232 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AERICA chap. 



is wholesome or satisfying in the way of food ; an unsuitable 

 combination. I had rarely been out of meat before on hunting 

 expeditions ; but luck was against me now, for though I went 

 out on purpose to shoot some the next day, I returned unsuc- 

 cessful. I saw game — oryx, giraffe, etc. — but the wind was 

 unfavourable, so I had to come back empty-handed to starve 

 again. Lesiat came again, in hopes, no doubt, that I should 

 have killed something ; for he knew by experience that I would 

 share my last morsel with him. He had no encouraging news 

 to give me : however, in the evening one of his men brought 

 word that elephants were in the part of the bush not far from 

 his present camp. Cheered by this, I decided to put off my 

 journey on to the mountain, for which I had made preparations, 

 another day. 



It is unnecessary to weary the reader with a detailed descrip- 

 tion of the next day's hunt, as it was an exact repetition of my 

 recent experience with Lorgete. The scrub was of the densest ; 

 the wind any way — when there was a breath at all — and Lesiat 

 rather fussy and irritating. The bull I came up to stood 

 directly facing me in a narrow, hardly passable track, in the 

 midst of impenetrable thicket which covered it even in front, so 

 that I could not possibly get in a shot at its chest. Of course 

 it got my wind, and disappeared instantly with a sudden rush. 

 Lesiat was disheartened, I nearly heart-broken, and camp a 

 long weary way off. So I gave up and tramped back, tired 

 and discomfited. The glimpse I had got of its load-apiece 

 tusks did not lessen the chagrin I felt. 



Lesiat showed no inclination to accompany me to the 

 " subugo " (as the elevated forest tracts are called by the Masai 

 and Ndorobo tribes). The word is often mistaken for the 

 name of a locality, and appears as such in many maps ; but in 

 reality it denotes the character of the forest — a kind found on 

 high mountain ranges and plateaux of considerable altitude in 

 many parts of East Central Africa. The most characteristic 

 tree of the majority of these true forests, which are nurtured by 



