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perceive that the mothers evinced the smallest concern for the safety of their offspring. On the contrary, they left them to 
shift for themselyes, and Mohanycom with ’Lingap being behind us, assagai’d one little fellow whose tail they brought im.* 
Another old female was slain as we ascended the brow of an eminence, and at the same moment our waggons were revealed 
within a few hundred yards of the spot. The whole drove dashed through the middle of the camp, causing indescribable 
confusion both amongst cattle and followers; but fortunately no accident occurred, and after the fatiguing day’s work that we 
had undergone, we were not sorry to find ourselves again at home. 
Watery clouds hung about the sun as he set heavily behind the mountains. Lond peals of crashing thunder rent the 
air, and before night-fall we had a repetition of yesterday's storm,—the river roaring past us with frightful fury. Troops 
of elephants flying from the scene of carnage, passed close to our waggons during the darkness, their wild voices re-echoing 
amongst the mountains, and sounding like trumpets above the tempest. It was not possible to keep the fires burning, and 
the oxen and sheep were alarmed to so great a degree, that they broke from the kraal, and sought safety in the wilderness, 
Tired as I was, the excitement. of the recent proceedings banished sleep from my eyes. I ruminated on the spirit-stirring 
events of the day, and burned with impatience to renew them. Heedless of the withering blast that howled without, I felt 
that my most sanguine expectations had been realized, and that we had already been more than amply repaid for the diffi- 
eulties, privations, and dangers, that we had encountered in our toilsome journey towards this fairy-land of sport. 
Tt was still raining heayily when the day slowly and gloomily broke; and the mountain torrents having overflown their 
banks, had rendered the valley in which we were encamped one continuous pool of water. High roads had been ploughed 
through the mire by the passage of the giant army; and whole acres of grass by which we had been surrounded the prece- 
ding evening were trampled leyel with the ground. The weather clearing up as usual, shortly after sunrise, and the truant 
cattle having been recovered, we armed a party with hatchets, and proceeded to collect the ivory. After a little brush with 
a crusty rhinoceros, and a long and tedious trudge through deep black mire, from whieh our feet were extricated with 
extreme labour, we again sought the living picture—but upon all the plain which was yesterday so teeming with noble 
quadrupeds, not one was to be seen. On reaching the glen, however, which had been the scene of our exploits during the 
earlier part of the action, a calf some three and a half feet high, walked forth from a bush, and saluted us with mournful 
piping notes. The unhappy little wretch had been observed hovering about its mother for some time after she fell, and 
having probably been unable afterwards to overtake the flying herd, it had passed a dreary night in the woods. Entwining 
its pliant proboscis about our legs, the sagacious creature, after demonstrating its delight at our arrival by a thousand ungainly 
antics, accompanied the party to the body of its dam, which, swollen to an enormous girth, was surrounded by an inquest of 
vultures. Seated in gaunt array with their shoulders shrugged, these loathsome fowls were awaiting its decomposition with 
forced resignation — the tough hide haying defied al] the efforts of their beaks, with which the eyes and softer parts had been 
vigorously assailed, The conduct of the quaint little calf now became so affecting as to elicit the sympathy of every one 
present. It ran round its mother’s corse with touching demonstrations of grief, piping sorrowfully, and vainly striving to raise 
her stiff limbs with its tiny trunk. I confess that I had not been without compunctions when committing the murder, and 
now felt so bitterly reproached by this moying behayiour, that I half resolved never to be found aiding or abetting in 
another. 
The operation of hewing out three pairs of tusks occupied several hours, their roots, embedded in massive sockets, 
‘spreading over the greater portion of the face. After considerable labour we also succeeded in extracting the ball which 
Andries pretended to have fired; and the groves of my rifle being conspicuous upon it, that worthy but unabashed ‘squire, 
was not only constrained to relinquish his claim to the merit of haying secured the prize, but, which was the ‘ unkindest cut 
of all, to forego his fancied right to the ivory. During the whole operation the miniature of its prostrate mother was scan- 
ning our proceedings with the most intense interest, and fmding at length that she heeded not its caresses as of yore, 
voluntarily accompanied our party to the waggous, where it was received with shouts of welcome from the people, and by a 
band of all sorts of melody from the cattle. But in spite of every care, the little wretch pined to death in the course of 
a few days, as did two others, much older, that were subsequently captured. | 
Arriving ‘next in the valley of the Limpopo, I went out alone one afternoon, shortly after the caravan had halted, and 
having ascended the hill by a narrow path trodden by wild animals, entered a strip of forest occupying an extensive ravine. 
Several elephants had been seen from the waggous during the morning, clambering with the agility of chamois to the very 
stmmit of the chain; and I had now not advanced many yards, before I perceived a solitary bull posted on the outskirts of 
* By the savage hordes of Southern Africa, the elephant is deemed to hold equal rank with the greatest of their Chiefs, some of whom, and Moselckatse 
among the number, assuming unto theniselves the style and title of “the noble elephant,” court etiquette does not authorise any allusion beimg made in the 
royal presence to the animal’s death, Numbers are however annually mobbed and slain with the assagai, the noble attributes of the giant victim being extolled 
the while by his naked assailants in a loud yoice, coupled, when he charges, with supplications for mercy, such as “ Spare our lives high and mighty one; 
hurt none of us Great Captain.” One of the tusks, and the tuft of the tail, are considered the perquisites of the crown, and the latter trophy being moreover 
esteemed an ensign of royalty, is raised upon a pole at the gate of the cattle-kraal; whilst the trunk, which is held im superstitious veneration, is interred with 
all suitable solemnity during repeated exclamations of ‘ The Elephant is a great Lord, and the trunk is his hand,” This latter simile is as old as Cicero. 
+ By the slaughter of a first-rate bull elephant, each of whose tusks weigh upwards of one hundred pounds, a man may earn with a single bullet from 
seven to eight hundred Rix Dollars, equivalent to hetween £60 and £70 sterling. ‘Touching the mode of extracting ivory, however, one need take a lesson 
from the Abyssinians, who would appear to be most summary in their proceedings. ‘‘ There is a race of people,” writes Mr, Wolf, "* called Shiho, living under 
trees and bushes, who catch the elephant in the following mauner :—they entice him to the water, and the moment he begins to drink, they cut off his ros- 
trum and sell his teeth.””— Oriental Christian Spectator. 
