THE WAYS OF THE ELEPHANT 61 



which lived a "rogue" elephant that had ter- 

 rorised the people for weeks. He visited the 

 gardens nearly every night and had wrecked 

 several grass huts, destroyed crops, and had 

 killed one man. 



No sooner had we passed through the usual 

 ceremony of greeting the chief of the district 

 than he appealed to Colonel Roosevelt to rid his 

 people of their pest. For several days prior to 

 our arrival the chief had stationed men to watch 

 the brute in anticipation of our coming, and he 

 told the colonel that a runner had just come in 

 with the news that the rogue was then resting 

 quietly in some elephant-grass less than half 

 a mile away. That any kind of an elephant 

 should take up its abode within hearing of 

 a village where the people were constantly 

 shouting, singing, and blowing horns seemed in- 

 credible. 



Having killed all the elephants that were 

 needed for scientific purposes, the colonel was at 

 first loath to shoot the animal, but after an in- 

 terpreter had portrayed its true character, and 

 Cuninghame had explained that the natives ex- 

 pected white men to shoot such animals in re- 

 turn for the privilege of hunting in their coun- 



