ELEPHANT HUNTING 
245 
elephant, but are more dangerous when they do charge. 
Rhino when hunted, though at times ugly customers, seem 
to me certainly less dangerous than the other three; but 
from sheer stupid truculence they are themselves apt to take 
the offensive in unexpected fashion, being far more prone 
to such aggression than are any of the others—man-eating 
lions always excepted. 
Very few of the native tribes in Africa hunt the elephant 
systematically. But the ’Ndorobo, the wild bush people of 
East Africa, sometimes catch young elephants in the pits 
they dig with slow labor, and very rarely they kill one with 
a kind of harpoon. The ’Ndorobo are doubtless in part de¬ 
scended from some primitive bush people, but in part also 
derive their blood from the more advanced tribes near which 
their wandering families happen to live; and they grade 
into the latter, by speech and through individuals who seem 
to stand half-way between. Thus we had with us two Masai 
"Ndorobo, true wild people, who spoke a bastard Masai; 
who had formerly hunted with Cuninghame, and who came 
to us because of their ancient friendship with him. These 
shy woods creatures were afraid to come to Neri by day¬ 
light, when we were camped there, but after dark crept to 
Cuninghame’s tent. Cuninghame gave them two fine red 
blankets, and put them to sleep in a little tent, keeping 
their spears in his own tent, as a measure of precaution 
to prevent their running away. The elder of the two, he 
informed me, would certainly have a fit of hysterics when 
we killed our elephant! Cuninghame was also joined by 
other old friends of former hunts, Kikuyu ’Ndorobo these, 
who spoke Kikuyu like the people who cultivated the fields 
that covered the river-bottoms and hill-sides of the adjoin- 
