216 After Big Game in Central Africa 



hottest part of the day, when they are shading them- 

 selves under a clump of trees. The Barotse hunter, 

 who has not left us, has brought a compatriot with 

 him, a hunter like himself, named Katchwa, who com- 

 mitted several imprudences on preceding hunts. 

 Armed with a flint-lock in which he had great con- 

 fidence, he drew disquietingly near to elephants, and 

 his gun often missed fire. I had a great desire to 

 leave these two men at the camp or to send them 

 home, but every hunter is a little superstitious. I 

 attributed the return of good luck to their presence, 

 and should I not have made the luck change by 

 sending them off? That was the reason I took 

 them with me each morning ; and each time we 

 met elephants. 



Now, the day we come across the four females, we 

 have no sooner clapped our eyes on them than we 

 see that two of them are tuskless, and my men 

 mutter, " Niungwa" the name of tuskless elephants, 

 as though as to say, "By Jove, it's going to be 

 warm work ! " . . . Immediately, and not without 

 difficulty (because he does not understand me very 

 well), I advise the native hunter not to throw himself 

 among the elephants' legs, as he has done several 

 times already, as soon as the first shot is fired. 



As far as I am concerned, I do not see anything 

 to be gained in the affair; two tuskless females 

 are going to charge ; and the tusks of the two 

 others are insignificant. My first impulse is to 

 leave them alone, but when you are in the presence 

 of these enormous animals it is difficult not to shoot, 



