CHEAP IVORY 



137 



with his trunk. He shook it, crushed it, tossed it about, 

 and then contemptuously flung it aside. Finally, without 

 taking the slightest further notice of the men, who were diving 

 close to him, or of the shots which Qualla continued to fire, 

 he marched with slow and stately steps through the water, 

 and disappeared behind a peninsula. This unexpected end of 

 the struggle annoyed us very much, as we should probably 

 greatly need our canvas boat in our further wanderings. 



Back again in camp, we found that several old Burkeneji 

 women had arrived. There seem to be a good many living 

 amongst the Elmolo. They begged leave to share some of the 

 elephant-meat, and as there was more than enough of it, we 

 willingly consented. In the afternoon we sent messages to 

 the natives, who were already less shy, men and women 

 venturing on to the beach, and we succeeded in buying some 

 85 lb. of dhurra. Kharscho, who had meanwhile been to 

 shoot guinea-fowl, brought in a dozen. A strong south wind 

 blew continuously here, and covered everything with sand 

 and dust, making our existence a burden to us. The air 

 was misty and heavy, and the distant landscape appeared to 

 be wrapped in fog. The thermometer registered 4-38° to 39° 

 Centigrade in the shade at noon, whilst at night it fell below 

 + 30° Centigrade. 



Alia : Saturday, March 24. — Qualla went to the Elmolo to 

 buy more food, our men having begged very hard for a little 

 something to give relish to their meat, if only a mouthful of 

 dhurra meal. Qualla succeeded in getting a very small quantity 

 of dhurra and six sheep (with such abnormally developed hoofs 

 that we could not take them with us), and two tusks of ivory, 

 the smaller of which, that had belonged to a female, weighed 

 24 lb. only, the price being ten strings of common Masai 

 beads, worth about ten kreuzers. The second tusk weighed 

 1G6 lb., and the price was nine small rings of iron wire, 



