202 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



and await my return. They have invariably replied 

 in the negative, saying that if my trackers and I can 

 endure the hardship, they also can and will, and 

 pointing out that if they were to return to camp and 

 I kill an elephant in their absence, they would only 

 be objects of derision to their womenfolk. 



Though the native I do not refer to the coast 

 native is instinctively fond of hunting, he lives on 

 what he grows in his shamba or garden, and in com- 

 parison with the labourer in civilized countries gets 

 the necessaries of life easily. When about to clear 

 the virgin forest for his garden, he asks his wife to 

 make a lot of beer, and then invites all his friends 

 to come and help him with the undertaking. They 

 arrive and set to work with a will, and ere long 

 they have the trees cut and stacked aside. When 

 the work is finished, the host treats them to unlimited 

 beer, and if a wife makes good beer, she is known 

 for miles around. The shamba is now ready for 

 cultivation, and with very little labour yields him 

 anything between one to four crops of Indian corn 

 a year. In addition, he grows matama (their chief 

 grain food), sweet potatoes, rice, mealies, bananas, 

 several kinds of beans and peas, melons, and 

 pumpkins and vegetable marrows in variety. He 

 seldom suffers from lack of food, and experiences, 

 therefore, no difficulty about feeding his children, 

 while day in, day out, all the year round, he himself 



