340 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 



posts supporting the ridge-pole of my hut as indicative of their 

 length, declaring that the owners of these monstrous tusks 

 were unable to lift their heads from the ground for their weight, 

 or even to run ! Although I hardly credited these tales, it 

 may well be imagined how I chafed under my imprisonment 

 when plied with such enticements and assured that these and 

 countless other elephants now thronged the banks of the lake, 

 just south of Reshiat. A few elephants even passed close to 

 my camp one moonlight night. My men wanted me to shoot 

 at them ; but I said that I was not yet strong enough to tackle 

 elephants again, and that when I was I should prefer attacking 

 them by daylight on my first attempt. Two were still grazing 

 on the flat when I went to bed. 



As a matter of fact, although for a time I had impatiently 

 looked forward to getting to work again before long, I had at 

 last reluctantly realised that all my schemes for penetrating 

 farther into the unknown regions north and west of Bassu must 

 be given up for this trip ; but so much in earnest was I, and so 

 little discouraged by my reverse, that I used to amuse myself 

 by laying plans for another on a larger scale and making lists 

 of articles to be provided for the next expedition. Such 

 occupations helped to pass the time, which often hung rather 

 heavily, as I had little to read — and what I had had been read 

 over and over again. But I found a good deal to interest me, 

 even without leaving my hut, in watching the birds to be seen 

 from my door. Flocks of the little, long-tailed, bearded doves 

 were fond of feeding about on the ground outside, some coming 

 close up to the very door when I kept still. The rosy bee- 

 eaters, whose habit of riding on the great crested pauw I have 

 already referred to, were very numerous, while their " camels " 

 were common enough. One day I wrote thus in my diary : — 

 " Saw a bird that is new to me, apparently a stork. A pair of 

 them are hunting about in front of my hut. They are jet black 

 with white belly. One of the rose-coloured bee-eaters made use 

 of one as a steed in the same way I have often seen them do 



