426 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



Before closing my account of this district, I should like 

 to say a word or two more about the Xdorobo people. Were 

 I a missionary, these are the natives I would choose to labour 

 among. Not that I wish to advocate their being taken up, 

 because our missionary methods tend, too often, to spoil 

 interesting and unsophisticated African races. However, I 

 think there is not much fear of this particular tribe being 

 exploited by us in that way — there would not be enough to 

 show for it. 



To my own sympathy the Ndorobo ideas of the deity 

 strongly appeal in their simplicity. In contrast with the 

 natives of Southern Africa, who cannot be said to have any 

 notion of a Supreme Being, these have a distinct belief in God, 

 and ascribe all events to His ordering. Asked what they know 

 of Him, they told me : " We only know that He made all 

 things. If it rains, we say it is God ; when the wind blows, we 

 say here, too, is God ; and when the white man comes, we say 

 this again is God's doing." Thus : 



" The feeble hands and helpless 

 Groping blindly in the darkness 

 Touch God's right hand in that darkness." 



When parting with my old friend Lesiat — in giving him, 

 amongst other things, a rug off my bed, which I had promised 

 him, when passing on my outward journey, should be his on 

 my return, — I asked him if he would not let one of his sons 

 accompany me to the coast ; telling him that he would be able 

 to learn much, and bring back wonderful accounts of all the 

 marvels he would see, as well as many nice things. He 

 replied that, if he were to give me a boy to go with me, he 

 would expect me to show him the path to heaven, that he 

 might see God and learn from Him how to put a new heart 

 into his father ! 



This striking statement made a great impression on me at 

 first, and I strove (through my interpreter, of course) to elicit 

 some more precise explanation of his meaning. I regret to 



