98 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



with only moderate tusks. The last was my mark. He 

 appeared to see me and turned his head a little towards me, 

 somewhat interfering wath the perfection of the shot afforded. 

 I did not like to wait more than a few seconds, though, lest 

 the chance should be lost, so let him have a bullet in the 

 temple in what seemed to me the right spot. He fell to the 

 shot, but rose at once, staggering and dizzy. I was ready for 

 him, and gave him the other barrel fthe others had fled;. He 

 did not fall again, but staggered about, very dazed and groggy. 

 I kept close by his side, and when he tried to move away gave 

 him a couple more shots in the region of the heart. He once 

 got my wind (I having incautiously gone on the wrong side of 

 himj and made a short spurt, I after him, losing my hat and 

 getting arms, face, and clothes torn by the thorns. I was 

 so close all the time I could have put the muzzle of my 

 rifle against him easily by moving a pace or two more ; and 

 no doubt that was why he could not see me, as I was behind 

 his line of sight, or he would have gone for me. But he could 

 not go far and soon pulled up again, seemingly at his last gasp. 

 He seemed once to try to come through a thick clump of 

 scrub for me ; but his strength appeared to fail, and he 

 subsided backwards into a quaint sitting posture, his hind legs 

 thrust forward on each side of his huge belly, his forelegs 

 straddled out in front, while his head was kept quite straight 

 upright by one tusk being against a small tree which was 

 between it and his trunk. One would not have known that he 

 was dead, only that now the curious rumbling noises he had 

 been making all the time had ceased. He was a big bull, but 

 his tusks were small (about 40 lbs. apiece)." 



I was pleased to have, as it were, broken the spell and at 

 last killed an elephant again. Contrary to my usual custom 

 I did not follow the rest of the herd again that day, as I was 

 suffering from a touch of fever, and, having got the sun on my 

 head (very powerful in the scrub) when I lost my hat, felt 

 somewhat exhausted. My Ndorobo hunter was anxious to go 



