in THE ELEPHANT 63 



Elephants are frequently troubled with internal worms. I 

 witnessed a curious instance of the escape of such insects from the 

 stomach through a hole caused by a bullet, nevertheless the animal 

 appeared to be in good condition. 



It was a fine moonlight night on the borders of Abyssinia that 

 I sat up to watch the native crops, which were a great attraction 

 to the wild elephants, although there was no heavy jungle nearer 

 than 20 miles. It was the custom of these animals to start after 

 sunset, and to arrive at about ten o'clock in the vast dhurra fields 

 of the Arabs, who, being without firearms, could only scare them 

 by shouts and flaming torches. The elephants did not care much 

 for this kind of disturbance, and they merely changed their position 

 from one portion of the cultivated land to another more distant, 

 and caused serious destruction to the crop (Sorghum vulgare), 

 which was then nearly ripe. The land was rich, and the dhurra 

 grew 10 or 12 feet high, with stems as thick as sugar-cane, while 

 the large heads of corn contained several thousand grains the size 

 of a split-pea. This was most tempting food for elephants, and 

 they travelled nightly the distance named to graze upon the crops, 

 and then retreated before sunrise to their distant jungles. 



I do not enjoy night shooting, but there was no other way of 

 assisting the natives, therefore I found myself watching, in the 

 silent hours of night, in the middle of a perfect sea of cultivation, 

 unbroken for many miles. There is generally a calm during the 

 night, and there was so perfect a stillness that it was almost 

 painful, the chirp of an insect sounding as loud as though it were 

 a bird. At length there was a distant sound like wind, or the 

 rush of a stream over a rocky bed. This might have been a 

 sudden gust, but the sharp crackling of brittle dhurra stems 

 distinctly warned us that elephants had invaded the field, and 

 that they were already at their work of destruction. 



As the dhurra is sown in parallel rows about 3 feet apart, and 

 the ground was perfectly flat, there was no difficulty in approach- 

 ing the direction whence the cracking of the dhurra could be dis- 

 tinctly heard. The elephants appeared to be feeding towards us 

 with considerable rapidity, and in a few minutes I heard the sound 

 of crunching within 50 yards of me. I immediately ran along the 

 clear passage between the tall steins, and presently saw a black 

 form close to me as it advanced in the next alley to my own. I 

 do not think I was more than four or five yards from it when it 

 suddenly turned its head to the right, and I immediately took a 

 shot behind the car. I had a white paper sight upon the muzzle 

 of the large rifle (No. 10), which was plainly distinguished in the 



