A HERD OF ELEPHANTS BATHING. 141 
canoes ahead maffe us a sign to be very quiet. ‘ What 
is going on?” I whispered to Quengueza. (Quengueza in 
a low voice replied, “I know not.” Every man looked 
carefully at his gun. The canoe ahead had stopped, 
neither retreating or advancing. Whatcoulditbe? We 
pulled with the utmost care; our paddles, as they dipped 
into the water, made no noise at all, and at last we all met. 
’ Then Adouma, the king’s nephew, came and whisper- 
ed low—‘ Mophants are here, they are bathing in the riv- 
er. I have heard them.” 
“ Are you sure-they are sepieats it 
‘“ Are they not hippopotami?” I asked. 
“No,” he replied, “ they are elephants.” 
The countenances of all the fellows brightened up; 
the ivory tusks of the noble beast were, they thought, al- 
ready in their possession—they were selling the skin of 
the fox before having killed the animal. 
We let all our canoes pass down the stream a little 
way, in order that we might hold a grand _palaver. 
Adouma, Quabi, Rapero, all Quengueza’s nephews, were 
present. Querlaouen and Malaouen, the two most redoubt- 
able warriors of the Bakalai of the Ovenga, were also 
there; these five, with Quengueza and myself, formed the 
Grand Council. 
Quengueza, being an old man, was to remain where he 
was with all the party, while myself and the five others 
were to move in a canoe and make land near where the 
elephants were. 
Immediately the fellows covered themselves with their 
fetiches; Querlaouen and Malaouen bled their hands, and 
then we looked carefully at our guns. Though we were 
more than one hundred men altogether, the falling of a 
