MY FIRST ELEPHANT. 
79 
on, for a few strings of Umgazi beads, and a red kali, 
a piece of curtain binding, about eighteen inches long, 
which the Kaffirs are fond of wearing round their 
heads. I told the Kaffir to kill and pluck the fowl. 
The latter operation he accomplished very com¬ 
pletely, but as he had neglected the former, when I 
took the fowl in my hand to take out its inside, I 
was horrified by its struggling out of my hand, and 
running off, as bare as a board! 
30/A.—I paid off my former carriers, and engaged 
two others. We toiled a long, weary way through 
dense bush all the day. We passed innumerable 
vleys, covered with ducks, widgeon, geese, waterrails, 
cranes, and divers of all sorts, very tame; but as I 
was loaded with ball, I did not molest them. I fol¬ 
lowed up a herd of impalas, and got a shot at one 
more than 200 yards off, and cut both his fore legs 
from under him, skinned him, and breakfasted on 
him on the spot, and carried away the fore quarters 
and the skin with us. I slept in a capital hut, fully 
ten feet high in the centre, and neatly finished off. 
July Is/. — I started early for the Pongola, with 
three or four Amatongas. In going through the 
bush, I saw a great number of pit-falls, about nine 
feet deep, and very narrow at the bottom. They 
are made by the natives to entrap all sorts of game. 
After walking several miles, the Kaffirs cried out 
6 Nance inthovu! ’ (see elephant), and I beheld, 
about three-quarters of a mile off, a huge monster 
flapping his enormous ears, just at the edge of the 
