THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 281 



any ultimate good. One must know his anatomy; and 

 even then it is generally very difficult to make out 

 fatal spots through the dimness and the screen of a 

 forest. And, lastly, an elephant is a great traveller; so 

 that a fresh trail means little unless it is instantly and 

 rapidly followed. When I had learned these things I 

 began to see the reason for Cuninghame's emphatic 

 statement : that the man who got his bull elephant — in 

 this country — had earned him. 



Cuninghame is the greatest elephant man in Africa. 

 Therefore when three years ago he told me that never 

 again would he go among the elephants of Kenia, I 

 believed him. 



"They are getting too kali,^^ said he; "it isn't good 

 enough. They have got so that if they hear a shot or a 

 broken twig even, or smell the faintest indication of a 

 human being, they come for him at once.'' 



Then I talked to a member of the Swedish Zoological 

 Expedition. He had gone up to Kenia with Cuning- 

 hame to get elephant. The hunt ended by Cuning- 

 hame 's going down into the herd and killing the beast. 

 He also fired twelve shots from his heavy gun merely to 

 keep off the herd. He himself acknowledged that twice 

 he had nearly been caught. 



"I wouldn't have gone among that screaming lot of 

 devils for anything on earth," the Swede told me frankly. 

 "I told Cuninghame if he was fool enough to do so, he 

 had my permission. I sat down on a rock." 



