BACK TO AFRICA. 157 



Thursday had not been mistaken in his locality, for 

 several times during the night we heard elephants 

 trumpeting in the neighborhood. iVt dawn he began 

 his trap, — that is, he and his men set out to clean and 

 rebuild one he had made and used the year before, — 

 and in two hours it was done and cleverly covered in. We 

 then, from a perch in a neighboring tree, saw him and 

 one of his men disappear into the forest ; and I was left 

 with his wife and the other men, who could none of them 

 imderstand a word of my language, nor I of theirs. 



After several hours of uncomfortable waiting and listen- 

 ing, I heard, evidently coming toward us, the distressed 

 cry of a young elephant and, farther off, the answer- 

 ing calls of his friends in the herd. Five minutes later 

 the sounds w^ere repeated, nearer still ; and soon I saw, to 

 my intense surprise, that the first cry proceeded from 

 Thursday, who made use of a reed to alter the pitch of his 

 voice, and that he was certainly drawing on after him a 

 male and female, in search of their supposed offspring. 

 Thursday soon joined us in the tree, and, in reply to my 

 compliments on his powers of imitation, said that was 

 easy enough, but that the difficulty lay later when the 

 elephants were near, looking for their young one. 



"Why, how is that?" 



" You see, then I must change the note to one of joy, 

 as if he were pleased at the approach of help, for the 

 elephant is bright enough to know that his young would 

 not continue distressed when he saw his family coming ; 



