122 
IV/LD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
first, rapidly followed by the hind, and in both cases 
the heel is the first portion of the foot that reaches 
its destination. The effect may be seen in the feet 
of an elephant after some months’ continual marching 
upon hard ground : the heels are worn thin and are 
quite polished, as though they had been worn down 
by the friction of sand-paper,—in fact, they are in the 
same condition as the heels of an old boot. 
The Indian native princes do not admire the 
African elephant, as it combines many points which 
are objectionable to their peculiar ideas of elephant¬ 
ine proportions. According to their views, the 
hollow back of an African elephant would amount to 
a deformity. The first time that I ever saw a large 
male of that variety I was of the same opinion. I 
was hunting with the Hamran Arabs in a wild and 
uninhabited portion of Abyssinia, along the banks of 
the Settite river, which is the main stream of the 
Atbara, the chief affluent of the Nile. 
As before stated, I have already published an 
account of these wonderful hunters in the Nile 
Tributaries of Abyssinia, and it is sufficient to de¬ 
scribe them as the most fearless and active followers 
of the chase, armed with no other weapon than the 
long, straight, two-edged Arab sword, with which they 
attack all animals, from the elephant and rhinoceros 
to the lion and buffalo. The sword is sharpened to 
the finest degree, and the blade is protected for about 
six inches above the cross-hilt with thick string, 
bound tightly round so as to afford a grip for the 
right hand, while the left grips the hilt in the usual 
