After lunch we started for Karanjui, which is a sort of halfway camp to M’thara. In an hour or so we reached the forest that stretches in one unbroken belt right round Kenia. It was almost impenetrable, but fortunately El Hakim, on a former expedition, had cut a path through it, which we now followed. It was a weird and gloomy-looking forest, the trees being twisted and tangled in every direction with out-spreading branches which, growing low down, made riding impossible. One would look in vain for a straight tree-trunk or branch. Nature had apparently amused herself by twisting them into all sorts of curious and fantastic shapes. The men crept through with silent footsteps, and only the rattle of a rifle or the feeble twitter of a solitary bird broke the intense stillness of the semi-twilight. On the way I noticed some black-and-white hornbills. Presently we reached Karanjui, an oval depression in the ground, perhaps 700 yards long and 500 yards wide, and perfectly clear of trees. In the rainy season it is swampy, but at the time of our visit it was quite dry except for a pool at one end, and covered with coarse grass. All round it and beyond stretched the silent forest. Here we camped for the night. Near Karanjui live the Tomori people, with whom El Hakim had had a difference of opinion some months before. After our evening meal we persuaded El Hakim to tell us the yarn. Briefly it was as follows:— Travelling from Munithu to M’thara, he was passing through the forest belt, intending to camp at Karanjui. On his arrival there he found that two of his porters were missing. He thereupon sent his head-man and some other porters back into the forest to look for them. They returned an hour or two later with the mutilated bodies of the missing men, which were perforated all over with spear-wounds and also horribly hacked and chopped about with “simes” (native swords). Their loads had disappeared altogether. El Hakim gave directions for the safari to go on with their camping arrangements, and, selecting four men, immediately set out for the village of the Tomori chief. Arrived there, he stood outside and summoned him. That worthy soon swaggered out, accompanied by fifty or sixty warriors as a bodyguard, and insolently demanded the M’sungu’s business. El Hakim, through his interpreter, quietly stated his grievance, and asked that the young men who had murdered his servants should be given up to him for punishment; also that his missing trade goods should be restored. The chief laughed in his face, and turning to his admiring followers, derisively repeated the M’sungu’s demand, which was received by a shout of laughter, accompanied by threatening gestures in El Hakim’s direction. The chief again turned to him, and in a most insolent manner, shaking his spear, bade him begone, accompanying his words with contemptuous gestures. El Hakim never moved a hair, but quietly repeated his demand, adding that if the murderers were not given up he would hold the