chap, vii.] AFRICAN AND INDIAN ELEPHANTS. 273 
stole his magnificent tusks, which they carried to the 
town of Wakkala, and confessed to taking all the flesh, 
but laid the blame of the ivory theft upon the Wakkala 
tribe. 
There was no redress. The questions of a right 
of game are ever prolific of bad blood, and it was 
necessary in this instance to treat the matter lightly. 
Accordingly, the natives requested me to go out and 
shoot them another elephant; on the condition of 
obtaining the meat, they were ready to join in any 
hunting expedition. 
The elephants in Central Africa have very superior 
tusks to those of Abyssinia. I had shot a considerable 
number in the Base country on the frontier of Abys¬ 
sinia, and few tusks were above 30lbs. weight; those 
in the neighbourhood of the White Nile average about 
50 lbs. for each tusk of a bull elephant, while those of 
the females are generally about 10 lbs. I have seen 
monster tusks of 160 lbs. and one was in the possession 
of a trader, Mons. P., that weighed 172 lbs. 
It is seldom that a pair of tusks are alike. As 
a man uses the right hand in preference to the left, so 
the elephant works with a particular tusk, which is 
termed by the traders “ el Hadam ” (the servant); this 
is naturally more worn than the other, and is usually 
about ten pounds lighter : frequently it is broken, as the 
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