CHAPTER XXIV. 
ELEPHANT PITS.—A CAPTIVE.—DIVIDING THE MEAT.—THE 
ALETHE CASTANEA, 
QUERLAOUEN, Malaouen, and their wives and children, 
and all their families, which amounted to about forty peo- 
‘ple, had worked hard at digging elephant pits, of the same 
shape as those I have described to you in “Stories of 
the Gorilla Country,” and which I saw in the cannibal 
country. The pits had been covered with branches of 
trees, while others were not for elephants to fallinto. Oft- 
en when they roam at night, before they know it, down 
they are. A great work it must have been to dig them; 
they were about fifteen feet deep, perfectly perpendicular, 
and about eight or ten feet in length and six feet broad. 
Hanous had also been fixed, such as I have described 
to you while among the cannibals, in a preceding volume. 
These were about ten or fifteen feet long; and at a dis- 
tance of about a foot apart there were huge sharp-pointed 
iron spikes about six or eight inches in length. Each of 
these hanous must have weighed several hundred pounds; 
and as they fell from a great height, the weight falling on 
an elephant’s spine must be very great, and more than 
sufficient to break it. 
So, passing through.these tangled forests, we had to be 
very careful, in order not to fall into pits or to have a 
