Herds of Elephants 



In the morning I awoke with a touch of fever, 

 but undeterred I hastened off at a brisk pace in the 

 hope of catching up the herd. Suddenly the native 

 who was leading held up his hand in caution. We 

 examined the ground, and came to the conclusion 

 that the herd had doubled back during the night 

 by the same route as they had come ; and if so, we 

 must be quite close. 



Accordingly we took to the "gubba," and within 

 an hour we came up on their flank. Climbing on 

 to an ant-heap, I scanned them through my glasses. 

 There they were, walking in single file, winding in 

 and out of the clumps of trees in a leisurely fashion ; 

 now and then one would leave the column to pluck 

 an extra tempting morsel from a neighbouring 

 "wait-a-bit" thorn, but always rejoining the line 

 again. They were mostly females with countless 

 young. It seemed so quaint to view these massive 

 monsters wandering aimlessly along at their own 

 sweet will, quite close to where we were hiding. 

 They appeared almost black in contrast to the 

 beautiful white of their ivory tusks, which glistened 

 in the sunshine. Just then I espied another big 

 herd right ahead, and this sudden discovery, coupled 

 with the silence with which they moved along, 

 imbued me with a distinct feeling of uneasiness. 

 Suddenly a third herd came out of the bushes only 

 a hundred yards away. For the moment I thought 

 we were done for. The crowd of native hunters 

 had in a moment mysteriously disappeared like thin 

 snow under a summer sun, and I felt my orderly 



105 



