426 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
Before closing my account of this district, I should like 
to say a word or two more about the Ndorobo people. Were 
I a missionary, these are the natives I would choose to labour 
among. Not that I wish to advocate their being taken up, 
because our missionary methods tend, too often, to spoil 
interesting and unsophisticated African races. However, I 
think there is not much fear of this particular tribe being 
exploited by us in that way—there would not be enough to 
show for it. 
To my own sympathy the Ndorobo ideas of the deity 
strongly appeal in their simplicity. In contrast with the 
natives of Southern Africa, who cannot be said to have any 
notion of a Supreme Being, these have a distinct belief in God, 
and ascribe all events to His ordering. Asked what they know 
of Him, they told me : “ We only know that He made all 
things. If it rains, we say it is God ; when the wind blows, we 
say here, too, is God ; and when the white man comes, we say 
this again is God’s doing.” Thus : 
“ The feeble hands and helpless 
Groping blindly in the darkness 
Touch God’s right hand in that darkness.” 
When parting with my old friend Lesiat—in giving him, 
amongst other things, a rug off my bed, which I had promised 
him, when passing on my outward journey, should be his on 
my return,—I asked him if he would not let one of his sons 
accompany me to the coast ; telling him that he would be able 
to learn much, and bring back wonderful accounts of all the 
marvels he would see, as well as many nice things. He 
replied that, if he were to give me a boy to go with me, he 
would expect me to show him the path to heaven, that he 
might see God and learn from Him how to put a new heart 
into his father ! 
This striking statement made a great impression on me at 
first, and I strove (through my interpreter, of course) to elicit 
some more precise explanation of his meaning. I regret to 
