226 ELEPHANT-HUNTING [ch. x 
up, though often barefooted. Straight, slender Somalis, 
with clear-cut features, were in attendance on the 
horses. Native negroes, of many different tribes, flocked 
to the racecourse and its neighbourhood. The Swahilis, 
and those among the others who aspired toward civili¬ 
zation, were well clad, the men in half European 
costume, the women in flowing, parti-coloured robes. 
But most of them were clad, or unclad, just as they 
always had been. Wakambas, with filed teeth, crouched 
in circles on the ground. Kikuyus passed, the men each 
with a blanket hung round the shoulders and girdles 
of chains, and armlets and anklets of solid metal; the 
older women bent under burdens they carried on the 
back, half of them, in addition, with babies slung some¬ 
where round them, while now and then an unmarried 
girl would have her face painted with ochre and ver¬ 
milion. A small party of Masai warriors kept close 
together, each clutching his shining, long-bladed, war- 
spear, their hair daubed red and twisted into strings. 
A large band of Kavirondos, stark naked, with shield 
and spear and head-dress of nodding plumes, held a 
dance near the race-track. As for the races themselves, 
they were carried on in the most sporting spirit, and 
only the Australian poet Patterson could adequately 
write of them. 
On August 4 I returned to Lake Naivasha, stopping 
on the way at Kijabe to lay the corner-stone of the new 
mission building. Mearns and Loring had stayed at 
Naivasha, and had collected many birds and small 
mammals. That night they took me out on a spring- 
haas hunt. Thanks to Kermit, we had discovered that 
the way to get this curious and purely nocturnal animal 
was by 44 shining ” it with a lantern at night, just as in 
our own country deer, coons, owls, and other creatures 
