AN ARMED NEUTRALITY 



327 



friends from tlie frontier, who had visited us in camp, had 

 all disappeared, lent colour to the rumour. We therefore 

 advanced with the greatest caution, but when we reached the 

 stream in question to find no warriors there, only a few unarmed 

 natives, who came to meet us quietly, we concluded that the 

 struggle was to be in the next valley, the transit of which, we 

 knew, would be arduous 

 in any case. 



We camped at three 

 o'clock in a little al- 

 most completely shut-in 

 valley, without having 

 met an enemy or struck 

 a blow, but crowds of 

 warriors were assembled 

 on the slopes overlook- 

 ing us, all evidently 

 prepared for w^ar. The 

 Wakikuyu, like so many 

 other tribes of East 

 Africa, smear head, face, 

 and shoulders with a 

 thick layer of red fat, 

 and in this case the men 

 had decked themselves 

 in a very grotesque 

 fashion, some having 

 grease round the mouth or eyes only, whilst others had yellow 

 or white earth all over their bodies. Most of them carried 

 freshly pointed spears. 



Though the natives looked formidable enough as they stood 

 some 200 or 300 paces from us, they seemed to ignore our 

 presence altogether, taking absolutely no notice of our repeated 



