Hunting in Many Lands 



The condition of the wounded elephant 

 seemed to be known to the others, for they 

 crowded about her and apparently offered her 

 assistance. She placed her trunk on the back 

 of one standing in front of her and raised her- 

 self to her feet, assisted by those standing 

 around. They actually moved her for some 

 distance, but soon got tired of their kindly 

 efforts. We fired several shots at them, which 

 only had the effect of making two of the band 

 charge in our direction and then return to 

 their stricken comrade. Cover there was none, 

 and with our bad marksmanship it would have 

 been (to say the least) brutal to blaze away 

 at the gallant little herd. Besides, cries of 

 "water! " "water! " were heard coming from my 

 thirsty caravan. So there was nothing for it 

 but to leave the elephant, take the people to 

 water, if we could find it, and then return and 

 put the wounded animal out of its misery. 



An hour and a half later we reached water, 

 beautiful and clear, welling up from the side 

 of a small hill. This is called Masimani. On 

 reaching the water, all signs of discontent 

 among my people vanished, and those among 

 them who were not Mahomedans, and there- 

 fore had no scruples about eating elephant 



52 



