184 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
noose is one end of a twisted rawhide cable, the other 
end of which is fastened to a heavy log. If the trap 
works, the elephant steps on the “basket” and his leg 
goes through. The “‘basket”’ sticks to his leg and 
holds the noose until the elephant moves enough to 
draw it tight. Then he begins to drag the heavy log 
through the forest. He cannot go far or fast and he 
leaves an unmistakable trail. He is a high-strung, 
nervous creature and when after a few days of trekking 
about with his tormenting log the natives come up 
with him, he is weak from lack of food and water. 
There he stands at bay, as I have pictured him in 
bronze. But his defiance is of slight avail, for there 
is little to be feared from his charge. It is compara- 
tively simple for his enemies to finish him off with 
poisoned spears and arrows. 
In my bronzes I am telling bit by bit my stories of 
African animals. A series of three groups telling the 
story of native lion-spearing will be finished by the 
time this book is out and will ultimately take its place 
in Roosevelt African Hall. In 1911 I got together a 
band of Nandi spearmen on the Uasin Gishu Plateau 
to hunt lions. I wanted a motion picture of native 
lion-spearing, the most dramatic thing Africa has to 
offer. In twenty days the Nandi had speared ten 
lions and five leopards. My moving pictures were 
not very satisfactory but I did get two other very 
diverse results from the trip—the determination to 
invent a better camera for wild-animal photography, 
and the idea for these lion-spearing groups. 
The first two groups represent three native spear- 
