WE CAN GET NO INFORMATION ABOUT THE ROUTE 173 



ornament. We could always recognise him a long way off 

 when he came to visit us, which he did pretty well every day. He 

 would march into camp with rapid strides, making straight for 

 us, without taking the slightest notice of anyone else, and squat 

 down beneath the reed-thatched shelter in which we generally 

 spent the day. We would then in our turn seem not to observe 

 his entrance, till after a bit he would break the silence with 

 a tardy Leihon serian ! or with the simple question, Godde 

 Dschumhe ? (' Where is Jumbe ? ') to which he always received 

 the stereotyped answer, ' We don't know.' He really was en- 

 dowed not only with remarkable self-possession, but with an 

 extremely clear head and considerable diplomatic skill, so that 

 even Jumbe Kimemeta, who had grown grey dealing with 

 natives, often seemed quite a simpleton beside him. 



The day after the friendship -making we, for the first time, 

 unfolded our plan of going next to the lake on the east, and 

 then round the northern end of Lake Eudolf, returning south- 

 wards along its western coast. To our surprise the Oromaj 

 most decidedly opposed our doing anything of the kind. We 

 knew well enough that our guides Lembasso and Baringo were, 

 as was natural enough for children of Samburuland, unwilling 

 to go with us by the westerly route, through God alone knew 

 what districts, to be left in the end at Nyemps on Lake Baringo. 

 But why in the world the Eeshiat should object to our taking 

 this route, or indeed to our going further in any direction, we 

 could never discover. All our shauri with the Oromaj ended in 

 exactly the same manner. If we asked him about the way to 

 the other lake, his invariable reply was that there was no way 

 for us but that by which we had come — Meata gojtoj {' There is 

 no way'). Just as little would he hear of our going further 

 north, though we should no longer be in his district. ' There 

 are none but mangati and cannibals there,' he would say, 'you 

 can't go there either ; ' and if we asked about the Basso Ebor 



