of the several mountain tribes occupying these northern spurs. The little hamlets dotted about consist generally of a cluster of perhaps half a dozen huts and a granary enclosed by a palisade or growing hedge, the huts being constructed of mud and wattle, circular in shape, with a low entrance and flat roof of grass thickly covered over with earth, whilst the granaries, which are raised above the ground, are generally of wicker-work. The natives in many respects are not unlike the Wa-Kikuyu, as they smear their bodies over with the same chocolate-coloured clay, liberally mixed with fat, and work their hair into the similar mop-head style. Their ears are, however, not distended to quite so great an extent, and they wear few ornaments beyond a little iron chain and iron wire round their necks and wrists, and perhaps an ivory bracelet in addition round their biceps, whilst a leather belt, adorned with cowrie shells round the waist, is also very generally worn by the young bloods. A small goat-skin, well cured and greased, and soft as chamois leather, is thrown jauntily over one shoulder, whilst in his hand the young warrior carries either a long-handled spear with small blade or a bow and arrows, and a long, narrow, oval-shaped shield of thick hide. The elder women wear two hides, and are satisfied with a ring or two of iron wire round the neck, and similar ornaments round the wrists. They are great smokers, and, like the elderly ladies of Kavirondo, strut about with pipes, consisting of small earthenware bowls, to which are attached long wooden stems. They grow their own tobacco on the premises, as every little hamlet has its own tobacco plot just outside the enclosure. I am a very heavy smoker myself, but these ladies seldom had their pipes out of their mouths, and I dare say would comfortably consume in a day what would last me for a week. The young unmarried girls wear a very simple costume, consisting of a ring or two of iron wire round the neck and a small leather apron 8 to 9 inches square, or a fringe of beads, not unlike rosaries, of the same size, which depends in front from a girdle round the waist, whilst a similar, though somewhat larger, covering of hide falls behind. In the Save district, where we now were, beads appeared to be absolutely never worn by the natives except a few of a black variety, which seemed to take the place of iron wire. We had much difficulty regarding the purchase of food in consequence, as our chief trade goods consisted of many different assortments of beads. When I asked their chief the reason of his people not caring for these, he replied beads were of no use to them ; they wanted iron wire, from which they could make all their agricultural implements, besides axes, knives, spears, arrow-heads, etc.—a very sensible reason, but, unfortunately, one that hit us hard, as we only had one 60-pound load of iron wire, a most uneconomical medium for purchasing flour, though most useful for obtaining live-stock, such as goats and sheep. Our negotiations with the Swahili traders regarding supply of food soon fell through, as they took advantage of our more or less starving condition, and asked 30 rupees (about £2 sterling) for a bag of 60 pounds, whereas I had offered three and was prepared to pay five! As the money transaction failed, they suggested a deal in cloth, to which I was agreeable, as we had large quantities of trade cloth done up in bales weighing about 60 pounds each. I expected to receive at least fifty bags of flour for one bale of cloth; they offered six. No deal. We were on our own again; but the traders, who saw it was at least good policy to remain on friendly terms with a Government expedition, helped us in many ways to obtain food for our daily requirements from the natives, though there seemed little or no prospect of obtaining sufficient in this neighbourhood to store the 500 loads required by Macdonald for the three columns. We had a certain number of small iron axeheads also amongst our trade goods, which went very readily, and with the help of these-for each of which we obtained at least a bag of flour-and some cloth and iron wire, we just managed to keep ourselves and the garrison at the foot of the hill. Then, when everything else had seemed to fall flat, we slaughtered oxen and sold the meat in return for flour, beans, and hanks of bananas. At length, on November 8, a party of our men returned from another district called Mbai, some five hours distant in a south-westerly direction along the Elgon spurs, to which they had been sent with a few trade goods, such as axeheads, beads, and cloth, and reported a ready market for these goods at that place. By dint of long and slow bargaining we had succeeded in obtaining some twenty bags of flour for despatch to the Marich garrison, so I decided to split up our camp next day at Save. Tracy and Osborn, therefore, proceeded on the 9th with a party of some thirty-five men to Mbai, carrying trade goods and so on in order to open out a market; this proved an unqualified success in course of time, and from here, at various periods during the next year, some 4,000 loads of banana flour, chiefly, were obtained. Tracy and Osborn deserve much credit for the able way in which they established such friendly relations with the chiefs and natives of Mbai, to which much of the success of the subsequent operations of the expedition following on the mutiny was due, as it was to a large extent dependent for its food-supply on the markets now about to be established. On the same day the Marich party of two N.C.O.'s and eighteen Swahilis were despatched with flour for that place, and instructions that all deserters who had come in to the post there were to be made prisoners. I must explain that since leaving Marich, and before we reached Save, several further cases of desertion had occurred amongst the porters, on one night in particular no less than six men having gone |