XX INQUISITIVE ELEPHANT 435 



behind the ant-heap, and then down to the water's 

 edge. After waiting some time, and neither seeing 

 nor hearing the elephant, our informant crept back 

 and founci the monster still standing close to their 

 fire, apparently smelling the strips of zebra meat. 

 Here he had left him, and come straight to us with 

 the news. He said he could see that the elephant 

 had very large tusks. It did not take us many 

 minutes to prepare ourselves and start back with our 

 guide, hoping we might still find the creature 

 investigating the Kafir encampment. The moon, 

 a little past the full, was shining splendidly, making 

 it almost as light as day. We had to wade across 

 several broad lagoons, one of which took us up to 

 our arm-pits, before reaching our destination. It 

 had been a hot sultry night, and the water felt cool 

 and refreshing. Day was just breaking when we 

 reached the ant-heap where our guide had left his 

 companions. Here we found, sure enough, traces 

 of the footsteps of a mighty bull elephant. The 

 inquisitive animal had advanced to within six paces 

 of the fire, and eviciently stood some time on this 

 spot ; at length, however, he had gone off at a quick 

 walk towards the sand-belt. Fillino- the calabashes 

 with water, as we anticipated a long chase, we at 

 once took up his spoor. Before following it far we 

 found that it joined the spoors of three other bulls 

 and a little calf. The smell of the Kafirs and the 

 zebra meat had evidently aroused their suspicions, 

 as, instead of feeding, they had walked on, after 

 joining, in single file, and at a quick pace. We 

 could not have been half an hour behind, as the 

 dung was quite hot, but we did not gain on them in 

 the least. Hour after hour we trudged on, and 

 at last, to make a long story short, they got our 



