322 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



whoever he might happen at different periods to be, 

 had always been privileged to make his home with 

 Lokomogul. There appeared to be great rivalry be- 

 tween the villages, and the three chiefs with whom 

 we had dealings were excessively jealous of one another. 

 After receiving their presents they came singly both 

 to Lieutenant von Hohnel and to me, and each said 

 that, as his village was the greatest and most powerful, 

 he was the most influential chief, and hence a greater 

 present should be tendered him than the others. 



Owing to the fact that all our intercourse with them 

 was through an interpreter, who spoke the Masai lan- 

 guage, the native tongue neither of the Rendile nor 

 of our interpreter, and the further fact that in speak- 

 ing with our interpreter we were forced to use the 

 Swahili, it was difficult for us in the short time we 

 were in communication with these people to gather 

 really satisfactory information from them. 



During a visit from these three chiefs, Lokomogul 

 gave us a shrewd glance, and asked why, if we were 

 such great people, we travelled without our wives ; they 

 knew of but one tribe willing to undergo the hard- 

 ships of life without the companionship of the other 

 sex, and that tribe was the lowest of the low — they 

 were outcast robbers and criminals of other tribes — 

 they were the dthombons. This question was a poser. 

 We at once felt the diflficulty, indeed the impossibility, 

 of explaining to these untutored savages the fact that 

 we were able to exist so long without the society of 

 ladies ; but we knew silence should be a last resort in 

 dealing with Africans. Some reply is always absolutely 

 necessary ; so, under the spur of necessity, we said that 



