THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 285 



down" trees. These massive giants fall at such in- 

 tervals; and they are so immediately absorbed by the 

 forces of dampness and decay! With us a down tree 

 may lie twenty years or more before it disintegrates. 

 Here it is gone in two. 



In daytime these forests seem almost void of life. 

 There are few birds, few visible or audible animals, few 

 insects. Silence holds, save for the voices of the wind 

 or the rain. But with the fall of dusk strange creatures 

 awaken. Leopards sigh and the tree hyraxes and the 

 colobus raise their strange and eerie cries. There are 

 few wilder sounds in nature than the long mournful 

 crescendo shriek of the female hyrax. It is demoniac. 

 The moment the night is dark they begin, near the 

 very edge of the camp, in the blackness of the depths 

 beyond, far off in the distance, like lost souls groping 

 and crying for each other 's guidence. 



November i. — Early in the morning the Wanderobo 

 prepared to set forth. The pursuit of the elephant is 

 much more than a sporting incident in their lives; it is a 

 real and solemn end of existence. Before starting out 

 they drew a little to one side, squatted in a circle, and 

 made medicine. It was really impressive. An old man 

 performed the ritual, raising his hands, palm up, to 

 heaven; facing in turn to all points of the compass; 

 bending humbly, his hands crossed on his breast; call- 

 ing on the forest and the Powers in a loud voice. The 

 others, their heads low, muttered choral responses, and 



