296 



TO KENIA 



To our surprise none of our men showed any signs of 

 mutin)^ when we began our march, but Jumbe Kimemeta re- 

 marked that we were not at all likely to carry our plan 

 through, though we might as well try it. The path led us 

 over a hilly district in a northerly direction, chiefly through 

 grass-grown clearings surrounded by thick bush. About half 

 wa}^ we met Kassa with three warriors, who, first spitting 

 vigorously on to their right hands, held them out to Count 

 Teleki, greeting him heartily ; then they hurried on to Qualla, 

 whom they had evidently quite taken into their hearts, to shake 

 his hand also. An adventure Count Teleki had with a rhi- 

 noceros by the way raised him greatly in the esteem of the 

 natives, who after it cried, whenever they saw him, Moratta, 

 kutire kimandaja (' Friend, we do not want war '). We crossed 

 the brook bordered by luxuriant vegetation, at which the first 

 market was held ; climbed the steep, but not lofty, hill on the 

 other side, and camped in a wood on the ridge. The van- 

 guard set to work at once with axes, and by the time I arrived 

 with the rear-guard part of the palisade was already up. 



The natives who had escorted us thus far now disappeared, 

 but soon returned to invite us to a shauri of welcome. Ac- 

 companied by Kijanja and three Somal as a bodyguard, we 

 followed our leader to a clearing in the wood some 400 paces 

 from the camp, where six natives were already waiting for us. 

 We noticed a crowd of warriors, however, a little further off, 

 who drew back when we arrived, but soon returned to stare 

 at us. Then a sturdy young warrior, named Terrere, who had 

 made blood-friendship with Qualla, flung us a few bits of sugar- 

 cane and stood up to make a speech. In his right hand 

 he held a club, very like that of the Masai, with which he 

 emphasised his meaning by striking the ground with it so 

 vigorously that it was soon reduced to splinters. Of course 

 we did not understand what he said with such emphatic 



