272 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 
Gouvimali the gun-bearers, Simba the sais, and Kiboko 
the skinner, looked down on their wild and totally 
uncivilized brethren. They would not associate with 
the 44 shenzis,” as they called them—that is, savages or 
bush people. But the 44 shenzis ” always amused and 
interested me, and this was especially true on the after¬ 
noon in question. Soon after we had started campwards 
with the skin and meat of the oryx, we encountered a 
succession of thunderstorms. The rain came down in 
a deluge, so that the water stood ankle-deep on the 
flats, the lightning flashed continuously on every side, 
and the terrific peals of thunder made one continuous 
roll. At first it maddened my horse ; but the un¬ 
interrupted blaze and roar, just because uninterrupted, 
ended by making him feel that there was nothing to 
be done, and he plodded stolidly forward through the 
driving storm. My regular attendants accepted it with 
an entire philosophy, which was finally copied by the 
Kikuyus, who at first felt frightened. One of them 
had an old umbrella which he shared with a crony. 
He himself was carrying the marabou stork ; his crony 
had long strips of raw oryx meat wound in a swollen 
girdle about his waist; neither had a stitch on save the 
blankets which were wrapped round their throats, and 
they clasped each other in a tight embrace as they 
walked along under the battered old umbrella. 
In this desolate and lonely land the majesty of the 
storms impressed on the beholder a sense of awe and 
solemn exaltation. Tossing their crests, and riven by 
lightning, they gathered in their wrath from every 
quarter of the heavens, and darkness was before and 
under them ; then, in the lull of a moment, they might 
break apart, while the sun turned the rain to silver, and 
the rainbows were set in the sky; but always they 
