NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA 
109 
center of trade in very ancient times, goods from the Land of Punt 
(Somaliland) in the early Egyptian period reaching Mount Elgon to 
be traded for the products of the negro forest-dwellers. The blue beads 
dug up here, and which are regarded as great rarities, seem to be of 
ancient Egyptian origin, the subjects of the Pharaohs appearing to 
have extended their commerce to this remote region. 
A common feature of the terraced slopes of Mount Elgon are its 
splendid waterfalls, the streams cascading beautifully from the brink 
of the terraces and in nearly every instance covering the entrance to a 
cave. It may be that the cavern was originally the channel of a stream 
which became blocked by an overflow of lava from the crater’s lip, the 
stream taking a new course over the cooled lava while its former canyon 
became a cavernous opening. 
We may, passing behind a cascade which leaps down and out 
two hundred feet from the brink of the terrace, find hidden behind it 
the doorway to a dry and commodious natural rock dwelling. The 
stream thus completely masked the dwellings of the ancient cave-man 
from without. Instances may be found in which a rude stockade de¬ 
fends the entrance, huge stones being piled on top of branching boughs. 
We have reason to believe that the antique cave-men of Europe de¬ 
fended the openings to their habitations in this manner, and we here 
find the ancient people of Africa adopting the same methods. 
Sir Harry Johnston, in his very interesting paper, “Where Roose¬ 
velt Will Hunt,” gives us the following information about the people 
of the region we have been describing. It is well worth quoting as a 
vivid picture of a series of strange native tribes: 
‘‘The human inhabitants of this part of East Africa mainly belong 
to the fine, handsome Masai race and the peoples of Nandi and Suk 
stock (closely allied in racial origin to the Masai), while in the coast 
regions bordering the Victoria Nyanza there are a few Nilotic and 
Bantu negroes. 
“The Suk natives of the northern part of the Rift Valley, south¬ 
west of Lake Rudolf, wear no clothes, but devote considerable atten¬ 
tion to their hair. It is thought an unwomanly thing for the Suk 
women to have hair on the head. The men, however, encourage the 
hair to grow. When the father of a family dies his head-hair is divided 
