They soon arrived beneath the high bank of the
river upon which I stood. Poor little Jali, my
plucky and active ally, lay, as I thought, dead
upon the litter. We laid him gently upon my an-
garep, which I had raised by four men, so that we
could lower him gradually from the kneeling camel,
and we carried him to the camp, about thirty yards
distant. He was faint, and I poured some essence
of peppermint (the only spirit I possessed) down
his throat, which quickly revived him. His thigh
was broken about eight inches above the knee, but
fortunately it was a simple fracture.
Abou Do now explained the cause of the accident.
While the party of camel-men and others were engaged
in cutting up the dead elephants, the three
aggageers had found the track of a bull that had
escaped wounded. In that country, where there was
no drop of water upon the east bank of the Settite
for a distance of sixty or seventy miles to the
river Gash, an elephant if wounded was afraid to
trust itself to the interior; one of our escaped elephants
had therefore returned to the thick jungle,
and was tracked by the aggageers to a position
within two or three hundred yards of the dead
elephants. As there were no guns, two of the aggageers,
utterly reckless of consequences, resolved to
ride through the narrow passages formed by the
large game, and to take their chance with the elephant,
sword in hand. Jali, as usual, was the first
to lead, and upon his little grey mare he advanced
with the greatest difficulty through the entangled
thorns, broken by the passage of heavy game; to
the right and left of the passage it was impossible
to move. Abou Do had wisely dismounted, but
Suleiman followed Jali. Upon arriving within a
few yards of the elephant, which was invisible in
the thick thorns, Abou Do crept forward on foot,
and discovered it standing with ears cocked, evidently
waiting for the attack. As Jali followed on his light
grey mare, the elephant immediately perceived the
white colour, and at once charged forward. Escape
was next to impossible: Jali turned his mare sharp
round, and she bounded off, but caught in the thorns,
the mare fell, throwing her rider in the path of the
elephant that was within a few feet behind, in full
chase. The mare recovered herself in an instant, and
rushed away; the elephant, occupied by the white
colour of the animal, neglected the man, upon whom
he trod in the pursuit, thus breaking his thigh. Abou
Do, who had been between the elephant and Jali,
had wisely jumped into the thick thorns, and, as the
elephant passed him, he again sprang out behind,
and followed with his drawn sword, but too late
to save Jali, as it was the affair of an instant.
Jumping over Jali’s body, he was just in time to
deliver a tremendous cut at the hind leg of the
elephant, that must otherwise have killed both horses
.and most probably Suleiman also, as the three were
caught in a cul de sac in a passage that had no
outlet, and were at the elephant’s mercy.