CHAPTER XIV 



BRITISH EAST AFRICA (CONTINUED) : MORE 

 HUNTING IN SOTIK — KIJABE MOUNTAIN 



When day broke over the plains of the Loita 

 we could gaze on a wonderful zoological scene 

 from the very doors of our tent. Stretching 

 away before us was a vast expanse, here and there 

 studded with small belts of trees and clusters 

 of wilderness scrub. And on this African prairie 

 wildebeeste, gazelles, hartebeeste and zebra 

 roamed at will in veritable armies and mingled 

 with the goats and sheep and cattle of the 

 Southern Masai. For this dreary, arid flatness 

 has with a fine show of charity been handed 

 over to those lithe, ochre-stained savages who 

 are the native overlords of East Africa. A 

 quarter of a century ago the Masai were the terrors 

 of Eastern Equatoria. Yet their subjugation has 

 been a practically bloodless contest. But they 

 are still the native patricians of East Africa. 

 Work they scorn, and their vast herds of cattle 

 render them magnificently independent. Here 

 as in North America, when the interests of those 

 savages who have owned the land for centuries 

 has clashed with the interests of the white man, 

 the native has had to give way before the alien. 

 The rich pasturages of the Rift valley and the 

 plateaux were the favourite grazing-grounds of 

 the Masai, but the white man has need of them, 

 and in our Imperial liberality we have said to 



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