268 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



birds preying upon it, not to take into account the crocodiles 

 (also very numerous) and the colonies of fishermen ! But, in 

 spite of all, so prolific is it that the water fairly teems with fish. 

 These natives are less timid than the El Molo, and as soon as 

 we had made friends quite a crowd followed me to camp. 

 Their headman presented me with a fish or two, and I gave 

 him a few strings of beads and the skin of the buck I had shot 

 (a thing they prize, and cannot easily obtain themselves), and 

 then a brisk trade went on with the porters, who bartered 

 whatever trifling ornaments they had for the heaps of dried 

 fish brought by the natives for sale. I noticed that all these 

 fish-eating people looked sleek and plump ; thus rather seeming 

 to controvert the opinion I have read that an exclusively fish 

 diet causes skin diseases. Famine must be unknown among 

 them. 



During the morning's march we had passed a not very old 

 camping-ground, with quantities of camel and cattle dung in 

 the " boma " (enclosure of cut branches). At first I was 

 puzzled, wondering whether it could have been a party of 

 Bworanas or Randilis ; but further investigations soon revealed 

 tell-tale evidences of Europeans, in empty cartridge-cases, torn 

 paper coverings, and such like. I then concluded (from the 

 proof of the presence of camels) that it was a caravan from the 

 Somali coast, and what I gathered from these natives confirmed 

 me in that conclusion. They said, however, that there was 

 only one white man, and told me that he had come up some 

 other way, through the Bworanas, and had been to Murli, at the 

 north end of Bassu, passing here on his way back, and had been 

 guided by them to Kulale instead of following the lake to the 

 south end, whence we had come. They also informed me that 

 he had fought with some tribes and captured much cattle, 

 goats, etc., some of which he had given them. This was, of 

 course, Dr. Donaldson Smith's caravan, though at the time I 

 did not know who it could be, and thought perhaps it might 

 be Mr. Chanler again. I wished I had been a little quicker 



