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THE ADVENTURES
OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLANT COMPANY
NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO »
TRACKERS AND PRIVATE SERVANTS.
THE ADVENTURES
OF AN
ELEPHANT HUNTER
JAMES SUTHERLAND
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
19 I 2
COPYRIGHT
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
brunswick street, stamford street, s.e., and
bungav, suffolk.
First Edition, October, 1912.
Reprinted , November, 1912.
PREFACE
Some two or three years ago, a friend of mine, to
whom I had been narrating some of my experiences,
warmly urged me to write a book. Knowing that
works on big game hunting and tales of adventure
were innumerable, and having little time after the
arduous labour of the chase to devote to literary
pursuits, I, at first, viewed the project with some
hesitancy. The idea, once conceived, however,
began to mature, and having kept an unbroken
diary for the last sixteen years, I felt (apart from
any hope of the result some day appearing before
the public) that the setting forth of my rough notes
in a more finished form would be an excellent
method of indulging in the pleasures of recollection,
and of calling up before my mind's eye the scenes
and people I love so well. If the perusal of my
narrative whiles away one dull moment from the
reader's life, I shall feel all the more convinced that
4
the time I have spent thereon has not been wasted.
I have intentionally divided up my matter into .
viii PREFACE
distinct episodes, choosing from my experiences
only those which I feel will interest even the
ordinary reader who knows little of, and cares less
for, the technicalities of big game hunting. For,
apart from the number of admirably written books
dealing voluminously with the above sport, I feel
that a detailed and consecutive account of even a
hunter's career is apt at times to pall, and I have,
therefore, striven to eliminate from my humble
effort all that is not illuminating in some phase or
other.
Before proceeding further, and in the light of
some of the personal adventures which follow, a
very brief sketch of my life abroad may be of some
interest to the reader, and lend a certain cohesion
to my stories as far as the question of time is
concerned.
I left the Old Country for Cape Town, in the
early part of 1896, with the object of carving out a
career for myself. I had no precise knowledge of
what that career was to be, I simply experienced an
urgent desire to wander — a desire probably inherited
from my father, who spent his early manhood gold-
digging in New Zealand and Australia.
Those early days abroad gave me little that is of
any great interest. I moved from Cape Town to
Johannesburg (where I spent some time in hospital
suffering from the effects of a bullet wound), and
PREFACE ix
thence to Mafekingand Matabeleland. Gradually I
worked my way up to Beira, from which I did some
promiscuous hunting, and afterwards travelled all
over Mashonaland. Next, I roved northwards to
British Central Africa and roamed the regions about
Lake Tanganyika and the Congo, subsequently
going to Portuguese East Africa (just ten years ago),
and, a couple of years later, to German East Africa,
where I have hunted up to the present day.
During these years of wandering, I have done
many things to earn a living. I have, at times,
engaged in ' nigger bossing ' ; in recruiting niggers
and contracting for the Beira railway ; I have been
agent for various African trading companies ; I have
kept native stores ; and I have even been a prize-
fighter. None of these occupations, however, seemed
adequately to suit my nature, and I was still
uncertain as to what I should undertake as a means
of earning a livelihood, when I reached Portuguese
East Africa. It was there that I decided to become
an elephant hunter, and, practically speaking, I have
been on the spoor of the elephant ever since. My
adoption of this career was not entirely decided by
the question of pecuniary gain, for though I am not
poet or philosopher enough to affect a complete
indifference to the root of evil, my intense love of
sport was a more cogent factor in assisting me
to come to such a decision than any love of lucre.
PREFACE
During the last sixteen years of my life I have
only had two short intervals of absence from Africa,
and on these occasions I merely paid flying visits
to the Old Country, the time spent at home not
covering more than three months altogether, while
for ten years I have been elephant hunting without
intermission, save for a period in 1905-6, when I
fought as a volunteer with the German forces during
a native insurrection, receiving for my services a
Prussian war decoration from the German Govern-
ment. During these ten years, I have shot 447 bull
elephants (I do not count females), thereby creating
a world's record. I do not make this statement in
any spirit of boasting : I merely wish to convey to
the reader that the stories which follow are not
fiction, but facts gleaned from a long and unique
experience in one of the most exciting and danger-
ous sports that the world offers, and jotted down
actually as they happened within a day or two of
their occurrence. I should like to add, moreover,
that I have not gone on safari with a large and
well-armed expedition to lessen the risks of my call-
ing, but have always hunted alone, with one or two
trusted boys as trackers, and carriers.
To conclude, I may say that I have never
regretted the life I have led. It has been a life of
weary days and restless nights, of fever, thirst,
hunger, toil, and strife ; but a life of wild, exhilara-
PREFACE xi
ting excitement, of sunlight and air, vast spaces and
solitude, of all things which seem to me to be so far
removed from the restricting influences of a complex
civilization. After so many years of a wild, free life
I find it difficult to accommodate myself to the stuffi-
ness and constraint of a modern city : I prefer the
pori (forest) to the imprisonment of streets, the
twinkling stars to lamps, the sigh of the primeval
forest to the tramp of thousands of human feet.
After all, this may be the idiosyncrasy of one
who has been so long away from civilization that
he has lost taste for much that appertains to that
civilization, and in this world, well, chacun a son
goUt.
J, s.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
HAGE
THE hunter's life I
CHAPTER II
THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR l6
CHAPTER III
TOUCH AND GO 32
CHAPTER TV
KOM-KOM 41
CHAPTER V
SWASURI AND THE LEOPARD 57
CHAPTER VI
MAKANYANGA THE PHILOSOPHER 65
CHAPTER VII
MAN-EATING LIONS 69
CHAPTER VIII
VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A CANTANKEROUS BUFFALO . . . ' 83
xiti
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX
I' AGE
THE STRUGGLE OF THE TITANS 93
CHAPTER X
UPS AND DOWNS IN THE MBWEHU BUSH lOO
CHAPTER XI
THE WHITE TRAIL I09
CHAPTER XII
THE RAID 116
CHAPTER XIII
STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI 124
CHAPTER XIV
SNAKES 138
CHAPTER XV ,
WHERE A MAN CAN RAISE A THIRST I47
CHAPTER XVI
BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 157
CHAPTER XVII
MALINGANIRO AND HIS IVORY 1 76
CHAPTER XVIII
TERRIER V. ELEPHANT 182
CHAPTER XIX
THE TROPICS AND THE CALL 1.88
CHAPTER XX
SOME NOTES ON THE LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE . . . 194
CONTENTS XV
CHAPTER XXI
PAGE
THE WILD MAN OK THE GOLAMBEPO MOUNTAINS 207
CHAPTER XXII
HIPPO AND LION 212
CHAPTER XXIII
SUPERSTITION AND A SEQUEI 215
CHAPTER XXIV
NERVES AT NTUNKWAE 223
CHAPTER XXV
MAD BUFFALO AND FAITHLESS WIFE . 228
CHAPTER XXVI
MY TWO WILD DOGS 235.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE GENTLE ART OF POISONING * 239
CHAPTER XXVIII
TWO LEOPARD STORIES 248
CHAPTER XXIX
MAHOMETAN FAITH AND ELEPHANT MEAT ........ 254
CHAPTER XXX
A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 258
CHAPTER XXXI
SOME PECULIAR FOODS 274
CHAPTER XXXII
THE LORD OF THE RIVER 282
xvi CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXXIII
PAGE
THREE SLAVE GIRLS . . •. 287
CHAPTER XXXIV
A FEW days' hunting
293
302
CHAPTER XXXV
LOVE AND FAREWELL
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE HUNTER'S END 309
INDEX :j2i
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I'AGE
Trackers and Private Servants Frontispiece
Large Bull Elephant standing in the dry bed of Mbanangandu
River, afterwards shot by Author ' 3
My last Safari to the Coast 5
The Author's Camp on the Luwegu River 7
A few of my Men 1 1
Elephant's Tooth 13
Native Axe and Knife used for cutting out Elephant Tusks, etc. 14
The Three Elephants 19
The Three Elephants 23
Fight with Four Elephants (the fourth) 27
The Dead Elephant 36
Four Elephants together 39
Kom-Kom 43
Kom-Kom's Tail 55
Swasuri 61
'Njerembo' 84
Elephant called ' Tombacco ' 85
The Buffalo that tossed Carrier's Boy 91
Piece of Broken Tusk 96
The end of the Fighting Elephants 97
The Dead Monster 104
Three Elephants shot 105
The Third Elephant 107
Atypical 'Wyao' Headman 117
The First Elephant 125
One of three Elephants shot one Afternoon 127
Elephant with some of my Men and their Wives 130
b
XVtl
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Elephant which charged me and nearly killed my Boy, Usufu . 136
Usufu and Malingum 152
The Author and some of his Men 159
Elephant shot whilst sleeping 161
My two Trackers. Simba (on left), Tumbo (on right) .... 165
My Tent and Handa with Private Servants 168
•577 Bullet showing ideal Capping ; "577 Bullet (in centre)
showing ideal Mushrooming ; on right, "500 Solid Nickel
Covered Bullet 172
Rhinoceros 173
Two Tuskers. The second just discernible in the Background . 1 83
The Author's little Terrier on the Elephant's Back 185
My Tracker Simba with three Inswala just shot 195
Makabuli 220
Elephant which nearly killed me 225
Buffalo and the wounded Malingum 229
The Author's Bull Terrier 'Brandy' 250
Nyasaland Agri-Horticultural Association, Annual Show ... 251
Elephant shot at Bangalla 261
Three very fine Elephants' Tails, and one absolutely devoid of
Hair . . . ■ 264
The Dead Tusker 268
Natives cutting up four Elephants, the Slabs of Meat lying in
the Foreground 275
Sultan Mperembe 289
Eland • 294
Antelope 295
Hartebeeste 297
Shot near the Luwegu River 299
Seremani and his Love, Amina, with the Author's Terrier . . . 303
THE ADVENTURES
OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER
THE ADVENTURES OF AN
ELEPHANT HUNTER
CHAPTER I
THE hunter's life
Before dawn I am awakened by the joyful
singing of the birds in the forest, and, as I He, I
may occasionally hear the loud snort of a buffalo,
the screeching, gossiping chatter of monkeys, or
the loud booming woof-woof of the lion, which
like an evil dream, seems to lose some of its
sinister impressiveness at the approach of day.
I am probably about to doze off once more,
when my boy brings me a steaming cup of
delicious cocoa — not the brick-dust and water
concoction so often met with — but a beverage
made with boiled milk and flavoured with a
suspicion of vanilla. Immediately afterwards, I
spring from my camp-bed, fill my lungs with
air, and picking up my dumb-bells, go through a
E
2 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
systematic course of exercise, which keeps every
muscle of my body supple and gives me complete
mental control over the functions of each. It is
to this constant care of my physical being that
I ascribe my fitness to-day, after all the vicissi-
tudes of a most strenuous and exacting life under
a tropical sun, and to it I also assign a great
part of my success as a hunter, for, apart from
the temperament suitable for such a calling, the
muscular system must be so tuned that it will
instantaneously respond to every message of the
brain. Upon this co-operation, a hunter's life
again and again depends. After exercise a cold
tub and a brisk rub down ! What a splendid
tonic, and what an absolute necessity in the
tropics ! Next, my boy brings me a lightly
brewed cup of tea and some biscuits, and this
frugal meal constitutes breakfast.
Our camp is now all astir. My men, consist-
ing of trackers, carriers, cook and private servants
— about ten in number — are ready to start, so off
we go into the forest with long, easy, springing
strides, the blood tingling in our veins with the
joy of life. To all intents and purposes, we are
absolutely free ; there is no vexatious etiquette to
be observed ; I can burst into a hearty laugh
without shocking the ridiculous propriety of a
crowded street ; I do not require to wear this
THE HUNTER'S LIFE
kind of waistcoat or that kind of tie. The morn-
ing coat and silk hat I wore on my last brief
visit to England, I flung into the sea in sheer
exuberance of spirits, when I left Marseilles,
glad to be quit of such costly insanity — even a
bowler hat is a ludicrous menace to my sense of
natural comfort. Alas ! though the pori (forest) is
LARGE BULL ELEPHANT STANDING IN THE DRY BED OF MEAN ANGANDU
RIVER, AFTERWARDS SHOT BY AUTHOR.
a place where life is action, it gives a man a great
deal of time to think : it focusses his view ; it
peels from his mind the trivial veneer of civiliza-
tion and leaves him to brood upon the elemental
things which lie at the heart ot life. There is
also something wistful, tender and infinitely beau-
tiful that forms an undercurrent to the magnificent
B 2
4 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. i
heedlessness of the wild. It calls and calls. And
oh, the glorious sunshine — how it steeps right
into the very soul ! At times you fervently
hate it, for you recall baked lips, and a tongue
clinging with thirst to the roof of your mouth,
but return to England in the winter and you will
discover how intimately the visual aspect of a
country, bathed in brilliant sunshine, has played
upon those hidden strings of the mind that go to
form what is called cheerfulness. Ugh ! the
bleakness of a December day !
' Dembo, bwana!'. (Elephant, master!) What
a thrill these words send through a hunter !
One of my trackers has come upon the fresh
spoor of elephants. We examine their tracks
and can tell by the size of the foot-prints
whether they have been made by male or
female, and by the freshness of the impressions,
the approximate time that has elapsed since
they passed. The presence of strewn leaves
and broken branches and their condition indicate
when they fed, and whether they are meander-
ing, or moving steadily ahead for some fixed
goal — for elephants know the country quite as
intimately as its human inhabitants. They are
obliged to know it : on their knowledge of
feeding-grounds, water-holes, and dense cover,
their lives depend.
6 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
Now that we have discovered fresh spoor, I
leave my carriers and boys to follow at a
considerable distance behind, while I push ahead
with my two trackers in pursuit of the game.
