encamped alone at the end of a spur of mountains. We sent native runners
after him. He explained his change of base by saying that the cattle
feed was a little better at his new camp! Mind you this: at the
Narossara the feed was quite good enough, the oxen were doing no work,
there was companionship, books, papers, and even a phonograph to while
away the long weeks until our return. N'gombe Brown quite cheerfully
deserted all this to live in solitude where he imagined the feed to be
microscopically better!

FOOTNOTES:

[21] N'gombe = oxen.




XXXVI.

ACROSS THE THIRST.


We were off, a bright, clear day after the rains. Suswa hung grayish
pink against the bluest of skies. Our way slanted across the Rift Valley
to her base, turned the corner, and continued on the other side of the
great peak until we had reached the rainwater "pan" on her farther side.
It was a long march.

The plains were very wide and roomy. Here and there on them rose many
small cones and craters, lava flows and other varied evidences of recent
volcanic activity. Geologically recent, I mean. The grasses of the