The cooing,
chattering and calling of thousands of birds mingled with shouts and the
clapping together of pieces of wood. As we came closer we saw that every
so often scaffolds had been erected overlooking the grain, and on these
scaffolds naked boys danced and yelled and worked clappers to scare the
birds from the crops. They seemed to put a great deal of rigour into the
job; whether from natural enthusiasm or efficient direful supervision I
could not say. Certainly they must have worked in watches, however; no
human being could keep up that row continuously for a single day, let
alone the whole season of ripening grain. As we passed they fell silent
and stared their fill.

On the banks of a boggy little stream that we had to flounder across we
came on a gentleman and lady travelling. They were a tall, well formed
pair, mahogany in colour, with the open, pleasant expression of most of
these jungle peoples. The man wore a string around his waist into which
was thrust a small leafy branch; the woman had on a beautiful skirt made
by halving a banana leaf, using the stem as belt, and letting the leaf
part hang down as a skirt. Shortly after meeting these people we turned
sharp to the right on a well beaten road.

For nearly two weeks we were to follow this road, so it may be as well
to get an idea of it. Its course was a segment of about a sixth of the
circle of Kenia's foothills. With Kenia itself as a centre, this road
swung among the lower elevations about the base of that great mountain.
Its course was mainly down and up hundreds of the canyons radiating from
the main peak, and over the ridges between them. No sooner were we down,
than we had to climb up; and no sooner were we up, than once more down
we had to plunge. At times, however, we crossed considerable plateaus.
Most of this country was dense jungle, so dense that we could not see
on either side more than fifteen or twenty feet. Occasionally, atop the
ridges, however, we would come upon small open parks. In these jungles
live millions of human beings.

At once, as soon as we had turned into the main road, we began to meet
people. In the grain fields of the valley we saw only the elevated boys,
and a few men engaged in weaving a little house perched on stilts. We
came across some of these little houses all completed, with conical
roofs. They were evidently used for granaries. As we mounted the slope
on the other side, however, the trees closed in, and we foun