THE TAMING OF THE WILD 281 



at the last, redeeming- those responsible for 

 the partition of Africa from the reproach of 

 having completed the evil wrought by their 

 predecessors. For these experiments mahouts 

 should be imported from India at Government 

 expense, and a keddah outfit, with tame 

 elephants and their attendants, might also be 

 introduced so as to capture the wild elephants 

 and subject them to the influences found irre- 

 sistible in the East. It remains, of course, 

 to be seen whether the blandishments of the 

 Indian keddah elephant would have the same 

 effect on individuals of the other species, but 

 the experiment is, at any rate, worth trying, 

 and if the State would not spend the necessary 

 money, some South African millionaire might, 

 without feeling the cost, place a sufficient sum 

 at the disposal of one of our colonial governors 

 and thus do something for Africa really worthy 

 of his reputation. 



The camel, which we know from India west- 

 ward as far as the Atlantic coast, making itself 

 at home from Port Said to Mogador, might 

 strike the careless observer as the typical 

 domestic animal of Africa, but both the camel 

 and the " native " who tamed it came originally 

 from Asia, and both are well suited to the 

 Sahara, where patience, long-suffering, and 

 philosophic indifference to the blows of fortune 



