ELEPHANT FRIENDS AND FOES — 49 
fortune not stepping on me—and charged off after 
the boys. I never got much information out of the 
boys as to what did happen, for they were not proud 
of their part in the adventure. However, there were 
plenty of signs that the elephant had run out into the 
open space again and charged all over it; so it is 
reasonable to assume that they had scattered through 
it like a covey of quail and that he had trampled it 
down trying to find the men whose tracks and wind 
filled the neighbourhood. 
Usually, when an elephant kills a man, it will re- 
turn to its victim and gore him again, or trample 
him, or pull his legs or arms off with its trunk. I 
knew of one case where a man’s porters brought in 
his arm which the elephant that had killed him had 
pulled off his body and left lying on the ground. In 
my case, happily, the elephant for some reason did 
not come back. I lay unconscious for four or five 
hours. In the meanwhile, when they found the 
coast was clear, the porters and gun boys returned 
and made camp, intending, no doubt, to keep guard 
over my body until Mrs. Akeley, to whom they had 
sent word, could reach me. They did not, however, 
touch me, for they believed that I was dead, and 
neither the Swahili Mohammedans nor the Kikuyus 
will touch a dead man. So they built a fire and hud- 
dled around it and I Jay unconscious in the cold 
mountain rain at a little distance, with my body 
crushed and my face torn open. About five o’clock 
I came to in a dazed way and was vaguely conscious 
of seeing a fire. I shouted, and a little later I felt 
