"LITTLE HALF-BROTHER" 63 



Such signs as these were difficult for us to read; 

 but there were other and far more obvious ones. 

 The spoor, for instance, varied with the kind of game; 

 and its condition too would reveal the time of 

 passage; while in wet groimd or soil easily impressed, 

 one could find three- toed rhino or hippo prints, 

 which are the same in size but different in outline. I 

 got so I could even distinguish between these and the 

 tracks of elephants; for the elephant has four toes 

 and as he lifts his foot always scuffs a little. Some 

 say sex too can also be detected, alleging that the 

 female elephant's print is oval, her mate's circular. 



White hunters have learned to read these more 

 legible tracks; but, unlike Boculy, they are easily 

 fooled. Often we would have trailed a herd because 

 there were lots of hoof prints when our guide would 

 not have given it a thought. He had observed the 

 abundance of small tracks of the totos or baby 

 elephants, evidence enough to him that there would 

 be no ivory — bull elephants usually keeping by 

 themselves during the nursing season. "No pemhe 

 (ivory)," he would say. 



The woods overhead were another open book to 

 him. He would pick up a dislocated branch and tell 

 you within five minutes of the time a herd of some- 

 thing or other had passed that way. Or he would 

 look up at the trees and notice that the tender buds 

 had been eaten off clean while the branch was 



