io8 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
5 feet 6 inches deep, from ground to highest part of side as he 
lay.” 1 His tusks were massive but not very long (they weighed 
between 70 and 80 lbs. apiece),—a well-earned reward for 
much hard work. I followed the others (five or six monsters) 
and got near them once more, but the wind again baulked me, 
and I had to be satisfied for that day. 
The following day I did not hunt, but went early to get 
the tusks of the bull out and carried to camp. I often here 
left them for some days, when they would come out quite 
easily without chopping ; but, as I intended leaving soon, I 
chopped these out at once. Though it was still quite early, 
the Ndorobos had already cut up the whole of the upper half 
of the huge mass. They were swarming all around ; the bush 
was full of them and covered with meat cut into strips or piled 
in junks. They had made fires all about; and eating and 
work were going on everywhere. The next day’s hunt is the 
last of which I shall, at present, give a description; for any one 
who may have had sufficient endurance to follow my prowlings 
in the bush so far, must by this time have had enough of 
elephant-hunting for a while. 
I was off again, then, at dawn as usual, with two Ndorobo 
youths as well as, of course, my usual attendants. The latter 
are three : “ Squareface,” my principal gun-bearer, who carries 
the double .577 ; Juma, the second ditto, carrying the “ cripple- 
stopper,” and “Smiler” (properly Ismail or Ishmael), with an 
axe and sundry other trifles. The last I always leave some 
distance behind when approaching game, as well as any surplus 
natives, and when going right up to my shot, the others wait too 
until I fire. On the way towards the Bogoi valley we found fresh 
spoor, and the rolls of chewed fibre the elephants are always 
spitting out when on the feed. That is to say, such is their 
habit in this part of the country, where their chief food is the 
plant called “ mkongi ” by the Swahili. Being, unfortunately, 
1 This was immediately after death and before he had become distended by the 
gases generated in the stomach. 
