had been entirely cut up by the natives who accompanied
me on the previous day. They had built huge
fires, and worked the entire night. The Wanderobbo
eat all parts of the elephant except the skull — the
skin, bones, sinews, intestines, and all. The natives
had found another elephant dead, probably the one I
last fired at; so I had succeeded in getting two of
the four I had attempted to kill. The second elephant
had but small tusks.
Upon reaching the place where the Wanderobbo
had piled the meat taken from the carcasses of the
elephants, the women gave vent to paeans of joy, and,
like hyenas, seized bits of the raw meat, which they
devoured with avidity. I took some guides, and again
went in search of elephants, but found none; and returned
to camp thoroughly tired out. From these
three days’ constant marching my feet were very sore;
so I spent forty-eight hours in rest.
From our camp at Sayer we had taken but sufficient
food to last two days; so I was now forced to
subsist entirely upon bits of elephant heart, which I
found to be quite a delicacy, when roasted upon the
end of a sharp stick. All other parts of the elephant
I have tried, and all but this portion I found unpalatable;
but the heart is a fine morsel, and reminded
me somewhat of a mince pie.
On the evening of the second day of my rest, the
Leguinan of the Wanderobbo village appeared with
some of his followers, and said that on the following
day he would take me to a place near by, full of
elephants, which were not nearly so difficult to shoot
as those we had last taken. He frankly told me
that his people never for a moment thought of venturing
into the place where they had cheerfully taken
me a few days before. They said that, owing to the
thorns, their retreat had been almost impossible; but
at the place where they were about to take me there
were very few thorns, and the cover was so thick
that one might approach quite close to the elephants
without being discovered. My experiences in elephant
hunting had not been such as to render me
very confident of my ability either to kill or to escape
those I had not wounded; so with anything but
a light heart, I agreed to set out in search of further
game. These poor people seemed so much in need
of meat that I could not resist their importunate
entreaties for assistance in procuring it.
One of the men who came with the Leguinan said
that he had been shooting with Lieutenant von
Hohnel two days before, and that Lieutenant von
Hohnel had had a very narrow escape. The story
of the event was as follows: he had shot a fine cow
elephant three times in the head, and it dropped.
He advanced toward it, and when he was quite close,
the elephant, with a scream, arose and charged. He
presented his rifle, which the elephant seized, and
broke to pieces, Lieutenant von Hohnel escaping by
a miracle. The infuriated beast then seized and destroyed
two of the water-bottles, which the frightened
porters had dropped. The elephant, having satisfied
itself with this revenge, made off.
A t the time I heard the story, I doubted its truth,
but the narrator swore to its credibility.
On Sunday, August 20, I set-out with five Wan