l82 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



a rule, only the massive rumps are viewed, and the tusks, always difficult to 

 see in thick country, even from thirty or forty yards, remain invisible. 



With a big bore the safest shot to go for is the heart, as it allows more 

 margin for error. A heart-shot, however, is not always instantly fatal, and if the 

 elephant comes for you a shot fired at close range in his face should turn him. 



It is nearly always a female that proves truculent, or a worthless tusked young 

 male that becomes playful, and when tied down by stringent game regulations it is a 

 very difficult matter to decide, on the spur of the moment, what to do. If you 

 shoot the animal it is one lost on your licence, as well as, possibly, a rebuff from 

 official quarters. Charging female and young elephants are often looked upon by 

 the ignorant as myths of the imagination, and the small size of the tusks, when 

 compared to those of a well-grown bull, adds to the delusion that the animal 

 in question was not really very formidable. Female tusks may be small, but they 

 are very sharp — sharp enough to drive right through a man's skull, as has been 

 proved many times — and the tusks are not the only things to be feared, there 

 is the trunk and also feet to reckon with. 



The best advice, then, is, leave the females and young alone, even if there are 

 bulls with them. ^ ^ 



There is one denizen of the forest I have not yet described, and that is the 

 professional native hunter. The Wandorobo is the name of the tribe, but among 

 themselves they are known as the Ogieg. One hears sometimes of Masai Wandorobo 

 in contradistinction to Kikuyu Wandorobo. The former have a tradition that they 

 were formerly derived from the same source as the Masai, and they refuse to admit 

 that there are any Wandorobo other than themselves. The Kikuyu Wandorobo are 

 merely Kikuyu who have taken to hunting as a means of livelihood. They live, to 

 all appearances, just like the Ogieg, but their language is Kikuyu, and they are 

 always liable to revert to the ordinary sj;ate of an agricultural Kikuyu. The Ogieg, 

 on the other hand, have a language of their own, which, though it bears certain 

 resemblances to other non-Bantu languages, such as Nandi, is yet just as much 

 a distinct language as is the Kikuyu language distinct from other Bantu languages. 

 Moreover, an Ogieg never reverts to any other sort of life, once an Ogieg he 

 remains one always. The tribe's ranks are sometimes swelled by Masai who have 

 been driven to a hunting life by hunger induced by cattle sickness. A Masai once 

 adopting this profession never reverts to the pastoral life again, but remains and 

 intermarries with the Ogieg and virtually becomes one of them. 



These hunters are practically nomads in the forests following the game about. 

 When they kill an animal they build their little huts near the carcase, and remain 



