84 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AERICA chap. 



The best head was 33 inches (female), the longest I had then 

 got. From two of these, which were very fat, I got a good 

 deal of milk, very rich and a great treat in one's tea. One can 

 have no greater luxury in the " bara " than fresh milk, a very 

 rare one in East Central Africa. I always use honey, which 

 can generally be had from the natives, to replace sugar. The 

 latter one learns to do without, like all the " necessaries " of 

 civilised life, with the exception of salt, soap, and tea, of which 

 I always try to carry sufficient. For other things, such as flour, 

 one has to substitute whatever the country through which one 

 passes produces. Old " Papa " used generally to go out with 

 me to shoot. The Ndorobos are fond of the blood of freshly- 

 killed animals, and on one being opened they will put their 

 heads into the chest cavity and drink the warm blood or take 

 up double handfuls of the congealing vital fluid, sucking in the 

 clots with their mouths. On one occasion I made " Papa " stab 

 a buck, which was not quite dead, in the breast, so as to kill it 

 at once without injuring the scalp, as cutting the throat would 

 do. The blood spouting out, he went down on his knees, put 

 his mouth to the wound, and sucked it in with the keenest 

 gusto. There are still a few elands left on the north side of the 

 Gwaso Nyiro, survivors of the great cattle plague of a iow 

 years ago, and in one or two localities I have seen the spoor of 

 a very few buffaloes. I shot a fine bull of the former, and on 

 my return a cow, the only elands I bagged the whole trip. I 

 never set eyes on a single buffalo. 



The shooting of the former was on this wise. We had, 

 after a long march, reached a rock pool in a small koppie near 

 a dry sand stream called the Njangitomara (giraffe) by the 

 Ndorobos. This, like many other places called after animals, . 

 is still obviously named appropriately, for the giraffes are 

 abundant at the present day : a striking contrast to the rivers, 

 etc., of the Transvaal, so commonly named after game of which 

 nothing but the name survives. The country was open, except 

 for a sprinkling of low mimosas ; but instead of grass, prickly 



