170 
IN AFRICA 
edge of the thick bush and on the upper edge of the 
shambas. News travels quickly in this country, 
and in a short time many of his old Kikuyu friends 
were at our camping place. One or two of the old 
guides were on hand to lead the way into elephant 
haunts and the natives near our camp reported that 
the elephants had been coming down into their 
fields during the last few days. Some had been 
heard only the day before. So the prospects looked 
most promising, and we started on a little hunt the 
first afternoon after arriving in camp. 
We took one tent and about twenty porters, for 
when one starts on an elephant trail there is no tell¬ 
ing how long he will be gone or where he may he 
led. We expected that we would have to climb up 
through the strip of underbrush, and perhaps even 
as far up as the bamboos, in which event we might 
be gone two or three days. In addition to the 
porters we had our gunbearers and a couple of na¬ 
tive guides. One of these was an old Wanderobo, or 
man of the forest, who had spent his life in the soli¬ 
tudes of the mountain and was probably more 
familiar with the trails than any other man. He 
wore a single piece of skin thrown over his shoul¬ 
ders and carried a big poisoned elephant spear with 
a barb of iron that remains in the elephant when 
driven in by the weight of the heavy wooden shaft. 
The barb was now covered with a protective bind¬ 
ing of leaves. He led the way, silent and mild-eyed 
and very naked, and the curious little skin-tight cap 
that he wore made him look like an old woman. As 
