"And when I asked him about the Nandi Bear he did not laugh
or condescend, for he himself had a love of the fantastic. Instead
he constituted himself a member of ‘the commission’ and by devious routes examined the boys concerning this mythical monster,
for no direct questioning of a Kikuyu will result in an uncoloured
answer. Before long he had a Kikuyu and a Lumbwa arguing not
over the existence of the creature, but over its correct name, for
the legend is known to many tribes having no intercourse with each
other, speaking different tongues, and spread out over a consider
able portion of Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, and even the Eastern
Congo.
"According to our boys it was smaller than a lion but powerful
enough to take women and children and cattle, always by night.
Some said that it had a blackish face; others insisted on a shortish
mane, but all agreed on its most remarkable features. It walked,
they said, with the rolling gait of a bear—there was no mistaking
this description though bears are unknown in Africa—and it had
the same plantigrade feet, and the same long claws. Some of the
witnesses said that it had six toes.
"I well remember one particular scene. We stood upon the mountain side where the trees fell away, giving a splendid view of the
north-eastern Aberdares and all the country northward to
Rumuruti. A faint line in the distance suggested, perhaps, the Mau.
"'Now that,' said Raymond, 'is all good Nandi Bear country.
No Nandi Bears on my mountain.'
"About that time he made another remark which he was not destined to eat until a few months later.
"'There is a rumour,' he said, 'that a kind of dwarf lion exists
on Mount Kenya. Balderdash; all balderdash . . . .'"
