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ACROSS LEIKIPIA 



cattle, and we got a good many threatening looks on that 

 account. The laden oxen became specially restive, and some 

 of them managed to shake off their heavy clumsily piled-up 

 loads, turning over the milk cans and spilling their valuable con- 

 tents, or scattering the fodder in every direction, amidst terrible 

 cries of distress from the women in whose charge they were. 



Towards noon we reached a small but rather deep brook, a 

 tributary of the Guaso JSTarok, and the northern outlet of the 

 Pes swamp, a small lake-like expansion of the Guaso Songoroi, 

 by which we had camped on our march to Subugo on Novem- 

 ber 7. We could see the reed-grown lake a few miles off in the 

 south. Its shores and the banks of the brook, by which we 

 decided to camp, were lined with acacias. 



The district was inhabited by a great many Masai, but the 

 only kraals near us were those of moruu, and the afternoon 

 passed over quietly. Juma Mussa, who had proved himself a 

 very clever manager, not only got us off paying any hongo but 

 astonished me with the present of a goat. He also secured 

 another guide, as the first turned out quite useless. 



The next morning we followed our new leader in an easterly 

 direction across a flat steppe, reaching in three hours two 

 ravines, evidently, from the swamp-grass growing in them, the 

 beds of intermittent streams. They were now quite dry, of 

 which we were glad, as our guide, who was a stubborn fellow, 

 insisted on our camping here, although we wished to push on. 

 We quietly waited whilst he went off to try and find water, 

 determined to start again if he was not successful. He failed 

 to discover even so much as a little mud, and presently, with 

 much grumbling he himself led us further. In oppressive 

 heat we hastened on for another three hours across a sandy 

 dreary steppe with here and there clumps of quite young- 

 acacias, coming at last to an avenue of trees which we thought 

 must lead to water. We were wrong, and the disappointment 



