216 THE LAND OF THE LION 



I refer to the Katosh, because, though I had no time to visit 

 them, I came very near to being spectator of a pretty little 

 native cattle raising affair between them and a large Elgao 

 war party. 



As H. and I made our way northward toward Turquell, 

 looking for elephant, we crossed the quite fresh trail of a 

 large war party. There was no mistaking that narrow 

 beaten path which the foot of men moving in a long single 

 line leaves on the veldt. Who were they ? Where were 

 they going ? Had I come across such a trail four months 

 before, it would have meant nothing to me. I might hunt 

 the country over from Elgon to Cherangang, and Sergoit to 

 the Turquell, and know really nothing at all about the 

 people that thickly inhabited all the mountain lands that, 

 from west, north, and east, looked down upon it. Now I 

 had at last an introduction to them all. The land that had 

 been so silent before, now had a voice. And evening after 

 evening as we sat by the fragrant thornwood fire, I heard in 

 part at least, something of its story. 



My teachers were the Cherangang N'dorobo, the most 

 interesting natives I met during my year's sojourn in the 

 country, and men, too, who had never camped and hunted 

 with any white man till my companion Mr. A. C. Hoey, with 

 wonderful patience and tact, had succeeded in winning their 

 complete confidence. Henceforth for me, if the days were 

 interesting, the evenings round the camp fire were more 

 interesting still, as I hear the stories of their own little tribe, 

 or traditions somewhat loosely held among them of other 

 tribes far larger and more powerful, that long since had been 

 broken up or swept away. 



There are, be it remembered, N'dorobo and N'dorobo. 

 Our friends and guides of to-day are, in the language of the 

 country, Pukka N'dorobo, a tribe guarding jealously its 

 own language and customs and territory, living its own dis- 

 tinctive life. There are Nandi, Kikuyu, and Massai 



