240 THROUGH MASAILAND TO THE BORDERS OF KIKUYU 



This seemed such a very justifiable reason for refusing right 

 of way that Count Teleki had five oxen killed. True enough, 

 everyone of them had the lungs more or less diseased, and we 

 had to reassure the old man by promising to have all the rest 

 of the cattle slaughtered the next day. 



The Masai are of opinion that the murrain from which oxen 

 have been suffering for the last ten or twelve years was intro- 

 duced by an ox which had been stolen from Sambur aland. 

 The disease, which seems to be rapidly spreading and in some 

 Masai districts is universal, threatens the very existence of the 

 people, who, as before stated, can think of no mitigation but 

 the breeding of sheep. 



On August 5 we left the shores of Lake Nyiri, which a 

 little beyond our camp made a bend northward, and pursued 

 our journey in a westerly direction, entering a level tract of 

 country with many low, outlying spurs of Kilimanjaro on 

 our right. We camped after o^- hours' march at the foot of 

 one of these hills near a reedy pool, at a place called Masimani, 

 or near the water pool — the pool, the water of which was 

 sweet and good, being in a low channel some 500 paces long 

 by from 5 to 50 wide. From the hills near by a view could 

 be obtained of a vast steppe stretching away on the north of 

 Kilimanjaro, which from this point does not look anything like 

 so imposing as from the south, although we were there but a 

 little higher up, the altitude of the camp being about 1,240 feet. 

 The slope of Kilimanjaro is very slight at first, only becoming 

 really steep at a considerable height. At the base, especially 

 on the northern side, are numerous cone-shaped hills, most of 

 them with crater-like summits. The ice-capped Kibo, it is 

 true, looks grand, but its real height would be underrated there, 

 whilst Kimawenzi seems but an insignificant hump. There 

 is a belt of forest on the northern side of Kilimanjaro, but the 

 mountain slopes give one the impression of barrenness, and 



