300 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFEICA. 



ever, seldom used when elephants are sought, as a herd 

 once startled does not readily return to the same pas- 

 ture-grounds. The great art of the African muinzi or 

 elephant-hunter is to separate a tusker from the herd 

 without exciting suspicion, and to form a circle round 

 the victim. The mganga, then rising with a shout, 

 hurls or thrusts the first spear, and his example is fol- 

 lowed by the rest. The weapons are not poisoned : they 

 are fatal by a succession of small wounds. The baited 

 beast rarely breaks, as might be expected, through the 

 frail circle of assailants : its proverbial obstinacy is ex- 

 cited ; it charges one man, who slips away, when 

 another, with a scream, thrusts the long stiff spear 

 into its hind quarters, which makes it change in- 

 tention and turn fiercely from the fugitive to the 

 fresh assailant. This continues till the elephant, losing 

 breath and heart, attempts to escape; its enemies 

 then redouble their efforts, and at length the huge 

 prey, overpowered by pain and loss of blood trick- 

 ling from a hundred gashes, bites the dust. The 

 victors, after certain preliminaries of singing and 

 dancing, carefully cut out the tusks with small, sharp 

 axes, and the rich marrow is at once picked from the 

 bamboo and devoured upon the spot, as the hare's liver 

 is in Italy. The hunt concludes with a grand feast of 

 fat and garbage, and the hunters return home in 

 triumph, laden with ivory, with ovals of hide for shields, 

 and with festoons of raw and odorous meat spitted upon 

 long poles. 



Throughout East Africa the mouse, as the saying is, 

 travels with a staff: the education of youth and the 

 exercises of manhood are confined to the practice of 

 weapons. Yet the people want the expertness of the 

 Somal of the North and the Kafirs of the South ; their 



