XI 
THE NDOROBO—THE NAKED HUNTERS OF THE MAXI 
FOREST 
Primitive man has often been depicted as living 
stark naked, hunting animals with bow and arrow; 
eating flesh uncooked; living in holes in trees, in 
caves, or under shelters made of boughs, leaves, or 
dried grass. There is no need to draw on the 
imagination, for the Ndorobo living in the thick forests 
bordering the Mau Escarpment, fulfil these conditions. 
These natural hunters live in the thick forests, where 
they shoot birds and the Colobus monkey with poisoned 
arrows. They obtain larger mammals by digging narrow 
pits across their tracks. These pits are prepared at 
various angles and the game driven towards them : the 
animals stumble into the narrow pits and fall, breaking 
their legs and sometimes their backs. The largest 
animals are caught in regular gamepits. 
The Ndorobo use a peculiar weapon for hunting the 
elephant of which Thomson has given a good description. 
In shape it is something like the rammer of a cannon, 
the heavy head giving additional weight in dealing 
a blow. The thickened part holds a weapon shaped 
like a dart or arrow; the sharp end of the dart is 
smeared with a deadly poison. When the terminal 
piece is in position the whole weapon measures about 
eight feet in length. 
With this spear the elephant is attacked at close 
quarters; the dart is driven into its body and being 
loosely fixed in the handle it sticks in the animal : 
K 2 
131 
