FIRST EXPEDITION TO EAST AFRICA 79 



e Kikuyu porters, had all been engaged by 

 udd ; and, not unnaturally, looked upon me 

 an outsider. The Kikuyu also is a poor- 

 irited creature ; and, as Abdu, the Somali 

 headman who had charge of the porters on my 

 second expedition, contemptuously said, is only 

 fit to cultivate a field. In the vicinity of his 

 home, with people who know and understand 

 ll^km, he is tractable, and he is certainly a very 

 ^^ftood porter, and takes good care of his load. He 

 ^^Kas not, however, the pluck and enterprise of 

 ^^Kie Swahili, the Wakamba, the Kavirondo, or 

 l^phe Baganda, and is not a good man for a long 

 journey, as he soon becomes homesick and wishes 

 to return. I had, therefore, a good deal of trouble 

 with the porters. My ignorance of the language 

 ade it difficult for me to control them, and I 

 as not as firm with them as I should have been, 

 managed, however, to reach the Boma, and 

 id some shooting round the Pezi swamp beyond 

 e Boma; but the porters absolutely refused 

 ;o go any farther. 



Bird also was anxious to see me before leaving 

 he country, and I accordingly reluctantly retraced 

 my steps and marched to meet him at Nakuro 

 in the Rift valley to the west of Naivasha. I 

 heard a lion one night when I was in camp near 

 the Pezi swamp, but did not see one. 



At the Boma there was a sergeant from a British 

 infantry regiment, who was drilling the Swahili 

 Police. He informed me that not long before 

 he had successfully treated a Masai who had 

 come to the Boma with his arm badly mauled 

 by a lion. The Masai, according to his own 



