300 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



real danger unless you watch out. They are about six 

 or eight feet long, perhaps three feet wide, and eight or 

 ten feet deep. Sometimes they are planted with sharp 

 stakes, and occasionally — but not often — these stakes 

 are poisoned. A great many of them are disused and 

 open, so anybody can avoid them by watching out, 

 but those covered are invisible to all but the Wanderobo. 

 The only way is to follow the leader; and when the 

 savage makes a little side-step, to make a little side- 

 step, too. Shortcuts do not pay. The idea is to get 

 the elephant's fore legs in this narrow trench; not the 

 whole beast. It must be an incredible labour to dig 

 these pits with knives and sticks. 



I have been much interested in one of the younger 

 Wanderobo, a youth of eighteen or so. He is so near 

 the animal that he is attractive. His forehead is 

 pinched, his nose wide, his mouth and chin project 

 actually beyond the nose. But with it all he has the 

 wistful, soft brown eyes of the monkey; hauntingly pa- 

 thetic and questing, as though of an intelligence trying to 

 break through. He is a most skilful tracker; and in 

 these wet forests no turned leaf or muddied twig es- 

 capes him. The Wanderobo are queer, primitive little 

 creatures, absolutely certain and competent in the 

 forest craft, but equally helpless at everything else. 

 This is a terrible forest in which to keep one 's bearings ; 

 for there are no landmarks, no "lay of the land," no 

 openings. Even the compass is useless, for a straight 



