In the Tall Grass 115 



ful. A few days later, in fact, we were destined to 

 find ourselves again in terrifying proximity with 

 elephants, amid circumstances which I will relate 

 briefly. 



Fairly late in the morning, we strike a track two 

 or three good leagues above the camp, and we only 

 come upon our game about four o'clock in the after- 

 noon, after a forced march of twenty miles. The 

 country into which the hazards of the chase have led 

 us differs from that where we are encamped ; it is a 

 succession of wide plains covered naturally with tall 

 grass, and we reach it by a gentle slope. There, 

 on the edge of the plains, we discover dung which the 

 men find by feeling it with their feet to be still warm. 

 Attention ! Elephants are not far away. We march 

 through grass more than 8 feet high, in which the 

 elephants (ten or twelve of them) have made parallel 

 paths. It is impossible to see, and we walk through 

 the grass exactly like blind men. The wind is un- 

 favourable. At a certain moment we hear, at first 

 indistinctly, then very clearly and near to, a powerful 

 rumbling, then another, resembling a boiler which is 

 getting up steam. The natives believe that it is the 

 elephants' stomachs which make this noise ; I do not 

 know. I confine myself to relating the fact. This 

 rumbling, or powerful roar, is intermittent. Is this 

 the means by which elephants communicate with one 

 another ? I cannot say ; but it is only when quite 

 near the animal that you hear it. We are, therefore, 

 literally between their legs. I get on Kodzani's 

 shoulders, and hardly are my eyes on a level with the 



