XVIII 
EL BOGOI TO MOMBASA 
43 i 
Athi (or Sabaki, as it is more commonly called in its lower 
course), I met with two instances of the predatory tendencies of 
the Wakamba, even so near the coast. One day a party of 
Giriama natives, returning from Machakos, where they had been 
on a little trading expedition of their own, with nine goats 
which they had bought (as was testified by the pass they bore, 
signed by the officer in charge of that station on the main road 
to Uganda), caught me up. They had fallen in with some 
Wakamba, who were nominally hunting, but appear to have 
been in reality highwaymen. These attacked them in the 
night and carried off their goats, wounding one of the owners as 
they fled into the scrub. A lad, son of one of the latter, dis¬ 
appeared in the confusion, and though his companions sought 
him for a whole day, after the marauders had retired with 
their booty, he could not be found, and had to be left to his 
fate, to die miserably of thirst in the bush. Once thoroughly 
lost in this flat scrub-covered desert, there would be little 
chance of a scared child ever finding his way back to the river, 
in a country strange to him. For, as already observed, natives 
take no account of the points of the compass, nor observe the 
position of sun or moon in laying their course through the 
bush, but go by what they know of the lie of the land, or can 
remember as to the character of the trees, ground, etc. 
The second raid that came to my knowledge was made on 
a village or kraal of Wasanya. These people are a tribe of 
degraded Galas, who live mainly by hunting. They occupy 
the same position in relation to the stock-owning Galas as the 
Ndorobos do towards the Masai. Two or three of them came 
into my camp one day, and told me that some Wakamba had 
lately attacked their kraal and carried off two women captive. 
This account was confirmed independently by a woman of 
the same tribe, whom I saw afterwards at the first Giriama 
village we reached. 
The Wasanya are remarkable for carrying immensely 
powerful bows, and most serviceable-looking arrows. These 
