from which he got a good view, and was able to see
the point of the Guaso Nyiro which he had reached
on his former journey. This enabled him to complete
his map of that river. Owing to the arid nature of
the country, game was very scarce, and what little there
was, was far too shy to permit us a shot. I spent most
of the time during our stay in questioning the old
Feraji Baraka Juma
T e n t -B o y s
Wanderobbo, who, for the sake of a little food, appeared
willing to give me all the information that lay in his
power.
The Wanderobbbo we saw at this place were not
elephant hunters; so they had rarely been visited by
trading caravans. They lived entirely upon antelope
flesh (which the able-bodied men shot with their bows
and arrows), wild honey, and what berries and fruits
the desert afforded. With the exception of the few
days immediately after the arrival of a successful party
of hunters, these Wanderobbo lived in a state of chronic
starvation; for occasions when sufficient honey to satisfy
an entire village was procured were rare.
Upon Lolokwi there lived but one settlement of
Wanderobbo, composed, all told, of but fifty souls.
Of these ten were active enough to hunt; then there
was one old man, and the remainder were women and
children. It seems that in this tribe the females greatly
outnumber the males. This perhaps is explained by
what my old friend told me. He said that women were
capable of supporting life without food for many more
days than men.
These Wanderobbo all spoke the Masai language.
They had few implements of any sort — four or five
rudely shaped clay pots for carrying water and cooking,
a few small axes, similar in shape to those I had seen
on the Jombeni range, bows, arrows, and knives. I
asked the old man why they did not go to the mountains,
settle down with the people there, and work, and
thus be relieved forever from starvation and famine.
He said: No, they were fond of their mode of life;
they knew no other; their fathers had lived the same
life before them, and they were unwilling to trust themselves
in the vicinage of any other people. The worst
time for them was during the rains; for then they were
unable to use their bows, as the strings frayed and
broke. During the rainy season they literally starved;
those- of greatest vitality surviving, while the weaker
ones died. Their one pleasure is the intoxication produced
by honey-wine.
Lolokwi is one of the southernmost mountains of
the General Matthews range, which extends from the