XI 



THE NDOROBO THE NAKED HUNTERS OF THE MAU 

 FOREST 



PRIMITIVE man has often been depicted as living 

 stark naked, hunting animals with bow and arrow ; 

 eating flesh uncooked ; living in holes in trees, in 

 caves, or under shelters made of boughs, leaves, or 

 dried grass. There is no need to draw on the 

 imagination, for the Ndorobo living in the thick forests 

 bordering the Mau Escarpment, fulfil these conditions. 

 These natural hunters live in the thick forests, where 

 they shoot birds and the Colobus monkey with poisoned 

 arrows. They obtain larger mammals by digging narrow 

 pits across their tracks. These pits are prepared at 

 various angles and the game driven towards them : the 

 animals stumble into the narrow pits and fall, breaking 

 their legs and sometimes their backs. The largest 

 animals are caught in regular gamepits. 



The Ndorobo use a peculiar weapon for hunting the 

 elephant of which Thomson has given a good description. 

 In shape it is something like the rammer of a cannon, 

 the heavy head giving additional weight in dealing 

 a blow. The thickened part holds a w r eapon shaped 

 like a dart or arrow ; the sharp end of the dart is 

 smeared \vith a deadly poison. When the terminal 

 piece is in position the whole weapon measures about 

 eight feet in length. 



With this spear the elephant is attacked at close 

 quarters ; the dart is driven into its body and being 

 loosely fixed in the handle it sticks in the animal : 



131 K 



