256 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
heathenism. Whether he was pitying them and 
offering up a silent prayer on their behalf, I do 
not know, but, with man’s frail nature, looking 
temptation in the face is admittedly an unwise 
proceeding, and when the old fellow asked the 
feasters what the meat tasted like, and whether it 
was tough, I felt that the ice of his asceticism was 
beginning to thaw in the sunshine of their epicur¬ 
eanism, and pondered on the insatiability of human 
curiosity as to the nature of sin! My men replied 
that it was delicious, and Ntawasie, my tracker, 
playing the good old role of tempter, coolly took 
a steak that he was toasting over the fire and 
offered it to the old man. He looked at it with a 
gaze in which desire and renunciation were curiously 
blended, and muttering something about being 
insulted, rose, walked away a few yards, and once 
more sat down. Thereupon, my boy, Usufu, went 
up and chatted with him and gave him a pinch of 
snuff to soothe his wounded feelings. After so long 
an exposure to the appetizing odour of roasting 
elephant meat, that friendly pinch of snuff proved 
his undoing, for, a few seconds later, he sprang up 
and excitedly shouted : 
‘Yes, the temptation is too great for me! Why 
should I continually deny myself the pleasure of 
eating this delicious meat, because it has been 
forbidden by the Mahometan faith ? No, I’m sick 
