290 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



sion caps, but that I could give him a specific 

 for killing elephants, which he would find an 

 equitable exchange for the three slave girls. The 

 prescription was, I said, a simple one, yet, if 

 followed out to the letter, most potent and effectual. 

 He must, if ever he desired to be a successful 

 elephant hunter, indulge in two cold baths per day 

 to strengthen his heart, and as weak or unsteady 

 nerves might mean death at any moment in the 

 excitement of the chase, it was necessary to tone 

 them up with a goodly consumption of tobacco, than 

 which there was no better solace to be found. This 

 advice, I insisted, was worth its weight in ivory, but 

 just to show that I was by no means a skinflint, I 

 would throw in, for luck, a bundle of blue calico and 

 some native kangas pieces of cloth about two 

 square yards in size, which the native women wind 

 round their bodies as robes. 



Next day, Mperembe's men (laden with my 

 presents to their chief) set out for their homes, and 

 I can only conjecture that Mperembe was satisfied 

 with his deal and the 'elephant medicine,' for not 

 long after this incident, when I was on safari to the 

 coast, he sent me a load of rice as an expression of 

 his good-will. 



After the departure of their guardians, I told the 

 slave girls that they were at liberty to return to 

 their homes should they wish to do so; but they 



