34 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



are the thievish, wicked little people that they have 

 been represented, why did they not molest us? We 

 were entirely in their power, and had been for the 

 past six days. Perhaps it was our very helplessness 

 that protected us they saw that we were not as the 

 other white men who had passed through their forest, 

 armed with guns, and having a big following of 

 soldiers ; or perhaps I had been overheard speaking 

 in the language 'of Toro to my boys, and this had 

 given them confidence. I firmly believe, however, that 

 they are not untrustworthy folk, as is usually sup- 

 posed, but, like most Africans, when not interfered 

 with they are perfectly harmless. I cannot say which 

 of these answers meets the case ; I leave the readeri 

 to, judge for himself. At any rate, upon this and 

 subsequent occasions when I had intercourse with them 

 in the great forest, I was most kindly treated. The 

 little chief brought me a forest antelope for food, 

 also a large pot of honey, that I requested him to taste 

 first. Before they retired for the night I asked them 

 to come again in the morning to see me, and the chief 

 said he would do so, and the next day I therefore 

 had further conversation with these strange little folk. 

 Their mode of living is extraordinary ; they never 

 cultivate the ground, but wander from place to place, 

 gathering fruit, nuts, etc., from the trees, and the 

 wild honey. The animals they shoot with their bows 

 and arrows, and the hunt was most graphically 

 described to me. Often they follow a wounded 

 elephant for days, shooting into it hundreds of their 

 little iron-tipped arrows, until the poor creature dies 

 from sheer exhaustion. They then make their little 

 camp all round the carcass, and live upon the flesh 



