194 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



curing by gestures and pleasant looks to inspire them 

 with the feeling that they were their best friends. 

 After they had visited with curiosity every portion of 

 our camp they returned to our tent ; whereupon, Lieu- 

 tenant von Hohnel and I, bent on showing them what 

 hospitality w^e could, offered them some of the honey 

 they had just brought. They declined in their polit- 

 est manner to partake of it, and said it was not their 

 custom in any way to decrease the value of a gift 

 which they had made to their friends. I cannot say 

 this action on their part inspired us with greater 

 faith in them. They then expressed a desire that we 

 should keep in our camp during the night the female 

 sheep and donkey they had brought with them, offer- 

 ing no explanation for their odd request. They also 

 endeavoured to procure a fez from one of my Sou- 

 danese. We failed to understand their purpose in 

 making such a request, until two of our Masai inter- 

 preters came to us in an excited manner, saying that 

 this which the Embe wished us to do would abso- 

 lutely deprive our caravan of all the fighting power 

 it possessed. They said that should one of the 

 attacking party wear upon his head a hat worn by 

 one of our men, they would at once become imbued 

 with all the courage of our party. Further, that if 

 for one night they should leave in our camp two 

 female animals, over which they had doubtless spoken 

 many words of magic import, these animals upon 

 being removed from the camp in the morning would 

 draw with them the vigour and courage of my men. 



I was then struck by the marked similarity between 

 my own followers and the savages with whom we were 



