402 



ACEOSS LEIKIPIA 



cattle, and we got a good many threatening looks on that 

 account. The laden oxen became specially restive, and some 

 of them managed to shake off their heavy clumsily piled-up 

 loads, turning over the milk cans and spilling their valuable con- 

 tents, or scattering the fodder in every direction, amidst terrible 

 cries of distress from the women in whose charge they were. 



Towards noon we reached a small but rather deep brook, a 

 tributary of the Guaso Narok, and the northern outlet of the 

 Pes swamp, a small lake-like exj)ansion of the Guaso Songoroi, 

 by which we had camped on our march to Subugo on Novem- 

 ber 7. We could see the reed-grown lake a few miles off in the 

 south. Its shores and the banks of the brook, by which we 

 decided to camp, were lined with acacias. 



The district was inhabited by a great many Masai, but the 

 only kraals near us were those of moruu, and the afternoon 

 passed over quietly. Juma Mussa, who had proved himself a 

 very clever manager, not only got us off paying any hongo but 

 astonished me with the present of a goat. He also secured 

 another guide, as the first turned out quite useless. 



The next mornino- we followed our new leader in an easterlv 

 direction across a flat steppe, reaching in three hours two 

 ravines, evidently, from the swamp-grass growing in them, the 

 beds of intermittent streams. They were now quite dry, of 

 which we were glad, as our guide, who was a stubborn fellow, 

 insisted on our camping here, although we wished to push on. 

 We quietly waited whilst he went off to try and find water^ 

 determined to start ao-ain if he was not successful. He failed 

 to discover even so much as a little mud, and presently, with 

 much grumbling he himself led us further. In oppressive 

 heat we hastened on for another three hours across a sandy 

 dreary steppe with here and there clumps of quite young- 

 acacias, coming at last to an avenue of trees which we thought 

 must lead to water. We were wrong, and the disappointment 



