132 



EASTERN ETHIOPIA 



XI 



_L 

 14 



Ndorobo 



Elephant Spear. 



A. The Dart. 



(British Museum.) 



the handle of the harpoon remains with 

 the hunter. Another dart is placed in 

 the handle and the operation is repeated 

 when circumstances are favourable. In 

 making the thrust, the hunter endeavours 

 to stick the dart in the abdomen where 

 the intestines lie. 



The shaft of the arrow-like portion of 

 this complicated spear is made of the 

 wood of the wild olive. The wood of 

 this tree is used for singularly varied 

 purposes hi different parts of the world. 

 In East Africa it is used for spears and 

 railway sleepers : in Palestine, especially 

 at Jerusalem, it is employed to make 

 penholders and the covers of books, 

 especially prayer-books and Bibles. 



The Ndorobo are quite naked when 

 living in the wood, but when among 

 white men, who employ them as trackers, 

 they wear a blanket over the shoulders. 

 Their ears are disfigured by helix-quills, 

 by rings, and plugs of wood inserted 

 into the lobes. They do not tattoo their 

 bodies, but they dress their hair after the 

 fashion of the Masai. 



The Ndorobo do not form large tribes, 

 but conceal themselves in the forest, 

 where they live in holes or under 

 shelters made of grass, and slink about 

 the forest. Occasionally they come out 

 to barter the proceeds of their hunting 

 with the settlers. When an animal is 

 killed they eat the flesh uncooked, and 

 are particularly fond of the viscera, the 

 paunch of ruminants, and the soft 

 internal fat of the abdomen : they often 

 fight with each other to obtain choice 

 morsels. 



The country in which the Ndorobo 



