THE COLONEL KILLS THREE ELEPHANTS 151 



The colonel, in parting, asked us to stop with him 

 for lunch on our way back and he would tell us all 

 about the elephant hunt and show us his pigskin 

 library. In return we promised to photograph the 

 hyena and thus be prepared to render expert testi- 

 mony in case, some time in the future, he might 

 get into a controversy with the nature fakers as 

 to the truth of the incident. 



We then resumed our journey and arrived at the 

 elephant camp at nine-thirty. It was a scene of 

 industry. The skins of the two largest elephants 

 and that of the calf had been removed the after- 

 noon before and were spread out under a cluster of 

 trees. Twenty or thirty porters were squatted 

 around the various ears and strips of hide and mas- 

 sive feet, paring off all the little particles of flesh 

 or tissue that remained. As fast as a section of hide 

 was stripped it was thickly covered with salt and 

 rolled up. This is the preliminary step. After- 

 wards the skin, in many places an inch in thickness, 

 is pared down to a condition of pliable thinness. 

 This work requires hours or even days of hard labor 

 by many skilful wielders of the paring knife. The 

 skulls and many of the bones are saved when an 

 animal is being preserved for a museum, but when 

 we arrived they had not yet been removed from the 

 carcasses. 



Our first object was to visit the hyena, which we 

 found still protruding from the side of his tomb. 

 We photographed him from all angles, after which 

 he was disinterred and exposed to full view. He 



