CHAP. iv. ELEPHANT. 185 



soon became a roaring, crackling fire ; and as I spent nearly 

 another hour in collecting more fuel among the reeds, I 

 soon had enough embers to retain life for several hours, 

 and to enable me to produce a blaze with the untouched 

 supply of fuel that I kept in reserve, should I wish to do 

 so during the night. Food of course I had none, but 

 smoking served as a substitute, and there was something 

 weird in sitting there alone in the heart of these ill-famed 

 reeds, which could only be compared to the feelings of the 

 midnight watcher in a ghost-haunted house, not alto- 

 gether unpleasant, but wholly strange and flesh-creeping. 

 It was long, therefore, before drowsiness crept over 

 me ; every now and again I could hear a distant crackle 

 that told that some of the inhabitants of the place were 

 abroad on their nightly wanderings, while an occasional 

 nearer rustle spoke of the movements of the cane-rat or 

 the iguana. Lions, I had heard, formed their lairs here, 

 but I knew it would be on the edge, and that they would 

 go outside to hunt, so I did not fear their disturbing me ; 

 indeed, unless it was a water-antelope, nothing smaller 

 than an elephant or hippopotamus was likely to be seen 

 so far inside. Even when I did ultimately lie down, it 

 was long before I could sleep, but at last tired nature got 

 the better of my excited imagination, and I passed away 

 into the land of dreams, waking, however, at such frequent 

 intervals as proved that my rest was but broken and 

 disturbed. It must have been long past midnight from 

 the position of the Southern Cross, when at one of those 

 waking moments my ear caught the sound of breaking 

 reeds, evidently caused by the passage of some large 

 animal close by, and on sitting up and examining the 



