206 AMONGST THE EESHIAT AND TO LAKE STEFANIE 



every fourth portion with a string of blue beads: so that to 

 get the blue the natives had to put up with the white ; to such 

 manoeuvres were we reduced through having exhausted our 

 stock of Masai beads ! 



Whilst the women were pressing round Qualla with their 

 cereals, and he was filling sack after sack, which our men had 

 rapidly stitched up out of the merikani they had brought with 

 them, I was surrounded, I may say mobbed, from morning to 

 night, by the male portion of the community. I sat rather 

 high up in my hammock, and on the ground opposite to me 

 squatted a densely packed crowd of natives, who were never 

 weary of gazing at me, and kept assuring me of their delight 

 at having me in their midst, and being able to examine me 

 so closely. With the help of a Burkeneji woman who had 

 married into this village, I told them about our journey through 

 Africa, and about the distant land from which we came, showed 

 them my white skin, and let them touch my clothes and weapons, 

 thereby giving them an immense amount of gratification. Mean- 

 while I chewed dhurra-cane, of which a fresh supply was 

 eagerly offered unsolicited whenever the seance appeared likely 

 to come to an end. This dhurra-cane is soft, and the slightly 

 sweet taste reminds one a little of that of sugar-cane. I en- 

 joyed sucking it the more as the water of the river was thick 

 and as brown as coffee-grounds. The confiding, modest, and 

 attentive manner in which these natives listened to all I said 

 gave me a capital opportunity^ of observing them in my turn, 

 so that the time really passed very pleasantly. 



We bought about a ton and a quarter of dhurra and beans, 

 and as there seemed a chance of getting yet more, I decided to 

 remain where I was till the following mid-day. Towards even- 

 ing I entertained the natives by shooting a Colobus guereza 

 monkey and some crocodiles, of which there were an extraordi- 

 nary number of very big ones in the river ; but presently the 



