194 WAR : CAMPAIGNING IN EAST AFRICA 



cheerful fellows — and I took a great liking to them, 

 though really I prefer the Mnyamwezi. These 

 particular six Kavirandos I had for many months, 

 and the reason for their leaving me was that they 

 poisoned themselves in true negro style, by eating 

 some awful-looking red and yellow toadstools. 

 None of them actually died, but at one time it 

 looked as if they all would. I dosed them with 

 charcoal, for I had nothing else, and I had once 

 heard that it was a certain cure for a dog that 

 had taken a bait. Only a week previous to their 

 poisoning these Kavirandos were great black 

 shiny creatures ; after their recovery they were so 

 thin and wretched that I had to pack them off to 

 the nearest hospital — and I almost cried at losing 

 them. 



On this first trip I found all the Nambangi 

 district and the country north of it very dry, with 

 water extremely scarce, and the land absolutely 

 stripped of all food, whilst most of the natives had 

 come to us from the Chemera district or farther in- 

 land for protection and food. Our farthest outpost 

 was then at Namatiwa, where some eighty K.A.R.'s 

 were stationed under two white officers, very 

 youthful both, but good soldiers, experienced and 

 careful. Pleasant hosts they were to the old 

 bushman who stopped the night with them, and 

 fared sumptuously on their " Pie k la Namatiwa " 

 (bully beef, onions, and beans). 



During this trip we twice saw lions, but of the 

 enemy we saw nothing, though we heard them 



