xi THE WHITE TRAIL 115 



to the pursuit and. obliged us to pitch camp on 

 his spoor. Next morning, we discovered, to our 

 chagrin, that, after meeting with a couple of 

 other bulls, he had in their company joined a herd 

 of females, and as there was no blood spoor 

 and his tracks were identical in size with those 

 of his male companions, it was impossible to 

 discriminate between them factors which led to 

 our subsequently losing him altogether. 



Naturally, such an incident, explicable enough in 

 the light of reason when all the details are known, 

 at once shrouds itself in a mist of fantasy to the 

 native mind, and, even to a European, borrows some 

 faint shadow of mystery from its setting in lonely 

 bush in a land where mysteries are many. Such an 

 effect had it on my tracker, Simba at other times 

 an unusually rational native that on our return to 

 camp he came up to me and said gravely : 



' Bwana, that was no elephant ; he was majavie 

 (wizard). In all our experience such a wonderful 

 thing has never occurred. First of all, you shot him 

 through the brain ; then, as he was lying groaning, 

 you again shot him through the brain, and all his 

 limbs trembled as if he were dying. I stood on his 

 side and you sat on his head and not a tremor went 

 through his frame. Then he gets up and goes 

 away ! No, bwana, he was not an elephant ; he was 

 certainly majavie ! ' 



I 2 



