WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



eight days I had searched the steppe for elephants, when 

 at last I fell in with a small herd of seven animals. I 

 killed one of the cows and captured her young one. 

 While I threw myself in its way, my Wandorobbos fast- 

 ened a leather strap to one of its hind legs. The animal 

 was successfully brought to the camp, but died after a 

 few days, because we had no milk with which to feed it. 

 The young bull and I had become such fast friends that 

 he used to caress my beard and face with his trunk. 



In November, 1903, I had another adventure with ele- 

 phants. It was an unexpected and unsought-for sur- 

 prise. As usual I headed my caravan, which was march- 

 ing from one mountain to another in search of the 

 nearest drinking-place. On the march I killed two 

 antelopes. While my men were busy with the animals, 

 I proceeded a few hundred steps, accompanied by a 

 single rifle-carrier, and sat down on a rock. My thoughts 

 turned towards home, and I was humming one of our 

 beautiful folk-songs, when I was suddenly aroused by 

 a noise behind me. I looked around and saw, only about 

 ninety feet away, a big male elejjhant coming towards 

 us. I grasped my rifle, but remembered that it was 

 loaded with a lead-pointed cartridge, which was utterly 

 ineffective against an elephant. Resides, it was too 

 late to shoot. No doubt we would have been trampled 

 to death by the animal had it not been as much scared 

 by seeing us as we were by seeing him. The ele- 

 phant uttered a piercing sound, flapped his big ears, 



no 



