6 



AT NYEMPS 



set to work to build tlieir huts. I needed rest badly, and 

 retired to the shelter of the barasa, as we called the big roof 

 we put up to protect us from the sun whenever we made a long 

 halt. Here I pondered over the dreary situation, for I saw 

 only too well that every word the man had told us at the 

 swamp was true. A fortnight before, Maktubu had gone to 

 Elgeyo, a district on the north-west of Nyemps, to try and get 

 food, but had returned empty-handed, with the news that the 

 people there were suffering from famine, and the Count had at 

 once gone off hunting in the hope of supplying the needs of our 

 men. I could not do better than follow his example, so in the 

 afternoon I crossed the brook with a few of our people, and am 

 glad to be able to say that I brought down enough game for two 

 days' rations — a kobus antelope and a bull buffalo, the latter not 

 succumbing till I had given him ten bullets from my Express rifle. 



The next morning the Count returned quite unexpectedly 

 in the very best health and spirits, as well he might be, for in 

 a short time he had l^rought down thirty-eight large animals, 

 thus providing his men with positive mountains of meat. He 

 told me he had camped in the same ravine as I did, and then, 

 acting on Maktubu's advice, had followed the stream rising in 

 it. For an hour there had been a good path, and then the 

 walls of rock had become closer and closer together, making 

 the march, especially for the animals, for whom a way had to 

 be cut, extremely arduous. The next day the valley widened, 

 and they came to a beautiful wide ravine, in which flowed a 

 brook bordered by a perfect hedge of water-palms. Here they 

 camped, for no more charming place could have been found. 

 They had passed several elephants by the way, and noted 

 numerous spoors of the same animals here. Maktubu, who 

 went off in the afternoon to seek a path, succeeded in shooting 

 one elephant, and Ali Hassan, the Count's Somal body servant, 

 reported having seen three but a short distance from the camp. 



