152 ALONG LAKE RUDOLF 



events. Tliey could see tliat tlie natives were aware of tlieir 

 presence, but it was a long time before anyone took the slightest 

 notice of them, even the cattle continuing to graze quietly 

 around them. After about an hour's suspense one man ap- 

 peared, but our people could not understand a word he said. 

 Then came two more men, but it was the same thing with them, 

 and it seemed hopeless to arrive at any understanding, when at 

 last a Eandile, who knew a few words of Burkeneji or Masai, 

 was brought out, and in broken language did his best to 

 interpret. Qualla managed somehow to make him understand 

 all we wanted, and offered the Eeshiat a present to prove our 

 goodwill. It was refused, but in the end the natives told our 

 men to go back now and return the next day with the whole 

 caravan. They would meanwhile tell their Leibon about us, 

 and get food ready for us. As Qualla was leaving, the Eandile 

 came after him to ask him to leave two of his men behind in 

 the village, but Qualla refused. The fearless bearing of the 

 Eeshiat made a great impression upon Qualla, who said he 

 thought they must be a very powerful tribe if the sudden 

 appearance of forty men, who might have dropped from the 

 skies, affected them so little. 



Tuesday, April 3. — Although the sky had been very 

 overcast the whole of the day before, the rain did not begin 

 till the night. At first we had short, sharp showers, and then 

 a steady downpour, which lasted till the morning. The poor 

 men, who had, so to speak, spent the whole night without 

 shelter, looked the very picture of misery as they shivered with 

 the cold, their complexions ashy grey or dull yellow. As there 

 seemed no prospect of improvement in the weather we started, 

 but the continuous heavy rain soon compelled us to stop. 



Nothing upsets negroes more than damp cold, and in the 

 very first half-hour of the march all the men began to show 

 sii2^ns of the greatest distress. Shiverino- and tremblino- moan- 



