_RETURN TO M’THARA._ Departure from the Rendili settlement—Ismail’s porters desert—The affray between Barri and the Somalis—Ismail wounded—A giraffe hunt—Ismail’s vacillation—Another giraffe hunt—Journey up the Waso Nyiro—Hippopotamus-shooting. WE marched steadily for nearly three hours, and then, selecting a suitable spot, camped on the river-bank. _En route_ we noticed several stone cairns, which on inquiry I learnt were the burial-places of the Rendili. Unlike the Wakamba, A’kikuyu, and Masai, they do not leave their dead or dying relatives outside their villages, to the tender mercies of the hyænas. They, on the contrary, dig a hole in the ground, in which the corpse is placed in a sitting position. Stones are then piled over the body till a cairn is formed, and finally a spear is placed upright on the summit. In view of the utter dissimilarity between the Rendili and the ordinary negro, and the lack of definite information concerning their origin, it is to my mind a curious coincidence at least that they should bury their dead in almost precisely the same manner as the people who at one time inhabited the banks of the Nile in Upper Egypt.[16] I remember hearing in Cairo, in the early part of 1899, that Professor Flinders Petrie had unearthed some graves which were supposed to be those of a people so ancient as to be unacquainted with the use of metals, and who buried their dead in a sitting position, afterwards covering them by inverting a large earthen jar over the body and then filling up the grave. These facts, taken in conjunction with Mr. Seton Karr’s discovery of flint implements in Somaliland resembling, I believe, those discovered by Professor Petrie in Egypt may, in the hands of an antiquarian, throw an interesting light on the antecedents of this remarkable people. It would be interesting indeed could it be shown that the Rendili are the modern representatives of the primitive race who manufactured clay pottery and worked in flint on the banks of the Nile before the pyramids were built. When we had constructed a boma for the sheep, George and I went down to bathe in the Waso Nyiro, a feat we successfully accomplished to the accompaniment of the usual eccentric dance on account of the leeches.