Part 16 (1/2)

Now into camp filed a swith great satisfaction one of B's tailor-arettes M'booley advanced ten feet to ht them up to introduce them one by one in the most formal fashi+on These were of course his fai's outfit of ornaave them each in turn the handshake of cere the other's upright thumb The ”little chiefs” were proud, aristocratic little fellows, holding theht and solemn I think one would have known them for royalty anywhere

It was quite a social occasion None of our guests was in the least ill at ease; in fact, the young ladies were quite coy and flirtatious We had a great many jokes Each of the little ladies received a handful of prevailing beads M'booley shtful fee of the hill and showed us his houses across the cation, perched on a flat about halfway up the wall They were of the usual grass-thatched construction, but rather larger and neater than lassesthat a little streah the front yard M'booley waved his hand abroad and gave us to understand that he considered the outlook worth looking at It was; but an appreciation of that fact is foreign to the average native Next , e rode by very early, we found the little flat ed M'booley was out to shake us by the hand in farewell, shi+vering in the cold of dawn The flirtatious and spoiled little beauties were not in evidence

One day after two very deep canyons we ele into an up and down country of high jungle bush-brush Froood deal like a northern cut-over pine country grown up very heavily to blackberry vines; although, of course, e came nearer, the ”blackberry vines” proved to be ten or twenty feet high This was a district of which Horne had warned us The natives herein were reported restless and semi-hostile; and in fact had never been friendly They probably needed the demonstration most native tribes seem to require before they are content to settle down and be happy At any rate safaris were not pero through er, and had a good reputation with natives

It is very curious how abruptly, in Central Africa, one passes from one condition to another, from one tribe or race to the next So of a deep cation; at others the sih Moreover the line of demarcation is clearly defined, as boundaries elsewhere are never defined save in wartiood-bye to a friendly numerous people, descended a hill, and ascended another into a deserted track After a halfeach a load of reeds These they abandoned and fled up the hillside through the jungle, in spite of our shouted assurances A moment later they reappeared at some distance above us, each with a spear he had snatched froht of thelasses they proved to be sullen looking men, copper coloured, but broad across the cheekbones, broad in the forehead, ro type than our late hosts

Aside froh an apparently deserted jungle I suspect, however, that ere probably atched; for e stopped for noon we heard the gunbearers beyond the screen of leaves talking to so from our boys that these were soes in for a shauri; but in this our et nearer than fifty yards or so to the wild people So until evening our impression remained that of two distant men, and the indistinct sound of voices behind a leafy screen

We made camp comparatively early in a wide open space surrounded by low forest Ales coant They were fully armed Besides the spear and decorated shi+eld, sorass spears

These are used to stab upward frorass Soroundwork ochre, on which had been drawn intricate wavy designs on the legs, like stockings, and varied stripes across the face One particularly ingenious individual, stark naked, had outlined a roughly entire skeleton! He was a gruesoh the ca at our men and their activities with a lofty and silent conteh they did not appear on the surface The askaris, or native soldiers, were posted here and there with their unbearers also kept our spare weapons by them

The askaris could not hit a barn, but they could unbearers were fair shots

Of course the chief and his pries To thehtest attention, but went about our usual business as though they did not exist At the end of an hour they of their own initiative greeted us We did not hear them Half an hour later they disappeared, to return after an interval, followed by a string of younghad ih to recognize theave them adequate presents and dismissed them Then we ordered the askaris to clear camp and to keep it clear No woifts of firewood had been carried by

As soon as dark fell the dru, and the chanting to rise We instructed our men to shoot first and inquire afterward, if a shenzi soThis was not as bad as it sounded; the shenzi stood in no iht and broken by uncertainty I do not think ere in any ier of a considered attack, for these people were not openly hostile; but there was always a chance that the savageswork theht have to do a little rapid shooting Not for one instant the whole night long did thoseAt any rate we cost the we took up our n of human life did we encounter About ten o'clock we cliash of a box canyon with precipitous cliffs Froainst the skyline, the s So we had had company after all, and we had not known it This canyon proved to be the boundary line With the saain into friendly country

(d) OUT THE OTHER SIDE

We left the jungle finally e turned on a long angle away from Kenia At first the open country of the foothills was closely cultivated with fields of rape andnew soil bypointed sticks The plowround and pried It was very slow hard work In other fields the grain stood high and good Frole, the little naked totos stared out, and the good-natured wonificent peak of Kenia had now shaken itself free of the forests On its snow the sunrises and sunsets kindled their fires The flarass fires, too, could plainly be h the reek, were fascinating suggestions of distant rivers, plains, jungles, and hills You see, ere still practically on the wide slope of Kenia's base, though the peak was many days away, and so could look out over wide country

The last half day of this andered literally in a rape field The stalks were quite above our heads, and we could see but a few yards in any direction In addition the track had become a footpath not over two feet wide We could occasionally look back to catch gli on a porter's head From our own path hundreds of other paths branched; ere continually taking the wrong fork and ht before it could do likewise This we did by drawing a deep double line in the earth across the wrong trail

Then we hustled on ahead to pioneer the way a little farther; our difficulties were further complicated by the fact that we had sent our horses back to Nairobi for fear of the tsetse fly, so we could not see out above the corn All we kneas that we ought to go down hill

At the ends of so little settleroups of houses inside brush enclosures, with loooden gateways beneath which we had to stoop to enter Within were groups of beehive houses with small naked children and perhaps an old woed under a sort of veranda Fro-directions

After three o'clock we cah, belohich lay uncultivated botto strea strea in the heat, and so were content to sit down under our tent-fly before our little table, and let Maho us sparklets and lime juice Before us was the flat of a meadow below the cliffs and the cliffs the rape not over two acres in extent, the only sign of huh this little bit had overflowed from the countless nal of smoke

We sipped our lime juice and rested Soon our attention was attracted by the peculiar actions of a big flock of very white birds They rose suddenly from one side of the tiny rape field, wheeled and swirled like leaves in the wind, and dropped down suddenly on the other side the patch After a few ht the dazzling white of their pluht be, then on what they were doing, to behave in so peculiar a et in their recuperative work Somehow the distance across that flat did not seem quite as treun and sauntered across to investigate The cause of action I soon determined

The owner of that rape field turned out to be an ee He was armed with a spear; and at the e flock of white birds off his grain Since he had no assistance, and since the birds held his spear in justifiable conte ave way before his direct charge, flopped over to the other side, and continued their e; the rape heads were bent and destroyed for a space of perhaps ten feet frorain probably constituted the old man's food supply for a season, I did not wonder at the vehemence hich he shook his spear at his eneh I did marvel at his physical endurance As for the birds, they had become cynical and impudent; they barely fluttered out of the way

I halted the old gentleman and hastened to explain that I was neither a pirate, a robber, nor an oppressor of the poor This as counter-check to his tendency to flee, leaving e He understood a little Swahili, and talked a feords of soe By h a ot hin It was very simple I squatted down inside the rape, while he went around the other side to scare them up

The white birds uttered their peculiarly derisive cackle at the old man and flapped over to my side Then they were certainly an astonished lot of birds I gave theot twooversingle as a grand finale The flock, with shrill, derogatory reht away They never deviated, as far as I could follow them with the eye Even after they had apparently disappeared, I could catch an occasional flash of white in the sun