294 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT chap. 



wear trousers of some sort. He said, no; that we were 

 lashomba (traders). At that word the faces of the na- 

 tives assumed a more pleasant expression ; they turned 

 to their following, and shouted some words to them, 

 which Mayolo translated as instructions to the people 

 to drive the camels to the villages, and inform their 

 chiefs that strangers had come to visit them. All the 

 time my eyes Avere busy in carefully noting the peculi- 

 arities of the natives before us. 



They were a tall, thin race, reddish brown in colour, 

 with soft, straight, and closely cropped hair, features 

 almost Caucasian in their regularity, and fierce blue 

 eyes. They were clad in well-tanned robes of goat 

 or sheep skin, which they threw gracefully over their 

 shoulders. They were armed with short spears, or 

 well-made bows of a shape very different from those 

 I had heretofore seen in East Africa, the ends being 

 curved outward, as in the Asiatic bow, and their arrows 

 were not tipped with poison. The language they used 

 while speaking with one another was different from 

 any I had yet heard ; but in addressing Mayolo they 

 one and all spoke the Masai tongue. 



My Somali were fascinated with the sight, and whis- 

 pered to me: "These are like our people; they must 

 be Mohammedans. Is it not written, that none but the 

 followers of Mohammed shall possess camels } " Ma- 

 yolo's face beamed with pleasure, and he continued 

 repeating: " Rendile ! Rendile ! I am a good man. I 

 have taken the European to the Rendile ; he will now 

 let me depart in peace, with a large present." 



After a short parley, I persuaded three or four of 

 the warriors to accompany me to the spot where I had 



