266 
African Game Trails 
whips cracking, drew slowly up the op¬ 
posite 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 prefer¬ 
ence, 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 car¬ 
ried off and the terrified man escaped; 
and they killed a cow and a calf. Uly- 
ate’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 his 
horses, which were killed although with¬ 
in a boma. One night lions came within 
threatening neighborhood of our ox- 
wagons; and we often heard them 
moaning in the early part of the night, 
roaring when full fed toward morning; 
but we were not molested. 
The safari was in high feather, for 
the days were cool, the work easy, and 
we shot enough game to give them meat. 
When we broke camp after breakfast, 
