208 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
the welcome luxury of a blaze. Though elephants 
do not frequent these altitudes, they sometimes 
traverse them in order to reach special districts 
where they know that their favourite foods are in 
abundance, and here, as in all regions where 
elephants roam, for miles and miles you may follow 
a beaten elephant track, one to three feet wide, clean 
and hard as a pavement, which these huge beasts 
have trodden from time immemorial. These paths 
are their highways, and, here and there, they 
diverge, or are intersected by cross roads, like 
roads made by man, and their presence brings 
vividly before the mind the almost human intelli¬ 
gence of the creatures that make them. Often, 
I have followed elephants through bush, and 
wondered why they were trekking a country devoid 
of the trees on which they feed, only to discover 
that they were making directly for one of these 
elephant paths. 
To return to my story ; I was one afternoon 
enjoying a siesta in my tent when my curiosity 
was suddenly aroused by a great commotion among 
my men, and on going to inquire the cause of the 
hubbub, found them gathered together in a group 
round some central object of interest. As I 
approached, they made way for me, and my gaze 
fell upon the cause of all the excitement. It was 
something in the form of a man ; once undoubtedly 
