390 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
hand, from which I suffered agonies. I believe it was made 
worse by my allowing one of my men to cut into it ; but the 
pain was so excruciating and continuous that I was ready to 
try anything, and would have almost submitted to have it cut off 
at one time. Thus, by another stroke of ill-luck, this originally 
trivial affair disabled me again for fully a month, during which 
I suffered greatly and was of course a prisoner in camp. At 
the same time I thought myself extremely lucky not to be 
compelled to march while my hand was in this state. 
Lesiat used to come frequently to see me, and kept me 
supplied with quantities of honey ; indeed he considered it his 
own peculiar privilege to keep my honey keg full. He used 
to eye my galvanised iron buckets with admiration, and often 
begged me to leave one with him on my departure for the 
coast, together with my enamelled wash-hand basin as a cover 
for the same, promising that I should find it full on my next 
visit. He explained that wooden utensils with skin covers 
were liable to be damaged by insects, and declared that one 
large receptacle of the kind, which he had hidden full of honey 
in the forest against my return, had been eaten by a hyena. 
One day, when I was at my worst, he brought me about a 
quart of the most lovely honey, like olive oil, extracted from 
pure, white virgin comb, telling me to drink it all like water 
before going to bed, with the assurance that it would do me 
good like medicine. I did not feel equal to following his 
advice literally, though I have little doubt that the effect could 
not have failed to be pretty drastic ; at the same time, I hold 
strongly the opinion of the sage of old, exemplified as it is in 
the Ndorobos of to-day, that honey is “health to the bones.” 
Elephant news was not much use to me under these 
circumstances ; but I learnt that there were some on the 
western slopes of the Lorogis. This information had been 
gained from a neighbouring community, some of whom had 
been with me formerly on my excursion down the Seya valley. 
It appeared that several of these people had been on a honey- 
