A LITTLE SLAVE-BOY oOo 



mother, and lie had not goods enough to spare to bid for the 

 hoj too. Jl^ow as we had noticed that our Jumbe was always 

 very good to his slaves, Count Teleki presented him with the 

 balance necessary to buy the whole party, making it a condition 

 that the faniil}^ should be kept together. The total price was 

 twenty rings of iron wire and twenty strings of Masai beads, of 

 the value altogether of only about one dollar. 



Kikuyuland is very narrow just here, and a march of three 

 hours on September 3 brought us to the inner side of the wood 

 on the eastern frontier, where we camped. The natives were 

 just beginning to make a clearing with axe and fire, and all 

 around us were the gleam and glow of burning wood, whilst the 

 ground was encumbered with charred trunks and branches and 

 strewn with still smouldering ashes. 



There was no doubt as to the sentiments of the Wakikuyu 

 when they watched us start the next morning. Up to the 

 very last moment they kept pouring in, bringing more food 

 than we could possibly use ; they escorted us in numbers to the 

 very edge of the outer boundary wood and eagerly removed 

 ■every obstacle from our path, but for all that our progress was 

 very slow till the frontier was crossed. 



Of his own free will our little three-year-old slave-boy 

 made a first-rate goatherd. With a zeal and skill which 

 quite threw those of our grown men into the shade, he would 

 follow the animals through thick and thin and keep them in 

 capital order. He was such a jolly little chap that he quite 

 ■cheered us all up, and we all grew fond of him. As a reward 

 for the amusement he afforded us, the Count gave him a string 

 of beads, telling him to go and buy anything he liked with it. 

 Natives were standing about with long stalks of sugar-cane, 

 beans, yams, green bananas, colocasia, &c; But what do you 

 suppose the child chose to get ? Without a moment's hesita- 

 tion he trotted off to one of his former playfellows, who owned 



