chap. iv. ELEPHANT. 205 



banks of the Pongolo early in the night. It was, of course, 

 useless to attempt to follow the wounded elephant before 

 daylight, and there being nothing to eat we quenched our 

 thirst and lay down as soon as we had kindled a fire. 



Day had scarcely broken before we left our sleeping- 

 place, and crossing the river, made the best of our way 

 to where we had left the elephant ; but as we approached 

 the spot the light of several smouldering fires in an old 

 deserted camp of ours hard by caught our eyes through 

 the grey dawn, and on going up we found that they had 

 been made by some of our own party, who, having heard 

 from some one, probably some one who had happened 

 to be looking down from the mountain at the time I 

 fired and had heard the elephants trumpeting, what was 

 going on, had come down, and on following the spoor 

 had found my disabled animal painfully hobbling after 

 the others, and had finished it off, as indeed was very 

 plainly to be seen by the amount of meat about, and 

 the hundreds of vultures that covered the great fig-trees 

 which lined the river. Hardly had I arrived before a long 

 line of Bombo natives made their appearance, in accord- 

 ance with the colonial proverb that where the carcase is 

 there will vultures and natives appear as if by magic, 

 some carrying pots of native beer, which is always grateful 

 to those who, living on the produce of their guns, rarely 

 taste vegetable food. 



I need not enter into the disgusting details of how the 

 animal was broken up, and how the blood- smeared naked 

 savages fought and squabbled over its flesh ; but, enor- 

 mous as the carcase was, little was left save bones for the 

 vultures to pick after all had departed, staggering under 



