354 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



The Wanderobbo were particularly anxious to get 

 donkeys, as they used these animals to carry the 

 meat slain by their young men to the villages. Two 

 or three of the more energetic younger members of 

 the village asked me to give them special medicine 

 that would enable them to kill elephants ; and to 

 humour them I mixed a noxious potion of milk, 

 Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and salt. The pecul- 

 iarity of the flavour of this mixture seemed to satisfy 

 them of its efficacy, and smilingly they departed on 

 their way. 



Daily we asked the Wanderobbo for guides to the 

 north ; but they implored that before leaving them 

 we should kill elephants, and supply their women 

 and children with food ; which done, they promised 

 to supply us with guides well acquainted with the 

 road. With this end in view. Lieutenant von Hoh- 

 nel, with five men, set out in one direction, while I, 

 taking twelve, went in another. 



For the first two hours of our march from the 

 camp at Sayer our road lay through rugged and steep 

 hills, clad with thorn bush ; but at length we reached 

 the wide valley stretching between the Loroghi range 

 on one side and the General Matthews range on the 

 other. On our left at a distance of five miles was 

 Loroghi. Here its face was abrupt and wooded, with 

 its top towering 10,000 feet above the sea. On our 

 right stood the peaks of the General Matthews range, 

 — Gerguess, Lasuran, Malon, and Merkeben, — some 

 of them 13,000 feet high. They stretched in a long 

 and unbroken line to the north, and ended in a blue 

 point which my guides informed me was Mount Nyiro. 



