hill just ahead of the wagon. This is to confuse their minds, cause them
to forget their failure, and thus to make another attempt.

At one stretch we had three days of real mountains. N'gombe[21] Brown
shrieked like a steam calliope all the way through. He lasted the
distance, but had little camp-fire conversation even with his beloved
Kikuyus.

When the team is outspanned, which in the waterless country of forced
marches is likely to be almost any time of the day or night, N'gombe
Brown sought a little rest. For this purpose he had a sort of bunk that
let down underneath the wagon. If it were daytime, the cattle were
allowed to graze under supervision of one of the Kikuyus. If it was
night time they were tethered to the long chain, where they lay in a
somnolent double row. A lantern at the head of the file and one at the
wagon's tail were supposed to discourage lions. In a bad lion country
fires were added to these defences.

N'gombe Brown thus worked hard through varied and long hours in strict
intimacy with stupid and exasperating beasts. After working hours he
liked to wander out to watch those same beasts grazing! His mind was as
full of cattle as that! Although we offered him reading matter, he never
seemed to care for it, nor for long-continued conversation with white
people not of his trade. In fact the only gleam of interest I could get
out of him was by commenting on the qualities or peculiarities of the
oxen. He had a small mouth-organ on which he occasionally performed, and
would hold forth for hours with his childlike Kikuyus. In the
intelligence to follow ordinary directions he was an infant. We had to
iterate and reiterate in words of one syllable our directions as to
routes and meeting-points, and then he was quite as apt to go wrong as
right. Yet, I must repeat, he knew thoroughly all the ins and outs of a
very difficult trade, and understood, as well, how to keep his cattle
always fit and in good condition. In fact he was a little hipped on what
the "dear n'gombes" should or should not be called upon to do.

One incident will illustrate all this better than I could explain it.
When we reached the Narossara River we left the wagon and pushed on
afoot. We were to be gone an indefinite time, and we left N'gombe Brown
and his outfit very well fixed. Along the Narossara ran a pleasant shady
strip of high jungle; the country about was clear and open; but most
important of all, a white man of education an