3 88 THE LAND OF THE LION 



blue-black African night. All now is jollity, chatter, and 

 song. Someone starts a dance, and soon, tribe not to be 

 outdone by tribe, they all join in. In swaying line or bend- 

 ing circles, scores of naked black figures dance to their 

 own chanting with immense energy and untiring enthusiasm. 



That these simple, lovable folk have been left behind, 

 in the great world race, is true; but, if so, it is no less true 

 that the divine sources of energy, so needful to all progress, 

 are still most surely ebullient within them. They can toil 

 without exhaustion and after the severest toil have plenty 

 of surplus energy left, for play. In thirteen months' daily 

 marching, among a band that generally numbers over 

 one hundred men, I only knew of one serious quarrel. 

 Who shall say that of such material good men cannot be 

 made ? Who shall deny to such a race a future ? 



By the shores of the great lake dwell the naked tribe 

 of the Kavorondo. They are supposed to be the laziest 

 and least enterprising of people. Yet the supercargo of 

 the smart lake steamer told me that his trained and organ- 

 ized band of Kavorondo longshoremen, could, if he called 

 on them, work for sixteen hours at a stretch, without food, 

 handling heavy steam freight on a sun-smitten wharf, in an 

 atmosphere as enervating as can be found in East Africa, 

 and that after this long stint of work was once done, they 

 would race up and down the wooden pier at Kasumo for 

 the mere fun of the thing! Then, be it remembered, these 

 men were well-fed, kindly and justly treated, and taught 

 to take a pride in their work. Vacancies in the band 

 could always be filled at once. 



The Kikuyus first met the white man only a few years 

 ago. They had held their own against the Massai with 

 exceeding difficulty, and owing chiefly to the fact that a 

 thick belt of primeval forest defended their rich agricultural 

 country. During their past but small opportunity was 

 afforded them to accumulate anything. The richer their 



