8 4 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
The best head was 33 inches (female), the longest I had then 
got. From two of these, which were very fat, I got a good 
deal of milk, very rich and a great treat in one’s tea. One can 
have no greater luxury in the “ bara ” than fresh milk, a very 
rare one in East Central Africa. I always use honey, which 
can generally be had from the natives, to replace sugar. The 
latter one learns to do without, like all the “ necessaries ” of 
civilised life, with the exception of salt, soap, and tea, of which 
I always try to carry sufficient. For other things, such as flour, 
one has to substitute whatever the country through which one 
passes produces. Old “ Papa ” used generally to go out with 
me to shoot. The Ndorobos are fond of the blood of freshly- 
killed animals, and on one being opened they will put their 
heads into the chest cavity and drink the warm blood or take 
up double handfuls of the congealing vital fluid, sucking in the 
clots with their mouths. On one occasion I made “ Papa ” stab 
a buck, which was not quite dead, in the breast, so as to kill it 
at once without injuring the scalp, as cutting the throat would 
do. The blood spouting out, he went down on his knees, put 
his mouth to the wound, and sucked it in with the keenest 
gusto. There are still a few elands left on the north side of the 
Gwaso Nyiro, survivors of the great cattle plague of a few 
years ago, and in one or two localities I have seen the spoor of 
a very few buffaloes. I shot a fine bull of the former, and on 
my return a cow, the only elands I bagged the whole trip. I 
never set eyes on a single buffalo. 
The shooting of the former was on this wise. We had, 
after a long march, reached a rock pool in a small koppie near 
a dry sand stream called the Njangitomara (giraffe) by the 
Ndorobos. This, like many other places called after animals, 
is still obviously named appropriately, for the giraffes are 
abundant at the present day : a striking contrast to the rivers, 
etc., of the Transvaal, so commonly named aftergame of which 
nothing but the name survives. The country was open, except 
for a sprinkling of low mimosas ; but instead of grass, prickly 
