298 RETURN FROM LAKE BARINGO TO THE COAST 



now, instead of rousing anxiety and dismay, only suggested 

 bananas, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, maize, millet, and other 

 good things. 



These warriors had come to guard their frontier, and from 

 the respect with which they received us it appeared that they 

 remembered us. But we had hardly begun to move again 

 when our attention was called to another party of about forty 

 natives approaching us from the depression referred to above. 

 Whether they were Masai or Kikuyu neither we nor our guide 

 could tell, so the Count went off with one or two of our Kikuyu 

 friends to ascertain. They turned out to be Masai moran on 

 their way from Ngongo Bagds to Lake Naivasha. No wonder, 

 when the route leads so near the frontier of Kikuyuland, that 

 there are such constant collisions between its people and the 

 Masai, and on this occasion a number of Wakikuyu at once 

 started to watch the movements of their hereditary foes. 



The swamp, which is at a height of 6,810 feet, is situated 

 in the middle of a wood and is the source of many streams. As 

 soon as we arrived a few natives appeared, but sweet potatoes 

 were all they had to offer us, famine prevailing here as elsewhere. 

 Our men still retained a good many goat and sheep skins saved 

 from their rations, and these were now most useful, for the 

 natives preferred them as payment to beads, wire, or stuffs. To 

 men who had tasted nothing for months but meat, dhurra, and 

 berries, sweet potatoes were of course a great treat, and the 

 camp resounded on every side with cries of Recha guatsche ! 

 or ' Bring us potatoes ! ' 



The news of our arrival soon spread, and one of the first to 

 come to give us greeting was the manly young Terrere, whose 

 able co-operation had done so much to aid our entrance into 

 Kikuyuland the year before. His affection was not, however, 

 really for us white men, but for Qualla, on whom he lavished 

 the most tender expressions. 



