XII 
LAKE RUDOLPH 
267 
tipped with a picturesque rocky headland, more sheltered bays 
are reached, where the shore again takes a northerly trend. 
Toward noon on the 12th, I went ahead as usual to look 
for suitable camping-ground, and had just shot a granti when 
I discovered a good-sized collection of huts on a sand-spit. I 
did not know what the inhabitants, who seemed numerous, 
might be, so took the precaution of disposing my camp in a 
defensible position. Then I went on with Squareface to make 
our presence known. On seeing us, a woman, who was the 
first to notice our approach (for they had not heard my shot), 
ran in to give the alarm, and there was considerable commotion 
in the village, the men rushing out spear in hand. At first 
we shouted to them from a distance (that is, my man did in 
Ndorobo), and when our mutual distrust was allayed, we met 
some of the leaders and interchanged greetings and explana¬ 
tions. It appeared that they were a community of Ndorobos, 
akin, they told us, to some living at Kulale and Nyiro, but had 
taken to the same mode of life as the El Molo, depending 
chiefly on fish, though they also hunt. But the two races are 
quite distinct, though living amicably side by side. The El 
Molo, who are the aboriginal fisher-folk, are much blacker, and 
their language is quite different; that of the Ndorobos, as else¬ 
where, being similar to Masai. The latter seem to capture 
the fish by spearing them from canoes in the shallow water of 
the bays. None of the fishing natives know the use of hook 
and line ; and, strange to say, my men could no longer catch 
any. Whether owing to the shallowness of the water or what 
I don’t know, but certain it is, that though the water was stiff 
with them, the fish, except an occasional “ barber,” would not 
take a bait any more. 
I could not wonder at the preference of these people for the 
lake with its inexhaustible wealth of food, so much more easily 
obtained than the precarious living of those who hunt land 
animals. Simply marvellous is its fertility in fish. What 
immense quantities must be consumed daily by the armies of 
