216 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



this the tired animals immediately made their 

 way. Vast herds of game drank their fill morning 

 and evening at this muddy puddle, so that the 

 water we drew from it was anything but a 

 healthy-looking beverage. The sun poured down 

 with a merciless glare. Even the wood of the 

 wagon seemed burning hot, and to touch metal 

 was to endure torture. Around us stretched the 

 vast flats of the Kedong Valley, and the earth 

 seemed to dance and vibrate in the sheen and 

 fire of the sun's rays. Just in front were a 

 number of rugged rocks, and beyond the escarp- 

 ment of the Mau told of a stiff climb to come. 

 It seemed only fitting during those burning 

 hours that Longonot and Suswa should take on 

 crater shapes, for it was as though the air was 

 charged with cinders hurled from depths pyro- 

 genous. Longonot is a mountain whereof many 

 weird tales are told. It is the Erebus of the 

 Masai, and is held to harbour spirits, devils and 

 snakes in its crater mouth. Wherefore it is 

 spoken of in bated breath, and regarded with 

 a reverent and awed fear. 



The whole of this immense rift in East Africa 

 is a land of spirits and hobgoblins and supersti- 

 tions to the native mind, and a region wonderful 

 and fearful in the eyes of modern science. It 

 gave to Rider Haggard suggestions for his 

 fiction in Allan Quatermain^ since it is said by 

 the Masai, that at the west end of Lake Naivasha 

 there is a subterranean passage that leads to 

 a land peopled by inhabitants with white faces. 

 There is, in truth, a great tunnel on the Mau side 

 of this beautiful sheet of water, and perchance 

 Nature has burrowed a warren deep below the 

 grand escarpments, whereof the western gate is 

 in the Victoria Nyanza. It is a valley that has 



