I AM OBLIGED TO RIDE 



281 



of endurance, scarcely seeming to feel the 70 lb. weight of the 

 packages, which they carried easily on their backs upheld by 

 strips of leather passing across the forehead. 



The Kapotei plateau, which was still bare of vegetation, 

 sloped somewhat more rapidly downward on the east. At 

 the beginning of the march we passed a large Masai kraal from 

 which the cattle were just being driven to pasture ; the natives 

 also ran out in crowds with much laughing and shouting to watch 

 us pass, but none of them followed us. We then climbed several 

 stony ridges, passed a deserted kraal, now and then crossing the 

 dry rocky bed of some stream, with here and there a little green 

 turbid water. During this march the scenery was as dreary 

 and melancholy as ever ; we sighted the Doenye Lamuyo (about 

 1,640 feet high), at the northern base of which lies Ngongo 

 Bagds, camping at mid-day at a little pool of water, near to 

 which Count Teleki shot an eland. 



The next day a four hours' march brought us to a big reed- 

 grown pond, I had to ride on a donkey, for I had eaten nothing 

 for four days, and this was anything but a pleasant mode of 

 progression, as the donkeys are so accustomed to tramp along 

 together that they make a great fuss if they are separated ; so 

 I had to put up with all the bumps and blows resulting from 

 this companionship. 



One of the Askari, Gesila by name, who a few M^eeks 

 before had been the very picture of health and strength, was 

 suffering, as I was, from dysentery, but things turned out 

 worse for him than for me. In spite of every care — we had 

 kept him alive with our scanty stock of rice for eight days- — ■ 

 he became a mere skeleton, and, as he could hardly breathe 

 when we started on the 25th, he was carried by Qualla and 

 another guide, all the rest of the men giving him a wide berth. 

 As his bearers were cutting down the stakes in a wood hard 

 by, of which to make a litter, I had to drive the vultures off 



