SEVERAL HERDS OF ELEPHANTS 13] 



three animals, but they could not be induced to move. The 

 Count then despatched the animal I had had to leave for want 

 of ammunition, and we went back to camp. 



I now heard all about the hunt, which proceeded in this 

 wise. The Count had come upon two herds of elephants at 

 the edge of the wood, our six females with their young, and 

 five full-grown bulls. Of course he gave his full attention to 

 the latter, which were standing in the open a little outside 

 the wood without a bit of cover. The first thing to do was 

 to get to the shelter of the wood, and he tried to do so by way 

 of the beach, but it was too muddy, so he had to make a wide 

 detour right across the plain. He was just about to enter the 

 thicket when two more small herds of younger bulls suddenly 

 issued from it, at a distance of some 200 paces from each 

 other. There was nothing for it but to go between them, and 

 this difiicult manceuvre Count Teleki successfully achieved, 

 but just as he stepped into the wood he came face to face 

 with yet another young bull. As he wanted to bring down 

 the old, not the young bulls, he hesitated to fire, but was at 

 last obliged to do so. All his plans were upset by this, for 

 though the bull, badly wounded in the head, swerved to one 

 side, the other herds were alarmed, and soon there was the 

 greatest commotion amongst them as they hurried out of 

 the wood and back again to its shelter, evidently bent on 

 getting away under cover of it. Another young bull was 

 compelled to turn back by a shot in the forehead, and the five 

 old fellows, which had put their heads together after they heard 

 the firing and returned to the thicket, were now more within 

 range. Two received bullets in the temples and went off, one, 

 however — the first I had come upon outside the wood — to fall 

 dead on the plain, the other to follow the rest of the herd 

 through the wood for a time, only to succumb to three more shots 

 from the Count, who had followed his spoor. The survivors 



K 2 



