386 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 



and finally — somewhat to my confusion — insisted on my 

 stripping to the waist and showing my wounds, which they 

 examined with evident sympathy. They then ran off to carry 

 word of my return to their people. 



I was a good deal dismayed on reaching our little stream 

 to find its bed dry, as I feared we should be compelled to go 

 and camp higher up its course in a less convenient spot, nearer 

 the mountains, where I knew it never ceased to flow ; but we 

 found a little trickling rill still running on the surface for a 

 few yards, a little below where we crossed and close to my 

 favourite camp, just sufficient to supply the donkeys as well 

 as ourselves with water. We were soon comfortably installed 

 in the old spot ; and it was a source of no small satisfaction 

 that we had reached here once more safely, and if myself not 

 altogether sound, all the rest — both man and beast — well, not 

 a porter lame nor a donkey with a sore back. Of those who 

 went up with me, Shebane alone was missing ; and his sad 

 loss was brought vividly to my memory here by the absence 

 of flowers from the table, when spread in my favourite 

 "bower" dining-room. 



Soon more of our Ndorobo neighbours, including Lesiat 



himself, turned up, some bringing me little presents of their 



delicious honey, and all welcomed me as an old friend, and 



seemed as pleased to see me as I was to see them. Then I 



was importuned to exhibit my scars again, and received many 



kindly condolences. Lesiat at first told me that he had been 



compelled by hunger to eat two loads of beans of mine, which 



had been left in his charge, owing to one of the donkeys that 



had been sent back for them from Nyiro, when we were on our 



way up, having been killed by a lion. I told him that it was 



of no consequence, he being my friend, and that I could not 



quarrel with him on such an account. Fortunately, we were in 



no straits for food ; although in such a place, so far from any 



source of supply, it is, of course, very valuable. Having been 



assured of my forgiveness, he forthwith declared that he had 



