THE ELEPHANT BREAKS HIS TUSK. 3'S 



for Kleinboy, who had long disappeared I knew not 

 whither. " Sunday" stood still, and commenced to 

 graze, while the elephant, slowly passing within a few 

 yards of him, assumed a position under a tree beside 

 him. Kleinboy presently making his appearance, I 

 called to him to ride in and bring me my steed ; but 

 he refused, and asked me if I wished him to go head, 

 long to destruction. " Sunday" having fed slowly 

 away from the elephant, I went up and he allowed me 

 to recapture him. I now plainly saw that the elephant 

 ■was dying, but I continued firing to hasten his demise. 

 Toward the end he took up a position in a dense thorny 

 thicket, where for a long time he remained. Approach- 

 ing within twelve paces, I fired my two last shots, aim- 

 ing at his left side, close behind the shoulder. On re 

 ceiving these he backed slowly through the thicket, and, 

 clearing it, walked gently forward about twenty yards, 

 when he suddenly came down with tremendous vio- 

 lence right on his broadside. To my intense mortifica- 

 tion, the heavy fall was accompanied by a loud, sharp 

 crack, and on going up I found one of his matchless 

 tusks broken short off by the lip. This was a glorious 

 day's sport: I had bagged in one afternoon probably 

 the two finest bull elephants in Bamangwato, and, had 

 it not been for the destruction of their noble trophies, 

 which were the two finest pair of tusks I had obtained 

 that season, my triumph on the occasion had been grea't 

 and unalloyed. 



I was now languid and faint from excessive thirst 

 and the nearest water was still very remote. Being 

 joined by the natives, we quickly proceeded to divest 

 the side of the elephant of a large sheet of the outer 

 skin, when of the under one we constructed a pair of 

 water-bags, with which two of the natives set out, 



B2 



