A FAMILY PICTURE. 187 



The noise that my Kaffir made in mounting higher 

 seemed to puzzle the elephants ; they twisted round, 

 napped their ears about, and turned the muzzle of their 

 trunks in every direction. My attention had been 

 so taken up with the two elephants that I have men- 

 tioned, that I had not noticed a large bull which had 

 approached from the other side to watch proceedings. A 

 slight noise that he made drew my attention to him, 

 when, on viewing his gigantic ivories, I became ambitious, 

 and could not resist the temptation of trying to get to my 

 guns to obtain a shot. I caught hold of the wild vine, 

 and was swinging myself down, when the noise that I 

 necessarily made seemed to alarm the elephants. The 

 old lady gave two or three grunts, which recalled 

 her hopeful child, and they all waddled off in the 

 most absurd manner. It was a very pretty family 

 picture. 



The elephant has always seemed to me a most 

 grotesque animal; the old-fashioned appearance of the 

 young ones, and the awkward gait of all, with that absurd 

 look as though their skins were second-hand and did not 

 fit ; the action of the hind-legs, like an old man's strut 

 with a pair of breeches on that are far too big, tend to 

 make them look ridiculous ; and yet, withal, they walk 

 about as though they considered themselves the complete 

 mould of fashion. 



I reached the ground only just in time to see the 

 elephants' hind quarters twist about behind a bush, 

 waited a few minutes below the tree to see if either of 

 the three would return ; but hearing nothing,, I got my 



