86 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
Another instance of a wilfully vicious attack by 
an elephant on human beings, came to my know¬ 
ledge when I was encamped near the Chiperserie 
stream, a tributary of the Mbemkuru River. This 
particular animal was well known to the natives of 
the neighbourhood, and on account of his decided 
partiality for the leaves of the tobacco plants 
which they cultivated in their shambas, they had 
nicknamed him 4 Tombacco.’ He had, in his 
nefarious career, accounted for several natives, and 
only two months previous to my encountering him, 
had killed a native woman and her child. The 
woman in question, with her child tied to her back, 
was returning to her hut from a visit to a water- 
hole in the dry bed of the Chiperserie stream, when 
Tombacco appeared on the scene, drove his tusk 
through the woman’s body, and kneeling on her and 
her child, crushed them out of existence. 
Tombacco was a most sagacious elephant, and, as 
soon as he knew that he was being hunted, made for 
the driest and most inaccessible parts of the country, 
constantly following the wind in his endeavour to 
outwit his pursuers. On several occasions I had 
followed his spoor, but he had always managed to 
evade me by making for tracts of country devoid of 
water, from which I was obliged to return in the 
evening to the water-holes near the dry streams to 
replenish our supply. Eventually, I tracked him 
