“Meantime a motley crowd assembled in the yard,--women and girls, the former with leather aprons, the latter entirely nude; men of different districts, all armed with shields and spears,--the genuine Lotuka people, recognisable by their slight figures and long faces,--all nude, and adorned with iron ornaments, ivory rings on the upper arm, broad copper rings as necklaces, and helmets of shining brass or copper plates, surmounted by waving ostrich plumes. Some of them wore caps made of basket work. After our reception was over, we visited the summit of the hill, whence a splendid view is obtained, extending from Mount Loligono in the Bēr country, northwards over the whole Lokoya range, to the west, and to the high peaks of the Obbo Mountains, in the south and southwest, where the horns of Jebel Asal tower up,--so named on Baker’s map, but called by the Bari “Ekara,” and by the Lotuka “Chufal,”--then away to the long lofty ranges of Molong and Killio, the defile leading to Tarangole, with its hills rising up like sentinels, and finally the long range of Lafit, which closes the scene on the northeast,--a typical Alpine landscape.” The Lotuka people, it might be mentioned, are very similar in appearance and language to the Elgumi tribe, which is much farther south, in the vicinity of Mount Elgon. Both these peoples are nearly related in origin to the Masai. They should properly be styled Lotuka.[99] [Illustration: EMIN PASHA.] Of the Lotuka country Dr. Emin writes:-- “The sky was overclouded when we left Tarangole. Taking a southeasterly course along Khor Kos,[100] through beautiful park land, we reached the ford in about half an hour. The _khor_ was here about twenty-two yards broad, and full of yellowish water, which reached up to our thighs, and flowed over a sandy, rocky bottom. We had a pleasant march over a good firm road, across sandy country covered with open wood, the ground being rather wet in some places; the predominance of acacias (_Acacia albida_, _A. mellifera_, and _A. campylacantha_) and _Balanites_ gave a gray tone to the scenery. Khor Oteng, now very insignificant, is said to pour such large volumes of water into Khor Kos[101] in the rainy season that the passage is often rendered impossible for hours. The ford of Khor Kos is called Chuchur; a splendid forest of doleb palms (_Borassus_) yielding an abundance of odorous fruits, skirts the khor, copses of various other trees intervening. Large flat blocks of friable granite, with white streaks, lie across the road that leads direct to the foot of the hill of Loguren, which is about four hundred feet high. Its summit is crowned with the dome-shaped huts of the village bearing the same name.