THE ELEPHANT. 177 



" For onco I thought I was lost alone, abandoned, 

 during the night in this accursed hole. I expected, 

 moreover, to see some great serpent fall on my head. 

 I shouted with all my might, and I had the good for- 

 tune to be heard. My people came, and I got out by 

 means of ropes, which they got in the wood and threw 

 down to me." 



An elephant, pursued by Livingstone's people, fell 

 into one of these pits, and there received the javelins 

 of seventy men who pursued him ; he nevertheless 

 managed to scramble out of the trap, looking like an im- 

 mense porcupine. The hunters having no more javelins, 

 ran to Livingstone, begging him to finish the animal; 

 he fired two two-ounce balls without killing him. 



There is another method peculiar to this country de- 

 scribed by M. du Chaillu. " The natives discover a 

 walk or path through which it is likely that a herd 

 or single animal will soon pass. Then they take a 

 piece of very heavy wood, which the Bakalai call hanou, 

 and trice it up into a high tree, where it hangs, with a 

 sharp point armed with iron pointing downwards. It 

 is suspended by a rope, which is so arranged that the 

 instant the elephant touches it which he cannot help 

 doing, if he passes under the hanou it is loosed, and 

 falls with tremendous force on to his back, the iron 

 point wounding him, and the heavy weight generally 

 breaking his spine," 



