore fantastically carved na- 

 tive ornaments. One of them had been attracted by the 

 shining surface of an empty tobacco can, and he wore this 

 in one ear to match the curiously carved wooden drum he 

 carried in the other. Another, whose arms and legs were 

 massive with copper and iron bracelets, had been given a 

 blanket because he had no other garment; he got along 

 quite well with the blanket excepting when he had to use 

 the lawn mower, and then he would usually wrap the blan- 

 ket around his neck and handle the lawn mower with the 

 evident feeling that he had done all that the most exacting 

 conventionalism could require. 



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