A STAMPEDE OF ELEPHANTS 



stood back and the mournful women closed round liim, 

 scarcely leaving breathing space. It would have been 

 useless to stay and argue, and it might have caused 

 trouble. It was distressing to contemplate the terrible 

 ignorance of the people, the silent refusal of assistance 

 as they waved me back from the httle piles of sticks 

 and egg-shells that lay by the sick man, whose eyes 

 alone bore a look of entreaty as I gazed on him ; but no, 

 his nurses firmly held to their belief in the dirt on the 

 wound and the little piles of sticks and shells designed 

 to propitiate the evil spirit that was afflicting the patient. 

 As I moved slowly away I appreciated in how many 

 senses one can employ the words " Darkest Africa " ; 

 they are applicable not only to a country of which most 

 " civihzed " men are extremely ignorant, not only to 

 the darkness and mystery of its great silent forests, but 

 to its people, who live in an atmosphere of darkness with 

 deep-rooted superstitions and primitive ways, living for 

 the most part just as Stanley found them forty years 

 ago, often enough driven, murdered, and outraged to 

 satisfy the whims and fancies of a white race in its head- 

 long rush for wealth. 



When I arrived back at the camp I found several 

 of the boys digging busily in the ground. They had 

 discovered that close to my tent a number of potatoes 

 were growing. As the old saying goes, " When the cat's 

 away the mice will play," and in my absence they had 

 been having a good feed off the chief's potato patch. 



P was in bed and in complete ignorance of what was 



taking place. 



Sending for the chief I hastened to explain that my 

 boys had in my absence dug up the patch, and in payment 

 of the damage I gave him four hands of cloth. The old 

 fellow was delighted, and we were thus enabled to get 

 forty pounds of potatoes. 



The following day found us on the trail of the mighty 



191 



