112 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ctt. 
of the elephant making off with the sack of rice, 
one of my men, Manjora, who is the wag of the 
party, remarked :— 
‘ Oh, he has taken it away to make a little 
shamba (garden) for himself in some far-away 
nook of the forest! ’ and this idea so tickled 
my men that they made a stock joke of it and, 
when recalling the affair, its repetition never 
failed to produce roars of laughter. 
II 
The Wizard Elephant 
Towards the close of 1911, near the Mewalie 
stream, a tributary of the Luwegu, I met with 
a most extraordinary experience. 
Just after dawn, as we were on trek through 
the bush, we chanced upon the spoor of several 
bull elephants, and after about two hours’ track¬ 
ing came up with them under a clump of 
beautiful palms. They were engaged in butting 
at the trunks of these graceful trees with their 
heads, making them rock to and fro to shake down 
the large tough-skinned fruits which they are 
fond of chewing. As we approached, however, 
the wind unfortunately gave them our scent, 
and sent them crashing away at a great pace, 
but ere they had disappeared, I brought down 
