238 



THROUGH TURKANA AND SUK 



our guide Lembasso, who knew how much tobacco was sought 

 after m Turkana, really had quite a good supply of it, which he 

 had got in Eeshiat in exchange for our various presents to him of 



beads. He was all the time laugh- 

 ing in his sleeve at us, and amused 

 himself with bargaining for thirty 

 goats at a time. 



In addition to sheep and goats 

 the natives often brought us dried 

 fish for sale, and on one occasion 

 two quite freshly caught, some 

 sixteen inches long, resembling 

 herrings in form and colour. 



On the afternoon of our second 

 day here we received a visit from 

 fifteen old men from Gat err, a 

 district lying further west at the 

 base of the Doenye Erok. They 

 begged us to go, not as the 

 Count had intended, to the Lare- 

 mett of the Kerio, but to Gaterr, 

 as most of the native settlements 

 were there, and we could buy 

 much more cattle. Moreover there 

 was neither hay nor dhurra to be 

 had in Laremett, for the rain still 

 held back. We had been told much the same thing before, 

 some of the Turkana assuring us that this year not one grain of 

 dhurra was to be had throughout the country, whilst others 

 asserted just the contrary. When the people of the Kerio valley 

 found that we were thinking of going to Gaterr, they tried to 

 turn us from our purpose, telling us that we might certainly find 

 plenty of Elgume there, but no cattle, grass, or water, which 



NATIVE OF TUEKANA. 



