2 4 o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



come as something in the nature of an eye-opener. 

 Let me briefly describe the modus operandi which is 

 often adopted, and, after perusal, the reader may 

 draw his own conclusions as to the quality of mind 

 necessary to originate such an ingenious plan of 

 murder. 



Suppose Mputa is labouring under the idea that 

 Manjora has wronged him. Open murder is out of 

 the question it may be a more manly method of 

 getting rid of him; it is certainly crude, and impolitic. 

 Life is dear to Mputa, and he is most averse to 

 endangering it over such a nonentity as Manjora : 

 therefore, he must poison him. The first step in the 

 undertaking is to procure the necessary poison with- 

 out rousing suspicion, and this is managed very 

 cleverly and simply ; he persuades a friend, Usufu, 

 living in a distant village, to get the commodity 

 from a medicine man there. This effected, he 

 arranges with another dear friend, Hamice, to per- 

 form the delicate and difficult operation of 

 administering the deadly stuff, and Hamice, being 

 quite friendly with Manjora, can carry out this 

 portion of the scheme without rousing the suspicion 

 of anyone, and is, moreover, not at all averse to 

 becoming an accomplice in the crime, provided 

 Mputa assures him of a quid pro quo when the pain- 

 ful death of that heathen Manjora has become a 

 thing of the past. There is no prick of conscience 



