KENYA (I!) 295 
window, and with the result that she relieved herself in every 
way possible. As she became more and more upset at efforts to 
get her downstairs, she made more and bigger deposits in the 
bedroom, until Sharpe wondered if there was any limit to what 
an elephant can hold. 
Finally she was enticed down the first step by her owner offer- 
ing her some special dish, which was an opportunity for the 
helpers behind to give a shove; this resulted in an avalanche of 
flesh down the staircase with Sharpe and Dicksi finishing up to- 
gether in a heap—fortunately with no bones broken. 
Dicksi was always a lovable character and was particularly 
gentle with children, whom she carried around without protest. 
The ever-increasing problem of giving a rapidly growing elephant 
the freedom of the house and grounds must have been disquiet- 
ing at times, although the attachment one can have for such an 
animal will often over-ride other considerations. It must have 
been with mixed feelings that Major Sharpe had to say farewell 
to his beloved pet, but presumably he realized that there must 
come a time when the elephant, like the lion, is out of place in 
the home if one is to lead a normal life. 
Dicksi was transferred to Gilbert Sauvage’s farm near Nairobi, 
accompanied by the boy who had tended her almost since birth. 
Here she was allowed to wander at large but always with the boy 
in close attendance. Most of my collection was kept here pending 
such time as I could arrange for a suitable boat to carry it home. 
Sauvage himself was an animal trapper and supplied me with 
Girlie, the Baringo Giraffe, the first to reach England after the 
war and now a proud mother at Whipsnade Park. 
The black serval—a melanistic variety of the common serval— 
was a fine-looking beast that showed no signs of being friendly. 
He came from the western end of the Mau Escarpment, which 
has a greater rainfall than the rest of Kenya. Altitude and humid- 
ity appear to be conducive to melanism, for here it is common 
among the genets and galagos. For some distance around Sotik 
the Kikuyu Galago is represented by a black variety to the total 
exclusion of the typical form which occurs in the neighboring 
country at a lower and drier altitude. 
One day an emissary from the Kabaka, King of the Buganda, 