These trackers can read the bush as plainly as
a civilized man reads his newspaper, and yet,
after a lifetime spent in hunting, I can state
that they are usually inferior to an adaptable
and thoroughly trained white man. Even here,
finer brains count. As we trudge along, we
suddenly come across fresh droppings, and my
tracker, thrusting his foot into them, says they
are warm, an announcement which causes me
to bubble over with excitement, for I know that
we are coming up with our quarry. It now
behoves us to advance with the utmost wariness,
and I follow my tracker so closely, that he can,
if necessary, touch me with his hand. My rifle
is held in my grasp, ready to slip to my
shoulder in an instant, while my other tracker
follows me with my second rifle, so that when
I have emptied my first, I have simply to make
a half turn and snatch the other from his hands.
This action has become almost instinctive with
me through years of constant practice, and
essentially so, for often one-tenth of a second
is in hunting, as in boxing, of vital importance :
you may not have the opportunity of saying
THE HUNTER'S LIFE
afterwards : 'If only I had been a shade
quicker ! '
All this while, we have kept in a kind of
THE AUTHORS CAMP ON THE I.UWEGU RIVER.
natural telegraphic communication with my men
following in the rear. They track us as we
track the elephants, and, here and there, we
break a twig or bend the grass for their infor-
8 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
mation, sometimes, even dragging our feet along
the ground to give them an unmistakable indi-
cation of the direction we have taken. If I
wish them to go easy, I tie a piece of handker-
chief to a twig; if they are to follow fast, I
drop fragments of my handkerchief on the path ;
if I desire them to halt dead, I lay my hand-
kerchief or tie the grass right across the path.
We are now close to our quarry and move
with the utmost caution, lest a hasty movement
or a snapping twig warn them of our proximity.
If there is no wind, or if the wind blows from
them to us, our chances of bagging them are
greater than if we were to windward of them,
for, in the last case, they may get a whiff of
our scent and bolt without giving a chance of
a shot, and all our tracking and following up
have to be renewed with the same patience
and care.
Let us suppose they have not winded us. I
manoeuvre for a shot, either shifting my own
position or waiting for them to move so that
they present a favourable view. Temporarily, my
mind is absolutely concerned with the business in
hand : there is no time to look round and con-
template the beauty of the surrounding vegetation
to see whether, in the words of some journalistic
hunter, * the sunlight quivered from a thousand
THE HUNTER'S LIFE
leaves, now and then flashing from the gleaming
ivory of the Titanic monsters, as they tossed
their stupendous heads. A cascade of blue and
scarlet flowers tumbles from a creeper near by
and lies trampled in my path, etc., etc' These
things may impress the mind subconsciously, but
they are utterly irrelevant to the hunter at a
critical moment, and such descriptions, however
much they may appeal to some minds, I have
studiously avoided in my narrative, because to
me they seem out of place. The run of my
thoughts is generally : ' Will he give me a
heart shot, or a brain shot ? If I wound him
will he bolt or will he charge? If he charges —
well, it is the old duel over again, the duel that
I have fought successfully up till now. This time
my luck may turn. He may finish my career —
well, what of it.'* I am here to take his life —
all's fair in war. There is no time for " past
regrets or future fears." ' If I fail to drop him
and he charges, all excitement vanishes. I ex-
perience no shadow of fear. During the actual
tracking there is always a lively sense of danger
— I can hardly call it fear — but now none at all,
and I can only describe my mental state at such
a moment as a brain working at white heat
without a trace of emotion.
Fortune may favour me and enable me to bag
lo ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
my quarry without much difficulty. On the other
hand, if I merely wound an elephant and he bolts,
I make every effort to follow him up and finish
him, and I am glad to say that in the majority of
cases I accomplish this end. I adopt this procedure
apart from the question of obtaining ivory, for in
my hunting I have always endeavoured to bear
in mind the question of pain. Swift death is
comparatively little to any living thing — long
drawn out pain is terrible, and when the question
of hunting is concerned, the professional is usually
too experienced a shot to entail any unnecessary
suffering on the animal he hunts, a compliment
which, I fear, cannot always be paid to the
amateur, or those who scurry through the country
with the object of writing a book.
The following up of a wounded elephant,
especially if he joins a herd or crosses other
spoor and is losing little blood, calls up the finest
of skill in tracking. Where the remainder of the
herd have been feeding, his spoor may show that
he has been standing at rest ; his droppings are also
usually slightly apart from those of his companions ;
and lastly, the impressions of his feet may serve as
a means of identifying him from the rest of the herd
by showing his method of progression. There
is, also, always considerable risk in hunting a
wounded elephant down, for knowing that you
THE HUNTER'S LIFE
II
are on his tracks, he will often make for the
densest cover and getting annoyed with your
A FEW OF MY MEN.
persistent pursuit, wait patiently for you with the
intention of trying conclusions, Aware of this,
12 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER * ch.
you must be constantly on the alert, for at any
moment he may be upon you with one swift dash,
sometimes screaming, but usually without uttering
a warning sound, and these are the moments which
call up every ounce of will, resource, swiftness
and coolness of which your nature is capable. If
you are deficient in any of these, it would be
advisable to bid adieu to your friends before
tracking up a wounded elephant.
Often the pursuit of a wounded or shy tusker
entails extreme hardship, for, as I have narrated
elsewhere, food and water may run out. In case
of thirst, it is useful to know that sugar affords
considerable relief, and I have found that when
my men are feeling the strain of a forced march,
there is no restorative to equal a mixture of sugar
and cocoa.
Sometimes, if elephants are plentiful, I am from
ten days to three weeks or more away from my
main camp ; and after such a period of absence,
I am generally glad to return, for, unless a man
wishes to give way under the strain, he must rest
and recuperate at intervals. On these prolonged
hunts, when we have had a decent bag, I send my
carriers back with the ivory to our main camp, and
being tired by their arduous work, they stay there,
and a fresh relay of men comes out and joins me.
Then, when we have had our fill of sport, and
THE HUNTER'S LIFE
13
nature warns me that I must not tax my energies
farther, we start on the return journey to our main
camp. Temporarily, the excitement and dangers
are over, but a new sense of joy fills the heart, for
my men are delighted at the thought of seeing their
wives and children or chums again, and I am eager
to get back to the comfort of my tent, which, in
spite of its simplicity, has for me all the charm that
lies hidden in that
word — home ! My
men laugh and
chatter ceaselessly
as they march, and
I have lived so long
among them that I
know their thoughts
as I know my own,
and speaking their
language as fluently
ELKPHANT S TOOTH.
13" in length, 3 J" in width, about 9 lbs. in
weight.
as themselves, often join in their jesting. They
thoroughly appreciate this, and from them I learn
what they are unable, if not unwilling, to com-
municate to most white men. It is to this intimacy
of thought that I ascribe my success in the manage-
ment of natives, for I know exacdy when to be
severe and when to be kindly with them.
As we approach camp, we see the smoke of our
fires, and no one, who has not lived the life, can
14 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
say what a strange emotion fills the mind at the
simple sight, for it is a symbol of all those wider
issues that twine about the heart and create that
sentiment, which, in the first instance, binds a man to
his home and again more widely to his native land.
My men's wives and
children come out to
meet them ; chums
meet chums; laughter
and chatter and affec-
tionate greetings re-
sound on all sides,
while I am greeted
by my little terrier,
who comes jumping
up to me, licking my
hands and tugging at
my trousers in a
frenzy of excitement
and joy. At last we
are home, and I im-
mediately bathe and
change my clothes, and all my men, who are wonder-
fully cleanly, do the same. A nicely cooked meal
is the next luxury, and after that, I indulge in a peg
or two of whisky and the solace of tobacco. My men
make a hilarious night of it. Pombe (native beer)
is drunk in large quantities ; they dance and sing
NATIVE AXE AND KNIFE USED FOR
CUTTING OUT ELEPHANT TUSKS, ETC.
I THE HUNTER'S LIFE 15
and make love, and above all, there is an incessant
talk of the chase. Every little incident is related
over and over again, just as a golfer analyses his
game to the listener who can command sufficient
patience to be bored with the dull details, and from
my tent, I can hear how, at such and such a moment,
bwana (master) did this or did that, and how the
dembo (elephant) behaved under the circumstances.
The ' sentinel stars have already set their watch
in the sky,' and now the moon, rising with glorious
effulgence, pales the lesser lights of heaven to
insignificance and silvers the pori with a mystery
that thrills me silently. The shadows are cut sharp
and intense. I lie and listen to the ebb of the noisy
jovialities ; a soft wind flaps in at my tent, and
there is something so somnolent in the monotonous
sound, that my senses are soon steeped in sound
and refreshing sleep.
Give me the life of the pori ! I think it would be
difficult to find another so full of wild, exhilarating
excitement, hair-breadth escapes, and devil-may-care
risks, and though the end is usually swift, perhaps
that is better than flickering out slowly on a bed of
sickness. If anyone has a desire to live, where
living is really full-blooded living, let him go and
spend some of his time among wild animal life — far
away from the insidious comforts and the petty
restraints of life in a civilized community.
CHAPTER II
THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR
• BwANA, dembo!' (Master, elephant!) whis-
pered Simba, my tracker bubbling over with ex
citement, as he wakened me.
' Dembo, my boy, wappe ? ' (Elephant, my boy,
where ? ) I asked, opening my eyes and rising at
once to a sitting posture.
' Karebu, bwana ! (Near, master ! ) I have
just heard the crash of a falling tree a few
hundred yards away.'
Grasping the situation, I listened intently for a
few minutes, heard the snap of a breaking branch,
and knew that Simba had not erred in his sur-
mise ; but as it was only four o'clock in the
morning and nothing could be done till dawn,
some two hours later, I turned over, pulled my
blanket about me and fell soundly asleep again.
During the whole of the previous day we had
kept doggedly on the spoor of four big tuskers,
i6
CH. II THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR 17
who had unfortunately got our scent and speedily
made off on each occasion that we were about
to come up with them. Nightfall had put a
close to a most disappointing day's hunt, and
worn out, ravenous with hunger and parched
with thirst, we had settled down to pass the night
at a spot "about two hours' journey from the
Mbemcuru River, where we might have obtained
water, had we had the energy left to cover
the intervening distance. We had hoped, more-
over, that my four extra men, who were follow-
ing in our wake with my food-box, and a further
supply of water, would have turned up before
dark. But in this we had been doomed to dis-
appointment, and, as we had eaten nothing
since breakfast and drunk the last of our water
at 2 p. m., our frame of mind on retiring had
been anything but cheerful.
At first streaks of dawn, we were up and about,
and though we felt considerably refreshed by the
night's sleep, our hunger and thirst were not a
bit abated. In spite of these discomforts — for
we were all in excellent physical condition and
inured to every hardship — I decided to follow up
the elephants we had heard in the early morning
hours, hoping to bag one or two by forenoon
and then make all haste for the Mbemcuru. Before
i8 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
starting, however. I despatched my two private
boys to the river to slake their thirst, instructing
them to return and double back on the previous
day's spoor until they met my four tardy carriers,
when they were all to repair to the river and await
my arrival. Immediately on their departure, I
set out with my two trackers, Simba and Chingondo,
the former carrying my light "318 axite rifle, the
latter, my double '577, and we had not gone far
afield, when we came across the spoor which we
had anticipated, finding to our surprise that the
tracks were those of the same four bulls that had
so cleverly eluded us the previous day. They had
come from the direction of the river, which they had
evidently visited for water, and were now making
for dense bush, about three hours' journey further
on. Fortunately, the wind was favourable, and as
they were travelling slowly, smashing, en route, an
occasional quaju or wild tamarind tree and feeding
at leisure on the juicy, acrid fruit, our prospects
of overtaking them, ere they reached their desti-
nation, were distinctly good. So we hurried along in
pursuit, as fast as necessary precautions permitted,
and by ten o'clock managed to get quite close to
them, only to experience at the critical moment, a
repetition of the previous day's adverse fortune,
for they again winded us and bolted.
My second tracker, Chingondo, who carried my
THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR
19
heavy double '577, said that he was thoroughly
exhausted and could go no further, so taking the
weapon myself, I sent him back, instructing him
to make for the river by keeping in a straight
line, a little to the left of the rising sun. Once
more Simba and I trudged wearily along on the
THE THREE ELEPHANTS.
spoor, buoyed up with the hope that the herd
would halt on reaching the bush and give us the
opportunity for which we longed, but, alas ! that
hope was to be dashed rudely to the ground !
For four interminable hours we followed them
across a terrible country, one expanse of dense
thicket, long elephant grass, and thorny scrub,
c 2
20 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
every now and then encountering a living wall of
vegetation through which they had passed with
ease, but which had closed in behind their
ponderous tread and left a narrow passage along
which we could only struggle and crawl with the
greatest difficulty. Under such conditions, the
utmost caution must be used in tracking, for the
slightest noise may at any moment render futile
hours of exhausting work. Around us the grass
towered twelve to sixteen feet high, narrowing
the view to a few feet on any side, and in the
confinement of this vigorous, rampant growth the
heat was stifling. Thirst, which had, on our
starting out, been an acute discomfort, now became
almost unbearable, but still we hung tenaciously
on to the spoor, and I had just observed with some
uneasiness that the currents of air were blowing
from all quarters, when we heard an ominous
crashing through the bush. For the second time
they had winded us and bolted ! Words are
inadequate to describe the annoyance we ex-
perienced, and, too tired, thirsty, and disappointed
to speak or think, we flung ourselves down for
a well-earned respite. An overwhelming desire to
sleep came over me, and, utterly reckless of sun-
stroke, I was about to indulge in a brief doze, when
Simba offered me his snuff-box. I am not in
the habit of indulging in snuff, but I must admit
THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR
that that pinch seemed to revive me at once, and
give me energy calmly to review the situation.
As it was drawing towards evening, a time when
all wild animals wend their way to the rivers and
pools to quench their thirst, we calculated that
our quarry, thoroughly tired by the long chase,
would probably be making for water at a leisurely
pace. Tightening our belts, and indulging in
another pinch of snuff to freshen our jaded
senses, we rose and started off once more, resolved
to make one final, desperate effort to bag some of
the herd, Simba reverently raising his face heaven-
wards and imploring : — ' Jondie neusimungo nepa
sese oui dembo!' (Please, God, give us these
elephants.)
