224 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
difficulty. He had done one thing, though, I did not approve 
of, as it was risky; he had been to Laiju, attended by only 
two men, passing over the Jambeni range, which is inhabited by 
the Embe tribe, the same treacherous people who had murdered 
four of my men on my former expedition, and whom I had 
been obliged to punish for that crime. He had a spear thrown 
at him, which he brought along ; but he made light of this, 
which he said was the act of some turbulent young fellow, and 
declared that it was quite safe now for one man to pass through 
alone, as there was no hostility shown by the people generally. 
After discussion and consideration I decided it would be 
best to send once more to Mthara, so that we might accumu¬ 
late ample supplies of food for our long journey through the 
wilderness, with margin for possible hunting by the way. This 
would give me a little more time in this region, so that I 
might carry out my plan for hunting in the “ subugo ” before 
trekking on. Abdulla also reported that Ndaminuki, my 
“ blood brother,” to whom he had been the bearer of presents 
from me, had behaved in the most friendly and obliging way 
and done all he could to help him. 
Late in the evening Baithai brought word that his mes¬ 
sengers had returned from the Barasaloi “ subugo ” and reported 
that they had found no fresh spoor anywhere, nor could they 
hear any news of elephants being in that neighbourhood now 
from Ndorobos belonging to that part whom they had met 
there. In consequence of this I decided to return to El Bogoi 
the next day with Abdulla, so as to arrange everything there 
with regard to their second trip to Mthara, and then make a 
fresh start from there myself for the mountains. In the 
evening some guinea-fowl perched in a tree close to camp and 
I took toll of one with my rook rifle. The tusks of the old 
cow had been brought in to-day. I guessed the pair to weigh 
about 30 lbs., and this subsequently proved correct to a fraction. 
In the morning we trekked back to El Bogoi by a different 
and more open route than we had come by. On the way I 
