324 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST A ERICA chap. 



turning with me like a terrier after a rabbit, she was on the top 

 of me as soon as I was down. In falling I had turned over on 

 to my back, and lay with my feet towards the path, face upwards, 

 my head being propped up by brushwood. Kneeling over me 

 (but fortunately not touching me with her legs, which must, I 

 suppose, have been on each side of mine), she made three dis- 

 tinct lunges at me, sending her left tusk through the biceps of 

 my right arm and stabbing me between the right ribs, at the 

 same time pounding my chest with her head (or rather, I sup- 

 pose, the thick part of her trunk between the tusks) and 

 crushing in my ribs on the same side. At the first butt some 

 part of her head came in contact with my face, barking my 

 nose and taking patches of skin off other spots, and I thought 

 my head would be crushed, but it slipped back and w^as not 

 touched again. I was wondering at the time how she would 

 kill me ; for of course I never thought anything but that the 

 end of my hunting was come at last. What hurt me was the 

 grinding my chest underwent. Whether she supposed she had 

 killed me, or whether it was that she disliked the smell of my 

 blood, or bethought her of her calf, I cannot tell ; but she then 

 left me and went her way. 



My men, I need scarcely say, had run away from the first : 

 they had already disappeared when I turned to run. Finding 

 the elephant had left me, and feeling able to rise, I stood up 

 and called, and my three gun-bearers were soon beside me. I 

 was covered with blood, my clothes were torn, and in addition 

 to my wounds I was bruised all over ; some of my minor 

 injuries I did not notice till long afterwards. Squareface, on 

 seeing the plight I was in, began to cry ; but Juma rated him 

 for his weakness and he desisted. I made them lead me to a 

 shady tree, under which I sat supported from behind by one 

 of them sitting back to back with me ; was stripped as to 

 my upper parts, and my wounds bound up. I then told 

 Juma to run back to my camp as fast as he could for help 

 to carry me in. The elephant had trodden on the stock of 



