CHAPTER IV 
THE NDOROBO COUNTRY 
Set out for Ndorobo country—Savage life — Camp at El Bogoi—Head waters of 
Mackenzie River—A tribal raid—A disagreeable camp—Fishing for mineral— 
Limestone springs—Bag two elands—Nearing Lorogi Mountains—Glimpse of 
elephants—A thunderstorm—A handsome zebra—Start for Mount Nyiro—A 
roundabout course—A fruitless journey—Return to El Bogoi. 
It was not, then, till the 3rd of July that I started once more 
from Laiju for a more extended hunting trip into the region 
to the northward, commonly called the Ndorobo country, but 
which is practically uninhabited, in the ordinary sense of the 
word, for hundreds of miles ; for the Ndorobos are only thinly 
scattered in small communities, leading the life of pure savages 
—that is they neither cultivate nor own stock, but live on what 
they can pick up in the bush. Before I went among these 
people I had always supposed, from what I had heard and 
read about them, that they were all skilful hunters, living solely 
on game. I have found, however, that this is by no means 
the case, at least in the region of which I am writing. The 
majority of them depend almost solely on honey and wild 
fruit, roots, berries, etc., for their existence ; and, as may be 
supposed in a country to which nature has been by no means 
bountiful in edible products, they are usually in a state of semi¬ 
starvation ; indeed it is a puzzle to me how they manage to 
live at all. It is certainly not a country I should care to be 
turned out to graze in after the manner of our first parents in 
