THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT 



one and it charged. Knocking him down it sought 

 to pound the life out of him. Each time it brought 

 its great foot down with the force of a steam-hammer 

 he squirmed out of the way. Several times he suc- 

 ceeded in escaping the descending foot by twisting 

 and writhing. Eventually the foot caught his right 

 arm and pulverised it. This was the animal's 

 expiring effort, for it staggered a few paces and 

 dropped dead. 



More or less decomposed remains of Elephants' 

 skeletons, chiefly tusks and teeth, are often found in 

 the vicinity of Port Elizabeth. A very large tusk in 

 a decayed condition was found in the heart of a dense 

 thicket a couple of miles from the city. It had been 

 hacked from the head, and showed the rough axe 

 cuts. It had probably been concealed in the thicket 

 by some ancient aboriginal hunter and never re- 

 claimed, for no European would have hacked off so 

 valuable a tusk in so crude a manner. 



The flesh of the Elephant is coarse in the grain, 

 but is of fair flavour, and is relished even by 

 Europeans. The portions favoured for food by the 

 Boer hunters of old were the thick part of the trunk, 

 the fatty flesh in the large hollow above the eye, the 

 heart and the foot. The latter was usually baked 

 with its skin on, in a hole in the ground. To bake 

 a foot thoroughly in this manner was a rather 

 lengthy process, for a good fire had to be kept con- 

 stantly burning over the spot for about forty-eight 

 hours. When thoroughly baked in this way, the 



255 



