CHAPTER XXIV 



NERVES AT NTUNKWAE 



IN June, 1908, whilst on the way from Lindi to 

 the Mahenge district, I was obliged to lie up at a 

 small village near Ntunkwae Hill, about three days' 

 journey from the Songea Collectorate ; for I had 

 been suffering for about a month from recurrent 

 attacks of tick-fever, which had reduced me to a 

 thoroughly exhausted condition. 



One morning, during my enforced stay in the 

 locality, I was roused from sleep and informed by the 

 village headman, Potosambo, that two of his men, 

 who had been into the forest in search of bees-wax, 

 had just returned with the report that a large elephant, 

 which had killed a native hunter the previous even- 

 ing, was only a few miles off in the neighbourhood. 

 Hearing that a European was encamped in the 

 village, they had travelled all night to inform him of 

 this disaster, in the hope of inducing him to come 

 and slay the elephant, which, they averred, was well 