After another period of arduous tracking, we
discovered that they had left the bush and
taken to a comparatively open country, so,
breaking into a steady but somewhat feeble trot,
we managed, about an hour afterwards, to come
up with them, just in time to see them, in
single file, slowly entering a patch of long grass.
As the sun was rapidly sinking and darkness
would be upon us in less than an hour, it
was now a case of neck or nothing, so strain-
ing every muscle, we dashed after them, excite-
ment and the cool, crisp air of evening pouring
new life into our veins. What a devil-may-care
2 2 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
rush it was — smashing through the long grass,
jumping over fallen trees and bent and broken
bamboos ; now running, doubled in two under
a dense canopy of branches, again tearing full-
speed across small open spaces in the forest !
All the while, too, we were keenly alive to the
possibility that one of the herd might double
back for us with a rush ; for often a hard-
pressed elephant will wait absolutely motionless
in cover until the hunter is quite near, when
he will charge without any warning scream,
giving his adversary no time to aim, barely time
to drive the bullets in his face in the hope
that one will reach his brain or that their
impact will make him swerve aside or turn.
All at once, as we careered madly on, the sharp
snapping of some bamboos, a few hundred yards
ahead, warned us that we were in critical proximity
to our quarry, so we slowed down, and, discovering
that we were to windward of them, ceased following
the spoor and made a detour. Spying a large ant-
hill on our right, we very stealthily made our way
towards it and from its summit, saw, to our joy, the
four elephants standing about a hundred yards
away. One of their number, an enormous bull,
with singularly long tusks, was standing a dozen
yards behind the others, looking back on the spoor,
as if awaiting his pursuers. Down we scrambled at
THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR
23
once, and, endeavouring to keep to leeward, crept
nearer and nearer to him. On this occasion, old
Dame Fortune surely favoured us, for when we
were about thirty yards from the giant, he suddenly
turned and, with his enormous ears outspread at
right angles to his head, steadily gazed in our direc-
THE THREE ELEPHANTS.
tion. A bullet from my "577 between his eyes,
penetrated his brain, instantly dropping him. As
the other three, probably curious to know what had
befallen their comrade, rushed up to where he lay,
I managed to secure a second with a beautiful shot
just a little in front of the ear-hole. One of the
remaining two, scared by the fusillade, took refuge
in flight ; the other, apparently mystified by the
24 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
behaviour of his companions, stood hesitant, so,
seizing my second rifle from Simba, I placed a bullet
in his heart and another in the vertebrae of the
neck, bringing him down with a crash beside his
fellows. As there was still about half-an-hour's
daylight left, I determined to make an effort to
secure the fourth, and without waiting to examine
our prizes, set out in pursuit of him. Hardly had
we got to work on the spoor, when, much to our
astonishment, we heard him crashing through some
bamboos in our rear, evidently having circled round
to the spot where he had hurriedly parted from his
comrades. Unfortunately, he was to lee of us, and
getting a whiff of tainted air, plunged madly into a
thicket of bamboos, through which we followed him
with extreme difficulty. As the light was now
failing, and Simba was almost bent double over the
spoor, I thought it wise, before proceeding further,
to ascertain the nature of the country ahead of us,
so, noticing a tree about a hundred yards to our
left, I bade Simba go and climb it and return as
quickly as possible with his report. He had almost
reached the tree in question when, to my horror, I
heard a terrific scream and, next moment saw
Simba dashing back towards me for dear life with
the elephant in hot pursuit. Shouting to him to
turn to the left that I might have an unobstructed
view of the infuriated animal, who was now only
II THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR 25
about thirty yards behind his intended victim, I
took hasty aim and fired, the bullet striking the
brute in the side of the head. For an instant he
staggered, and then came charging on again ! At
the same moment, Simba, catching his foot in a
creeper, plunged heavily forward on his face, and
for one awful second I thought it was all up with
my faithful old tracker. In a flash, to my intense
relief, he was on his feet again, but, being
thoroughly scared, instead of running at an angle,
dashed straight on towards me, completely ob-
structing my view of the animal. Rushing past
and slightly to the right of my man, I gave the
elephant the contents of my second barrel in the
forehead, the terrific impact of the bullet hurling
him back on his haunches. The shot, however,
struck him too high up to prove fatal, and speedily
recovering, he made tracks for the long grass from
which he had emerged on seeing my tracker.
More determined than ever to bag him — for he had
a very fine pair of tusks — I hastily grabbed my
light rifle from Simba and gave chase. Ere he had
gone far, I managed to place a bullet in the vicinity
of his heart, whereupon he instantly turned,
and, uttering a succession of short, shrill,
screams, bore down upon me. When he was
within forty yards of me, I fired in his face — the
light was too uncertain for taking careful aim — but
26 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. ii
the small bullet proved absolutely ineffectual, and
as he continued his onward career, I drove another
through his forehead, hoping to reach his brain
and drop him. Still he came on, with head
lowered, trunk extended, and blood streaming
down his face, and was within fifteen yards of
me, when I pulled back the bolt of my rifle to drive
another cartridge into the breech, only to discover,
to my horror, that the magazine was empty. In
the excitement of the hunt, I had completely
forgotten that I had already spent two of the five
cartridges on the last bull I had shot ! There
was no time, however, to curse my stupidity, so,
fully convinced that this, as far as I was concerned,
was the end of all things, I flung my rifle with
all my might into the elephant's face and sprang
to the left. At the same moment, I heard a
terrific report a few inches behind me, and turned
to find Simba standing with my heavy rifle in his
hands. Seeing my predicament, he had slipped
a cartridge into the weapon and fired it at the
animal in the very nick of time, the bullet passing
through the brute's trunk and crashing into his
mouth. Immediately swerving to the right, the
elephant collided with a tree, knocking it over
like a ninepin, and bursting through the branches,
as if they had been so much matchwood, continued
his wild career for another fifty yards before coming
28 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
to a standstill. Snatching my heavy rifle from
Simba, I slipped a couple of cartridges into it, and,
rushing up to the unsteady old warrior, sent a
bullet through his heart. He toppled over with
a tremendous crash, and after a few gasps, lay
still.
Another glorious day's sport over ! The thought
came to me with some faint touch of regret — alas !
life is brief, and its red-letter days so few and
far between ! Nor had we had too much time
to spare, for the sun now set in a magnificent flood
of colour, sending long ribbons and streamers of
ruddy fire into the deepening blue of the sky, and
tingeing the bush with a mystery and charm that I
have often wished I could adequately describe.
Dragging my weary limbs over to where Simba
stood, supporting himself against a convenient tree,
I gave his hand a hearty grip — it was by no means
the first occasion on which we had faced a life
and death encounter together — and being utterly
exhausted, flung myself on the ground. My tracker
followed suit and for a long while we lay, too
tired to think or speak or move. During the
tense excitement of the hunt, we had temporarily
forgotten our bodily discomforts, but now a swift
reaction set in, and we became the prey of a
burning, intolerable thirst ! No words can depict
the awful suflering that the simple want of water
II THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR 29
can inflict, and poor Simba, unable to bear the
cruel pangs any longer, crawled over on hands
and knees to where the elephant lay and began
to lap up the half-congealed blood which had
flowed from the animal's head and gathered in
a tiny, shining pool. I myself, half-crazy with the
agony, struggled to my feet, pulled a handful of
leaves from an adjacent tree, and hoping that the
moisture contained in the foliage would cool my
parched mouth, was about to chew them. All at
once, Simba, having seen my action, rushed up
and caught my arm.
' Don't, bwana, don't,' he cried, ' it is the
poison tree ! Wait a little while and I'll try to
get you some roots.'
Somewhat refreshed by his awful draught, he
staggered off into the forest, while I again flung
myself down and strove calmly to bear the
torturing pangs until my tracker returned. I
had only lain a few minutes when, to my joy,
I heard yell after yell of delight.
' Bwana, nemepona ! Bwana, nemepona ! '
(Master, we are saved ! Master, we are saved ! )
Getting up, I tottered in the direction of the
voice and ere long came upon Simba, busy
with his knife at the stems of a water-bearinof
creeper which the natives call ntamba. After he
had cut several lengths of about two feet each
30 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
from the rope-like stems, we applied the sections
to our baked lips and greedily sucked the
deliciously cool, watery juice. Again and again
we cut and drank ; it seemed as if we should
never thoroughly slake our thirst ! Our next
move was to appease the gnawings of hunger.
A glorious moon had now risen and hung low
and large, silvering each twig and spray with
ghostly light, and making of the jungle a web
of vein-like shadows. By its beams we could
see to collect fuel, and coming across some dry
branches of the mangu tree, set to work to
light a fire. Cutting a hole in a flattened piece
of the dry branch, Simba inserted a rounded
stick of the same wood into the aperture and
twirled it rapidly round and round, the resulting
friction causing sufficient heat to smoulder a
portion of my shirt which I had frayed for the
purpose. Gathering some dry leaves and twigs,
we soon had a roaring blaze, over which we
quickly toasted choice bits of elephant's heart.
A right hearty meal we made, and following
up the repast with another long draught of the
ntamba creepers, we lazily stretched ourselves
beside our fire to dream of some privileged
hunt with Diana and her Nymphs.
Next forenoon, we reached the Mbemcuru River
where we found the remainder of our party awaiting
#
n THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR 31
us. A hot bath and a round meal were soon pre-
pared and enjoyed, and feehng, temporarily at least,
none the worse for our experience of the previous
night, we returned to where our prizes lay, photo-
graphed them and chopped out the ivory.
The first bull shot had magnificent tusks, project-
ing about six feet out of his head and weighing
102 and 107 lbs., respectively. Those of the second
and third scaled 2)7 ^^^ 38, and 53 and 51 lbs.,
respectively, while the last animal's beautiful,
straight tusks tipped the beam at 75 and 78 lbs.
The severe exertion of this hunt brought on a
bad attack of malaria which incapacitated me for a
few days, but thanks to quinine, tea, and whisky, I
felt sufficiently well to resume hunting shortly after-
wards.
%
CHAPTER III
TOUCH AND GO
Near the Sultan Leanduka's village on the
Luwegu River, in German East Africa, I had, in
the Autumn of 1908, a most exciting adventure
with an elephant. All day long, we had kept
doggedly on the tracks of a herd of five big bulls, at
one time forcing our way through dense scrub
bristling with thorns, at another warily spooring
among belts of giant reeds which marked the dried-
up courses of tributary streamlets of the Luwegu,
itself, at the time, a mere winding expanse of soft,
dry sand. Towards evening, we came up with our
quarry in an open space, where the sere grass had
been levelled by winds and trampled by game, and
here I managed, without any notable incident, to
account for four of the herd. The fifth, I wounded
in the region of the heart as he was bolting full
speed across a clearing (where the natives had fired
the grass), dotted here and there with a few stunted
trees. Immediately on being hit, he pivoted round,
CH. Ill TOUCH AND GO 35
lowered his enormous head, and screaming with
rage, charged straight at me ! The celerity and
determination with which he came on was not
calculated to inspire equanimity, but it was a
moment when the necessity for keeping cool was
paramount, so, patiently waiting till he was within
twenty paces of me, I gave him the contents of the
second barrel full in the face. Though the bullet
tore through his left eye and emerged on the same
side of the head, it utterly failed, to my amazement,
to stop or turn him, and, next moment, he was upon
me. A vicious blow from his tusk sent me hurtling
against my tracker, Simba, who was a few paces
away from me on my right, and together we came
heavily to earth. Ere I had time to scramble to
my feet, the elephant had turned, and seizing me by
my khaki shirt underneath the right shoulder, flung
me high above him in the air. Though rudely
shaken, I was vividly conscious of all that was
occurring, and, curiously enough, as I spun through
space, the awful conviction flashed through my mind
that I had seen the last of my hunting days. I
landed on the elephant's back, rolled helplessly off
and came with a thud to earth, where I still had
sufficient presence of mind to lie absolutely motion-
less to avoid further attracting his attention. I had
fallen on my face and lay with my lower limbs
beneath his towering, bulky body, between his fore
D
34 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
and hind legs, my left foot actually touching the
toes of his left hind foot. From that unenviable
position, still in full possession of every faculty and
keenly alive to every move of the game, I saw
him tremulously moving his trunk about, to right, to
left, above and below, probably considering what his
next move was to be. At this moment, the
question flashed through my mind, how will he
finish me off? And with irrelevant curiosity, I
glanced up to see where my bullet had struck him.
I experienced no fear of death, I was not conscious
of any panorama of my life passing swiftly over my
mind ; all excitement had vanished and my heart
was not even beating wildly. I was simply solilo-
quizing : 'In which way is he going to kill me ?
Will he kneel on and trample me horribly ? Will
he drive his tusk right through my body, or will he,
by some heaven-sent chance, leave me alone ?
Whichever way it is, may it be swiftly over and
done with ! ' While these thoughts were passing
with peculiar calmness and lucidity through my
brain, the elephant deliberately turned round,
caught me by the shoulder and flung me violently
into the branches of a small tree some fourteen
yards away, the impact at once knocking me sense-
less. On regaining consciousness, a few minutes
later, I found myself lying on the ground with
Simba kneeling over me vigorously shaking me
Ill TOUCH AND GO 35
with one hand, while he pointed excitedly with the
other to where the elephant stood sniffing the air,
some thirty yards away. I made a desperate effort
to rise to my feet, but found, to my intense dismay,
that owing to the injuries I had received, this was
an impossibility. My back, head, and legs felt as if
they had been thoroughly beaten, my left hip was
terribly bruised, while my left eye was almost
closed up, but, judge of my annoyance, when I
discovered that my left thumb was dislocated and
my left arm and shoulder so badly strained that I
was quite unable to hold my rifle in position. In
the 77iUie, I had dropped my heavy '577 elephant
rifle, so bidding Simba sit down beside me, I
managed, with some difficulty, to place my '318
across his shoulder and fire for the elephant's ear ;
but owing to the shaking I had received, I couldn't,
try as I would, keep my rifle steady, and the bullet,
instead of hitting him in the desired spot and
penetrating his brain, went wide and struck him
high up on the right side of the head. At once, he
slewed round and advanced towards us as if utterly
surprised to find that he had failed to annihilate his
enemy. So, telling Simba to hold my rifle barrel
firmly, I drove another cartridge into the breech
and waited patiently for my bulky opponent.
