288 RETURN FROM LAKE BARINGO TO THE COAST 



Our camp was on the nortliern frontier of the Masai district 

 of Kinangop, and crowds of moran and their dittos very soon 

 appeared and entertained us with singing and dancing. Very 

 cordial relations were soon established with them, partly because 

 of our extraordinary lavishness in gifts, and partly because we 

 had done their most dangerous enemies, the Suk, a bad turn. 

 From early morning till late evening the camp swarmed with 

 friendly warriors and confiding women, who seemed to have a 

 kind of awe and reverence for us leaders. We were, there- 

 fore, all the more disappointed when, as we were about to start 

 on the morning of August 20, we missed one of our best Masai 

 spears. 



We pushed on along the base of the Subugia mountains by 

 a path overgrown with fresh, now dew-besprinkled steppe grass, 

 through charming scenery, having on our left the dark, luxuri- 

 antly wooded slopes, whilst on the right not a bush or shrub 

 intercepted our view, the landscape stretching away to the 

 equally lofty but less rugged Mau escarpment, the southerly 

 continuation of the Kamasia range. Between the Subugia 

 mountains and this escarpment lay a valley, apparently the result 

 of subsidence, some thirteen miles broad, in which we noted 

 several interesting minor features. Here, amongst luxuriant 

 masses of reeds and rushes which rose up distinctly from their 

 less highly coloured surroundings, we lost sight of the four little 

 streams which at this time of year trickle down the mountain 

 slopes, whilst now and then we got a glimpse of the gleaming 

 Nakuro Sekelai, a little bitter-water lake fed by a tributary 

 from the south. On our previous march we had noticed at 

 the northern end of this lake a low, broad hill, the central por- 

 tion of which appeared to have subsided. 



The district was well peopled, and tenanted by numerous 

 herds of cattle. We also saw a o^ood manv buffaloes and zebras. 

 We camped by a brook near a big moran kraal, from which 



