A PIT-DIGGERS SHEI.Te;r 



The killing of elephants by natives is prohibited ; nevertheless the Wandorobo_ of Kenia 

 were never more active in digging pits than when we were there. When following native 

 guides one does not often run across new pits ; it is when traveling by compass, independent 

 of guides, that one is most likely to disturb the trappers at their work. During a three months' 

 stay on Kenia, in 1910, two elephants were killed in pits within a few miles of our camp. 

 .A. pit may be many years old before an elephant is caught in it, and we were curious to 

 know how the few hunters could watch the hundreds of pits scattered about a large area as 

 they are. The method is simple and entails but little fruitless labor on the part of the 

 natives. A pitted elephant may live some days before death comes to its relief, and then a 

 signal is soon wafted down wind to which the hyenas and leopards promptly respond, the 

 hyenas howling as they go in search of the feast, and the Wandorobo follow the howls and 

 tracks of the other carrion feeders. The flesh of the elephant is thoroughly ripened by the 

 time the natives reach it. 



■ested ridge, accessible from only one di- 

 rection, there was a deeply trodden bed 

 of dry earth, where the baby elephant 

 had been born and had spent the first 

 week or ten days of its life, while the 

 mother watched over it or fed on the 

 abundant vegetation near at hand. Later 

 we found a second bed precisely similar 

 as to situation. These beds were well ofif 

 the lines of elephant travel (see picture, 

 page 795)- 



Upon returning from the summit of 

 Kenia to the native gardens at the edge 

 of the forest, I went back again to the 

 bamboos to make photographic studies 

 for the background and gather materials 

 for accessories for the group. While 

 thus engaged I met a bull elephant, which 

 left me much the worse for the experi- 

 ence and necessitated my return to the 

 base camp on a stretcher. This event 

 postponed work for several months, and 



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