1 1 6 After Big Game in Central Africa 



top of the grass when I cry, "Run, sapristi! we 

 are too near! They have scented us!" In fact, 

 elephants are in movement a few yards from us on 

 all sides. I saw their backs on a level with the 

 grass, nothing more ; but I know that the alarm 

 was given. We withdraw just in time not to be 

 stamped under foot by the herd, which is in flight. 

 Unknown to us, elephants were on our right, and they 

 scented us at the very moment I put my head out. 



Here, then, was a herd of twelve elephants in the 

 grass with us at our very side, and we had not seen 

 even one of them, with the exception of the few backs 

 of which 1 caught a glimpse. Deny that nature 

 protects animals of all sizes ! In the brushwood of 

 African forests the elephant is as well hidden as a 

 mouse in the lawn-grass. 



After reflection we thought one other thing 

 contributed to awaken the elephants' suspicions 

 the nature of the grass in which we were walking. 

 From the month of May it is very rustling, and you 

 cannot walk through it without betraying your pres- 

 ence. We were very near the elephants ; they must 

 have stopped, and their ear, however imperfect it may 

 be, must have heard the rustling of the dry stalks. 

 The natives call this grass tchigonankondo that is, 

 " where warriors sleep " when they fear being sur- 

 prised by the enemy. 



Do not think that the expression " grassy plain " 

 means flat expanses covered with a species of uniform 

 grass, or you will belittle the richness of these 

 countries. The grasses are various, and hunters 



