382 



OUR STAY AT NDORO 



We were now ready to start, and every day we lingered at 

 Ndoro was but lost time. Our flocks and herds had been 

 reduced by one thing and another to some 40 oxeil and 400 

 sheep and goats, of which it would be necessary to take 

 the greatest care, now that we were about to pass through 

 districts tenanted only by nomad tribes or agriculturists, 

 themselves in want of food. The animals were of special value 

 to us Europeans who lived almost entirely on the flesh of sheep 

 and goats, and to our Somal whose religion required them 

 rather to starve than to eat the flesh of any long-necked 

 animal,^ or of any creature killed without the ceremonies 

 ordered by their code of ritual. So far it had been difiicult to 

 get enough small animals to meet all our requirements, but now 

 ' we hoped, especially as all the sickly sheep and goats had 

 either died or been slaughtered, that we should be able to 

 manage to avoid losing any more. 



Our stock of beans, maize, millet, &c., would, moreover, 

 last from twenty to twenty-four days, and it would only take 

 us fourteen or eighteen days to get to Nyemps, a Wakwafi 

 settlement on the south of Lake Baringo, where we were told 

 we should be able to obtain a fresh supply of provisions. We 

 could therefore make our minds easy about this trip, only we 

 had to keep our promise to Jumbe Kimemeta to let him have 

 a chance of buying ivory in Leikipia, and were also anxious 

 ourselves to explore the so far unknown course of the Gruaso 

 Nyiro, and to determine the position of a certain Lake Lorian 

 ' through which it was said to flow. 



According to Kimemeta, Subugo, inhabited by Masai and 

 Wandorobbo, where he hoped to buy plenty of ivory, was 

 situated in the highlands about half way to Lake Baringo. 

 He would want two or three weeks for his purchases, and as 



■ The camel is an exception, but the flesh of the zebra or of any creatm-e 

 resembhng an ass is haram or forbidden. 



