BRITISH EAST AFRICA 233 



nettles breast high stung our arms and hands 

 and legs ; now and then we sank down into a soft, 

 mossy pit and clambered out by the aid of branches 

 and monkey ropes. So dense was the canopy 

 that little light came through, but now and then 

 we caught a glimpse of the fleeting colobus, 

 or saw one of these simian squirrels peeping 

 through the hood of his mantle at the intruders 

 on his forest home. 



By dint of much hard work and diligent prying 

 four more monkeys were shot that afternoon. 

 One fell on to my coat, and in his dying rage and 

 agony bit and clawed one side of it to threads. 

 The others fell down stone dead. We were weary, 

 stung and aching with the exertion of climbing. 

 Our eyes, too, were full of wood dust that had been 

 brought down by the shots, and so we elected to 

 descend to where our camp lay, far, far down 

 beneath. We still had our toll to take of the 

 colobi, however. I had made up my mind 

 to secure the full six allowed on a £50 licence, 

 for, oh, vanity of vanities ! I wished to present 

 them in the form of a muff or a stole in England. 

 By next mid-day, therefore, we had again reached 

 the crest of the mountain, and ere long were 

 amongst the gorgeous monkeys. But on this 

 occasion the colobi were more wily than on the 

 day before, and try as I might I could not get a 

 fair shot at one. And then there happened one 

 of the most extraordinary things that ever has 

 fallen within the range of my experience. In 

 the mountain forest we came across some 

 N'Derobo — the lowest type of mankind in East 

 Africa, people who have no habitations, who 

 live by hunting, and are, in fact, the modern 

 counterpart of our Berserker forefathers. For 

 the promise of a small reward they assisted us 



