132 EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XI 
A 
A 
Ndorobo 
Elephant Spear. 
A. The Dart. 
(British Museum.) 
the hancile of the harpoon remains with 
the hunter. Another dart is placed in 
the handle and the operation is repeated 
when circumstances are favourable. In 
making the thrust, the hunter endeavours 
to stick the dart in the abdomen where 
the intestines lie. 
The shaft of the arrow-like portion of 
this complicated spear is made of the 
wood of the wild olive. The wood of 
this tree is used for singularly varied 
purposes in different parts of the world. | 
In East Africa it is used for spears and \ 
railway sleepers : in Palestine, especially | 
at Jerusalem, it is employed to make * 
penholders and the covers of books, 
especially prayer-books and Bibles. 
The Ndorobo are quite naked when 
living in the wood, but when among 
white men, who employ 'them as trackers, 
they wear a blanket over the shoulders. 
Their ears are disfigured by helix-quills, 
by rings, and plugs of wood inserted 
into the lobes. They do not tattoo their 
bodies, but they dress their hair after the 
fashion of the Masai. 
The Ndorobo do not form large tribes, 
but conceal themselves in the forest, 
where they live in holes or under 
shelters made of grass, and slink about 
the forest. Occasionally they come out 
to barter the proceeds of their hunting 
with the settlers. When an animal is 
killed they eat the flesh uncooked, and 
are particularly fond of the viscera, the 
paunch of ruminants, and the soft 
internal fat of the abdomen : they often 
fight with each other to obtain choice 
morsels. 
The country in which the Ndorobo 
