XIII 
A SOJOURN AT RE SHI AT AND HERE 
299 
view of its left—now under water—which had been next me 
when it passed, and it had particularly caught my eye, being 
long and of a yellowish colour. 1 Anyway, I felt that I had 
done a satisfactory morning’s work. 
Several natives had now turned up, and I told them to 
follow me to camp and I would then give them leave to take 
the meat Taking another look at my prize in the water as I 
passed, I soon reached my tent—no great distance—and had 
a bath and some food, while Squareface went with some porters 
to cut out the fat and choose an elephant for my men (Swahilis 
are prejudiced generally against eating elephant meat, but 
many of mine had overcome their scruples while in my service, 
and learnt to appreciate it), and make over the other one on 
dry ground to our neighbours here, while that in the water was 
to be for Lekwais’s people. But when I got there later I found 
that the natives had already cut up all three. I reached the 
one in the water by being pushed through the intervening space 
in a dug-out, but only the skeleton was left of the upper half, 
and they were even cutting off the meat under water. When ex¬ 
postulated with for this unseemly haste, they declared that they 
meant no harm, but explained that they had been accustomed 
to follow about the white man, who had been here lately, when 
he went out shooting antelopes, to pick up the carcases left 
lying on the veldt. 
Abdulla (my headman) was in great spirits at the news of 
my success, and I felt I had made a good beginning towards 
my ivory heap. My intention was, though, to push on till we 
reached a district where food could be bought, as I knew the 
importance of doing so while we still had a good store in hand, 
and then, after making a standing camp and seeing the food 
trade fairly started, to return with a few men to hunt. But as 
the people at the kraal here were very keen to show me a large 
1 The elephant which fell in the swamp eventually proved to be slightly the best. 
The weights of the tusks when got out were—113 lbs. and hi lbs.; 112J lbs. and 
108 lbs.; and 76 \ lbs. and 66 lbs. Of course they subsequently lost a little in drying. 
