184 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



would take their most solemn and sacred oaths 

 to eat no food, cohabit with none of their 

 womenkind, sleep beneath the sheltering thatch 

 of no hut until each had killed his man. Their 

 daub and clay they washed off, and besmeared 

 themselves with ashes. Cow's hoofs they hung 

 round their ears. They made the forest their 

 lairs, and the bush was alive with soft, mys- 

 terious whisperings. They would pick their man, 

 and a deep, cruel spear- wound or a jagged cut 

 from a barbed arrow would break their self- 

 imposed fast. Such was the Meru " nguo." 



From Meru we marched northwards along 

 the Guaso Marra, and on September 6th we 

 pitched camp on the banks of the Guaso Nyiro 

 river. 



