hain and other fantastic ornaments. The men always carry
bows and poisoned arrows, as well as a seemie (a short,
roughly-fashioned sword) hung on a leathern thong round the waist. A
three-legged stool is also an important part of their equipment, and is
slung on the shoulder when on the march.

The next people met with on the road to the Great Lakes are the Wa
Kamba, who inhabit the Ukambani province, and may be seen from M'toto
Andei to the Athi River. They are a very large tribe, but have little
cohesion, being split up, into many clans under chiefs who govern in a
patriarchal kind of way. In appearance and dress--or the want of
it--they are very like the Wa Taita, and they have the same custom of
filing the front teeth. As a rule, too, they are a peace-loving people,
though when driven to it by hunger they will commit very cruel and
treacherous acts of wholesale murder. While the railway was being
constructed, a severe famine occurred in their part of the country,
when hundreds of them died of starvation. During this period they
several times swooped down on isolated railway maintenance gangs and
utterly annihilated them, in order to obtain possession of the food
which they knew would be stored in the camps. These attacks were always
made by night. Like most other native races in East Africa, their only
arms are the bow and poisoned arrow, but in the use of these primitive
weapons they are specially expert. The arrow-head remains in the flesh
when the shaft is withdrawn, and if the poison is fresh, paralysis and
death very quickly follow, the skin round the wound turning yellow and
mortifying within an hour or two. This deadly poison is obtained, I
believe, by boiling down a particular root, the arrow-heads being
dipped in the black, pitchy-looking essence which remains. I am glad to
say, however, that owing to the establishment of several Mission
Stations amongst them, the Wa Kamba are quickly becoming the most
civilised natives in the country; and the missionaries have adopted the
sensible course of teaching the people husbandry and the practical arts
and crafts of everyday life, in addition to caring for their spiritual
needs.

CHAPTER XII

A NIGHT AFTER HIPPO

During my stay at Tsavo I made many little excursions into the
surrounding country, and used to go off on a short shooting and
exploring expedition whenever I had the opportunity. I was especially
anxious to bag a hippopotamus, so I made up my