XI A FALSE REPORT 211 



together for the carcase, I then took my own 

 Makalakas and Bushmen, and again struck into the 

 jungle, hoping to come across one or other of the 

 elephants I had wounded. But, though I spent several 

 hours at it, it was in vain, for the whole jungle was 

 trampled in all directions with spoor in such a way that 

 my Bushmen could make nothing of it, and I finally 

 gave it up and returned to the dead elephant. My 

 naked legs and arms had suffered considerably from 

 the thorns, one of which, that had been driven about 

 an inch deep into the calf of my leg, I only extracted 

 with the greatest difficulty. The major part of my 

 shirt, too, had remained behind me on different bushes, 

 and altogether I no doubt presented a very forlorn 

 appearance. The marsh natives, having heard the 

 elephant screaming, imagined that I had been actually 

 caught and had only escaped by dodging his feet and 

 creeping away between his hind legs. This story was 

 handed from mouth to mouth until it reached some 

 of the traders with Sipopo, who, going out of the 

 country before they saw me, carried the report south 

 with them ; so that when I again reacheci the 

 Matabele country in the following December, all my 

 friends congratulated me on my miraculous escape ! 



My first care was to go down to the canoes, which 

 had all been brought round as close to the dead 

 elephant as possible. Then I had a good bathe and 

 wash, and after putting on a clean shirt and extract- 

 ing most of the thorns from my legs, I felt myself 

 again. By this time every fraction of the elephant, 

 except the skull, skin, and vertebrae, had been brought 

 down to the water-side. The huge bones, after being 

 chopped into small pieces, were boiled in large pots, 

 on which all the fat which is contained in their 

 cellular structure was melted out and floated to the 



