cH. x] BIG GAME HUNTING 241 



hippos, rhinos, or buffaloes ; but they are so eagerly 

 sought after by ivory hunters that it is only rarely that 

 they get the chance to become really dangerous to life, 

 althougli in many places their ravages among the crops 

 are severely felt by the unfortunate natives who live 

 near them. 



The ciiase of the elephant, if persistently followed, 

 entails more fatigue and hardship than any other kind 

 of jVfrican hunting. As regards risk, it is hard to say 

 whether it is more or less dangerous than the chase of 

 the lion and the buffalo. Both Cuninghame and 

 'I'arlton, men of wide experience, ranked elephant- 

 lumting, in point of danger, as nearly on the level with 

 lion-huntuig, and as more dangerous than buffalo- 

 hunting : and all three kinds as far more dangerous 

 than the chase of the rhino. Personally, I believe the 

 actual conflict with a lion, where the conditions are the 

 same, to be normally the more dangerous sport, though 

 far greater demands are made by elephant-hunting on 

 the qualities of personal endurance and hardihood and 

 resolute perseverance in the face of disappointment and 

 difficulty. Buffalo, seemingly, do not charge as freely 

 as elephant, but are more dangerous when they do 

 charge. Uliino when hunted, though at times ugly 

 customers, seem to me certainly less dangerous than 

 the other three ; but from sheer stupid truculence 

 they are themselves apt to take the offensive in un- 

 expected fashion, being far more prone to such aggres- 

 sion than are any of the others— man-eating lions always 

 excepted. 



Very few of the native tribes in Africa hunt the 

 elephant systematically. But the 'Ndorobo, the wild 

 bush people of East Africa, sometimes catch young 

 elephants in the pits they dig with slow labour, and 



IG 



