'I 
76 THE KILIMA-XJAB0 EXPEDITION. 
Firstly, their hair was generally worn in long strings, 
where the wool was stiffened with fat and red clay into 
a number of rats’ tails. There were generally one or 
two incisors knocked out in the upper jaw, the lobes 
of the ear were enormously distended with wooden 
cylinders or rings, and lastly, the Wa-taveita, like most 
of the natives of Inner Eastern Africa (and unlike 
those of the West), were totally ignorant of what we 
call decency. I would like to express this more de¬ 
licately by saying that they were innocent of all clothing, 
but this was not the case, as many of the inhabi¬ 
tants wore cloth, or skins, round their shoulders, either 
for adornment or when the weather was chilly with 
breezes blowing off the snow-capped mountain. 
I felt at home with the Wa-taveita from the first, for 
they were thoroughly conversant with Swahili, the coast 
language—the French of Eastern Africa, and as I also 
knew this tongue we had at once a medium of ready 
communication. So the natives who had come to meet 
our caravan, and trotted along by my side to direct me 
to the accustomed camping-place, chattered as we went 
and not only asked for, but imparted, information. 
One of the first questions was, u What is your name, 
white-man?” “ Johnston.” “ Jansan ?” they shrieked 
laughingly. “ Why you must me Tamsan’s (Thomson’s) 
brother.” (Mr. Joseph Thomson, on his way to Masai- 
land, had passed through Taveita, leaving a very pleas¬ 
ant impression behind him. As by an odd coincidence 
we were both white, and our names, in the natives’ pro¬ 
nunciation, only differed in the initial consonant, the 
evident inference was that, to use the natives’ phrase, 
a We were of one mother.”) It would have been of 
such little use trying to disabuse them of this happy 
and likely idea that I accepted tacitly the suggested 
