362 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
but this is not correct as regards the "Ndorobo in question. 
They were all clad in short cloaks of the skin of the tree 
hyrax; hyrax, monkey, bongo, and forest hog, the only game 
of the dense, cool, wet forest, were all habitually killed by 
them. They also occasionally killed rhino and buffalo, find¬ 
ing the former, because it must occasionally be attacked in 
the open, the more dangerous of the two; twice Delamere 
had come across small communities of "Ndorobo literally 
starving because the strong man, the chief hunter, the 
breadwinner, had been killed by a rhino which he had 
attacked. The headman of those with us, who was named 
Mel-el-lek, had himself been fearfully injured by a wounded 
buffalo; and the father of another one who was with us 
had been killed by baboons which had rallied to the aid of 
one which he was trying to kill with his knobkerry. Usually 
they did not venture to meddle with the lions which they 
found on the edge of the forest, or with the leopards which 
occasionally dwelt in the deep woods; but once Melellek 
killed a leopard with a poisoned arrow from a tree, and 
once a whole party of them attacked and killed with their 
poisoned arrows a lion which had slain a cow buffalo near 
the forest. On another occasion a lion in its turn killed 
two of their hunters. In fact they were living just as 
palaeolithic man lived in Europe, ages ago. 
Their arms were bows and arrows, the arrows being 
carried in skin quivers, and the bows, which were strung 
with zebra gut, being swathed in strips of hide. When rest¬ 
ing they often stood on one leg, like storks. Their eyesight 
was marvellous, and they were extremely skilful alike in 
tracking and in seeing game. They threaded their way 
through the forest noiselessly and at speed, and were ex- 
