186 AMONGST THE RESHIAT AND TO LAKE STEFANIE 



themselves with small round shields made of the skin of the 

 hump of the Beisa antelope. Their only garments are two 

 cloths, a small one worn round the loins and a larger one 

 flung from the front over the shoulder and hanging down 

 behind. The Borana living near the Basso Ebor are a poverty- 

 stricken section of the tribe. 



This was all Lembasso could tell us about his native land, 

 and as to where we could now turn to buy cattle and pack- 

 animals he had absolutely nothing to say. We needed the 

 latter terribly, having lost so many porters by death, whilst, 

 not to speak of our ever-increasing ivory, our goods for barter 

 were nearly as heavy as before, no one having cared to accept 

 them. 



Anyhow, the best thing to do now was to examine the new 

 lake, and we set to work at this the next morning, first cutting 

 across a little acacia wood and then reaching the shore, here 

 overgrown with succulent bush, where Count Teleki came 

 upon a lion, which, however, got off with several bullets in 

 his body. A little later I shot a rhinoceros, belonging, 

 as did all the others seen in the northern districts visited 

 by us, to the small variety. We then pushed on at a distance 

 of some thousand yards from the beach, finally camping in 

 rather an uncomfortable place amongst a number of rain 

 pools. Between our camp and the lake was a perfectly 

 barren strip of land from 650 to 1,100 yards wide, which had 

 evidently once been part of the old lake bottom. The beach 

 was so flat and the lake so shallow that at a distance of about 

 218 yards from the beach the water was not more than a few 

 inches deep. On the beach and in the air were thousands 

 of scavenger-birds, including vultures, marabout storks, and 

 crows, glutting themselves with the fish which lay about in 

 great quantities in various stages of decomposition. Either 

 the lake had been over-populated with fish or all these dead 



