42 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap, ii 



shoot near their gardens, well and good ; there were elephants 

 elsewhere, and natives anxious that I should go and shoot 

 them : nothing would I pay for permission to hunt. They at 

 once gave in, and said they would willingly guide me, and that 

 the whole tribe — old men, young men, women, and children — 

 were most anxious to make me their friend, and they would 

 like to clinch the friendship by making " blood brotherhood " 

 with me. I consented ; and after much parley it was agreed 

 I should wait here the next day and go through the ceremony 

 formally with them. The arrangement suited me, as I was 

 quite unfit to hunt, and knew I should only lay myself up for 

 a much longer time if I attempted to walk again before, at 

 soonest, the day but one after. Altogether — though the 

 delay was tantalising wuth elephants close by, as they were 

 reported to be, and my getting footsore just at the very 

 time when my luck seemed to have taken a favourable turn, 

 after so long a period of patience and disappointment, was 

 truly heart-breaking — things seemed turning out propitiously, 

 and I had great hopes of favourable results in the near 

 future. 



The next day the great ceremony of " eating blood " ^ was 

 performed. During the whole performance I had to sit in a 

 swamp, sandwiched between two very unwashed savages, 

 necessitating a bath and change directly it was over. It is 

 a very unpleasant ordeal, but I went bravely through it, much 

 to the satisfaction of the admiring crowds of savages. I gave 

 small presents to many, and rather larger ones to my two new 

 " brothers " (sons of the principal head men of the tribe), and 

 received numerous calabashes of rather good though thick 

 native beer, etc. These people always remained loyal to the 

 bond, and my elder brother, " Ndaminuki," has been most 



1 I have not thought it necessarj' to describe in detail this rather disgusting rite — it 

 has been done by others — but "eating blood" is literally a true definition of it. The 

 principals have to eat a drop of each other's blood, taken from an incision in the chest, 

 with which a bit of roasted meat (cut from the heart of an animal specially sacrificed with 

 many curious superstitious observances) has been smeared. 



