ELEPHANT HUNTING 255 



full information of the elephant in the neighborhood. He 

 had no 'Ndorobo, but among the Wa-Meru, a wild mar- 

 tial tribe, who lived close around him, there were a num- 

 ber of hunters, or at least of men who knew the forest and 

 the game, and these had been instructed to bring in any 

 news. 



We had, of course, no idea that elephant would be 

 found close at hand. But next morning, about eleven, 

 Home came to our . camp with four of his black scouts, 

 who reported that three elephants were in a patch of thick 

 jungle beside the shambas, not three miles away. Home 

 said that the elephants were cows, that they had been in 

 the neighborhood some days, devastating the shambas, 

 and were bold and fierce, having charged some men who 

 sought to drive them away from the cultivated fields; it is 

 curious to see how little heed these elephants pay to the 

 natives. I wished a cow for the museum, and also another 

 bull. So off we started at once, Kermit carrying his camera. 

 I slipped on my rubber-soled shoes, and had my gun- 

 bearers accompany me barefooted, with the Holland and 

 the Springfield rifles. We followed foot-paths among the 

 fields until we reached the edge of the jungle in which the 

 elephants stood. 



This jungle lay beside the forest, and at this point 

 separated it from the fields. It consisted of a mass of rank- 

 growing bushes, allied to the cotton-plant, ten or twelve 

 feet high, with only here and there a tree. It was not good 

 ground in which to hunt elephant, for the tangle was prac- 

 tically impenetrable to a hunter save along the elephant 

 trails, whereas the elephants themselves could move in 

 any direction at will, with no more difficulty than a man 



