apiece^, followed by a pipe of tobacco. We used to come
up with them at these halts. Ngouta and the Ajumba
used to sit down ; and rest with them, and I also, for a few
minutes, for a rest and chat, and then I would go on alone,
thus getting a good start. I got a good start, in the other
meaning of the word, on the afternoon of the first day when
descending into a ravine.
I saw in the bottom, wading and rolling in the mud, a herd
of five elephants. I am certain that owing to some misapprehension
among the Fates I was given a series of magnificent
sporting chances, intended as a special treat for some
favourite Nimrod of those three ladies, and I know exactly
how I ought to have behaved. I should have felt my favourite
rifle fly to my shoulder, and then, carefully sighting for the
finest specimen, have fired. The noble beast should have
stumbled forward, recovered itself, and shedding its life blood
behind it have crashed away into the forest. I should then have
tracked it, and either with one well-directed shot have given
it its quietus, or have got charged by it, the elephant passing
completely over my prostrate body ; either termination is good
form, but I never have these things happen, and never
will. (In the present case I remembered, hastily, that your
one chance when charged by several elephants is to dodge
them round trees, working down wind all the time, until they
lose smell and sight of you, then to lie quiet for a time, and
go home.) It was evident from the utter unconcern of these
monsters that I was down wind now, so I had only to attend to
dodging, and I promptly dodged round a tree, thinking
perhaps a dodge in time saves nine— and I lay down. Seeing
they still displayed no emotion on my account, and fascinated
by the novelty of the scene, I crept forward from one tree to
another, until I was close enough to have hit the nearest one
with a stone, and spats of mud, which they sent flying with their
stamping and wallowing came flap, flap among the bushes
covering me.
One big fellow had a nice pair of 40 lb. or so tusks on him,
singularly straight, and another had one big curved tusk and
one broken one. I f I were an elephant I think I would wear
the tusks straight; they must be more effective weapons thus,
but there seems no fixed fashion among elephants here in this
matter. Some of them lay right down like pigs in the deeper part
of the swamp, some drew up trunkfuls of water and syringed
themselves and each other, and every one of them indulged in
a good rub against a tree. Presently when they had had
enough of it they all strolled off up wind, a way elephants
have ; 1 but why I do not know, because they know the
difference, always carrying their trunk differently when they
are going up wind to what they do when they are going
down —- arrested mental development,2 I suppose. They
strolled through the bush in Indian file, now and then
breaking off a branch, but leaving singularly little dead
water for their tonnage and breadth of beam. One laid
his trunk affectionately on the back of the one in front
of him, which I believe to be the elephant equivalent
to walking arm-in-arm. When they had gone I rose up,
turned round to find the men, and trod on Kiva’s back
then and there, full and fair, and fell sideways down the steep
hillside until I fetched up among some roots.
It seems Kiva had come on, after his meal, before the
others, and seeing the elephants, and being a born hunter, had
crawled like me down to look at them. He had not expected
to find me there, he said. I do not believe he gave a thought
of any sort to me in the presence of these fascinating creatures,
and so he got himself trodden on. I suggested to him we
should pile the baggage, and go and have an elephant hunt. He
shook his head reluctantly, saying “ Kor, kor,” like a depressed
rook, and explained we were not strong enough; there were
only three Fans— the Ajumba, and Ngouta did not count—
and moreover that we had not brought sufficient ammunition
owing to the baggage having to be carried, and the ammunition
that we had must be saved for other game than elephant, for
we might meet war before we met the Rembwd River.
We had by now joined the rest of the party, and were all
soon squattering about on our own account in the elephant
bath. It was shocking bad going— like a ploughed field
1 Foolish, because natives always attack them in the rear.
2 The usual explanation for anything you do not understand in a
native of Africa’s conduct.
S 2