OUR BACKYARD CIRCUS 131 



the herd and for about fifteen minutes they all held a 

 sort of conference. Not a sound, mind you; just a 

 standing quietly arotind as if whispering together. 

 I know they could not have seen the apparatus, for 

 I had it perfectly concealed. It wasn't the wind 

 either; our position was such that it would not have 

 been possible for the wind to have blown from us to 

 them. Nevertheless some sense told this elephant 

 that something was wrong, but what he wasn't sure. 

 Moreover, he was not going to advise his friends to 

 take a chance. Finally, they all quietly made their 

 way to the water by a route that took them around 

 the cameras. After a good drink they melted sound- 

 lessly into the forest and we got no picture. 



As time went on the elephants got bolder whenever 

 their food dried up in the forest. Every night we 

 would see them and they would trumpet through 

 the evening hours, as they crashed through the boma, 

 imtil they came alongside our house and caught the 

 human scent. 



One old lady developed the habit of breaking into 

 our garden. The drought now had dried everything 

 up but the sweet potatoes, which like camels can go 

 a long time without water. 



This elephant was particularly orderly and system- 

 atic, choosing a space of about ten feet square and 

 eating ten feet square of sweet potatoes, then going 

 away without disturbing any of the surrounding 



