PREPARATION FOR A GREAT FEAST. 85 



to-night, for, much as they love raw gazelle, the flesh of 

 the elephant reigns supreme to their dainty palates. The 

 return to-night was hailed with great rejoicing, and now 

 the camp is one scene of bustle and excitement, all sorts 

 of preparations being made for the feast and for the 

 future preservation of the precious food ; and as we sit 

 in our tent, groups of figures can be seen squatting round 

 the fires that blaze on all sides of us. 



Jan. 25. No sport again to-day. Vivian and Gum- 

 ming came unexpectedly upon a very fine lion, lying 

 half asleep near a dead cow on open ground. He saw 

 them, however, quite soon enough to let them only have a 

 running shot as he bolted away, and thus managed to 

 escape. 



The ' game list ' has had a small addition made to it 

 by my shooting with a revolver a civet cat as it crouched 

 in a hollow under the roots of a tree that had been torn 

 up by an elephant. There are very extensive mimosa- 

 woods near our camp, and many of the trees have lumps 

 of gum exuding from them, generally of amber colour 

 and semi-liquid inside. One species exudes a white gum, 

 beautifully transparent where liquid, and having a much 

 finer flavour than the other. Elephants evidently find 

 it an amusing pastime twisting their trunks round these 

 trees, and either uprooting them or breaking them down, 

 for in every direction can be seen such innumerable 

 evidences of their terrific strength. This part of the 



