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VIII. CHRISTMAS, 1914 
experience. The banana plantations of the villages 
north-west from here, which provide us with so much 
of our food, are continually visited by elephants. 
Twenty of these creatures are enough to lay waste a 
whole plantation in a night, and what they do not eat 
they trample underfoot. 
It is not, however, to the plantations only that the 
elephants are a danger. The telegraph line from 
N’Djole to the interior knows something about the 
damage they do. The long, straight clearing through 
the forest which marks its course is in itself a tremendous 
attraction to the animals, but the straight, smooth 
telegraph poles are irresistible. They seem to have 
been provided expressly for pachyderms to rub them- 
selves against ! They are not all very firm, and a 
very little rubbing brings one of the weaker ones to 
the ground, but there is always another like it not very 
far off. Thus, in a single night one strong elephant 
can bring down a big stretch of telegraph line, and days 
may pass before the occupants of the nearest guard 
station have discovered the damage and repaired it. 
Although the elephants that roam the neighbourhood 
cause me so much anxiety about the feeding of my 
patients, I have not yet seen one, and very probably 
never shall. During the day they stay in unap- 
proachable swamps in order to sally out at night and 
plunder the plantations which they have reconnoitred 
beforehand. A native who is here for the treatment of 
his wife, who has heart complaint, is a clever wood- 
carver, and carved me an elephant. Though I admired 
this work of primitive art, I ventured to remark that he 
seemed not to have got the body quite right. The 
artist, insulted, shrugged his shoulders. " Do you 
