424 



ACROSS LEIKIPIA 



bed, and made up my mind to rest the next day. I knew we 

 could reach Lare lol Morio in tln^ee marches, and thought we had 

 food enough for them, so that I could well spare the time to 

 recruit. But I was reckoning without my host, for Schaongwe 

 presently came to tell me that my men had not so much as a 

 bean amongst them. There remained intact but one day's 

 reserve provisions. Already uneasy at the return of my illness, 

 I now became really anxious, and sent the men down to the river 

 to fish. They caught nothing, but I had meanwhile become a 

 little better, so I gave orders for a start the next morning. 



Led by two Masai moran, who had fortunately turned up 

 in the nick of time on their way to put the screw on some 

 Wandorobbo who were in their debt, we went along the Guaso 

 Narok to their kraal, near to which we camped. The district 

 was well inhabited, but few natives visited us. 



With no suitable food, for milk was all I could take when 

 my troubles were upon me, I soon retired to bed, whilst the 

 men tried to still the pangs of hunger with some tiny fish they 

 managed to catch, using their turbans and shirts as nets. I 

 fortunately managed to shoot a little green marmoset from my 

 bed, which gave them something rather more substantial to 

 eat. Juma Mussa bestirred himself to try and get me some 

 milk, and actually succeeded, how goodness only knows, in 

 persuading a moruo to bring me a big bowl of the precious 

 fluid, and I was ready enough to oblige the donor, who was 

 afraid I might boil it, by drinking it off in his presence. 



Juma Mussa managed to secure a guide as well as the milk, 

 and the next day we were off again, leaving the stream on one 

 side and j)ressing on first round a chain of rugged gneiss hills, 

 a.nd then across the undulating A^olcanic plateau in a south- 

 westerly direction by a fairly good j^ath leading to the Guaso 

 Narok, which we reached again at noon. 



I halted a little before the end of this march to take our 



