A DREARY DISTRICT 



279 



reappeared, and at five o'clock in the afternoon we reached 

 the dried-up bed of the Migungani stream, bordered with 

 acacias, and camped for the night. Alas ! there was no water 

 here, and, cruelly disappointed, our men went off to search for 

 some. Fortunately our Somal, used to this kind of emergency, 

 and endowed with wonderful acumen, found a little in a moun- 

 tain ravine before darkness set in. 



The next day we marched northward roiuid the eastern 

 side of the mountain, jDassing through grand but dreary 

 scenery. The mountain slopes were perfectly bare, and there 

 were but a few patches of grass at wide intervals on the lava 

 and debris strewn plains. All the beds of streams we crossed 

 were dried up, and we went up and down hill in such 

 heat as we had never felt before, but at last we entered the 

 inhabited portion of Kapotei ; some Moran came to meet us, 

 and we saw herds of cattle once more. 



The natives told us that the place at which we had meant 

 to camp was too far off and offered to guide us to another 

 nearer water. Passing by a well-populated Masai kraal we 

 came to the ravine-like bed of a brook, and camped a little 

 before mid-day on its rocky bank. Only in a few holes was 

 there still a little water, and there was neither tree nor bush. 

 Water for cooking and fuel for the fires were brought from a 

 distance by women and boys. Of course we had to pay for it, 

 and the usual boma, or fence, to protect the camp, could not 

 be made at all, which mattered the less as the croM^ds of men, 

 women, and children who came to see us behaved very well. 

 This really was the very dreariest district we saw in tropical 

 Africa, but for all that it seemed densely populated. 



We noted that the spears of the warriors were exceptionally 

 long and of good workmanship. Amongst the numbers who 

 crowded around us were several young fellows Avho had but just 

 undergone the operation alluded to before, after which they 



