WILDERNESS FOLK 95 



was falling with weariness, and squirt mud over it 

 from her trunk when it was crying from the oppres- 

 sive heat of the plains. 



There is often something comical about an elephant 

 because of its size and its indifference to what goes on 

 about it when not alarmed. I remember one big 

 fellow that had been feeding through the branches 

 of a small grove of saplings. Suddenly he became 

 so drowsy that he ambled to the nearest tree and 

 leaned against it for a nap. He slept imtil sud- 

 denly my wind reached him and he roused himself 

 enough to waddle away into the brush . 



When fully roused the elephant is thoroughly 

 vindictive. He apparently has no desire to kill save 

 when in a state of intense indignation at being in- 

 truded upon when he has been bothering no one in the 

 world. 



Few animals respond to leadership as does the 

 elephant. 



One day I was sitting in a blind with Osa waiting 

 to get a picture. Soon we saw a group of shadowy 

 forms come through the trees across the little open 

 space that separated them from the waterhole. 



As one elephant is always ahead on such occasions, 

 you can't get a photograph of the herd; it stands 

 back. 



On this occasion, as usual, the leader walked 

 cautiously down toward the water while his twenty or 



