144 TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERU 



We M'ere escorted by natives all the way, but wliitlier tliey 

 were leading us we neither knew nor asked. At five o'clock 

 we camped for the night on a sloping meadow at the edge of a 

 foaming torrent, and we were hardly under shelter before the 

 rain poured down again ; its one advantage being that it relieved 

 us of the importunate natives. 



We were now 4,850 feet above the sea, and the continuous 

 rain made it quite cold. When we woke the next morning it 

 was still pouring, and the landscape was shrouded in a heavy, 

 oppressive mist. Not until nearly nine o'clock did it clear 

 enough for us to go on. We first crossed the bed of the torrent, 

 and then bore westward, without climbing, between banana- 

 hedges and across meadows. This brou^iit us to a second 

 rushing stream, to which a steep, slippery path led up. There 

 natives again tried to bar our passage. On the other side of 

 the stream the path lay between rocks, and some forty or fifty 

 warriors blocked the way, shouting out to us to come no farther. 

 There was no doubt that they could not have chosen a better 

 spot for stopping us. Their leader stood in the midst of them, 

 holding forth and gesticulating wildly, often pointing at us with 

 his finely decorated wooden club ; and his men listened to him 

 eagerly, casting threatening glances at us every now and then. 



The first speaker was succeeded by another and yet another. 

 Then the three orators sprang like chamois from rock to rock 

 across the stream to us, called for our interpreter, and to him 

 unfolded their demand. They must have five doti merikani 

 and five strings of ukuta beads. Mhoke, who had taken 

 service with us as a porter only, but had soon been promoted 

 to be an Askar, was generally brave enough, but on this 

 occasion he quite lost his nerve, and, as he kept biting a blade 

 of crrass in his embarrassment, he cried ag-ain and again in a 

 tone of conviction, 'Matta kitu, Matta kitu ' ('We have nothing'). 

 ' Then back ! ' was the uncompromising reply of the leader. 



