in THE ELEPHANT 67 



daggers ascend all the largest and most shady trees throughout the 

 neighbouring forest. In a great hunt there may be some hundred 

 trees thus occupied. When all is arranged, the elephants are 

 driven and forced into the forest, to which they naturally retreat 

 as a place of refuge. It is their habit to congregate beneath large 

 shady trees when thus disturbed, in complete ignorance of the fact 

 that the assassins are already among the branches. When an 

 elephant stands beneath a tree thus manned, the hunter drops his 

 weighted spear-head so as to strike the back just behind the 

 shoulder. The weight of the clay lump drives the sharp blade up 

 to the hilt, as it descends from a height of 10 or 12 feet above 

 the animal. Sometimes a considerable number may be beneath 

 one tree, in which case several may be speared in a similar manner. 

 This method of attack is specially fatal, as the elephants, in retreat- 

 ing through the forest, brush the weighted handle of the spear- 

 blade against the opposing branches ; these act as levers in cutting 

 the inside of the animal by every movement of the weapon, and 

 should this be well centred in the back there is no escape. 



There is no animal that is more persistently pursued than the 

 elephant, as it affords food in wholesale supply to the Africans, 

 who consume the flesh, while the hide is valuable for shields ; the 

 fat when boiled down is highly esteemed by the natives, and the 

 ivory is of extreme value. No portion of the animal is wasted in 

 Africa, although in Ceylon the elephant is considered worthless, 

 and is allowed to rot uselessly upon the ground where it fell 

 to die. 



The professional hunters that are employed by European traders 

 shoot the elephant with enormous guns, or rifles, which are gener- 

 ally rested upon a forked stick driven into the ground. In this 

 manner they approach to about 50 yards' distance, and fire, if 

 possible simultaneously, two shots behind the shoulder. If these 

 shots are well placed, the elephant, if female, will fall at once, but 

 if a large male, it will generally run for perhaps 100 or more yards 

 until it is forced to halt, when it quickly falls, and dies from 

 suffocation, if the lungs are pierced. 



The grandest of all hunters are the Hamran Arabs, upon the 

 Settite river, on the borders of Abyssinia, who have no other weapon 

 but the heavy two-edged sword. I gave an intimate account of 

 these wonderful Nimrods many years ago in the Nile Tributaries 

 of Abyssinia, but it is impossible to treat upon the elephant 

 without some reference to these extraordinary people. 



Since I visited that country in 1861, the published account of 

 those travels attracted several parties of the best class of ubiquitous 



