174 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



and then dashing a heavy assegai into his face, sprang 

 past him at the same time. This feat, which after all 

 required nothing but a little presence of mind and 

 judgment, seemed greatly to astonish the Kafirs, 

 who declared that " to-day have we seen that the 

 white man's heart is hard." The assegai stuck fast 

 in the thick part of his trunk ; however, he managed 

 to twist the end of his trunk round the shaft, which 

 he broke, though he first succeeded in extracting the 

 blade, I then threw another assegai through his ear ; 

 this he could not get rid of, and at last rushed away 

 with it still dangling. I was very glad he had at last 

 made up his mind to decamp, as it would have been 

 a thousand pities to shoot such a plucky little beast, 

 and I had really begun to think that I should be 

 obliged to do so before I could take possession of 

 his mother's carcase. Both these elephants were 

 excessively fat, and the first I had shot had a beautiful 

 pair of tusks, long, white, and without a crack, and 

 weighing 17 lbs. apiece. Whilst we were engaged 

 in chopping out the tusks, some Makuba Kafirs came 

 up. They told me that whilst going down the river 

 in their canoes, they had seen the two boys whom I 

 had left in charge of my things sitting on the bank, 

 who informed them that their master, a white man, 

 was on elephant spoor. Soon afterwards they heard 

 my shots, and in the hope of getting a little meat, at 

 once started for the scene of action. When I told 

 them that after my boys had cut off" what they 

 wanted, they might take the two elephants in to to, their 

 delight was unbounded. Long had it been, and long 

 would it be again, I expect, before they would get 

 such a gorge of fat meat. Two of them were in- 

 stantly despatched to call the entire population of the 

 village from which they hailed to help to cut up and 



