294 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
at his head, Scott meanwhile trying to push the animal off with- 
out success. After a few moments of this horse-play, which looked 
most frightening to me, I saw blood trickling from his head. I 
feared I was witnessing a man being actually eaten alive, and 
looked round quickly to see what I could grab to stave the man- 
eater off. Luckily Straw decided at that moment that the greeting 
had lasted long enough, and suddenly jumped up, allowing Scott 
to get to his feet. To my utter astonishment he merely smacked 
Straw on the rump to show that there was no ill-feeling, and held 
out a hand that was bleeding, which Straw licked. He then 
walked calmly out as if nothing had happened. Subsequently 
Straw did the same thing again when no one was present, and 
sat on Scott for so long that some of his ribs caved in and he had 
to go to the hospital. 
Such incidents as this never intimidated him in the slightest 
degree. On a subsequent trip when one of his lions was brought 
to Nairobi station to link up with the rest of the menagerie, I 
noticed a nail protruding inside the crate, and without hesitation 
Scott got a hammer and slid into the crate while I lifted the slid- 
ing door. As he lay on his back bashing at the nail above him, 
the lion licked his face and sat on him, but otherwise took it all 
as a matter of course. 
Dicksi the elephant, then aged five years, had come into the 
hands of Major Sharpe of Ngobit as a baby and was brought up 
as one of the family. Major Sharpe is renowned as a landscape 
gardener and his home near Thomson’s Falls is a delight. What 
was formerly swamp and bush has been converted into a garden- 
er’s dreamland with a large pond, trickling streams and rustic 
bridges, in a setting of the most beautiful aquatic plants. How 
Dicksi fitted into all this I cannot imagine, for Sharpe loved his 
garden, and was no less devoted to his pet. 
Sharpe’s stories about Dicksi’s upbringing are delightful, one of 
the most amusing concerning an occasion when someone wagered 
Sharpe that he could not entice Dicksi upstairs to his bedroom. 
This he did easily enough, but the prospect of returning down 
a steep stairway did not appeal to Dicksi in the slightest. Elephants 
were hardly constructed for this purpose anyway. She lost her 
nerve after trying unsuccessfully to get through the bedroom 
