THE WATEEHOLES OF SEKI 



265 



the tribute had been paid were our people allowed to lower 

 their calabashes on cords and draw them up full. 



There were plenty of acacias and bushes here, but very 

 little grass ; game was scarce, too, and we saw next to nothing 

 but giraffes and hartebeests. 



Our next march brought us to the waterholes of Seki in 

 the same dried-up bed already described. There are some 

 fifteen or twenty holes, about 12 to 18 feet deep, with water 

 one foot deep at the bottom. We found that different natives 

 had rights over the various holes, and that here, too, our 

 men were driven away till presents had been given. Jumbe 

 Kimemeta and the traders were very careful not to wound the 

 susceptibilities of the natives, and superintended the drawing 

 of the water themselves. They seemed to take to heart all 

 the remarks made in their hearing, even if only by some con- 

 ceited boy. The porters were assailed with all manner of 

 abuse and bad language, but behaved in a most submissive, 

 humble manner themselves. 



Joseph Thomson implies in his account of his journey here 

 that his people made the waterholes of Seki, but we learnt 

 from the Masai that they were dug out by the Wakwafi, a 

 powerful cattle-breeding tribe who once owned the district. 

 In every rainy season the holes get filled up with sand and 

 rubbish, and have to be cleaned out again and again as the 

 water subsides. 



The Masai of the neighbourhood own large herds of cattle, 

 which they water here with the aid of primitive troughs made 

 of stones and mud. Two women fill the troughs from leather 

 bags, and the work is done very much more rapidly than we 

 should have thought possible, some 2,000 animals being supplied 

 with water in a few hours. 



The humble demeanour of our men, of course, had an un- 

 fortunate effect upon the natives, who consider gentleness and 



