302 
THE KILIMANJARO EXPEDITION 
under tlie shade of a mimosa to the right of the path, 
flicking his short tail from side to side, and watching 
the movements of our caravan with suspicion. Alas ! 
they had no reason to fear me. Waterless, dead¬ 
beat, and sun-stricken, it needed all my resolution 
painfully to plod along the path, and I was quite 
incapable of stalking big game when I doubted if I 
should have sufficient force left to carry me to our 
camping-place. 
About two o’clock we crossed the Ngurungani ridge, 
and arrived at a stony river-bed, in which a little rain¬ 
water still remained. The men drank greedily of it. 
Here in the middle of the road we saw a sheep freshly 
killed, skinned, and cub up, all the gory remains being 
neatly tied up in the skin. Various meanings were 
assigned to this unwonted apparition; but as I once 
more took the road and saw the sandy path marked 
with many footsteps, and with the impressions of 
oxen’s feet, I said to myself, “ The Masai! ” The men 
also were of this opinion, but thought they had passed 
early in the morning. Nearing our camping-place, 
however, we saw smoke and heard voices, so we 
cautiously stopped and waited for all the caravan to 
assemble. Then, united, we pressed boldly on, although 
the hearts of many quaked at the thought of encounter¬ 
ing the most dreaded savages of Eastern Africa. 
Abdallah walked beside me, and Virapan in front, and 
I heard the former gabbling prayers to Allah. and his 
Prophet as he shouldered his rifle and marched along. 
Virapan and I were the first to see the Masai. We 
arrived at the bed of a broad torrent, now dried up, 
save for occasional rock-pools, and there, in a large 
basin-like hollow below the rocks on which we stood, 
were perhaps a thousand men, some of whom were 
