A CAMP AMONG CANNIBALS 



hunters many tribes might not get a big feed once in a 

 lifetime. 



Several crude ways of capturing elephants are 

 practised by the Congo natives. One of these is to use 

 a long, broad-bladed spear, the wider part of which, or 

 that part near the shaft, is generally barbed ; two feet 

 behind this a large mass of clay encased in grass or 

 strips of bark-like bandages, is affixed round the shaft, 

 sometimes the clay is replaced by a section of hardwood 

 tree of great weight. The whole thing, with shaft and 

 blade, measures some seven or eight feet in length. To 

 use this the wily natives climb up a tree that overhangs 

 the path taken by the elephants when going down to 

 the river or pool of water, and as the game passes under 

 the tree the weapon is driven down into the neck, and 

 with the heavy weight behind it the blade often penetrates 

 to a great depth. The elephant in trying to free itself 

 of its burden, rubs against the tree trunks and branches; 

 this onlv makes matters worse for the poor brute, for 

 the blade is being dragged to and fro, inflicting an awful 

 wound. Eventually the beast drops from loss of blood 

 and is speared to death. Seething masses of the natives 

 then swarm over the great body and wallow in the very 

 bowels of the carcase, covering themselves with the blood 

 that lies all round in huge pools. 



On the news of a dead elephant in their domain, 

 women and children crowd to the scene where lies the 

 giant of all game, the great skin hanging on the body 

 in folds, caked with mud and dust, the effect of the great 

 brute's ablutions at some pool or other far back in its 

 muddy midday toilet. The frenzied people around the 

 body of an elephant are mad with excitement, it is a 

 sight both repellent and disgusting ; they eat the flesh 

 raw, just as they tear it from the great frame, as though 

 they had never had food before. The women and 

 children have brought baskets of palm fronds, bark or 



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