74 



THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE EUDOLF 



Kimemeta at once welcomed tliem, reassured them as to our 

 designs, gave them presents, and begged them to tell their 

 people to pay us a visit, as we wished to hold a big sha,uri. 

 The next day several more natives appeared ; but there were 

 only some thirty or forty, including women and children, in 

 the immediate neighbourhood just then, so that the mountain 

 was evidently but thinty populated. Our visitors were Burkeneji, 

 and were the southern representatives of the tribe of that name 

 dwelling chiefly in the northern portion of Samburu. The 

 Burkeneji are closely related alike in genealogy and language 

 to the Masai, especially to the northern Wakwafi. They keep 

 cattle, sheep, and goats, supporting themselves almost entirely 

 by cattle-breeding, and never tilling the soil or hunting, although 

 there seemed to be plenty of game at the base of the mountain. 

 They sometimes barter for cereals with the Turkana, their 

 neighbours on the west. Their dread of raids from the Turkana 

 and Suk lead them to live with their herds in the highest 

 portions of the mountain. 



They resemble greatly in appearance the people of Nyemps, 

 and like them indulge in few personal ornaments. The hair is 

 worn cut short, and the lobes of the ear are distended. The 

 men often wear a piece of coarse stuff made of sheep's wool 

 and looking like sackcloth, either hung from the shoulders or 

 the loins, or fastened on the right shoulder. Some of them, 

 however, go about naked. The men get the material for 

 their one garment from the Eandile, a tribe totally different 

 from themselves, who also live in Samburu. The women 

 and children wear kid-skins like those affected by the Masai. 

 Their favourite ornament is brass wire ; but all our articles of 

 barter were welcome to them, especially the copper mikufu, 

 which seemed to be quite unknown to them. 



Their arrows, wooden clubs, swords, shields, and spears, 

 are most of them of inferior quality. The spears are of the 



