200 THE LAND OF THE LION 



crossed ? They will wander aimlessly along its side, or 

 gaze at its quagmire hopelessly. You must decide the 

 line of country, you must select the crossing. Were they 

 by themselves they can go ahead. If you are present, 

 you must go ahead, or, if not, minutely direct them where 

 to go. They are of course utterly ignorant of how to get 

 a mule or an ass over. They know where they want to go; 

 they know where the game is likely to be, and where its 

 long, tortuous ramblings will probably end; and in these 

 matters they are to you of inestimable value. The rest 

 you must do for yourself. We found ourselves after a time 

 in a country that certainly had every appearance of being 

 the undisturbed home of many elephant bands. The 

 broad tracks of herds, and the single ones of bulls, crossed 

 and recrossed each other. The thorn trees had been much 

 fed on. The high grass was trampled and eaten. Still we 

 had come to no fresh sign for two days. 



One morning in early October, surely a red letter day, 

 we broke camp very early and had ridden about three hours 

 through a swampy country when, suddenly, without any 

 warning, I heard a far-off, shrill note blown. It sounded 

 more like the clear note of a high organ stop than anything 

 else I can think of. H. had said to me, not five minutes 

 before, "This is the first morning we have had in ten days 

 that I should call a really good morning for elephant hunt- 

 ing. The breeze is fine and steady." 



Here at last were the elephant. Here in their own 

 chosen home, not harried by Boer settler on the plateau 

 or hunting sefari, but resting in their own land, under the 

 shadow of the great mountain that had sheltered their 

 herds for countless thousands of years. Here, safe from all 

 harm, amid solitudes that had seldom echoed a rifle shot, 

 it seemed like vandalism to enter. But the truth must 

 be told to be the first there but added to the zest of 

 entrance, something of the barbarian charm of conquest. 



