2 4 o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
come as something in the nature of an eye-opener. 
Let me briefly describe the modus operandi which is 
often adopted, and, after perusal, the reader may 
draw his own conclusions as to the quality of mind 
necessary to originate such an ingenious plan of 
murder. 
Suppose Mputa is labouring under the idea that 
Manjora has wronged him. Open murder is out of 
the question—it may be a more manly method of 
getting rid of him; it is certainly crude, and impolitic. 
Life is dear to Mputa, and he is most averse to 
endangering it over such a nonentity as Manjora : 
therefore, he must poison him. The first step in the 
undertaking is to procure the necessary poison with¬ 
out rousing suspicion, and this is managed very 
cleverly and simply ; he persuades a friend, Usufu, 
living in a distant village, to get the commodity 
from a medicine man there. This effected, he 
arranges with another dear friend, Hamice, to per¬ 
form the delicate and difficult operation of 
administering the deadly stuff, and Hamice, being 
quite friendly with Manjora, can carry out this 
portion of the scheme without rousing the suspicion 
of anyone, and is, moreover, not at all averse to 
becoming an accomplice in the crime, provided 
Mputa assures him of a quid pro quo when the pain¬ 
ful death of that heathen Manjora has become a 
thing of the past. There is no prick of conscience 
