II ON THE JAMBENI RANGE 33 



for convenience. Some of the old men are never without their 

 mouths full of this green stuff. They carry a quantity of the 

 tender shoots in a dirty old skin satchel slung from their 

 shoulders, together with bits of tobacco, bananas, and other 

 treasures, and every now and then strip the bark and leaves 

 from several of these soft twigs and, throwing away the woody 

 interior, cram the handful into their capacious mouths. This 

 inelegant custom with its somewhat disgusting evidences about 

 the lips does not add to the enjoyment of a long " shauri " with 

 several such old gentlemen ; at least it did not to mine, though 

 it was apparently indispensable to theirs. These natives are 

 very numerous and there is no game of any kind. 



After winding about among the hills and crossing several little 

 purling brooks which rise near the highest peak — the actual 

 Njambeni — we bore to the west, keeping along the edge of the 

 high land, and then gradually descended by a zigzag course 

 towards the low country on the northern side of the range, 

 passing on the way the kraals of some natives who had " eaten 

 blood " with Chanler (that is, entered into the bonds of " blood 

 brotherhood "). These people were very friendly and seemed 

 really pleased to meet a white man. They took me down the 

 slopes and helped me to find a nice place to camp on the 

 banks of a stream and just above open level country dotted 

 with thorn trees. There is a patch of bush here which the 

 elephants sometimes haunt and from where they make raids at 

 night on the natives' crops. Some had lately been there, but 

 the owners of the shambas (cultivated ground) had managed to 

 drive them out though they had not succeeded in killing any. 

 They are no hunters, and the only way they ever kill elephants 

 is by setting traps consisting of javelins (poisoned) in heavy 

 shafts suspended over their paths, with a cord to release the 

 impending harpoon stretched across, so that when a large 

 animal passes along it falls on its head or back after the 

 manner of a school " booby trap." 



I walked down into the flats to look for game in the after- 



D 



