IV 
THE ELEPHANT 
125 
the effect, and then without difficulty he slashes the 
back sinew of the remaining leg, with the result that 
the animal bleeds to death. This is a cruel method, 
but it requires the utmost dexterity and daring on 
the part of the hunters, most of whom eventually fall 
victims to their gallantry. 
I was accompanied by these splendid sword-hun¬ 
ters of the Hamran Arabs in i86i during my explor¬ 
ation of the Nile tributaries of Abyssinia ; and upon 
the first occasion that I was introduced to an African 
male elephant, the animal was standing at the point 
of a long sandbank which had during high water 
formed the bed of the river, where a sudden bend 
had hollowed out the inner side of the curve and 
thrown up a vast mass of sand upon the opposite 
shore. This bank was a succession of terraces, 
each about 4 feet high, formed at intervals during 
the changes in the level of the retreating stream. 
The elephant was standing partly in the water 
drinking, and quite 100 yards from the forest 
upon the bank. The huge dark mass upon the 
glaring surface of white sand stood out in bold 
relief and exhibited to perfection the form and 
proportions of the animal; but it was so unlike 
the Indian elephant of my long experience that 
I imagined some accident must have caused a de¬ 
formity of the back, which was deeply hollowed, 
instead of being convex like the Asiatic species. I 
whispered this to my hunters, who did not seem 
to understand the remark; and they immediately 
dismounted, exclaiming that the loose sand was 
