562 ELEPHANT-HUNTING. Chap. XXVIII. 



Both animals expanded their ears and listened, then left their 

 bath as the crowd rushed towards them. The little one ran for- 

 ward towards the end of the valley, but, seeing the men there, 

 returned to his dam. She placed herself on the danger side of 

 her calf, and passed her proboscis over it again and again, as if to 

 assure it of safety. She frequently looked back to the men, who 

 kept up an incessant shouting, singing, and piping ; then looked 

 at her young one and ran after it, sometimes sideways, as if her 

 feelings were divided between anxiety to protect her offspring, and 

 desire to revenge the temerity of her persecutors. The men kept 

 about a hundred yards in her rear, and some, that distance from 

 her flanks, and continued thus until she was obliged to cross a 

 rivulet. The time spent in descending and getting up the oppo- 

 site bank, allowed of their coming up to the edge, and dis- 

 charging their spears at about twenty yards distance. After the 

 first discharge, she appeared with her sides red with blood, and, 

 beginning to flee for her own life, seemed to think no more of her 

 young. I had previously sent off Sekwebu with orders to spare 

 the calf. It ran very fast, but neither young nor old ever enter 

 into a gallop ; their quickest pace is only a sharp walk. Before 

 Sekwebu could reach them, the calf had taken refuge in the water, 

 and was killed. The pace of the dam gradually became slower. 

 She turned with a shriek of rage, and made a furious charge back 

 among the men. They vanished at right angles to her course, or 

 sideways, and, as she ran straight on, she went through the whole 

 party, 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, except in the 

 first instance, never went farther than 100 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 re- 

 lieved by the recollection that the ivory was mine, though that 

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



