214 LARGE GAME. CHAP. iv. 



their arrival is simultaneous with the ripening of the fruit 

 of the umganu-tree, of which they are passionately fond, 

 and doubtless come in search of. This fruit is capable of 

 being made into a strong intoxicating drink, and the 

 elephants after eating it become quite tipsy, staggering 

 about, playing huge antics, screaming so as to be heard 

 miles off, and not seldom having tremendous fights. 

 Native hunters fear to approach them when in this state ; 

 but on the principle that it is safer to quarrel with a 

 drunken man than a sober one, I consider that, so long as 

 you possess sufficient nerve not to become flustered by 

 their trumpeting, or by the exhibitions of strength dis- 

 played upon the trees and upon one another, you have 

 far more chance at such a time of killing several, as they 

 are not so likely to take to flight at the first shot and 

 perhaps make their next halt thirty miles off. 



In all this country, however, you are lucky if you 

 come across them twice or thrice in a season ; and the 

 nearest place on the south-east coast where elephants can 

 be found in great numbers is close to the Limpopo, and 

 belongs to a noted chief called Umsila ka Sotyongane. 

 This, however, is an undertaking of no small magnitude. 

 From the Bombo mountains, if you go by land, you have 

 to go a week's journey through the fever-stricken country 

 of Nozingile, chief of the Amatonga, to the Portuguese 

 settlement of Loreno Marquis, the most unhealthy place 

 on that deadly coast ; but this might be avoided by going 

 by sea, though if, as is generally the case, one desires to 

 take hunters and natives from Natal with one, as they are 

 so much more trustworthy than the natives of the east 

 coast, considerable difficulty will be experienced in over- 