When he was within fourteen or fifteen yards of
us, I took aim and making a supreme effort to
D 2
36 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
control my breath and steady my hand, pressed
the trigger. The bullet struck him right between
the eyes, bringing him to his knees as if poleaxed,
and as he struggled gamely to rise, I finished
him with another shot.
On my men arriving and helping me up to
THE DEAD ELEPHANT.
the elephant to make my usual examination of
the prize, I was astonished to find that his tail
was absolutely devoid of hair. Sometimes, in old
elephants, the tails are found greatly denuded of
hair, only the stumps of the long, whalebone-like
bristles remaining as evidence of youthful, hir-
sute glory, but, in the specimen of which I
speak, no hairs have ever developed and the
Ill TOUCH AND GO 37
appendage is merely covered with a short, barely
perceptible down. I still retain this freak tail
as a memento, and shall be delighted to show
it to anyone who may be interested.
Early next morning, with the assistance of my
boy, Tumbo, I photographed the elephants, and,
setting out in a maschilla, a species of portable
hammock, rigged up out of my blankets, I
arrived at my camp just as night was falling.
Never was return more welcome, and the picture
that met my gaze as we approached is still vivid
in my mind's eye. The greenish canvas of my
tent gave a curious illusion of faint luminescence
in the dusk ; above it, in the sky, hung the golden
sickle of a young moon, and on the horizon, as
if tangled in the branches of a tree, there flashed
that glorious jewel of the tropical heavens —
the Southern Cross. Here and there, about the
dark shadows of the huts, burned fires, round
which sat or reclined the shapes of men, women,
and children, some in silhouette, some lit up by the
ruddy flames. The low hum of their conversa-
tion, every now and then broken by a hearty
laugh or a snatch of crooning song, came to our
ears, and, all of a sudden, on becoming aware
of our return, a wild commotion, and loud, wel-
coming shouts. Next moment, a crowd of eager
chatterers had surrounded us, and were excitedly
38 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. hi
demanding news of the kill, and why it was that
bwana was being borne home in a maschilla.
Liberal applications of an emulsion of whisky
and olive oil, of fomentations, supplemented by a
course of massage at the hands of my native
servants, who are quite experts, soon restored me
to my normal condition. Yet, strangely enough,
in spite of all these measures and my excellent
health, I was obliged to die. Some of the natives
of the village adjoining my camp, who had
accompanied me on the hunt, on seeing me flung
into the tree by the elephant, felt certain that I
had been killed, and rushing away from the scene
of the fray as fast as their legs could carry them,
spread the news as only natives can spread news,
especially when it concerns the death of a white
man. Gradually, however, the sad story of my
demise was discountenanced, and I was slowly
restored to life, but to compensate for the loss
of dramatic value entailed by this resuscitation,
two of my native boys were killed in my
stead.
About a month later, a somewhat garbled account
of the adventure appeared in the Deutsch-
Ostafrikanische-Gazette, a translation of which
report I append as an example of how news gets
distorted by the fertile imagination of the gossip-
loving native.
40 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. hi
*■' 2i'^d October, 1908, Lindi. From our correspond-
ent. Sutherland, the elephant hunter, has been
seriously injured between Songea and Sassawara.
He had the good fortune to bag three elephants.
A fourth animal, which he had wounded, pursued
him furiously, seized him with his trunk and flung
him up on his back. Sutherland, seizing a
favoqrable opportunity, leaped off again and put
another bullet into the enraged beast. Thereupon,
the elephant, it seems, crushed some of the hunter's
ribs with his trunk and killed two of his native
boys. The disaster occurred towards the end
of August."
I have often indulged in a hearty laugh over
the ludicrous picture called up by the idea of my
waiting for a favourable opportunity before leaping
off an enraged elephant's back.
CHAPTER IV
KOM-KOM
Some years ago, I was hunting in that wild
tract of country that Hes between the Lehom-
bero and Luwegu Rivers in German East Africa,
and had pitched my camp quite close to Jumbe
Iperie's village, a mere cluster of huts buried
in the heart of the pori. One day, when I
was taking a rest after a particularly arduous
period of work, some natives of the village
appeared before my tent and piteously begged
me to come and kill an elephant that had for
years been raiding their shambas or gardens.
Nor was theft the only crime they imputed
to him ; he had, they said, killed several of the
villagers, including three native hunters, and all
attempts to destroy him or drive him away
from the district had proved utterly fruitless.
Indeed, so well known was he to them that
they had given him the name of Kom-Kom,
or, the Mighty One. With that love of mystery
42 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. iv
to which the native mind is prone, they had
come to the conclusion that Kom-Kom was
the reincarnation of one of their famous chiefs,
who in the days gone by had been murdered
by the Wangoni. Now his restless spirit had
taken up its abode in the form of an elephant
and was avenging the wrongs he had suffered
during his existence in human shape. Further-
more, they told me that during the day Kom
Kom roamed where man seldom trespassed,
deep in the heart of the Lerongie jungle and,
at night, came forth to plunder their crops and
instil terror into their hearts. Even the women
were afraid to go and draw water from the
stream that flowed near their huts, and so
greatly had the reputation of Kom-Kom grown
that the inhabitants of Nagoromenia's Kraal,
which lay some thirty miles from Iperie's village,
lived in perpetual dread of him.
Apart from the question of doing a public
service, I was in quest of ivory, and it was
immaterial to me whether that ivory was Kom-
Kom's or not, so, informing the native messengers
that I should make an effort to rid them of the
inconsiderate spirit of their former chief, I dismissed
them.
Next day, as soon as it was light, we set out for
Nagoromenia's Kraal. As we tramped through
44 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
the bush, our clothes, soaked with the heavy dew
that distils on the long grass and vegetation during
the cool of an African night, clung uncomfortably
to our limbs, and it was with a feeling akin to joy
that we greeted the sunrise with its cheering
warmth.
In the forenoon, we came across the spoor of
a herd of elephants and after an exciting chase
managed to bag two of them, but the natives of
Iperie's village, some of whom had accompanied
me, were emphatic in their declaration that neither
of these animals was Kom-Kom. Lunch came
as a welcome relief to the toil of the chase, and,
having rested awhile, we set out for the
Lerongie jungle to see if we could come in touch
with the Mighty One. Passing through Nagoro-
menia's Kraal on our way, we reached Iperie's
village and there learned that Kom-Kom had
visited the natives' matama gardens on the previous
night and had committed havoc among the crops.
The owners of the shambas were in great distress
over the loss, so we decided to pass the night in
their village in the hope that the elusive marauder
would revisit this convenient feeding ground under
cover of darkness and leave us a fresh spoor by
which to track him down on the morrow. The
night, however, passed uneventfully ; not a sound
came from the shambas to indicate the presence
IV KOM-KOM 45
of a feeding elephant, and, as the natives explained,
next day, he had probably dreamt that we were
in search of him and had wisely decided not to
make our acquaintance.
Next morning, at break of day, we started out
in quest of Kom-Kom and towards eight o'clock
had the good fortune to find his tracks of the
previous night. A thrill of excitement ran through
our party at the discovery, and it was with an
additional stock of eagerness and energy that
we began to follow his spoor. By noon, we
had considerably lessened the distance which
separated us from our quarry ; his droppings were
comparatively fresh and the condition of the leaves
of a nquangwa tree that he had smashed to browse
upon clearly indicated that he had only preceded
us by a very brief space of time. Consequently,
we continued our pursuit with redoubled caution,
and were making our way in almost breathless
silence when the sudden, sharp snap of a breaking
tree warned us that he could not be more than
fifty yards ahead. Yet the bush formed so dense
a curtain of foliage about us that it was impossible
to catch the slightest glimpse of him, and knowing
the risks incurred under such conditions I bade
my tracker, Simba, who had been carefully spooring
in front of me, fall behind. (This order I always
give when in close proximity to our quarry.)
46 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
Having taken his place, I was warily advancing,
rifle in hand, when, all at once, there came to our
ears the sound of an elephant crashing and
smashing headlong through the bush. There was
no mistaking what had occurred : Kom-Kom,
having got a sniff of our tainted air, had instantly
made off at a tremendous pace. We followed
in hot pursuit and what a dance he led us,
through the long jungle grass under the rays
of a broiling sun ! On all sides the upupu, or
itching buffalo bean, twined among the tall grass
and every accidental contact with the latter sent
the dark green velvety hairs that clothe the
bean-pods in showers upon our bare arms, legs,
necks, and faces. As there is no method of
alleviating the insufferable itching produced by
these hairs, except by rubbing the affected parts
with wood ashes, an impossible procedure at such
a critical juncture, we had simply to endure
the irritation in silence and trudge stubbornly
on, buoyed up with the knowledge that we were
after Kom-Kom, the Mighty One. At length,
having thoroughly tired us, he entered a dense
patch of entangled vegetation and began to
double and redouble on his tracks, using every
wile to throw us off the spoor that frequent
hunting at the hands of native ivory collectors
had taught him. When an elephant begins to
IV KOM-KOM 47
double and redouble on his tracks, he assuredly
means mischief, and feeling that Kom-Kom
would prove no exception to this rule, we moved
forward with the greatest circumspection. Con-
fident that we were close upon him, we stopped
for a few rnoments and listened with strained
ears for any noise that might indicate his
whereabouts, but no sound broke the peaceful
stillness of the jungle, save the gentle rustle of
the breeze among the dense foliage. There
now occurred an incident which would have
proved a ludicrous anti-climax to the tenseness
of the moment, had not the situation been so
fraught with danger as to preclude any element
of humour. Simba, in spite of a supreme effort
to restrain himself, gave vent to a loud sneeze !
At once, there was a shrill angry scream and Kom-
Kom made a wild, impetuous rush at us from
our rear. My trackers sprang nimbly out of
his way, and I had barely time to turn, raise
my rifle, and fire both barrels into his fast,
approaching face !
Fortunately for me, the smashing impact of the
bullets sent him swerving aside, and for a few
moments he came to a standstill, as if dazed, not
more than fifteen yards away. Seeing that I had
no time to reload my rifle, Simba, with the precision
and coolness that are the result of good nerves and
48 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
long training, instantly handed me my 1075 mm.,
but it was well-nigh impossible for me to place a
decisive shot, for, from where we stood, the only
portion of Kom-Kom visible was his uplifted trunk,
ceaselessly moving to and fro above the dense
vegetation, apparently sniffing for our scent.
Luckily, the Mighty One was to windward of us,
and, as if uncertain of our whereabouts, turned and
advanced slowly in our direction. Even now, I was
quite unable to see him clearly, so judging the
probable location of his forehead, I fired once more,
but the bullet, instead of stopping or turning him,
only served to rouse his anger, and, trumpeting
shrilly, he dashed furiously in our direction.
Hastily driving another cartridge out of the
magazine into the breech, I fired full in his face,
but as he came thundering on with lowered head,
the bullet crashed into his skull several inches above
the right eye. An instant afterwards he was upon
us and I was hurled violently to the ground,
slightly to the left, and half buried under a mass of
broken branches and torn vegetation. It was a
miracle that I wasn't trampled ! The impetus of
Kom-Kom's attack carried him about seven yards
beyond where I lay, and at that distance he came
to a standstill and began sniffing the air for a whiff
of my scent, while I, concealed beneath the heap of
debris, could clearly see every movement he made.
IV KOM-KOM 49
At once, I groped about me for my rifle and dis-
covered, to my intense joy, that it lay undamaged
by my side. Eagerly grabbing it, I cautiously
opened the bolt to eject the shell and jerked the
last cartridge into the breech. At this juncture,
Simba and Ntawasie, who had dodged into the bush
seeing the elephant almost upon me, and imagining
that I must be in a sore predicament, pluckily
began yelling in the hope of distracting the animal's
attention. The ruse was successful : like a flash,
Kom-Kom turned and crashed in their direction.
Seizing my opportunity, I quickly raised my rifle
and sent the remaining bullet into the vicinity of his
lungs, and though not fatal, the shot had a salutary
effect, for Kom-Kom immediately gave up the
pursuit of my men and tore madly through the bush
for some seventy yards to the left. My next move
was to extricate myself and regain my feet. Ugh !
how sore I felt ! When I had fallen, a thick branch
had struck me on the right side of my head,
severely cutting me under the eye and scrubbing
the skin off one side of my nose, while my left
elbow, laid bare to the bone, was bleeding profusely
and giving me considerable pain. These little mis-
haps, however, are incidental to the game of hunting
and detract little from its joys, so rejoining my two
men and exchanging my light for my heavy rifle, I
at once decided to resume the pursuit of Kom-
£
50 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
Kom. As the sun was now low in the heavens and
the swiftly closing equatorial night not far distant, I
began to view the situation with some uneasiness,
for if I failed to bag Kom- Kom before dark, he
might clear and his spoor get inextricably mixed up
with those of other elephants. Such a contingency
might end in our losing him altogether and prove a
disheartening conclusion to a most arduous hunt.
The scantiness of the blood-spoor accentuated
my fears on this score, for had the second bullet,
which had entered his skull above the right
eye, merely passed through the upper portion
of his forehead without touching his brain,
days would probably elapse ere he succumbed
to the effects of his wounds.
As we were now to windward of him, a
change of tactics was imperative, so instead of
following his spoor we decided to make a detour.
