226 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



the Masai, " The luxuriance of the Loita plains 

 is yours. Go there and prosper." That the 

 Masai have not found contentment in their new 

 domains is common knowledge in East Africa. 

 But the fiat has gone forth, and who are the 

 Masai that they should object to our schemes of 

 settlement ? 



There was one old chief who used to tend his 

 flocks not far from our camp and who was a most 

 amiable old person. Elmi acted as the medium 

 of interpretation, and he told me of a great 

 black-maned lion that used to '' Wuff, wuff " 

 in the rocky hills beyond the water-hole in the 

 gray hours before the dawn. I can see the old 

 fellow now as I write, one thin, wiry leg resting 

 with the foot above the knee of the other, his 

 long seven-foot spear grasped firmly in hand, the 

 seared and wizened old face beaming with the joy 

 of imparting valuable knowledge. Around his 

 neck was a snuff-box cunningly constructed out 

 of a brass cartridge case. He was clad in a foul- 

 smelling leathern jerkin with beaded edges that 

 dropped loosely over the legs akimbo. Quaint 

 old fellow ! He looked for all the world like a 

 marabout stork ! 



As for his lions, I saw no trace of them during 

 my sojourn in Sotik. Yet only a few weeks 

 before Rainey, the American millionaire, with 

 his pack of hounds, " chivied " out and slew over 

 a score from the self -same kopjes that looked 

 down on our camp by the water-hole. 



One evening Elmi and I tramped all over the 

 rocky hillocks into which deep bush-covered 

 ravines ran. Elmi, with keen relish in the re- 

 membrance of more fortunate " safaris," showed 

 me where a couple of lions had stood at bay, 

 where a great fellow with a fine grizzled mane had 



