144 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



I followed his advice, literally hardly breathing, al- 

 though for several iiiinutes I could distinguish nothing 

 to suggest the presence of the huge animal. Then, how- 

 ever, at last I detected the curious note which character- 

 izes them, and which grew more distinct as we moved 

 forward toward a large clearing, filled with the bones 

 and tusks of elephants, and from which arose a horrible 

 stench as from decaying flesli. 



"What place is this?" I asked the guide. 



"An elepliants' burial-place," he answered mysteriously 

 in a whisper. " Hist ! Look ! " The cries redoubled. 

 " They are bringing one of their number to the charnel- 

 house." They were no longer cries, but prolonged and 

 plaintive shrieks and ho\yls at unequal intervals, rever- 

 beratino; throuii;h the forest. We hid in a ditch, and this 

 is the strange sight we saw. 



A dozen elephants suddenly appeared at the other side 

 of the clearing, surrounding and supporting an enormous 

 patriarch enfeebled with age and sickness. To hasten his 

 tottering steps, they all belabored him with their trunks, 

 urg-iniT him forward to the tomb of his ancestors, among 

 whose bleaching bones he was coming to lay his own. 

 The convoy having supported him to a convenient spot, 

 stood one side, and over he went upon his side with a 

 mournful cry that startled the birds and monkeys from 

 the neighboring trees, and drove them, a noisy band, farther 

 into the forest to join the jackals, whose impatience could 

 hardly brook any delay in the giant's death, and were 



