XVIII EL BOGOI TO MOMBASA 431 



Athi (or Sabaki, as it is more commonly called in its lower 

 course), I met with two instances of the predatory tendencies of 

 the Wakamba, even so near the coast. One day a party of 

 Giriama natives, returning from Machakos, where they had been 

 on a little trading expedition of their own, with nine goats 

 which they had bought (as was testified by the pass they bore, 

 signed by the officer in charge of that station on the main road 

 to Uganda), caught me up. They had fallen in with some 

 Wakamba, who were nominally hunting, but appear to have 

 been in reality highwaymen. These attacked them in the 

 night and carried off their goats, wounding one of the owners as 

 they fled into the scrub. A lad, son of one of the latter, dis- 

 appeared in the confusion, and though his companions sought 

 him for a whole day, after the marauders had retired with 

 their booty, he could not be found, and had to be left to his 

 fate, to die miserably of thirst in the bush. Once thoroughly 

 lost in this flat scrub-covered desert, there would be little 

 chance of a scared child ever finding his way back to the river, 

 in a country strange to him. For, as already observed, natives 

 take no account of the points of the compass, nor observe the 

 position of sun or moon in laying their course through the 

 bush, but go by what they know of the lie of the land, or can 

 remember as to the character of the trees, ground, etc. 



The second raid that came to my knowledge was made on 

 a village or kraal of Wasanya. These people are a tribe of 

 degraded Galas, who live mainly by hunting. They occupy 

 the same position in relation to the stock-owning Galas as the 

 Ndorobos do towards the Masai. Two or three of them came 

 into my camp one day, and told me that some Wakamba had 

 lately attacked their kraal and carried off two women captive. 

 This account was confirmed independently by a woman of 

 the same tribe, whom I saw afterwards at the first Giriama 

 village we reached. 



The Wasanya are remarkable for carrying immensely 

 powerful bows, and most serviceable-looking arrows. These 



