THE WARLIKE MASAI. 967 



small hill in the forest, having gone nine miles and a half in four hours. 

 One of the men found a quantity of wild honey, which we bought from him ; 

 it was daik-coloured, hut very nice. The water here was horrible. 



u 29th. We started at 6.35, and soon left the forest and entered fields of 

 matarua. Af er leaving these we entered jungle with grass about eight feet 

 in height, and the road lay through this for some way. Then we got into 

 cultivated land again with fields of Indian corn, matama, pumpkins, and 

 tobacco. After going some miles, we came to a running stream of beautiful 

 water, at which we filled our water-bottles. Soon after crossing it, we en- 

 camped in a matama field from which the grain had been reaped, having gone 

 6even miles and a half. 



" 30^. We halted here to-day. One of the men died during the night 

 of small-pox, and another is ill of it. I fear it is getting a hold in the cara- 

 van. I intended going out after the antelopes which abound amongst the 

 hills, but it was such a blazing hot day that I did not attempt it. 



"Sept. 4ith. We started at seven. The road lay along mountain- ridges 

 covered with forest ; wherever the trees were thinner, we got glimpses of high 

 mountains all around us, north, south, and west. We kept along the ridges, 

 crossing once a gully, which rather delayed the donkeys. Then the forest 

 got thinner, and gradually gave way to cultivated land, large numbers of 

 bananas and matama fields, from which latter the grain had been reaped. 

 After passing three or four villages we crossed a stream of water, sweet but 

 not clear, and encamped on a hill near the village of Magubika, having gone 

 eleven miles. Close by our camp was that of a party going down to the 

 coast with cattle they had brought from Unyamwezi. 



" 6th. We started at seven. The road lay at first for some distance 

 through a forest of young ebony trees. We then crossed a steep ridge, bare 

 of trees, but with quite a little grove of sage-bushes growing on one part, the 

 plants being often eight or nine feet high, and sometimes eleven or twelve. 

 We encamped in a matama stubble-field, having gone only six miles. The 

 forest is getting much thinner. Some Arabs here told us that at a village 

 which they passed, and which we must pass, the people were fighting with 

 a band of the warlike Masai ; but there cannot have been any real fighting, 

 as the Arabs are such arrant cowards that they would never have gone near 

 the place ; subsequent inquiries proved it to be so. 



" 1th. To-day we met with the bamboo growing in the forest — the first 

 time we have seen it on the mainland. We had several ravines to cross, 

 generally with streams flowing down them, and in some of them were quan- 

 tities of beautiful ferns. We encamped on a hill, having gone six miles. 

 This was a very hard march, and I was thoroughly tired. 



" Sth. We started at seven, and entered the forest again, which, how- 

 ever, was generally thin. At one part we had a splendid view of a wooded 



