V NDOROBO ELEPHANT-HUNTING 113 



" Squareface " was just behind me, and the elephant charged 

 past me after him Hke a locomotive. He followed my ex- 

 ample and dodged to one side into the bush, leaving Juma, 

 who was clad in raiment " by way of being " white, in full view 

 just in front of the enraged beast. (I never had to complain 

 of my gun-carriers decamping in moments of emergency, as 

 one so often hears travellers say their men do ; on the con- 

 trary, I had oftener to reprove them for persisting in sticking 

 close behind me, when I wanted to go on alone.) Juma, it 

 afterwards turned out, foolishly ran straight along the path we 

 had approached by, the bull within a few yards of him ; but 

 instantly the latter passed my retreat, I, having an eye over 

 my shoulder and being only two or three yards off, had swung 

 round and given him my left barrel in his ribs before he had 

 got many yards beyond me. This, it would seem, changed 

 his mind, or else his powers were becoming exhausted, for 

 he turned back and retreated to a little farther than where 

 he had stood before. 



My men now came back to me, and I made Juma climb 

 a little tree. He saw the bull, only some thirty yards off, 

 standing in the jungle. I felt I must do something, but 

 did not think myself bound to advance hurriedly upon him 

 again in his present frame of mind, being sure he was dying. 

 So I climbed the tree, in spite of thorns ; but these were 

 straight, and, being so much accustomed to the villainous 

 hooked kind, one gets to despise such as comparatively harm- 

 less. Getting near its slender top, I could see the elephant 

 staggering ; and, while I looked, his hind legs gave ; he 

 backed into the curious sitting posture they often fall into 

 when about to collapse ; his head went up, and, throwing 

 his trunk into the air, as it were in sign of defeat, he went 

 over with a crash, and, after a io.^ struggles, lay still. 

 Going cautiously up, I found him dead. Another massive 

 beast, hardly so colossal as the last, but with rather heavier 

 ivory (84 lbs. and 70 lbs.). His back was not so rough as 



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