298 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



animal is far from becoming scarce ; indeed, the greatest 

 number of footprints appeared near Chogwe and Tongwe, 

 stations of Baloch garrisons close to the town of Pan- 

 gani. The elephant hunt is with the African a solemn 

 and serious undertaking. He fortifies himself with 

 periapts and prophylactics given by the mganga, who 

 also trains him to the use of his weapon. The elephant- 

 spear resembles our boarding-pike rather than the light 

 blunt arm employed in war ; it is about six feet long, 

 with a broad tapering head cut away at the shoulders, 

 and supported by an iron neck, which is planted in a 

 thick wooden handle, the junction being secured by a 

 cylinder of raw hide from a cow's tail passed over it, 

 and shrunk on by drying: a specimen was deposited 

 with the Royal Geographical Society. The spear is in- 

 variably guarded by a mpigi or charm, the usual two bits 

 of wood bound together with a string or strip of skin. 

 It is not a little curious that the East African, though 

 born and bred a hunter, is, unlike almost all barbarians, 

 as skill-less as an European in the art of el asr, the 

 " spoor " or " sign." 



The hunting-party, consisting of fifteen to twenty 

 individuals, proceeds before departure to sing and dance, 

 to drink and drum for a consecutive week. The women 

 form line and perambulate the village, each striking an 

 iron jembe or hoe with a large stone, which forms an 

 appropriate accompaniment to the howl and the vigele- 

 gele, " lullilooing," or trills of joy. At every step the 

 dancer sways herself elephant-like from side to side, 

 and tosses her head backwards with a violence threaten- 

 ing dislocation of the atlas. The line, led by a fugle- 

 woman by the right, who holds two jembe in one hand, 

 but does not drum, stops facing every Arab house 

 wmere beads may be expected, and performs the most 



