286 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



at times beat the earth softly in unison with the palms 

 of their hands. It was genuine ^^high church" for 

 them, and when they had finished they arose and im- 

 mediately disappeared in the forest. 



The morning was clear. At about eleven, however, 

 the clouds blackened with inconceivable rapidity, and 

 in ten minutes rain was falling heavily. At about the 

 same time in came two of the Wanderobo to tell us that 

 they had actually seen an elephant. Immediately we 

 called the gunbearers and plunged into the dripping 

 woods. We followed our two Wanderobo at a great 

 pace for two hours, crossing two deep canons on the way. 

 It rained steadily all the time and we were soon wet and 

 soggy. Once N'jahgi, the elder, pointed to a hollow in 

 a tree closed by a rude door of bark, and gave us to un- 

 derstand that it was one of his residences. On top of 

 the last ridge above the second stream they showed us 

 some red mud rubbed smooth and shiny, as though 

 with an immense trowel, and plastered high up on the 

 trunk of a big tree. 



After staring at it a moment I realized that here an 

 elephant had rubbed his huge flanks, and was amazed 

 at the height of the mud above the ground. We 

 followed that elephant's spoor until three o'clock. He 

 wandered steadily up the slope of the hogsback to- 

 ward the mountain. Sometimes his great footprints 

 were as plain and about as large as a foot- tub ; at others 

 they could be distinguished only with the greatest 



