THE GUASO NYERO 
153 
CH. VI i] 
waggons swayed and plunged over the twisted boulder- 
choked trails down into the river-bed, crossed it, and, 
with lurching and straining, men shouting and whips 
cracking, drew slowly up the opposite bank. 
After a day’s rest, we pushed on in two days’ easy 
travelling to the Guaso Nyero of the south. Our camps 
were pleasant, by running streams of swift water ; one 
was really beautiful, in a grassy bend of a rapid little 
river, by huge African yew-trees, with wooded cliffs in 
front. It was cool, rainy weather, with overcast skies 
and misty mornings, so that it seemed strangely unlike 
the tropics. The country was alive with herds of Masai 
cattle, sheep, and donkeys. The Masai, herdsmen by 
profession and warriors by preference, with their great 
spears and ox-hide shields, were stalwart savages, and 
showed the mixture of types common to this part of 
Africa, which is the edge of an ethnic whirlpool. Some 
of them were of seemingly pure negro type ; others, 
except in their black skin, had little negro about them, 
their features being as clear-cut as those of ebony Nilotic 
Arabs. They were dignified, but friendly and civil, 
shaking hands as soon as they came up to us. 
On the Guaso Nyero was a settler from South Africa, 
with his family; and we met another settler travelling 
with a big flock of sheep, which he had bought for trading 
purposes. The latter, while journeying over our route 
with cattle, a month before, had been attacked by lions one 
night. They seized his cook as he lay by the fire, but 
fortunately grabbed his red blanket, which they carried 
off, and the terrified man escaped ; and they killed a 
cow and a calf. Ulyate’s brother-in-law, Smith, had 
been rendered a hopeless cripple for life, six months 
previously, by a lioness he had wounded. Another 
settler, while at one of our camping-places, lost two of 