Here the bush presented a formidable obstacle
to our progress, twigs and grass and creepers
forming such a bewildering network of growth
that we were obliged to crawl on hands and
knees, taking care to sever the interlacing stems
and branches silently with our knives lest we
should give our quarry any warning sound of our
advance. Scratched by thorns and cramped by
this uncomfortable method of progression, we at
length managed to approach within twelve yards
IV KOM-KOM 51
of Kom-Kom. Though still unable to see him, we
could hear the occasional flapping of his enormous
ears, and feeling that any attempt at a closer
approach would apprise him of our presence,
we decided to remain perfectly still for a while
and await developments. A few minutes afterwards,
we heard the snapping of twigs and branches as
he pushed his way for another fifty yards through
the thicket, and hurrying to the spot which he had
just vacated, we began most cautiously to follow
the path which his bulky body had cleared through
the matted jungle. Quietly as we had advanced,
he must have heard some faint rustle of our
movements (unless some treacherous eddy of air
had borne him our scent), for, all at once, he
turned, came back several yards on his tracks,
and stood intensely still. Hoping to get a shot at
him at an angle, we stole some distance towards
the right, moving the branches aside as gently as
possible and taking infinite care not to break any
dry twigs underfoot. At this point, the inter-
vening bush was considerably sparser and enabled
us to obtain a fairly good view of Kom-Kom
who, we found, was standing absolutely motion-
less, with ears outstretched, intently looking back
on the path which he had just made. There
was something magnificent and statuesque about
his whole pose as he waited there ready to give
E 2
52 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
battle should his pursuers come into view. Finding
that I could get an unobstructed view of his
head from where I stood, I raised my rifle, and
carefully judging the angle to his brain, pressed the
trigger. The bullet smashed into his skull close to
his ear-hole and brought him down with a
stupendous crash, his head and tusks being
entangled in the tough ropes of the creepers.
Kom-Kom the Mighty One was no more ! I
raised the cry : Socolai ! Socolai ! (It is finished !
It is finished!) and instantly my trackers repeated
the exultant yell. It rang deep and sonorous
through the silence of the forest and far away
it was faintly echoed by my men and some
villagers who were following us up : Socolai !
Socolai !
Rolled up in our blankets, we passed the night
in the forest not far from where Kom-Kom lay
dead. From my rough couch, I could see our
camp fires throwing mysterious shadows into the
luxuriant tropical foilage ; through the leaves above
my head, shone here and there a bright star. But
the beauties of nature appeal but little to a tired
man and, ere long, in spite of the discomfort of
a cut face and torn elbow, I had slipped into sound
slumber.
Early next morning, villagers of both sexes
and all ages arrived en masse on the scene,
IV KOM-KOM 53
and their joy knew no bounds when their eye-
sight convinced them that Kom-Kom, the source
of so many of their troubles, was actually dead.
To celebrate the occasion, they brought my men
quantities of food, honey, and pombe, or native
beer, and runners were hastily despatched to
the surrounding villages bearing the glad tidings :
'Kom-Kom is dead! Kom-Kom is dead!'
Alas ! a most vexatious fly was to get into the
ointment ! This particular insect appeared during
the morning, in the shape of a sinister-faced old
medicine-man, whose superior mind at once dis-
covered that the opinion of the vulgar herd on the
subject of Kom-Kom's death had been hopelessly at
fault. He announced that he was greatly displeased
that I had killed the Mighty One, and declared
that, instead of being a matter for rejoicing, it was a
serious misfortune, for although Kom-Kom had
killed a few villagers and helped himself to the
produce of their gardens, this was an insignificant
matter in comparison with the infinite good luck
he had showered upon them in the shape of
food and happy children, and success on their
journeys into the forest in quest of beeswax, honey,
and rubber. As for Kom-Kom's peccadilloes, well,
a certain amount of moral latitude must always be
granted to the spirit of a great chieftain ! Finding
that his audience were not going to allow them-
54 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
selves to be scared from the prospect of a royal
feast on elephant meat by any vague mumbo-jumbo
concerning the spirit of a departed chieftain, his
astute mind took a delightfully ingenious turn. He
all at once discovered that he could make a
medicine which would set Kom-Kom's spirit to rest
on the score of a hearty consumption of its erstwhile
earthly home. Some hours afterwards, my boy
Tumbo, whom I had brought home with me on
this occasion, informed me that the old fellow had
begged for a little salt (a scarce commodity in these
regions), wherewith to flavour the concoction which
was to prove a soothing syrup to Kom-Kom's
wounded feelings. Rather curious as to the nature
of this elixir, I strolled over to where he was busily
engaged in some mysterious operation over a fire.
To my surprise, I found that the old humbug,
having made the medicine, was now toasting a
newly-killed puff-adder on a spit. When he had
thoroughly cooked this delicacy, he devoured it and
washed it down with copious draughts of an evil-
looking brew, which, my boy told me, he had pre-
pared by boiling the bark of the mlaeravana tree in
water and seasoning the mixture with an addition of
monkey-nut oil. Next, he anointed himself all over
with Kom-Kom's coagulated blood, and while the
villagers stood gravely around, solemnly invoked
the Mighty One not to be a bad elephant again.
IV
KOM-KOM
55
Either from a profound working acquaintance with
the behaviour of spirits, or by message promptly
received from the other world, he must have
learned that the desired end had been achieved, for,
immediately on the conclusion of this ceremony, he
made a solid meal on Kom-
Kom's toasted heart and
energetically assisted his
three wives to appropriate
as much of the meat as
they possibly could, after
the manner of the most
ordinary of mortals.
For such an exception-
ally large elephant, Kom-
Kom's tusks were com-
paratively small, only scaling
65 and 67 lbs. respectively.
There is no doubt that he
had acquired his cunning
at the expense of native
elephant hunters, for he bore in evidence of the
fact the scars of many old wounds inflicted by
their bullets, seventeen of which missiles the
natives found when cutting up his tough old
carcase. He was also endowed with a charac-
teristic which I have seen in no other elephant
KOM-KOM S TAIL.
56 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. iv
in all my hunting career ; almost all the hairs
of his tail were perfectly white. Occasionally,
elephants' tails have a few white hairs, but even
these cases are extremely rare. I have still in
my possession Kom-Kom's singular extremity,
and shall always keep it as a memento of a
thoroughly enjoyable day's sport.
CHAPTER V
SWASURI AND THE LEOPARD
One afternoon, in Portuguese East Africa, as we
were on our way through the forest to our camp on
the Locheringo River and only about two hours
distant from bur destination, we suddenly heard the
sound of excited native voices, not more than a
hundred yards away. Our curiosity aroused, we at
once turned our steps in the direction of the hubbub,
and came upon a score or so of Mataka's men, all
armed with muzzle-loading rifles, and, as we learned
afterwards, on their way home after raiding a small
village on the Rovuma River. They had with
them four captives — two boys, a woman, and a girl
— whom they were hustling along like cattle, but
with a brutality almost inconceivable to the Euro-
pean mind, and so surprised were they at meeting
a white man unexpectedly in the heart of the
trackless forest, especially in such incriminating
circumstances, that they were completely at a loss
57
58 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
what to do. Immediately on seeing me, the girl,
with a courage born of desperation, tore herself free
of her captors and, flinging herself on her knees at
my feet, tearfully entreated : —
' Bwana, don't let them take me for I am no
slave girl, but a free-born Mahometan. Yesterday
morning, they seized my mother and me from our
village, and are now going to make slaves of us.
I'll be your slave if you wish, but I'd far rather die
than go with these shenzis (heathens).'
' Be quiet,' roared one of the party of raiders, a
big, rough-looking Yao, running up to the terrified
girl and seizing her by the arm. Turning to me he
exclaimed, * Bwana, this is my slave,' and with
these words, attempted to drag the shrieking woman
away. Instantly, I struck him on the jaw with the
butt of my rifle, felling him senseless to the ground,
and covering their leader with my rifle, gave him to
understand that unless he at once dropped his gun
I would send a bullet through his brain. Cowed by
my threat and determined manner, he quietly laid
his weapon on the ground, and turning to my men,
inquired of what tribe I was. Upon my men in-
forming him that I was an Englishman, his whole
demeanour underwent a complete change ; his
insolent bearing vanished, and he came up and
greeted me in a friendly way, saying, ' Yambo,
bwana.'*' (How do you do, master.-*) Telling his
V SWASURI AND THE LEOPARD 59
men that I was an Englishman and not a
Portuguese, he bade them lay down their fire-arms,
advance and salute me. One of the number,
however, probably deeming it wise to retain his
weapon, stood apart, as if unwilling to comply with
his leader's command, whereupon Simba, my
tracker, ran up to him, seized his rifle, and deftly
tripping him, flung him to the ground.
' Now, ' said I to the others, ' we'll have a
shauri (a palaver),' and turning to the girl, who had
by this time risen to her feet, I asked her to tell me
exactly what had happened.
' Yesterday morning, at cock-crow,' she related,
* these men raided our small village, consisting of
only four huts. My father chanced to be away at the
Golambepo Hills on a visit to some of his friends,
and the other men and women of the village had
gone to drink beer at a neighbouring kraal, several
miles away. My mother, these two boys and I were,
therefore, alone when these shenzis arrived, and,
taking advantage of our defenceless state, they seized
us and hurried us away at once. Since yesterday
morning, we have been afoot without resting, and I
fear my mother will die, for she has been very ill,
and to make her hasten along they have beaten her •
cruelly. Though we are all free-born Mahometans,
they intend to make slaves of us, and the man you
have just knocked down says he desires me for his
6o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
wife. My mother and the boys will be sold and I
shall be married to a shenzi. Bwana, we are all
free-born, and I would rather you should shoot me
than let these men take me away.'
I bade the poor girl have no fear on this score
and assured her and her fellow-captives that I would
■see that they got safely back to their homes. Then,
turning to Mataka's men, I informed them of my
decision, and warned them that if ever I caught them
at this nefarious game again I would shoot them
down like dogs. Lest they should think I had
spoken idle words, I decided to give them an
exhibition of the power and effectiveness of a
modern rifle, so, choosing a particular tree as
target, I fired a few rounds at it, the solid
•303 bullets piercing the trunk through and through.
Then, as a demonstration of the gun's rapidity of
fire, I filled the magazine with ten cartridges and
discharged them in quick succession, and from
the subsequent expressions on their shining,
swarthy faces, I could see that the performance
had made a decided impression.
Next morning, the mother of Swasuri (for that
was the girl's name) was considerably worse, and
quite unable to proceed to her home, so I requested
her to stay in my camp until she was well enough
to make the journey. This journey she was
destined never to accomplish, for, in spite of every
SWASURI AND THE LEOPARD
61
effort on my part to save her, she died three days
afterwards. Swasuri was much affected by this sad
occurrence, and on my questioning her as to her
future plans, declared that now she had lost her
mother, she would prefer to stay in my camp
with my men's
wives until her
father returned
from the Golam-
bepo Mountains,
for she feared
that Mataka's
men would pay
her native village
another visit ere
long. Then,
when her father
came back, she
would endeavour
to persuade him
to leave this part
of the country ^^^.^^^^^
and make his
home in German territory, where they would be
safe from the further attentions of these inhuman
raiders. One of the boys, who expressed a desire
to enter my service, I engaged ; the other returned
safely to his village.
62 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
Some three weeks after this occurrence, I was
awakened one morning at sunrise by my servant,
Tweegah, who excitedly told me that he feared
a leopard had made its way into the fowl-house,
for there was a great commotion among the poultry.
Picking up my 1075 ^^' magazine rifle, which
I always kept loaded in readiness with three
cartridges, I dashed out of my tent in my pyjamas
and made for the fowl-house, which was close to
the banda (a thatched erection serving as a place
of shade against the fierce tropical sun). As I
approached the latter, Swasuri and one of my men's
wives, wondering what was the matter, came out of
their hut and followed Tweegah and me with the
inquisitiveness peculiar to every woman. My boy
was indeed right in his conjecture, for, on reaching
the banda, I saw the leopard slinking away, so
taking hasty aim, I fired, striking him in the ribs
and roiling him over. A moment afterwards,
instead of clearing, he rose and faced me, and as
he sprang in my direction, I fired, once more,
the bullet smashing his jaw-bone, passing through
the right side of his mouth, and inflicting a slight
flesh-wound in his shoulder. This stopped him,
but only for an instant, and barely giving me time
to drive my third and last cartridge into the
breech, he came straight at me once more. As
he sprang I fired and simultaneously jumped aside.
V SWASURI AND THE LEOPARD 63
the bullet on this occasion striking him full in
the mouth and tearing its way right through him.
At the same time, Swasuri (the others had fled),
picking up a spear that was standing against one
of the supports of the banda, ran up behind me
and pluckily flung it at the brute, unfortunately
missing him. As I leaped aside, however, the
impetus of the animal's spring carried him past
me, and he came down with all his weight upon
the poor girl, bringing her with a crash to the
ground. Though it was an expiring effort, he
managed to drive his claws into her neck
and inflict an awful gash right down her
breast. Raising my rifle, I brought it down with
all my might upon the animal's skull, braining
him as he lay on top of the girl, the force
of the blow smashing the stock of the rifle to
pieces. Then, seizing the leopard by the leg,
I dragged him off Swasuri's prostrate and inert
form.
The camp was now all excitement ; my men and
their women, having heard the fusillade, came
hurrying to the scene of operations. Without
delay I turned my attention to Swasuri, who, I
feared, had been killed, but a few moments after-
wards, to my great relief, she regained conscious-
ness and opened her eyes. I promptly dressed
and disinfected her wounds, and on the com-
64 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. v
pletion of the task, handed her over to the kindly
charge of one of my men's wives. Under the
latter's careful nursing Swasuri was soon con-
valescent, and, ere a month had passed, had com-
pletely recovered from her unpleasant little
adventure.
CHAPTER VI
MAKANVANGA THE PHILOSOPHER
In 1903, whilst hunting between the Locheringo
and Msingie Rivers, in Portuguese Nyassaland, as
we had been absent some six weeks from camp — a
much longer period than I had anticipated — food
for my men and the stock of calico and beads
requisite to purchase provisions from the natives ran
out, and, owing to the impracticability of arranging a
rendezvous on account of my moving about from
place to place as the spoor of elephants took me, to
send for supplies to my camp in the Golambepc
Hills, some five days' journey distant, was out of the
question. Elephants, moreover, were plentiful, and
as they would probably have moved away from
the district ere I could return from a personal visit
to camp for provisions, I was at my wits' end to
discover a way out of the difficulty. At this
juncture, my head tracker, Makanyanga, came to
my assistance by experiencing what I can only
aptly term a 'brain wave.' I had just shot a
65 p.
66 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch
young male elephant, and Makanyanga suggested
that a considerable portion of this meat should be
dried, and that he, a couple of native hunters, and
some of my carriers should take the meat to the
villages at Unangu, and there barter it for food.
