THE WANDOROBBO 



261 



Masai, and when even experienced ivory traders see a Ndorobbo 

 approaching with his quaint hunting-spear in his hand they 

 cannot tell to which tribe he belongs without asking him. They 

 also speak the Masai dialect though it is not their mother 

 language, and they employ an idiom of their own in talking 

 amongst themselves. They neither breed cattle nor till the 

 ground, but keep bees and trade in ivory, so that naturally 

 elephants are the game they chiefly hunt. The so-called Masai 

 ivory is really supplied by them, as the Masai themselves never 

 go hunting. For all that, the Wandorobbo are anything but 

 good sportsmen, and are hardly able to get a living, although 

 there is such a quantity of game in their neighbourhood, and 

 they do not object to eating half-putrid meat. They therefore 

 prefer to live near the Masai, from whom they can now and 

 then buy cattle. Very often they cannot pay for it, and remain 

 in the debt and power of their creditors, to whose interest, of 

 course, it is to know where they are. As a matter of fact the 

 Masai are, as a rule, well informed as to the number and size 

 of the elephants shot by the Wandorobbo, and the latter are 

 always very much embarrassed when there are any Masai in 

 the camps of the ivory traders, their dealings with whom are 

 conducted in secret, so that we very seldom came actually face 

 to face with any of these timid people. 



Hunting in the low grounds at the base of the mountain 

 was as interesting as it was fruitful, and on the very first 

 afternoon Count Teleki brought down a giraffe, a rhinoceros, 

 and a spotted hyena, whilst two badly wounded giraffes got 

 away. There are but few spotted hyenas in this part of Africa, 

 and as we never molested them the Count would not have shot 

 this one, but, catching only a fleeting glance at a yellowish- 

 brown body moving about amongst the grass of the steppe, he 

 mistook it for a leopard. 



I set off with my gun under my arm to explore the course 



