LAKE RUDOLPH 267 



tipped with a picturesque rocky headland, more sheltered baj-s 

 are reached, where the shore again takes a northerly trend. 



Toward noon on the 12th, I went ahead as usual to look 

 for suitable camping-ground, and had just shot a granti when 

 I discovered a good-sized collection of huts on a sand-spit. I 

 did not know what the inhabitants, who seemed numerous, 

 might be, so took the precaution of disposing my camp in a 

 defensible position. Then I went on with Squareface to make 

 our presence known. On seeing us, a woman, who was the 

 first to notice our approach (for they had not heard my shot), 

 ran in to give the alarm, and there was considerable commotion 

 in the village, the men rushing out spear in hand. At first 

 we shouted to them from a distance (that is, my man did in 

 Ndorobo), and when our mutual distrust was allayed, we met 

 some of the leaders and interchanged greetings and explana- 

 tions. It appeared that they were a community of Ndorobos, 

 akin, they told us, to some living at Kulale and Nyiro, but had 

 taken to the same mode of life as the El Molo, depending 

 chiefly on fish, though they also hunt. But the two races are 

 quite distinct, though living amicably side by side. The El 

 Molo, who are the aboriginal fisher-folk, are much blacker, and 

 their language is quite different ; that of the Ndorobos, as else- 

 where, being similar to Masai. The latter seem to capture 

 the fish by spearing them from canoes in the shallow water of 

 the bays. None of the fishing natives know the use of hook 

 and line ; and, strange to say, my men could no longer catch 

 any. Whether owing to the shallowness of the water or what 

 I don't know, but certain it is, that though the water was stiff 

 with them, the fish, except an occasional " barber," would not 

 take a bait any more. 



I could not wonder at the preference of these people for the 

 lake with its inexhaustible wealth of food, so much more easily 

 obtained than the precarious living of those who hunt land 

 animals. Simply marvellous is its fertility in fish. What 

 immense quantities must be consumed daily by the armies of 



