568 AN ELEPHANT HUNT. 



elephant, and were soon in full pursuit. They were in 

 want of meat, having tasted nothing but grain for several 

 days. The desire for animal food made them all eager 

 to slay him, and, though an old bull, he was soon killed. 

 The people of Nyampungo had never seen such des- 

 peradoes before. One rushed up and hamstrung the beast 

 while still standing, by a blow with an axe. Some Banyal 

 elephant-hunters happened to be present when my men 

 were fighting with him. One of them took out his snuff- 

 box, and poured out all its contents at the root of a tree, 

 as an offering to the Barimo for success. As soon as the 

 animal fell, the whole of my partv engaged in a wild 

 savage dance round the body, which quite frightened 

 the Banyai, and he who made the offering said to me, 

 *' I see you are travelling with people who don't know how 

 to pray : I therefore offered the only thing I had in their 

 behalf, and the elephant soon fell." One of Nyampungo' s 

 men who remained with me, ran a little forward, when 

 an opening in the trees gave us a view of the chase, and 

 uttered loud prayers for success in the combat. I admired 

 the devout belief they all possessed in the actual existence 

 of unseen things, and prayed that they might yet know 

 that benignant One who views us all as His own. My 

 own people, who are rather a degraded lot, remarked to 

 me as I came up, " God gave it to us. He said to the old 

 beast, ' Go up there ; men are come who will kill and 

 eat you.' " These remarks are quoted to give the reader 

 an idea of the native mode of expression. 



As we were now in the country of stringent game-laws, 

 We were obliged to send all the way back to Nyampungo, 

 to give information to a certain person who had been left 

 there by the real owner of this district to watch over his 

 property, the owner himself living near the Zambesi. 

 The side upon which the elephant fell, had a short broken 

 tusk ; the upper one, which was ours, was large and thick. 

 The Banyai remarked on our good luck. The men sent 

 to give notice came back late in the afternoon of the 

 following day. They brought a basket of corn, a fowl, 

 and a few strings of handsome beads, as a sort of thank- 

 offering for our having killed it on their land, and said 

 they had thanked the Barimo besides for our success, 

 adding, " There it is ; eat it and be glad." Had we begun 

 to cut it up before we got this permission, we should 

 have lost the whole. They had brought a large party 