(In explanation, let me state that most native tribes
do not count meat as a staple food, but simply as a
species of relish to be eaten with flour foods, such
as rice, matama flour, Indian corn flour, etc.)
To this proposal I at once agreed, and tying up
the meat in loads, and balancing the burdens on
their heads, my tracker and men filed out of camp,
bound for Unangu.
In four days' time, the party returned with several
packages of food, my tracker informing me that he
had bought the supply with the elephant meat he
had taken away ; but no sooner had they started
chatting with my other men and relating their
experiences, than the whole company seemed to be
convulsed with laughter. Feeling that the joke
must be an unusually good one, I asked Makan-
yanga what was the cause of the excessive merri-
ment.
* Master,' he replied in a somewhat uncertain
tone, ' hunger is a great thing, and to assuage the
pangs of hunger a man must do a lot. God made
men and the last men made were the black men.
Besides, all men are fools, only some are greater
VI MAKANYANGA THE PHILOSOPHER 67
fools than others, while Mahometans are the
greatest fools of all. So the first big village we
came to, I thought I'd take advantage of the
Mahometan's usual stupidity. I told the villagers
that your tracker, Kapopo, and I were Mahometans,
but that the remainder of the party were not ; also,
that we had killed three buffaloes and cut their
throats according to Moslem rites and were desirous
of purchasing food with the flesh. So the idiots
said "good," and brought us lots of food in
exchange for the so-called buffalo meat, and we,
as you see, have brought it here. I will take good
care not to visit their village again, for if they ever
find out the trick I have played on them, they will
most assuredly poison or murder me at the first
opportunity."
Upon my remonstrating with him on his duplicity
and lecturing him upon the wrong he had inflicted
on those unsuspecting Mahometans, he argued :
' Well, master, had I deceived shenzis (that is,
heathens), like ourselves, I should certainly feel that
I had done wrong, but with Mahometans, no : for
they say that we who are not Mahometans are only
heathens, and that when we die we all go to Ahellas
(Hades), and that they, who are Mahometans, are
sure to go to Binguni (Paradise). Now this no
man knows, for no human being, to our knowledge,
has ever returned from the grave to tell us what to
f 2
68 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. vi
expect, and, in any case, we do not believe in the
Mahometan creed. So now that they have eaten
elephant meat, which, according to their creed, is
unclean, if we must go to hell, they must go also.
On the other hand, if they go to heaven, we shall
go also, for since they have eaten unclean meat, as
we do, we both stand on the same footing.'
This was no place for nice argument, even had I
been in a position to hold forth on so abstruse a
subject. Nor could I let Makanyanga see that I
was at all amused, so making some hasty excuse, I
quickly retired to the privacy of the bush and gave
vent to the laugh which, in order to preserve my
dignity, I had been painfully repressing for the last
ten minutes.
CHAPTER VII
MAN-EATING LIONS
People living in the perfect safety of their homes
in a civih'zed country have no conception of the
insecurity that is felt by natives in their kraals in the
interior of Africa. The cause of this feeling of in-
security is chiefly the man-eating lion, and no other
animal of the forest inspires such terror into the black
man's heart. Naturally, there is a reason for this.
In those villages, far in the heart of the pori, where
the white man is never seen, not hundreds but thou-
sands of natives are annually killed by these
monsters.
In nearly all cases, the man-eater is an animal well
on in years. He has lost his youthful strength and
agility and the capture of wild game for food has
become' for him a difficult task. He, therefore,
adds man to his diet, because the latter is easier to
procure ; and he appears to be well aware that the
natives fear him and are comparatively helpless
69
70 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
against his attack, for he will, if pressed by hunger,
force his way into the native huts at night.
All over East and Central Africa, the idea is firmly
imbedded in the native mind that man-eating lions
are simply reincarnations of chiefs and medicine men,
etc., who prowl about taking vengeance on those
who wronged them during their lives in human
shape.
Innumerable cases of man-eating lions have come
to my personal notice, and perhaps an account of a
few of them may prove of interest.
Some years ago, I was hunting in the neighbour-
hood of the Luhanyando stream, a tributary of the
Luwegii, where the country, being mountainous and
full of dense bush and grassy ravines, affords excel-
lent cover for lions, who, at the time, were con-
stantly killing natives in these parts.
The details of a particularly sad occurrence that
happened in a village in this district are still vividly
fresh in my mind, and will perhaps give the reader
some idea of the determination, ferocity and daring
of the King of Beasts when he has acquired a taste
for human flesh.
On the day previous to our arrival, one of the
villagers had buried her husband, and she and her
daughter, having passed the night in her mother-in-
law's hut, rose at early dawn, as natives usually do,
to return to their own dwelling, which was not
VII MAN-EATING LIONS 71
more than a couple of hundred yards distant. The
homeward path lay through dense grass, and as they
sauntered back the girl, who walked a little in
advance of her mother, all of a sudden heard a
terrified shriek and a fierce growl, and turning round,
saw a lion seize her mother by the thigh, fling her to
the ground and bite her through the neck. Yelling,
* Simba mama wae ! ' (Lion, my mother!) she
immediately rushed to her hut, only about a score
of yards away, and the villagers living close by, hear-
ing her piteous cries, snatched up their spears and
quickly appeared on the scene. By this time, the
lion had dragged the unfortunate woman into the
long grass and could be heard devouring the body
some twenty or thirty yards from the path, but to
penetrate such a bush after a man-eating lion was
an undertaking upon which they would not venture.
Knowing that I was encamped near the village,
they decided to appeal to me for assistance and
without further delay came running to my tent
and excitedly explained to me what had actually
occurred. Snatching up my double '577, and
taking particular care to insert cartridges with
capped, expanding bullets, I hastened to the spot
where the native woman had been killed, and
holding my rifie in front of me, ready for instant
action, I stealthily entered the long grass, my
tracker, Simba, armed with a spear, following me as
72 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
if he were my shadow. After making our way for
about forty yards through the thicket, we were
brought to a standstill by an ominous growl, and,
shortly afterwards, heard the long jungle grass
rustling as the lion slunk away on our approach.
Cautiously following up the spoor, we came to the
spot where he had stopped to devour his victim, the
grass in the immediate neighbourhood being all
trampled down and covered with blood, though,
determined not to be cheated of his horrible meal,
the brute had dragged the body away with him.
By this time, not a sound was to be heard, and,
knowing that the animal could not be far off, I
advanced with utmost care, ready, should I get a
chance, instantly to place a bullet in him. A little
further on, we came across the gruesome sight of
the woman's half-eaten body and could see that
death must have been almost instantaneous, for
the animal had bitten her right through the back of
the neck. Leaving the remains where they were,
we continued our pursuit, moving a few yards at a
time, and expecting at any moment to come upon
the beast. Suddenly, our progress was arrested by
a fierce growl a few yards ahead of us, and, next
instant, I caught a fleeting glimpse of the animal
slinking away, but it was much too brief to risk a
shot. Before advancing further, I told Simba to
climb a tree some yards to our right and spy out the
MAN-EATING LIONS 73
nature of the country, and, returning a few seconds
later, he informed me that about thirty yards ahead
of us there was a clearing, where the natives had
been preparing the ground for a garden, beyond
which space lay an extensive patch of bush. Feeling
certain that the lion had left the long grass and
made for the bush, we were hastening along, when
Simba suddenly whispered : ' Bwana, I heard the
grass rustling ahead and imagine that he has just
left this cover and is making for the bush on the
other side of the clearing. If we hurry, you may be
able to get a shot at him before he has crossed the
open space,' Making speedy progress, we emerged
from the long grass, just in time to see the brute
on the point of entering the thicket on the other
side of the open space, so taking hasty aim, I fired,
the bullet striking him and rolling him over. In an
instant, he was up again, and was about to disappear
when I fired my second barrel, unfortunately missing
him. Crossing the clearing, we approached to within
a score of yards of the spot at which he had vanished
into the jungle, there to be met with a growling
challenge, and imagining that he was severely
wounded, and would before long succumb to the
effect of the bullet he had received, I thought it
advisable that we should retrace our steps for about
thirty yards and await developments. After the
lapse of about an hour, I decided to explore the
74 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
bush, fully expecting to find the brute dead, so,
listening for some moments and hearing no sounds,
we cautiously entered the dense growth and began
once more to follow up his spoor, whicli revealed
that he had lost a considerable quantity of blood and
appeared to be trailing one of his hind legs.
We had not made more than thirty yards of wary
progress, when Simba, who was following closely
behind me, touched me on the shoulder and pointed
to a spot to my left front. Straining my eyes for
a few seconds, I could just discern the lion's tawny
form, crouching absolutely motionless about twelve
yards away, his head between his paws, his eyes
gleaming in the shade and gazing steadily in our
direction. I raised my rifle quickly to my shoulder,
but without giving me time to aim the brute charged
me with a vicious snarl ! I promptly fired, the
bullet striking him on the right side of the head
and smashing his shoulder. Unfortunately, with
the exception of the first two cartridges that I had
used, I had only brought solid bullets with me, and
though my third shot knocked him down, he was
up again in an instant and came on as quickly as
ever. When within five yards of me, I gave him
the contents of the second barrel, the bullet smash-
ing through his jaw and missing his heart by a
fraction. The impact brought him down and Simba,
instantly raising his spear, drove it with all his
VII MAN-EATING LIONS 75
might into the brute's shoulder, while another bullet
from my rifle finished him.
On examining the carcase, we found that he was
an old and mangy lion, and, as I have mentioned
before, it is usually at this period of his existence
that the King of Beasts takes to man-eating.
The villagers were overjoyed at the news of the
lion's death, and to commemorate the occasion,
indulged in a prodigious beer-drink, and fashioned
amulets from the animal's bones.
II
The tragic incidents which follow happened in
1902, on the eastern shores of Lake Nyassa, where
some natives, having left their old homes with the
intention of settling down anew, had erected tempo-
rary grass huts and were tilling their shambas for
the coming rains. Arriving on the day following
the unhappy affair, I gathered an account of it
from some askaris or native police, who had par-
ticipated in the occurrence.
On the night in question, five of these askaris
were sleeping in one hut when, about three o'clock
in the morning, one of them was awakened by a
low growl and the noise of a sudden crash, which he
felt betokened the presence of a man-eating lion.
He immediately roused his comrades, who, picking
76 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
up their rifles, went outside the hut and listened
intently for any noise that might confirm their
comrade's surmise. A low moan broke the stillness
of the night, and discovering that the sound issued
from a hut some fifty yards away, in which a woman
and her child were sleeping, they crept closer and
distinctly heard the sound of bones being crunched
inside. Convinced that a lion had broken into the
hut and was making a meal of the woman, whom he
had killed, they promptly emptied their rifles into
the dwelling, trusting that a lucky bullet might find
its billet in the animal. For a space, they waited to
see if the man-eater would come forth, but as he
made no appearance and silence reigned in the hut,
they came to the conclusion that he had either been
killed or was crouching expectant, ready to spring
on the first man who dared venture too close.
Deciding to take no risks, they fashioned torches of
dry grass and, setting them alight, flung them from
a distance on to the roof of the hut, the dry in-
flammable thatch of which was soon ablaze. Ere
the conflagration had died down, the dawn had
broken in the east and with the light of day they
learned the truth. Going over to the still glowing
embers — all that was left of the hut — they dis-
covered the charred remains of a lion, a woman,
and a child. Only one bullet had struck the lion,
but that one had gone right through his heart
VII MAN-EATING LIONS 77
probably killing him instantly, while the woman's
body had received three bullets, though she had
probably died long before being hit by them, for
her right shoulder and breast had been terribly
bitten and chewed. The child's head had been
crushed in, evidently by one blow of the beast's
paw.
III.
While hunting in the Sultan Leanduka's
country, some years ago, I noticed that the natives
always went about together in twos and threes fully
armed, and on my asking the reason of this curious
behaviour, Leanduka told me that his people were
living in terror of man-eating lions, one of which
monsters had accounted for no less than fifteen
individuals during the rainy season. The beast, he
said, never visited the same village on successive
nights, but came one night here, next night there,
another night several miles away.
One day, as 1 was returning after an elephant
hunt to my camp near this village, I was met,
some miles from home, by a native who, in great
distress, informed me that on the afternoon of the
previous day a lion had killed his brother and his
brother's two wives, while they were on their way
from one village to another. On returning to camp, I
immediately set forth on the tracks of the beasts, but
78 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
though I followed the spoor for two days, I failed,
owing to the grassy nature of the country, to come
up with them at all, the cunning brutes seeming to
know that they were being hunted and making off
at once on our approach.
In July, 1905, I had occasion to send a couple of
my men from my camp on the banks of the Rovuma
River to Songea, about eight days' journey distant,
and some thirty miles on their way, they arrived
and decided to put up for the night at Gwia's village,
where, so the inhabitants informed them, lions had
recently accounted for nine lives. They slept by
themselves in a hut, in the centre of which they had
kindled a large fire, Majemba lying on one side of
the fire and Hyiah on the opposite side, nearest the
door ; and paying heed to the warning they had
received on the score of man-eaters, they took
particular care before retiring, to secure the door
as strongly as possible. About three o'clock in the
morning, the door was violently burst in, and before
my men exactly knew what had happened, a lion
seized Hyiah by the thigh and proceeded to drag
him out of the hut. Immediately, Majemba, who
had been awakened by the commotion, seized his
rifle and fired at the brute, luckily putting a bullet
in the region of his heart, whereupon the animal
instantly dropped Hyiah and cleared into the
surrounding bush. At break of day, the villagers
VII MAN-EATING LIONS 79
discovered the animal's dead body, some seventy
yards from the hut, and it proved to be that of a
mangy old lioness.
After cleansing Hylah's thigh with hot water, the
natives fashioned a maschilla and carried him into
my camp, where I immediately bathed and syringed
the poor fellow's wounds with disinfectants to prevent
blood-poisoning setting in. These precautions
proved effectual, and within six weeks Hyiah was
able to get about again.
