198 TALES OF A NOMAD. 



Next morning- they set out, and travelled for some 

 distance. They then heard the trumpeting of elephants 

 a little way before them. One of them hesitated to 

 proceed, but his scruples were overridden by the other 

 native, and they went on. 



All was silent again. At last the native who was 

 leading pointed to an elephant calf not twenty yards 

 from the road, and continued his course ; but the other 

 native, being seized by some sort of qualm, halted and 

 disburdened himself of his pack. 



The native who had preceded him had onlylgone on 

 about fifty yards along the path, which was here very 

 straight, and was still in view of his companion, when an 

 elephant gave a shriek from the jungle on the right-hand 

 side of the path. It was answered by several shrieks 

 from the left of the path, and soon from all quarters 

 elephants came bearing down upon the unfortunate man. 



His companion, who was about fifty yards behind, did 

 not wait to see the result, but took to his heels. The 

 last he saw of the other native was that he was trying to 

 get rid of the pack upon his shoulders. 



As he never turned up, a party went out the next day 

 to look for him. His corpse was discovered trampled 

 quite flat, and even the pack he was carrying had been 

 demolished by the elephants. 



But to proceed to my story. It was the season of ripe 

 fruit. A certain troop of elephants had done some 

 damage to natives on the Bahan River. I had previously 

 sought for them, but they had eluded me, I had offered 

 a private reward for information which should lead to 

 my killing any of the said elephants. 



One day some Dyaks came across from the Kayu 

 River in a prahu, reporting that they had seen the spoor 



