350 THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT chap. 



ing we reached the Guaso Nyiro at a point where it 

 flows from the Leikipia plateau. There I rested two 

 days, and nursed my fever, while Lieutenant von 

 Hohnel and most of the men pushed on to Sayer. 

 While I was encamped on the banks of the river, a 

 party of Wanderobbo appeared on the opposite bank 

 and begged for food ; but as they were unwilling to 

 cross the river for it, they received none. They said 

 that they were and had for many days been starving; 

 and that they had with them plenty of ivory, which 

 they were anxious to exchange for beans and flour. 

 They told me that there was a large force of Masai 

 settled at a place called Kythere, who were possessed 

 of vast flocks of goats and sheep, and many donkeys. 



On Tuesday, August 8, still suffering from fever, I 

 was borne in a hammock to Sayer, where I found 

 Lieutenant von Hohnel and the rest of my men. 

 The camp was surrounded by more than fifty Wan- 

 derobbo, drawn thither by the fact that on the previ- 

 ous day Lieutenant von Hohnel had killed two fine 

 elephants, the tusks of the one weighing eighty-four 

 and eighty pounds, and of the other, fifty and fifty- 

 eight pounds. The Wanderobbo were absolutely starv- 

 ing, and had not Lieutenant von Hohnel succeeded 

 in killing these beasts, many of them would certainly 

 have died. The country was literally alive with ele- 

 phants; but these natives, fearing to spear them, trusted 

 entirely to their traps, which the sagacity of the ele- 

 phant frequently enabled him to avoid. 



These traps were made by placing across one of the 

 elephant paths a rope which was attached to a weighted 

 spear hung high overhead from the branch of a tree. 



