ELEPHANT HUNTING 297 



had then returned to the mountain, and stood in one place 

 resting for several hours, and had left this sleeping ground 

 some time before we reached it. After we had followed the 

 trail a short while we made the experiment of trying to 

 force our own way through the jungle, so as to get the wind 

 more favorable; but our progress was too slow and noisy, 

 and we returned to the path the elephants had beaten. 

 Then the 'Ndorobo went ahead, travelling noiselessly and at 

 speed. One of them was clad in a white blanket, and an- 

 other in a red one, which were conspicuous; but they 

 were too silent and cautious to let the beasts see them, 

 and could tell exactly where they were and what they were 

 doing by the sounds. When these trackers waited for us 

 they would appear before us like ghosts; once one of them 

 dropped down from the branches above, having climbed a 

 tree with monkey-like agility to get a glimpse of the great 

 game. 



At last we could hear the elephants, and under Cuning- 

 hame's lead we walked more cautiously than ever. The 

 wind was right, and the trail of one elephant led close along- 

 side that of the rest of the herd, and parallel thereto. It 

 was about noon. The elephants moved slowly, and we 

 listened to the boughs crack, and now and then to the 

 curious internal rumblings of the great beasts. Carefully, 

 every sense on the alert, we kept pace with them. My 

 double-barrel was in my hands, and wherever possible, as 

 I followed the trail, I stepped in the huge footprints of the 

 elephant, for where such a weight had pressed there were 

 no sticks left to crack under my feet. It made our veins 

 thrill thus for half an hour to creep stealthily along, but a 

 few rods from the herd, never able to see it, because of the 

 extreme denseness of the cover, but always hearing first one 

 and then another of its members, and always trying to 

 guess what each one might do, and keeping ceaselessly 

 ready for whatever might befall. A flock of hornbills flew 

 up with noisy clamor, but the elephants did not heed 

 them. 



