START FOR THE SUMMIT OF KILIMA-NJARO. 217 
waist. One distinctly clay-coloured damsel, of most 
ample proportions, nearly fell into my arms as she was 
hastily rounding a corner, and with a little scream just 
managed to save herself from being saved by me, and 
then “flopped” away with an agility which was more 
remarkable than graceful. 
After a two days’ rest in this land of plenty, we made 
an early start, with the view to ascending the heights of 
Kilima-njaro in the double capacity of sportsmen and 
mountaineers. Just before we left, Sina held a political 
meeting on the advisability of accepting the hand of 
friendship, now extended towards him by the Masai 
and W’Arusha envoys, which resulted in his sending a 
present of iron chains to the Masai, in token of his 
willingness to make a treaty with them and with them 
only. The overtures of the W’Arusha had been de¬ 
clined, as he afterwards told us, for the simple reason 
that his cabinet agreed with him that they represented 
a blackguard tribe, quite unworthy of being trusted 
and capable of the grossest form of treachery, under 
the guise of a pretended desire for friendship. 
On leaving the camp we had a most tedious march 
through the cultivated portions of Kiboso, crossing no 
fewer than nine steep ravines without attaining a 
higher altitude than 4800 feet. The last ravine was a 
real stiff one, for after an almost perpendicular descent 
of 1000 feet, we had to make an equally steep ascent 
of its opposite incline. Having accomplished this, we 
encamped for the night, and discovered the disappoint¬ 
ing fact, that after marching for seven most tedious 
