LOOKING FOR ELEPHANTS 
217 
they had seen five that very morning, and that if we 
encamped here (a place called El Dara) we were sure to find 
them. 
Giving them some dik-dik meat, we sent them off in 
search of elephants, and camped on the stony plain. I tried 
to enjoy the luxury of a bath with plenty of water, but the 
bees swarmed into my tent, and after they had stung me 
three or four times in the bath, I swore vengeance on them, 
and sent out two of my men to look for honey. They 
returned in a very short time bearing a quantity of . most 
delicious honey which they had found in the rotten trunk 
of a tree. 
We had now passed the regions of clouds, and must 
have been some six or eight days’ march from the east 
coast. The heat during the day was very great. In the 
evening one of the Midgans returned saying he had tracked 
a big male elephant on its way to drink at Sinnadogho, but 
as it did not stop moving, he did not come and tell us of it 
before. He reported plenty of koodoo three marches west, 
at a place called Gaboon. 
I sent off four men to examine the wells at Sinnadogho, 
and prepared to set out on an elephant hunt on the 
morrow. We started out at daybreak after elephant, 
going east. We found nothing but old tracks, and the 
heat during the day was terrific. I drank all the water in 
my bottle, and half of the men’s, and then wanted more 1 
We took two Midgans with us, but the hunt was an utter 
failure, as most elephant hunts are nowadays, for the 
common reason that there are no elephants to hunt. The 
loose stony ground, the great heat, and fearful thirst all 
helped to tire one, and I reached camp that night utterly 
worn out. On entering my tent, I threw myself on my 
bed, hoping to find rest at last, only to be stung in the 
back by a bee. Then I tried to have a bath. Not a bit of 
it ! Twice was I stung in the head by bees which had 
settled in my damp sponge, and three times I picked out 
the stings from my body. After this I ran amuck, threw 
