h domes thirty and forty feet high.
And always that queer, mystical light, with exaggerated shadows and
sometimes black darkness ahead, where could be heard the drip, drip,
drip of water in invisible lakes. In time of siege the holders of this
cave, with granaries filled and with herds of cattle and lakes of water,
could hold the place for ever.

The tenants of the place soon became pleasant and hospitable. Perhaps
many of them had never seen white people before, but they sat down and
watched us with friendly interest. There were many babies and they were
all bright-eyed and rugged looking.

While we were there the cattle were out on the open hills grazing, but
in the evening the long herds are driven up to their airy stronghold and
made snug for the night. And who knows but that a great herd of cattle
would add much to the heat of the cave and make its nearly naked tenants
forget that they were high on the chilly slopes of one of Africa's
greatest mountains?

They certainly do not dress warm. Around their arms and legs are all
sorts of brass and nickel wire wound in scores of circles. Chains of
wire and necklaces of beads encircle the women's throats and elephant
ivory armlets are often clasped about the arms so tight that it would
seem that the natural circulation would be hopelessly retarded. But they
must be healthy, these people who go about with only a thin sheet of
dyed cotton thrown about them, while we northerners shivered with
sweaters and warm woolen things about us.

It's all a case of getting used to it, just as it is a case of getting
used to seeing people frankly and unconsciously naked, as many of these
people are. But after a while one even gets used to seeing them so and
regards their nakedness as one would regard the nakedness of animals.

CHAPTER XVII

UP AND DOWN THE MOUNTAIN SIDE FROM THE KETOSH VILLAGE TO THE GREAT CAVE
OF BATS. A DRAMATIC EPISODE WITH THE FINDING OF A BLACK BABY AS A CLIMAX

For days we had heard of wonderful places higher up in the mountain. The
information had been so vague and uncertain we hardly knew whether to
credit the reports or simply put them down as native folk lore or
superstition. One night we interviewed Askar, one of the Somali
gunbearers.

He said he had been up the mountain a year or two before with a
Frenchman who wanted to see the mysterious natural wonders of Mount
Elgon. The Frenchman had to threaten to kill his native guides before
they wou