Two years after this occurrence, I chanced to
meet the headman of the village where the events
had taken place, and he informed me that his
kraal had not been disturbed by lions during
the interval ; a fact which seems to prove that
the lioness shot by Majemba had accounted
for the three men and six women that had been
carried off previous to the arrival of my men.
When at the Bangalla River, some years ago.
after elephants as usual, I heard that lions had
killed and devoured a considerable number of
natives In the district, and on making particular
Inquiries of the older men in the neighbourhood,
learned from them that within five years lions
had accounted for more than thirty people,
actually breaking into the huts to seize their
victims.
About twelve years ago, while I was on the
8o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
Upper Shire River, in British Central Africa,
anoLher instance of a man-eating lion came to my
notice I was sitting in my tent, when one of my
men, whom I had paid off two days before, came
running up in a state of great excitement, shouting
' Incango a mio, incango a mio ! ' (Lion, my
mother, Hon, my mother !), On my counselling
him to be calm and tell me what was the
matter, he informed me that a number of lions,
having killed his mother, wife, and two of his
children, had taken possession of his home, and
though I subsequently found this to be an
exaggerated account of the disaster, the matter
turned out to be serious enough. Picking up
my rifle, I at once set out for his hut, which
was about a mile distant, and on arriving there
found several natives in a state of great perturba-
tion, gathered about the door of the dwelling.
From them I learned that my man's wife, carrying
her youngest child on her back, as is the custom
with native women even when workingf, had been
grinding flour for the evening meal just outside her
hut, while her mother and other child were restino-
inside, when, all of a sudden, without a warning
sound, a lion appeared on the scene and snatched
the babe from her mother's back. Dropping the
child almost immediately, the brute sprang on the
mother, bit her through the neck, and having dragged
VII MAN-EATING LIONS 8i
her into the shamba where the matama corn lay cut.
began to devour the body. Shortly afterwards,
another lion appeared on the scene and joined in
the ghastly meal, the whole tragedy being enacted
before the eyes of those in the hut, who were too
terrified to run or cry for help to the woman's
husband who was fishing from the river-bank, not
more than a couple of hundred yards away.
When the husband returned to his hut, an awful
sight met his eyes ; his youngest child, bitten through
the skull, lay dead at the door, while in the distance
two lions were growling over and gorging themselves
on his wife's body. Remembering that I was in the
neighbourhood, the distracted fellow, as I have
narrated, ran with all haste to my camp and begged
me to come to his assistance.
In his absence, some natives, who had heard his
terrified yells, at once made their way to his hut and
the lions, on seeing them, left their victim's body
and vanished into the bush. On reaching the spot,
I at once went into the shamba and discovered the
horribly mangled remains of the unfortunate woman
lying among the matama corn, but as nothing more
could be done as far as she was concerned, accom-
panied by two of my men, I immediately set out in
pursuit of the lions. Though we followed their spoor
till sunset, never a glimpse of them did we get, so,
returning to the village, I made the natives leave
G
82 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. vii
the woman's body where we had found it, hoping
that under cover of night the brutes would hie them
back to finish their meal and give us a chance of
avenging the poor creature's death. Making as
comfortable a perch as possible in the branches of a
convenient tree, rifle in hand, I kept a weary vigil
till dawn broke, but, throughout the long tropical
night, no lion's shape darkened the expanse of the
brightly moonlit shamba.
Strange to relate, the native who had thus lost
wife and child in one afternoon was, a few days
after his bereavement, himself seized and devoured
by a crocodile.
CHAPTER VIII
VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A CANTANKEROUS BUP'FALO
An elephant seldom makes an unprovoked attack
on a human being, but I should like to give two out
of several instances of such attacks that have
occurred to my own knowledge.
Once, when we were in the neighbourhood of the
Lukumbuli stream, one of my men, Njerembo by
name, fell in love with a handsome, flashing-eyed
beauty, called Asalie, and his affection being recipro-
cated, preparations were set on foot for their
wedding, but, alas, fate had decreed that no such
happy event was to take place ! A few days before
the wedding, the girl and her parents made a
journey to a neighbouring village to buy some fowls
for the wedding feast, and one can imagine Asalie
setting out on this auspicious occasion with all the
suppressed excitement that a maid must feel at the
approach of such a momentous event in her life.
Probably, to this child of nature, with emotions un-
spoilt by any of the trammelling influences of
83 Q 2
84 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
civilization, the world presented itself in the rosiest
of hues ; her dream of love was marred by no
obtrusive thoughts on the material side of
marriage ; romance was all in all, as it always is to
those whose hearts are young. From my know-
ledge of the native mind, I
can only conjecture this —
perhaps my own tempera-
ment is partially responsible
for the surmise. However
that may be, on the journey
home, Asalie sauntered
along, some distance behind
her parents, carrying on her
head a little native basket,
called a majamanda, con-
taining some of the good
things destined for the
marriage festivities. All at
once, her parents heard a
terrified scream, and looking
round were horrified to see
an elephant rush out of the bush, catch hold
of the girl, fling her down and trample her out of
recognition. The whole tragedy was enacted in a
few moments — so swiftly at times does Atropos
sever the bright thread of life ! Unfortunately, I
was unable to avenge poor Asalie's death, for I was
' NJEREMBO.'
viii VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A BUFFALO 85
out hunting at the time and only returned to camp
two days after the sad occurrence, when it was too
late to follow up the spoor of the murderer, because
his traces were completely obliterated by the fresh
tracks of other elephants.
The natural light-heartedness of the average
ELEPHANT CALLED 'TOMBACCO.'
African native soon allows him to forget the loss of
those who are dear to him, he forgets as a child
forgets, but Njerembo proved an exception to the
rule. He has been with me ever since the incident
narrated above, and was one of my caravan on my
very last safari, but he has not married, and I have
never known him to have even a sweetheart since
the tragic death of his betrothed Asalie.
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 Chiperaerie
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 ' 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
VIII VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A BUFFALO 87
down from one of the gardens in which he had been
sampling the tobacco leaves he loved so well, and
managed after a lively piece of hunting to kill him
but I was amply repaid for my trouble by his
magnificent tusks, one of which weighed 113 lbs.,
and the other 104.
When travelling along the Mbarangandu River,
on one occasion, I had an exciting experience with
a buffalo. I had stopped to have lunch and await
my carriers, who had been following along with my
baggage, about half a mile behind ; and they had
hardly overtaken us, when we heard a succession of
terrified yells some distance in their rear. My
trackers and men at once began to make all sorts
of conjectures as to what had occurred, some saying
a snake had bitten one of the carriers who had
lagged behind, others attributing the trouble
to an elephant, or a buffalo, or a lion, or a leopard,
but feeling that this was rather an unprofitable
occupation, I ran in the direction whence the shouts
had come, sprinting a distance of about seven
hundred yards through the soft dry sand of the
river bed, carrying with me my heavy double rifle,
weighing thirteen pounds. By this time, all was
silence, and fearing that the affair, whatever it might
be, had had a serious ending, I plunged, almost
dropping with exhaustion, into the long grass in the
hope of clearing up the mystery of that succession of
88 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
terrified yells. Suddenly, I heard groans of pain, and
making my way in the direction of the sound, came
across one of my carriers' servants lying prone in
the grass. A careful examination failed to disclose
any trace of a wound, so I administered a cupful of
brandy as a restorative, and, to my great relief, the
poor fellow had soon sufficiently recovered to explain
succinctly what had occurred. It seems that he had
been loitering along some distance behind the
carriers, when, without any warning, a buffalo,
having evidently scented us and bent on making
himself scarce, had charged madly through the bush,
and seeing a human being, had deliberately turned
and tossed him. Fortunately, the animal's horn had
passed between the man's legs without goring him,
and though badly bruised and shaken, he was not
seriously injured, so leaving him in charge of some
of my men who had followed on my heels, I set out,
accompanied by my trusty tracker, Chingondo, on
the spoor of the buffalo.
For about half-an-hour, we followed the animal's
tracks through the tall reeds and razor-bladed grass
which grew thickly along the river banks, plunging
at times knee deep in patches of slimy marsh infested
with pythons, and all the while keeping a course
roughly parallel with the dry bed of the Mbarangandu.
All at once, we came up with him, and, catching a
brief glimpse of his dull black hide, moving swiftly
VIII VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A BUFFALO 89
throucrh the dry white reeds, I hastily fired and heard
the dull thud of the bullet as it struck him in the
flank. Off he went at full speed, and though we now
had his blood spoor to assist us in tracking, he soon
outstripped us and for a time we lost sight of him
altogether. Our progess now became slow, for,
apart from the difficulty of moving at any pace
through the dense vegetation, it was imperative to
exercise every precaution lest he should decide to
wait in ambush and charge us, as a wounded buffalo
sometimes will. Another fifteen minutes of wary
pursuit brought us to where the belt of tall grass
verged on the dry bed of the river, and we could see
from his spoor that he had crossed this expanse of
burning white sand and plunged into almost impene-
trable bush on the other side. The prospect of
following him into such a country was anything but
pleasant, but as I always feel so averse to leaving a
wounded animal to die a lingering death, I decided
to continue the chase, to the bitter end. Turning
to Chingondo, who, by the way, was every inch a
sportsman, I asked him if he was game enough to face
the very palpable difficulties ahead. ' If you go,
bwana, I will follow you. The country may be
difficult, but in hunting one must not mind these
trifles ! ' he replied, so in we plunged and once
more settled down to the arduous work of tracking.
The spoor now took us into a terrible patch of
90 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
thorny scrub, and as we crawled on hands and
knees along the dark tunnel left by the buffalo's
passage through the elastic vegetation, a tunnel in
which it was difficult, in spite of the brilliant sun-
shine overhead, to see more than a yard or so in
advance, we suffered agonies through our hands,
arms and legs being lacerated by the spiniferous
bush, and irritated by the spicules of the horrible
itching upupu. Merging once more into the long
grass, we came upon him, standing at right angles
to his tracks, and we had crept up to within twenty
yards of him, when he caught sight of us and
charged. I instantly fired, but owing to the dense
grass, accurate shooting was almost impossible, and
although the bullet passed a little to the right of his
heart, he continued his furious career and was
within ten paces of me when I fired again. On this
occasion, my bullet ploughed its way through his
shoulder but failed to stop him, and, next moment,
with a vicious snort, he was upon me. Catching
me a sharp blow on the hip with his horn, he flung
me headlong in the dense grass out of his way, and
the impetus of his charge carrying him past
Chingondo, who had dodged nimbly aside, he burst
once more out of the belt of bush and floundered a
few paces into the bed of the river, where he
collapsed in a heap on the soft sand. Badly
bruised but otherwise unhurt, I picked myself up
VIII VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A BUFFALO
91
and finding Chingondo safe and sound, went over to
where the buffalo lay dead. Placing the animal in
position, I succeeded in getting an excellent photo-
graph of him, the background of the picture giving
an admirable illustration of the nature of the bush
through which we had prosecuted our exciting hunt.
THE BUFFALO THAT TOSSED CARRIER'S BOY.
About a week after the incident related above, I
chanced, one day in camp, to hear a very dismal
howling in one of the native huts, and asking my
boy to find out the cause of the woe, learnt that one
of my carriers had been administering a sound
thrashing to his servant, who happened to be the
very man whom the buffalo of the foregoing story
had tossed. Sending for the carrier, I enquired of
92 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. viii
him why he had punished his boy, to which he
replied that he had given him a good beating for
loitering behind on the day that he had been tossed
by the buffalo, adding in extenuation of his severity:
' You see, bwana, had he been killed, I should have
had no one to carry my things and cook my food ! '
CHAPTER IX
THE STRUGGLE OF THE TITANS
On October nth, 191 1, while in the vicinity of
the Luwegu River, we came upon the tracks of a
herd of eight bull elephants that had been feeding
near our camp during the previous night, and at
once started in pursuit. By ten o'clock, we were
fast approaching our quarry and knew by the
pronounced odour pervading the air that some of
the bulls among the herd were very old. (In ex-
planation, let me state here that each animal of the
chase gives off a distinctive odour by which the
experienced hunter can infallibly tell whether he is
in the vicinity of lion, buffalo, water-buck, eland or
elephant, etc., as the case may be, or whether these
beasts have recently passed.) They were making
slow progress, sauntering to and fro, stopping here
and there to browse, and occasionally smashing a
tree on their way ; so congratulating ourselves that
there was no wind, and praying that it would hold
off, we followed the clear impressions of their
94 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
gigantic feet with the utmost caution through
the forest. All at once, we heard the curious,
rumbling, intestinal noises that betoken the close
proximity of elephants, and seeing a large ant-hill
some hundred yards away, in the direction of the
Luwegu River, my tracker Simba and I stealthily
made our way towards it, and on reaching its
summit and peering over, we caught sight of five of
the herd, grouped beneath a large haekaera tree, all of
them, save one, whose tusks were insignificant,
facing away from us. Not far from this group, stood
two more bulls, one with tusks, which, I roughly
computed, were about thirty pounds in weight, the
other, absolutely devoid of tusks, while, to the left
of the main group, and nearer to us than the others,
the remaining elephant, an enormous brute, showing
a magnificent tusk projecting from the right side of
his head, had taken up his position. This last
tusker was evidently the leader, and as he offered
such a prize, I decided to try to bag him first, hoping,
too, that his fall would throw his companions into
wild confusion and give me a better opportunity of
securing a few of them. But as the angle at which
he stood rendered it impossible for me to place a
vital shot, I decided to wait until he presented a
more favourable view. I was, of course, afraid to
change my own position lest the other elephants
should see me and stampede, and I should, with all
IX THE STRUGGLE OF THE TITANS 95
due deference to the opinions of other writers, Hke
here to discountenance the notion that elephants
suffer from weak eyesight. All my experience has
taught me that, on a par with their hearing and
scent, their vision is extraordinarily keen, and I can
only suppose that the misapprehension has arisen
from the fact that, owing to the position of his eyes,
an elephant cannot see clearly straight in front of
him — an entirely different matter.
Now, towards the river, which was about a
hundred yards away, and directly before us, stretched
a fine open space, covered with trampled and broken
grass, and dotted here and there with a few small
trees, and as I patiently waited for the large bull to
turn, there was enacted in this natural amphitheatre
a scene, the like of which, in all my previous hunting
career, I had never had the good fortune to witness.
