232 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST A EPIC A 
CHAP. 
is wholesome or satisfying in the way of food ; an unsuitable 
combination. I had rarely been out of meat before on hunting 
expeditions ; but luck was against me now, for though I went 
out on purpose to shoot some the next day, I returned unsuc¬ 
cessful. I saw game—oryx, giraffe, etc.—but the wind was 
unfavourable, so I had to come back empty-handed to starve 
again. Lesiat came again, in hopes, no doubt, that I should 
have killed something ; for he knew by experience that I would 
share my last morsel with him. He had no encouraging news 
to give me : however, in the evening one of his men brought 
word that elephants were in the part of the bush not far from 
his present camp. Cheered by this, I decided to put off my 
journey on to the mountain, for which I had made preparations, 
another day. 
It is unnecessary to weary the reader with a detailed descrip¬ 
tion of the next day’s hunt, as it was an exact repetition of my 
recent experience with Lorgete. The scrub was of the densest; 
the wind any way—when there was a breath at all—and Lesiat 
rather fussy and irritating. The bull I came up to stood 
directly facing me in a narrow, hardly passable track, in the 
midst of impenetrable thicket which covered it even in front, so 
that I could not possibly get in a shot at its chest. Of course 
it got my wind, and disappeared instantly with a sudden rush. 
Lesiat was disheartened, I nearly heart-broken, and camp a 
long weary way off. So I gave up and tramped back, tired 
and discomfited. The glimpse I had got of its load-apiece 
tusks did not lessen the chagrin I felt. 
Lesiat showed no inclination to accompany me to the 
“ subugo ” (as the elevated forest tracts are called by the Masai 
and Ndorobo tribes). The word is often mistaken for the 
name of a locality, and appears as such in many maps ; but in 
reality it denotes the character of the forest—a kind found on 
high mountain ranges and plateaux of considerable altitude in 
many parts of East Central Africa. The most characteristic 
tree of the majority of these true forests, which are nurtured by 
