ACROSS THE MAU ESCARPMENT 69 



Karamojo war party pushed down from the north and 

 northwest to try their luck, or Turkana came from the 

 northeast to steal anything they could lay hands on. In 

 these never ceasing efforts to steal each others' goats and 

 cattle, a number of warriors of course lost their lives. But 

 the East African native is a born fighter, whether he carries 

 only a stick or goes armed with the great spear of the Massai, 

 the longer, beautifully balanced weapon of the Karamojo 

 and Elgao, or the quite as deadly bow and poisoned arrow 

 of the N'dorobo. 



This sort of thing seems to afford these fighting tribes 

 a pleasurable form of excitement, but, dangerous as it sounds, 

 it in no way jeopardizes, any longer, the white man's sefari. 

 If you come across the path of a band of raiders, as I did 

 twice, they will, in all probability, slip quietly by your camp 

 fire, in the night, and next day you are surprised to see the 

 unmistakable narrow winding trail, that only a long line 

 of bare-footed men can make, winding, snakelike, through 

 the heavy grass. 



I tested the climate of the plateau pretty thoroughly, 

 and always found it delightful. The nights are refresh- 

 ingly cool, though not nearly as cold as nights, spent on the 

 uplands, crossed to reach it. The sun during the day is 

 hot, but the glass never rose above 85 in the shade. 

 And where there is deep shade, as under a thick tree, it is 

 never too warm for comfort. There are scarcely any flies, 

 and very few mosquitoes or ticks. Twice we came across 

 deadly snakes, one a black and the other a vividly green 

 cobra. Each was about five feet or five feet six inches long. 

 There is also a very beautiful green tree snake, that is 

 extraordinarily quick in its movements, and another which, 

 to my ignorant eyes, differed in nothing from our own 

 common black snake. These last two are constrictors, 

 and, of course, harmless. The men are ever in mortal 

 terror of all and every sort of snake. When I once caught 



