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The Land of Footprints-Part23_Stewart Edward White(1873-1946)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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country. Then, in the pass, we came upon many parallelbeaten

paths, wider and straighter than the game trails-native tracks.



That night we camped in a small, round valley under some glorious

trees, with green grass around us; a refreshingcontrast after



the desert brown. In the distance ahead stood a big hill, and at

its base we could make out amid the tree-green, the straight slim



smoke of many fires and the threads of many roads.

We began our next morning's march early, and we dropped over the



hill into a wide, cultivatedvalley. Fields of grain, mostly

rape, were planted irregularly among big scattered trees. The



morning air, warming under the sun, was as yet still, and carried

sound well. The cooing, chattering and calling of thousands of



birds mingled with shouts and the clapping together of pieces of

wood. As we came closer we saw that every so often scaffolds had



been erected overlooking the grain, and on these scaffolds naked

boys danced and yelled and worked clappers to scare the birds



from the crops. They seemed to put a great deal of rigour into

the job; whether from natural enthusiasm or efficient direful



supervision I could not say. Certainly they must have worked in

watches, however; no human being could keep up that row



continuously for a single day, let alone the whole season of

ripening grain. As we passed they fell silent and stared their



fill.

On the banks of a boggy little stream that we had to flounder



across we came on a gentleman and lady travelling. They were a

tall, well formed pair, mahogany in colour, with the open,



pleasant expression of most of these jungle peoples. The man wore

a string around his waist into which was thrust a small leafy



branch; the woman had on a beautiful skirt made by halving a

banana leaf, using the stem as belt, and letting the leaf part



hang down as a skirt. Shortly after meeting these people we

turned sharp to the right on a well beaten road.



For nearly two weeks we were to follow this road, so it may be as

well to get an idea of it. Its course was a segment of about a



sixth of the circle of Kenia's foothills. With Kenia itself as a

centre, this road swung among the lower elevations about the base



of that great mountain. Its course was mainly down and up

hundreds of the canyons radiating from the main peak, and over the



ridges between them. No sooner were we down, than we had to climb

up; and no sooner were we up, than once more down we had to



plunge. At times, however, we crossed considerable plateaus. Most

of this country was dense jungle, so dense that we could not see



on either side more than fifteen or twenty feet. Occasionally,

atop the ridges, however, we would come upon small open parks. In



these jungles live millions of human beings.

At once, as soon as we had turned into the main road, we began to



meet people. In the grain fields of the valley we saw only the

elevated boys, and a few men engaged in weaving a little house



perched on stilts. We came across some of these little houses all

completed, with conical roofs. They were evidently used for



granaries. As we mounted the slope on the other side, however,

the trees closed in, and we found ourselves marching down the



narrow aisle of the jungle itself.

It was a dense and beautiful jungle, with very tall trees and the



deepest shade; and the impenetrable tangle to the edge of the

track. Among the trees were the broad leaves of bananas and



palms, the fling of leafy vines. Over the track these leaned, so

that we rode through splashing and mottling shade. Nothing could



have seemed wilder than this apparently impenetrable and yet we

had ridden but a short distance before we realized that we were



in fact passing through cultivated land. It was, again, only a

difference in terms. Native cultivation in this district rarely



consists of clearing land and planting crops in due order, but in

leaving the forest proper as it is, and in planting foodstuffs



haphazard wherever a tiny space can be made for even three hills

of corn or a single banana. Thus they add to rather than subtract






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