V 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



183 



a friendly territory. I had just reached Lieutenant 

 von Hohnel (the warriors in the meantime having 

 advanced rapidly), when the Embe elders shouted to 

 them to halt. The young men listened to them, and 

 stopped at a point about 150 yards distant from where 

 we stood, panting with excitement, and their eyes flash- 

 ing fire. 



I was glad to hear the old men insist that we were 

 the friends of the Embe, and that they would not per- 

 mit the Wamsara to attack us in their territory. At 

 the end of the harangue of these elders, the warriors 

 suddenly wheeled to the right and started off, not back 

 toward their own country, but in a direction parallel 

 to the route which we were to pursue. Motio said 

 that we had missed an opportunity, and that these 

 men would now attack us at night, when we would 

 not be half so able to cope with them as in an 

 open, during daylight. 



By four in the afternoon we reached a small native 

 compound formed of a low, wattle fence, in which we 

 gladly made our camp, tired out with the events of 

 the past two days. About us the country was open, 

 so that we could guard against attack, and we were 

 told that water was not far distant ; so the place 

 seemed as suitable as any for the stay we intended 

 making in the Embe territory. Hundreds of natives 

 gathered about our camp and eyed us curiously. In 

 contrast with their number our party looked pitiably 

 small. We counted on the moral effect of our victory 

 over the Wamsara to deter the Embe from attacking 

 us; and wc also hoped to arouse their mercantile in- 

 stincts by a display of our trading-goods. 



