TAITA TO KILIMA NJARO. 
89 
whereon flocks of goats were grazing, patches of freshly- 
tilled soil, cultivated fields, hedge-lined lanes, and lastly, 
the red denuded hill, the No-man’s Land, the Pisgah, 
on which we were standing to gaze on this Promised 
Land, towards which for thirteen days we had been 
toiling through the wilderness. There was, however, 
no preordained restriction to my entering it, nor was 
my lieutenant qualified to play the part of Joshua, so I, 
who had been pausing here to let all my followers come 
up with me and regain their breath, once more took up 
my staff and marched into Mandara’s country. A ravine 
and a small stream separated us from the collection of 
bee-hive huts and gardens which formed his capital, 
and before crossing I stopped and gave the order for a 
salute of twenty-one guns to be fired (Mandara had 
heard from the Arab traders that such was the number 
of guns accorded to independent Royalty, and insisted 
on it). This accomplished I climbed the steep red 
path before me, and arrived at a kind of open green 
shaded by fine spreading trees. Here a lot of men 
were squatted with their shining broad-bladed spears 
stuck upright into the ground. They took but little 
notice of me, and I afterwards found that Mandara’s 
soldiers think it beneath their dignity to be surprised 
at anything. I nevertheless scanned them with con¬ 
siderable interest. Many were in their war-paint and 
were dressed to imitate the dreaded warriors of the 
Masai. On their heads would be either a huge circlet 
of ostrich feathers, or an imposing head-dress made 
from the black and white mane of the Colobus monkey. 
The same animal’s skin, with its long silky hair, of 
a most startling contrast in colour, was roughly 
fashioned into a covering for the shoulders, arranged 
so that a short lappet hung over the breasts, and the 
