A MONSTER TUSK 267 



every one had been so taken up with the elephant that 

 no one noticed the way I had gone. They feared that 

 I had been carried off by the robber-band, and that the 

 camp would be attacked. A lantern had been taken 

 to the top of the highest tree, great piles of dry grass 

 and branches lit, and shots fired, all with the idea of 

 guiding us back, if we were lost, and of letting the 

 enemy know my people were wide-awake. i\fter taking 

 these precautions, they had spent the night In little groups 

 round the tents and mules. On my return Belat Wurgie 

 came out to greet me ; he and his men seemed really 

 glad to see me back safely, much more, of course, for 

 their own sakes than for mine. They explained that 

 they had agreed that Basha Kassa should go and look 

 for me with only a few men, for if I had been taken 

 prisoner, and the outlaws had seen a large body approach- 

 ing, they would have hurried me off to some inaccess- 

 ible mountain. My people told me they had not got 

 the elephant yesterday, though he was so sick when 

 they left him — that they returned the first thing in the 

 morning with axes to cut out the ivory, only to find that 

 it had gone. 



I spent the afternoon in making some notes on the 

 distances and bearings of the different places round, and 

 asking about shikar. I was told that lions here were 

 very rare, that nearly all the elephants had small tusks, 

 but that a couple of months ago, one had been shot here 

 with a single tusk seven to eight feet long, which was 

 sent to Tecla Haymanot. 



Next day camp was moved across the plain to the north- 

 east and pitched among the foot-hills on the Dungulbar 



