II 
ON THE JAMBENI RANGE 
39 
so tall I could only see the top of her back and the top of her 
head. Following once more I was taken off her spoor by two 
small cows which ran past on my left, at one of which I got 
a snap shot but failed to kill. I ought not, perhaps, to have 
fired at these, but the ivory hunter is bound to endeavour to 
make as much hay as possible when he does get a little sun¬ 
shine, and the jungle precluded running or seeing beyond a 
few yards. However, both these last got off, and the herd 
seemed to have cleared out. 
It was now well into the afternoon, I was terribly foot¬ 
sore, we were far from camp, our guides had disappeared, and 
we could hear natives shouting. I knew these must be the 
people who had fought with Chanler, so all things considered 
decided to return. We went back to the dead elephants to 
cut off their tails and take a piece of one’s trunk and heart 
(for myself) as well as some fat (first-rate for culinary purposes), 
and I had a look at their tusks, which there had been no time 
to do in passing. The ivory was all rather small, even for 
cow ; still it was not bad for a beginning, though I was sorry 
to have let off the one that went for me. We took a 
straighter course back to camp than the way we had come, 
and had a good elephant path all the way, so got there before 
sundown. The rhino meat had been carried in long ago. 
Swahilis have a stupid prejudice against eating elephant meat, 
and are foolish enough to prefer rhino. Some of my Embe 
friends of yesterday had come again and said there were more 
elephants in the neighbourhood. Altogether things looked 
more hopeful than they had done yet with me on this trip ; . 
the only drawback being those awful sore heels from which I 
suffered agonies to-day ; for getting footsore just now (for the 
first time since leaving the coast) was a real calamity. I 
determined to move camp on to the little stream we had 
crossed on our way to the elephant bush, so as to be more 
handily situated to chop out the tusks and go in search of 
more elephants. 
