CUTTING UP THE ELEPHANT. 341 



and lay down for the night with no other covering than an old 

 sheep-skin which I had used for a saddle-cloth. Shortly after 

 I had dropped asleep, Mutchuisho, commiserating my bare con- 

 dition, spread an old jackal kaross over me. This kaross, as all 

 Bechuana garments are,- was thickly tenanted by small transparent 

 insects, usually denominated lice. These virulent creatures, pro- 

 bably finding my skin more tender than that of the owner of the 

 kaross, seemed resolved to enjoy a banquet while they could ; and 

 presently I awoke with my whole body so poisoned and inflamed 

 that I felt as if attacked with a severe fever. All further rest that 

 night was at an end. I returned the kaross to Mutchuisho, with 

 grateful acknowledgments for his polite intentions ; and piling dry 

 wood on the fire, which emitted a light as bright as day, I aroused 

 the slumbering Kleinboy to assist me in turning my buckskins 

 outside in, when an animating " chasse" commenced, which termi 

 nated in the capture of about fourscore of my white-currant colored 

 visitors. I then lit another fire opposite to the first, and spent the 

 remainder of the night squatted between the two, thus imbibing 

 caloric before and behind. 



As the sun rose on the morning of the 25th, Mutchuisho gave 

 the word to cut up the elephant, when a scene of blood, noise, and 

 turmoil ensued which baffles all description. Every native there, 

 divested of his kaross and armed with an assagai, rushed to the 

 onslaught ; and in less than two hours every inch of the elephant 

 was gone, and carried by the different parties to their respective 

 temporary locations, which they had chosen beneath each con- 

 venient tree that grew around. 



The manner in which the elephant is cut up is as follows: The 

 rough outer skin is first removed, in large 'sheets, from the side 

 which lies uppermost. Several coats of an under skin are then 

 met with. This skin is of a tough and pliant nature, and /s used 

 by the natives for making water-bags, in which they convey sup- 

 plies of water from the nearest vley or fountain (which is often ten 

 miles distant) to the elephant. They remove this inner skin with 

 caution, taking care not to cut it w''h the assagai ; and it is formed 



