IV 
THE NDOROBO COUNTRY 
9i 
too far off, zebra (chiefly Grevy’s here) were plentiful ; of one 
(a mare) which I shot for meat on our second day, I wrote : 
“ A lovely creature, very fat, and as sleek as a well-groomed 
and well-fed, stabled pony.” This part is called “ Ongata 
Ndamez ” 1 by the Ndorobos, that is, “ Camel Veldt ” ; and 
farther on, where are high level plains covered with short, 
sweet grass, they are known as “ Ongata Barta ”—“ Horse 
pasture.” These names are relics of a tribe owning such animals, 
which formerly frequented the district; it is now quite un¬ 
inhabited. Between the two is a long, waterless stretch, which 
our old Ndorobo guide made longer by taking us a roundabout 
course. Considering that he admitted his knowledge of the 
country to be derived from a raiding expedition in which he 
had taken part as a young man, which must have been, to 
judge from his apparent age, from forty to fifty years ago, it 
was not surprising that he should get a little out of his reckon¬ 
ing in the night, especially as his eyesight seemed rather 
defective. From the course we were steering in reference to 
the position of the moon and my knowledge of the bearing of 
Mount Nyiro, I suspected some error in the navigation. Un¬ 
fortunately, our pilot, like natives in general, took no account 
of the points of the compass ; and, knowing the winding routes 
they adopt for various reasons (often sufficient ones), I refrained 
from speaking to the man at the wheel—for I had learnt by 
experience that to interfere may cause trouble. On discovering 
his mistake, the old idiot smilingly explained that he had been 
steering for the wrong hill, with as much unconcern as he had 
shown in starting from the last camp without any warning to 
us that it was a far cry to the next water. I found out now that 
the information I had been given as to the distances on this route, 
by the traveller I had met, were very misleading, and it proved, 
in fact, that he had not himself reached this country at all. 
1 This is a Masai or Ndorobo word, signifying open country, and is pronounced as 
spelt here. “Angata,” as it is often written, is wrong, being the corrupt Swahili 
pronunciation. 
