272 THE LAND OF THE LION 



is, a formidable weapon. With it they do kill lions. To 

 this fact the fine lion head-dresses worn by the warriors 

 are quite sufficient proof. But since the white man has 

 taken over the country, the Massai seem to prefer leaving 

 lion killing to him, and the coveted head-gear is generally 

 an old one, and not worn nearly as commonly as heretofore. 

 One of the government officers stationed among the Nandi 

 tells me that these natives still face the lion resolutely in 

 defence of their flocks; and not rarely skins are brought 

 in of spear-killed lions. Our Somali say that before the 

 British occupation of Somali land, they had in self-defence 

 to combine to kill a lion, when once he had tasted human 

 flesh. That as soon as such a beast appeared in a neighbour- 

 hood, all the men were commandeered by the chiefs and 

 that on horseback, armed with spears, they hunted it down, 

 be the cost what it might; otherwise the villages would 

 have been uninhabitable. They added, however, that 

 since the white man came lions are much fewer. All 

 over the Guasi Nyiro country lions can be found, but when 

 the white farmer, and more especially the white herdsman, 

 comes in they soon disappear, for he very properly poisons 

 them. It is so in every wild land. As soon as the little 

 mountain streams of our own Rockies were used for 

 irrigation, and the mountain slopes were chosen as pasturage 

 for small, well watched herds of valuable beef cattle, the 

 grizzly disappeared, and with him the' gray timber wolf. 

 By the same ignoble means the lion is doomed to pass. 



Along the banks of the Guasi Narok, especially on 

 the northern left hand bank, the going is stony. Thorny 

 scattered scrub comes down to the river's edge, yet we 

 found some delightful camping places where the grass 

 was green, and where wide-spreading thorn trees threw 

 a grateful shade. The river is full of fish and its water 

 deliciously clear and cool. To find such a stream is so 

 rare in Africa that no camp near it can be a poor one. 



