44 THE ELEPHANT 



been appointed in one of the districts to the west 

 of Lake Nyasa, affords a striking example of 

 this. He was reclining in his machila ^ when 

 suddenly an immense, solitary bull attacked him, 

 and so badly injured him that for many months 

 a valuable life hung in the balance. He neither 

 saw the great beast before nor after the attack. 

 The machila was thrown down as the carriers 

 fled, and at the same moment with a shrill trumpet 

 the elephant seized both the machila and its 

 occupant in his trunk, and proceeded to wreak 

 its unreasoning vengeance upon them. How 

 the unlucky victim escaped with his life must 

 ever remain a mystery, since he lost conscious- 

 ness immediately, only regaining it some hours 

 afterwards to find himself in a sorry plight, and 

 with most of his bones broken. But my own 

 opinion of such mishaps is that they are usually 

 perpetrated by elephants which have been 

 repeatedly hunted and, it may be, wounded. It 

 is generally known that this animal's memory 

 is an extremely retentive one, and thus, on the 

 presence of a man making itself felt, it is quite 

 probable that the recollection of former suffering 

 may arouse the beast to a frenzy in which he 

 may viciously attack the person approaching 

 him. I have been informed that the elephants 

 preserved by the Government of the Union of 

 South Africa in the Cape Province have become 

 exceedingly dangerous ; so much so that on 

 detecting the approach of a pursuer they have 



1 A hammock slung upon a pole and carried on the shoulders 

 of natives. 



