184 AMONGST THE RESHIAT AND TO LAKE STEFANIE 



to learn all we possibly could on this expedition about the 

 Burkeneji, and their wandering propensities would most likely 

 have enabled them to give us valuable information concerning 

 the districts and their inhabitants on the north and east. We 

 had to be content with the meagre details Lembasso was able to 

 give us. 



According to him, Samburu extends from the General Mat- 

 thews chain in the south to the Basso Ebor in the north, and con- 

 sists of a series of fairly uniform highlands with very few moun- 

 tains of any importance, including Mounts Marsabit, Nyiro, 

 Kulall, and the Trr and Ure ranges. Marsabit lay from fifty to 

 sixty miles east-north-east of Mount Nyiro. We were not able 

 to make out the exact position of the Ure chain, but the reader 

 is already familiar with that of the other highlands. Sam- 

 buruland is ver}^ badly supplied with water, and there are 

 absolutely no rivers or streams which are never dried up. It 

 is inhabited by about equal numbers of Burkeneji andEandile, 

 who are on the best of terms with each other. The former are, 

 as already stated, nearly related to the Masai, whilst the 

 latter, according to Qualla, and as far as we could make out 

 from the few individuals we met, are connected with the Somal. 

 Both tribes are nomad, and, like the Masai, restrict their 

 wanderings to certain districts, a habit established by custom or 

 tradition, and on the five mountains mentioned above there are 

 said to be permanent settlements. We ourselves saw that this 

 is the case on Mount Nyiro. Marsabit is the chief rendezvous in 

 Samburuland of the Burkeneji and Eandile, and near to it is a 

 long swamp or lake overgrown with reeds as high as a man, 

 the haunt of countless elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, and 

 hippopotami, which are never disturbed by the Burkeneji, who 

 do not hunt. 



A few decades ago the Burkeneji occupied districts on the 

 west of Lake Eudolf which now belono^ to the Turkana, whence 



