CHAPTER XI 
THE GUASO NYERO: A RIVER OF THE 
EQUATORIAL DESERT 
When I reached Neri, after coming down from killing 
my first elephant on Kenia, I was kept waiting two or 
three days before I could gather enough Kikuyu porters, 
As I could not speak a word of their language, I got a 
couple of young Scottish settlers, very good fellows, to 
take charge of the safari out to where I intended to 
hunt. There was a party of the King’s African Rifles 
camped at Neri; the powerful-looking enlisted men 
were from the South, chiefly from one of the northern¬ 
most tribes of Zulu blood, and their two officers were of 
the best Kipling-soldier type. Then there was another 
safari, that of Messrs. Kearton and Clark, who were 
taking some really extraordinary photographs of birds 
and game. Finally, Governor and Mrs. Jackson arrived 
from a trip they had been making round Kenia, and I 
was much pleased to be able to tell the Governor, who 
had helped me in every way, about my bull elephant, 
and to discuss with him some of the birds we had seen 
and the mammals we had trapped. A great ingowa, a 
war-dance of the natives, was held in his honour, and 
the sight was, as always, one of interest and of a certain 
fascination. There was an Indian trader at Neri, from 
whom we had obtained donkeys to carry to our elephant 
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