128 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



dinner, and we went out, between the courses, to find a hyena 

 dead in front of the gun, it having acted perfectly. Another 

 shot itself before I went to sleep. Before morning it went off 

 a third time, but without result, as the bait had got loose. I 

 have spent many much less contented Christmases. We gave 

 our men a young bull, all to themselves, to celebrate the 

 festival." 



From here we moved farther round the base of the 

 mountain towards the south-east, and ascended, before camp- 

 ing, to a height of perhaps 8000 or 9000 feet. Our camp 

 here was above all the settlements and slightly below the 

 untouched forest, and commanded an extensive view over the 

 country below. Between Jambeni and Kenia is a broad valley, 

 fertile and abundantly watered. I saw a good deal at one 

 time and another of this part, as well as that about the foot 

 of Kenia on its eastern and north-eastern sides. The lower 

 slopes were probably all forest once, but much has been cleared, 

 and a large proportion of the land is cultivated by the natives, 

 who are numerous here, the tribes being those of Mnyithu and 

 Katheri. All these people are akin to those of Kikuyu. But 

 there is also a clan of Wakwavi (a branch of the Masai), living 

 alongside of Katheri, and a community of Ndorobos, too ; thus 

 three distinct races with different customs live side by side. 

 The people of Katheri cultivate, and also own some stock ; the 

 Wakwavi are purely pastoral ; while the Ndorobos (a very 

 inferior sample of the race) live on what they can pick up in 

 the forest or cadge from their neighbours, who tolerate them on 

 the strength of an occasional tusk of ivory they may now and 

 again get out of them. 



These Wakwavi, who still own considerable herds of cattle, 

 live in great dread of the Masai of Ndoro, on the western side 

 of Kenia. Like many other tribes with whom I have made 

 friendly leagues at different times, they now wanted us, after 

 becoming their " brothers " by their own desire, to aid them in 

 a war on their enemies ; but this invitation we of course 



