356 ELEPHANT-HUNTING. 



but came near no one except a man who wore a piece of 

 cloth on his shoulders. Bright clothing is always dangerous 

 in these cases. She charged three or four times, and, ex- 

 cept in the first instance, never went farther than one 

 hundred yards. She often stood after she had crossed a 

 rivulet, and faced the men, though she received fresh 

 spears. It was by this process of spearing and loss of 

 blood that she was killed; for at last, making a short 

 charge, she staggered round and sank down dead in a 

 kneeling posture. I did not see the whole hunt, having 

 been tempted away by both sun and moon appearing 

 unclouded. I turned from the spectacle of the destruction 

 of noble animals, which might be made so useful in Africa, 

 with a feeling of sickness; and it was not relieved by the 

 recollection that the ivory was mine, though that was the 

 case. I regretted to see them killed, and more especially 

 the young one, the meat not being at all necessary at that 

 time ; but it is right to add that I did not feel sick when 

 my own blood was up the day before. We ought, perhaps, 

 to judge those deeds more leniently in which we ourselves 

 have no temptation to engage. Had I not been previously 

 guilty of doing the very same thing, I might have prided 

 myself on superior humanity when I experienced the 

 nausea in viewing my men kill these two. 



Passing the rivulet Losito, and through the ranges of 

 hills, we reached the residence of Semalembue on the 18th. 

 His village is situated at the bottom of ranges through 

 which the Kafue finds a passage, and close to the bank 

 of that river. The Kafue, sometimes called Kahowhe or 

 Bashukulompo Biver, is upward of two hundred yards wide 

 here, and full of hippopotami, the young of which may be 

 Been perched on the necks of their dams. At this point we 

 had reached about the same level as Linyanti. 



Semalembue paid us a visit soon after our arrival, and 

 said that he had often heard of me, and, now that he had 

 the pleasure of seeing me, he feared that I should sleep the 

 first night at his village hungry. This was considered the 



