230 THE LAND OF THE LION 



most interesting. We had an Elgoa native with us. Soon 

 as we stepped out of the forest path, into the dazzling sun- 

 shine, he mounted the rock and gave the tribal cry, a long 

 falsetto call. Some hidden Elgoa warrior on the lookout, 

 from some other vantage point which I could not see, took 

 it up; then another and still farther away another; and far 

 off you heard the cries echoing amid the craggy sides of the 

 great steep. Soon armed men came panting up. They 

 knew H. and welcomed him, spitting on their hands before 

 they shook ours, as their custom is if they wish to show 

 that they thoroughly approve of the stranger. The gray- 

 headed chief came in about half an hour from somewhere. 

 H. knew him well, he had been his guide before after 

 elephant. A well-knit man, capable and shrewd; but for 

 his colour he might very well have posed for a south-of-Ireland 

 peasant, a splendid hunter in years gone by; now I fear 

 that as he had some cattle, and shambas to grow whimby, 

 and sons to collect honey wherewith to compound their 

 much-loved and very strong beer, he does far more drinking 

 than hunting. 



Not one hut could we see, as we examined the valley's 

 slopes and level floor. These people hide their houses, 

 as do the N'dorobo. They have only one village proper, 

 some twenty miles to the south, and in the valley. The 

 Elgoa have defended themselves with great bravery and 

 complete success against tribes like the Nandi, far more 

 numerous than they, from which, by the way, they are 

 probably an offshoot. The valley beneath them, or rather 

 their part of it, they have not always been able to hold as 

 their own. But no one has driven them from the precipitous 

 slope, where their little dwellings and gardens are so well 

 hidden. The forest belt on their westward side has served 

 them well as a defence in times long past against that interest- 

 ing and almost forgotten people who held the plateau with 

 their stone kraals; and in later days against the raiding Nandi. 



