268 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST A EPIC A 
CHAP. 
birds preying upon it, not to take into account the crocodiles 
(also very numerous) and the colonies of fishermen ! But, in 
spite of all, so prolific is it that the water fairly teems with fish. 
These natives are less timid than the El Molo, and as soon as 
we had made friends quite a crowd followed me to camp. 
Their headman presented me with a fish or two, and I gave 
him a few strings of beads and the skin of the buck I had shot 
(a thing they prize, and cannot easily obtain themselves), and 
then a brisk trade went on with the porters, who bartered 
whatever trifling ornaments they had for the heaps of dried 
fish brought by the natives for sale. I noticed that all these 
fish-eating people looked sleek and plump ; thus rather seeming 
to controvert the opinion I have read that an exclusively fish 
diet causes skin diseases. Famine must be unknown among 
them. 
During the morning’s march we had passed a not very old 
camping-ground, with quantities of camel and cattle dung in 
the “ boma ” (enclosure of cut branches). At first I was 
puzzled, wondering whether it could have been a party of 
Bworanas or Randilis ; but further investigations soon revealed 
tell-tale evidences of Europeans, in empty cartridge-cases, torn 
paper coverings, and such like. I then concluded (from the 
proof of the presence of camels) that it was a caravan from the 
Somali coast, and what I gathered from these natives confirmed 
me in that conclusion. They said, however, that there was 
only one white man, and told me that he had come up some 
other way, through the Bworanas, and had been to Murli, at the 
north end of Bassu, passing here on his way back, and had been 
guided by them to Kulale instead of following the lake to the 
south end, whence we had come. They also informed me that 
he had fought with some tribes and captured much cattle, 
goats, etc., some of which he had given them. This was, of 
course, Dr. Donaldson Smith’s caravan, though at the time I 
did not know who it could be, and thought perhaps it might 
be Mr. Chanler again. I wished I had been a little quicker 