All at once, the small elephant, standing beside the
tuskless bull to the right of the main herd, beat the
ground a few times with his trunk, the action looking
as if it were something in the nature of a challenge,
and then, quickly crossing to where the large tusker
stood, deliberately gave him a blow on the hip with
his head and tusks. The assaulted animal, though
at first seemingly averse to a conflict, naturally
resented the treatment, and turning sharply, struck
his pugnacious companion full on the side of the
head. Both now began pushing one another with
96 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. ix
their heads, much as bullocks do when fighting,
their tusks locked, their gigantic bodies swaying and
staggering under the terrific force brought into play,
and this silent struggle continued until the larger of
the Titans, wrenching his head free, raised his trunk
and brought it down with a resounding whack on
his antagonist's neck. To this stinging punishment,
his opponent replied with a smashing blow on the
shoulder with his tusk and, as if desirous of bringing
the contest to a close, the larger elephant withdrew
and stood some distance apart.
Once more, the smaller bull
opened hostilities by charging
straight at his antagonist, butting
him full in the ribs with his
head and tusks, the sound of
the collision distinctly reaching
us where we crouched watching
this unique conflict. As I gazed
spell-bound, the extraordinary
sight, by some strange mental
trick, induced a peculiar sense
of unreality, and it seemed, as if
by some fantastic power, I had
been carried back to the far-
away pleistocene and was looking
on in that morning of the world, at some war of
primeval monsters. The larger bull, staggering
PIECE OF BROKEN-
TUSK.
H
98 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
perceptibly under the furious onslaught, appeared
for some moments as if he were going to fall, but,
recovering his equilibrium, and as if fully intent on
avenging the injury, returned the charge and dealt
his foe a crushing blow on the shoulder, side-
ways, with his tusk. The punishment must have
been severe, for the younger elephant at once
backed out of the fray, but, regaining his courage,
pluckily resumed the contest by rushing forward and
giving the big fellow a tremendous prod in the
shoulder, the force of the thrust snapping off a piece
of his tusk. This broken portion I afterwards found,
and keep as a memento of the only elephant fight I
ever saw.
Seeing that the remaining bulls were growing
uneasy, and fearful lest they should get a whiff of
tainted air, I decided to bring this unique contest to
a close, so raising my rifle and taking careful aim at
the large tusker, who was standing broadside on and
presenting a perfect shot, I fired, dropping him
instantly with a bullet through the brain. I im-
mediately emptied my second barrel into his erstwhile
antagonist, breaking his shoulder and snatching my
light rifle from Simba. ended the animal's career.
The remaining elephants, scared by the fusillade,
had already disappeared, so before following them
up, we examined the slain. On the larger one's
shoulder, we found a huge gash about three inches
IX THE STRUGGLE OF THE TITANS 99
wide made by his opponent's tusk, and from which
he had evidently lost a large quantity of blood, the
surrounding grass being spattered with gore. From
the trampled condition of the ground, it was evident
that there had been some preliminary skirmishing
before we had arrived on the scene. The tusk of
the smaller animal was broken in two places, but the
first piece, forming the tip, we never found. From
the accompanying photograph, depicting the middle
portion of the tusk, the reader can form some idea
of the tremendous force brought into play to produce
such a fracture in so tough a material as ivory.
As there were no females present or in the
vicinity, the tussle between those two bull elephants
cannot be ascribed to jealousy — that prime incen-
tive to most of the fighting done by animals of every
species — and unless they were quarrelling over some
absent love, I must admit that I cannot explain
' what they fought each other for.'
H 2
CHAPTER X
UPS AND DOWNS IN THE MBWEHU BUSH
One Friday in September, 1909, tired and thirsty,
we reached the water-hole at Leoto, about two
o'clock in the afternoon, and decided to camp in the
vicinity, for, from evidence that is as clear as print
to a hunter, I had noticed that two or three big
tuskers came there regularly at night to drink, and
the chance of bagging one of them ere the moon
set, was sufficient inducement for me to stay.
About 9 o'clock, they came stealthily through the
bush with a silence that would amaze anyone not
acquainted with big game; but ere they had reached
the water-hole, some faint scent or sound disclosed
our presence, for they suddenly changed their plans
and made off rapidly into the moonlit jungle.
Next morning, we were up before cock-crow, and
as soon as the light permitted, set out on their
tracks of the previous night. My guides informed
me that these elephants had been hunted for years
by native hunters, and also during the preceding
CH. X UPS AND DOWNS IN THE MBWEHU BUSH loi
rainy season by a couple of Europeans, one of
whom during the same season met an untimely end
at the hands of an elephant. Hence, they were an
extremely wary trio, timid and ever on the alert,
apparently, only feeding at night and early morning,
and during the day keeping incessantly on the move
in the wake of the wind. They gave us ample
proof of their shyness and cunning, for all that day
we pursued them steadily, and when night closed in
with the abruptness characteristic of the tropics,
they were still going strong, leaving us to camp,
worn out with fatigue and unable to quench our
thirst for lack of water. Next morning, we set but
at daybreak, and at 8 o'clock reached Limbo water-
hole where we decided to rest, hoping that the
elephants we had so vainly pursued would come
there to slake their thirst when darkness set in, and
resolved, should they disappoint us in this expecta-
tion, to set out on the morrow in quest of them.
This is, by the way, a heart-breaking country in
which to hunt. Stretches of twenty and thirty
miles intervene between the different water-holes ;
there are neither hills nor depressions to relieve the
eye or vary the monotony of marching — simply a
flat, sullen, expanse of sand, covered with occasional
patches of long grass, interspersed with pitiless,
thorny scrub which cruelly lacerates any exposed
portion of the body or limbs. Tramping through
I02 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
this God-forsaken, desolate region under a blinding,
blistering sun, is, to put it idiomatically, not all
beer and skittles. When parched with thirst at
night, we fling ourselves down to dream of silver
goblets of wine, deliciously cool, only to wake with
parched tongues and realize that we still have some
hours to stagger on ere we reach the longed-for
goal — a filthy, perhaps evil-smelling pool at which
all manner of unclean beasts quench their thirst.
On arrival there, my boy makes me the fail-me-
never drink of tea, a concoction that looks more
like pea-soup than that heavenly beverage ; but
thirst is insistent, and seasoning the liquor with a
good dash of Scotch to remove the twinge, I gulp it
down. Seeking the shade of some friendly bush, and
incidentally having a good look round to see that no
snakes are taking advantage of the same shelter, I
fling my tortured body on the ground. Physically,
I may rest but, mentally, I must be on the qui vive
until darkness sets in, in case elephants should come
to slake their thirst at the same vile water-hole.
There is nothing for it but to live in hope and rouse
my drooping energies with another draught of
muddy tea and whisky, hoping that perhaps, on
the morrow, some tuskers may fall to my rifle, as
recompense for all this hardship.
On Sunday morning, to resume my story, we
came across the fresh foot-prints of the same three
X UPS AND DOWNS IN THE MBWEHU BUSH 103
elephants that had given us such a rough time of it
during the previous two days, and could see by the
broken branches strewn in all directions that they
had been feeding in the neighbourhood during the
night. We tracked them very cautiously till about
1 1 o'clock, when, just as we had come up with them,
they got our wind and decamped, but as the im-
mediate country was fairly open, we raced after them.
My tracker, Chingondo, owing to the sharp running
and the weight of the heavy rifle he was carrying, was
soon completely blown, and, on his informing me of
his condition, I told him to drop behind. (Chingondo
was, moreover, an inveterate chewer of tobacco
mixed with a peculiar lime obtained from shells, and
was, therefore, never thoroughly physically fit.)
Seizing my light rifle from Ntawasie, who had
managed to keep up the brisk pace, I put on an
extra spurt and gradually got to within a hundred
yards of the quarry, but on achieving this, found that
I was much too short of breath to shoot quickly and
surely, especially as the animals were dodging in
and out among the trees. I succeeded, however, in
putting a bullet in the neck of the nearest one, who,
only staggered by the shot, promptly recovered and
rushed off as fast as his legs could carry him. I
followed in hot pursuit, and just as he was entering
a patch of bush gave him another bullet, which,
however, also failed to bring him down, and
104 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
necessitated my tracking him very slowly and
cautiously through the dense cover once more.
Shortly afterwards, we again came out into the
open, and seizing the opportunity afforded by this
favourable circumstance, I dropped the monster (he
was the largest of the three) with a brain -shot right
THE DEAD MONSTER
through the forehead. A most extraordinary inci-
dent now occurred : just as the elephant fell, one of
his companions, who was some distance on the other
side of him, at once doubled back and, approaching
his fallen friend, gave him a couple of tremendous
prods with his tusks. 1 w^as thunderstruck, and can
only explain the brute's action as an attempt to
rouse his comrade, in order that he might escape the
X UPS AND DOWNS IN THE MBWEHU BUSH 105
impending danger. However that may be, he had
made the effort in no half-hearted fashion, for, on
examination, I found that one of his tusks had
punctured a small hole in the neck, and the other
had created a horrible wound in the abdomen,
through which the outer covering of the intestines
THREE ELEI'llA.Nl^ .SHOl.
protruded in a bunch of skin and fat. Failing to
effect his purpose, he was about to bolt, when a
couple of bullets brought him down beside the
prostrate bulk of the companion, for whom he had
deliberately and unselfishly dashed back in the very
face of the enemy.
Deciding to try to bag the third elephant, who,
in the meantime, had bolted towards the Njenjie
io6 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
River, we at once started off in pursuit of him ; but
after two hours' tracking, as our quarry appeared to
be a long" way ahead and still going strong, I decided,
ere proceeding further, to indulge in a brief rest to
recuperate from the fierce exertions of the morning,
and told my two trackers to go and quench their
thirst and fill my water-bottles at the river, quite
forgetting to keep one of my rifles by me while they
were away. The immediate country was fairly open,
save for a space some thirty yards wide on either
side of the river, where grew that long, reedy grass
in which buffaloes and elephants love to roam.
Never dreaming that the elephant was in the
vicinity, I flung myself down beside a large ant-hill
to await my trackers' return, when, all of a sudden, I
was aroused by the snapping of twigs, a short
distance off, and jumping up, saw the animal, quite
unaware of my proximity, slowly approaching the
eminence near which I lay. What a beautiful
shot he presented, and how I cursed my stupidity
for not having kept a rifle beside me ! When only
about ten yards away, evidently having scented our
tracks, he halted and began sniffing the air, and at the
same moment, Ntawasie, returning from the river,
suddenly burst into view from the dense belt of
reeds fringing the bank. At once, the elephant saw
him, and uttering an angry scream made for him at
a terrible pace, while Ntawasie, scared out of his
X UPS AND DOWNS IN THE MBWEHU BUSH 107
wits, dropped the heavy rifle he was carrying and
rushed back full tilt towards the cover from which
he had just emerged. Fortunately, my tracker had
discarded my weapon before entering the reeds, and
running and picking it up, I joined the chase hoping
to get a shot at the beast before he had time to
\/
S^^ji^l
^
1
/
1
THE IHIRD ELEPHANT
overtake my man. Ntawasie, in his race for dear
life, sped swiftly down one path, doubled back on
another and once more emerged into open country,
but the ruse, decidedly clever though it was, failed
to deceive the keen-scented animal, who, quickly
picking up the spoor, also dashed out of the reeds
only a few seconds afterwards. My tracker, seeing
the brute still in pursuit and feeling that his fate was
io8 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. x
sealed, began to cry * Bwana ! bwana ! ' in an agony
of terror, and hearing his screams, I dashed back out
of the reeds and came into view of the elephant,
who promptly gave up the chase of Ntawasie,
lowered his massive head and charged full tilt in my
direction. It was with an intense feeling of relief
that I saw his change of plans, for, having a perfect
view of him, I felt little anxiety as to the result of
the encounter, and as he came charging on, I met
him with a bullet slightly above and right between
the eyes, bringing him to earth with the crash of a
falling tree.
After this little adventure, I took particular care,
when following up elephants, never for an instant
to let my rifle be out of reach of my hand.
Altogether, the bag had been a good one : the
first elephant yielding tusks weighing 152 and
1 37 J lbs., respectively ; the second, 64 and 71 lbs. :
the third, 47 and 52 lbs.
CHAPTER XI
THE WHITE TRAIL
Near ihe Kibali Hill, at the source of the Ban-
galla River, I had, some years ago, a peculiar
experience with an elephant. During the forenoon,
I came up with him as he was placidly making a
meal on the juicy fruits of the mbura tree — a large-
stoned, brownish golden fruit of which elephants are
peculiarly fond — but, a clump of small trees inter-
vening between me and my quarry, shooting was a
matter of extreme difficulty, and the first bullet from
my "577, instead of penetrating his brain, went
slightly high, and with a hoarse scream, the animal
promptly bolted. After about another hour's
tracking under the direct rays of a broiling tropical
sun, we came up with him again, and so little
impression had my firsf^bullet made on him, that
he had once more stopped to feed, and when we
actually caught sight of him, was sucking up water
from his stomach with his trunk and sending it in a
refreshing spray over his back. Trusting to take
him unawares while indulging in this cooling
no ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
shower, we crept closer and closer to him, exercis-
ing every caution in our approach, but some whirl-
ing eddy of air must have betrayed our presence,
for, all of a sudden, he ceased his ablutions and tore
headlong through the bush.
About half-a-mile behind me, my carriers were
following up with light loads, and one of their
number. Baramaesi by name, carrying a sack of rice,
had lagged somewhat behind the others, doubtless
dreaming of pleasanter things than the presence
of a wounded tusker. The elephant, however, had
doubled back in a semicircle, and was about to cut
across his previous tracks, when he caught sight of
the luckless Baramaesi. Without standing on any
ceremony, he charged furiously at my carrier, who,
quite undesirous of a closer acquaintance with the
brute, flung down his sack of rice and scuttled
through the bush for dear life. As I was cautiously
following up the elephant's tracks, the terrified
Baramaesi burst into view, an apparition of flying
legs and wild eyes, and seeing us, came tearing in
our direction. