-* The Spell of the Pllelescho 



While the Masai warriors thus took their share in 

 elephant-killing, and the Wandorobo stuck to their long, 

 trusted poisoned darts and poisoned spears, the caravan 

 folk attacked the elephants with powder and iron bullets, 1 

 and slew whole hecatombs of them. 



" Nowadays," the leader of the caravan told me, " the 

 chase is easier and less dangerous, and your firearms also 

 give the man from the coast the power of hunting and 

 killing the Fihl (elephant). For example, you know, sir, 

 that my half-brother, Seliman bin Omari, is not a practised 

 hunter. And yet, believe me, he and his people have 

 brought down many, many elephants." 



But his banker on the coast, the Hindoo Radda Damja, 

 certainly never hears one word of any elephant being killed 

 by Seliman's people : 



" No one is so clever as he is at knowing nothing 

 about elephants when questions are asked. The ivory is 

 always something traded for with the natives, far, far away 

 in the interior," he adds, with u cunning wink. " The 

 main point is that we all get pembe (ivory), and he gets 

 plenty of it ! I would like to work the business as he 

 does, but, sir, I am not so clever in preparing amulets, and 

 moreover, I don't know as much as he does of the ways 

 of the elephant. 



" But it's a pity that in all parts of the country the ivory 

 is becoming very scarce, so one has to be going always 

 farther into the interior, and one must try to find new ivory 

 districts." 



1 The native elephant-hunters the " Waktia " use as a rule several 

 small iron bullets with a heavy charge of gunpowder. 



75 



