42 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. II 
shoot near their gardens, well and good ; there were elephants 
elsewhere, and natives anxious that I should go and shoot 
them : nothing would I pay for permission to hunt. They at 
once gave in, and said they would willingly guide me, and that 
the whole tribe—old men, young men, women, and children— 
were most anxious to make me their friend, and they would 
like to clinch the friendship by making “ blood brotherhood ” 
with me. I consented ; and after much parley it was agreed 
I should wait here the next day and go through the ceremony 
formally with them. The arrangement suited me, as I was 
quite unfit to hunt, and knew I should only lay myself up for 
a much longer time if I attempted to walk again before, at 
soonest, the day but one after. Altogether—though the 
delay was tantalising with elephants close by, as they were 
reported to be, and my getting footsore just at the very 
time when my luck seemed to have taken a favourable turn, 
after so long a period of patience and disappointment, was 
truly heart-breaking—things seemed turning out propitiously, 
and I had great hopes of favourable results in the near 
future. 
The next day the great ceremony of “ eating blood ” 1 was 
performed. During the whole performance I had to sit in a 
swamp, sandwiched between two very unwashed savages, 
necessitating a bath and change directly it was over. It is 
a very unpleasant ordeal, but I went bravely through it, much 
to the satisfaction of the admiring crowds of savages. I gave 
small presents to many, and rather larger ones to my two new 
“ brothers ” (sons of the principal head men of the tribe), and 
received numerous calabashes of rather good though thick 
native beer, etc. These people always remained loyal to the 
bond, and my elder brother, “ Ndaminuki,” has been most 
1 I have not thought it necessary to describe in detail this rather disgusting rite—it 
has been done by others—but “eating blood” is literally a true definition of it. The 
principals have to eat a drop of each other’s blood, taken from an incision in the chest, 
with which a bit of roasted meat (cut from the heart of an animal specially sacrificed with 
many curious superstitious observances) has been smeared. 
