Ill 
CAMPING AT MOUNT KENIA 
57 
turned out that an idiot of a Swahili (one of two or three 
I had following me), to whom I had given it to hold while I 
climbed the tree, had put it on himself instead of handing it 
back to me. I was not complimentary to him, as his stupidity, 
added to my own forgetfulness, might have cost me my life. 
I began to follow up the spoor of this vicious cow, though 
there was not much blood on it, and I did not think she was 
badly wounded, for I felt rather vindictively inclined towards 
her; but before we had gone far another little clump of 
elephants was discovered not far off, towards which I 
accordingly made. Getting up to them I succeeded in 
flooring another cow with fine tusks, one of which grew right 
across the other (this skew tooth proved particularly long and 
solid, having scarcely any hollow at the base). The rest ran 
to the edge of the bush and stood on a slight rise among low 
scrub, just outside the tall forest patch. I followed, and 
getting a good view of them knocked over a right and left, 
and loading again was just about to repeat the performance, as 
the others still stood about apparently quite bewildered, when I 
was suddenly attacked by swarms of bees, whose tub was in the 
tree under which I stood. (It is the practice of the natives to 
stick these bee tubs up in trees here and there about the bush 
for the accommodation of the wild bees, which speedily take 
possession of such convenient quarters, by which simple means 
they secure a regular supply of honey for themselves.) They 
stung me round my eyes and all over my face, ears, neck, etc., 
compelling me to flee ignominiously and leave the elephants 
still standing! This was a sad stroke of bad luck and 
probably cost me a brace of elephants. I could hold my own 
with the elephants alone, but when reinforced by these fiery 
little allies I was instantly and helplessly put to flight. After 
retreating a little way, however, I managed to shake off the 
new enemy, and going round above the elephants returned to 
the attack, and was in time to get a shot at another ; but they 
were now on the move, whilst I was somewhat upset by my 
