38 HUNTING TRIPS IN NORTHERN RHODESIA. 



bull I had wounded the day before. I got the spoor and followed it for a long way, 

 but could not get up to the elephant, so I came back to the dead one and saw the 

 tusks removed. The natives in my absence had been busy getting the meat, and 

 had not begun to cut out the ivory. However, the presence of a white man always 

 makes a difference, and in two hours I got them out. 



In cutting out tusks one has to be careful not to chip the ivory, and the axe has 

 to be worked at a slant. If a dead elephant be left for a week or ten days, the tusks 

 will usually draw out without much cutting, but in this country it is not safe to leave 

 ivory unless men are left to guard it. The natives have a superstition about the 

 removal of the big nerves which are found in elephant tusks, and only an old man 

 can take them out. They say that if a youth or maiden witness the operation they 

 will prove barren. When the news that an elephant had been killed got about, quite 

 two hundred natives flocked to the scene, and the operation of cutting up looked 

 like a pack of wolves fighting over a carcase. The natives of this country believe 

 that eating elephant meat gives them strength, and they are fonder of it than 

 anything else. 



On weighing the tusks I found them to be 341b. and 321b., and they measured 

 5ft. long, which is about the average size of tusks in this country. 



On August 6th my hunter of the long name came in and said he had seen 

 lots of elephant spoor, so I packed up and went to Kamwendo's village, where I 

 camped. 



Going through the bush I shot a warthog sow. After having some food I went 

 out to see if the elephants had been about, and saw much spoor and places where 

 the animals had been standing about and feeding. 



Another thing I noticed was that the beasts had been routing up the ground in 

 search of roots. Some writers on shooting affirm that they do not dig up the ground, 

 but Mr. Selous, as well as others, say they do, and there can be no mistake about 

 it, for on many occasions I have seen places where they have done so. 



In fact, this habit is so common to elephants in Northern Rhodesia and Central 

 Angoniland that I consider the men who deny the fact must have the art of 

 observation wanting — or be blind. However, certain men who have shot many 

 elephants simply shoot like machines or for financial gain, and the habits of the 

 game they hunt do not interest them at all. I forgot to mention that the warthog 

 I shot in the morning did a strange thing after being hit; on getting the bullet, 

 she dashed off and ran full tilt into a tree, smashing her tushes to pieces. It 

 was a dying rush, and I suppose she did not see where she was going. 



Early the following morning I sent out men to try to find the night spoor 



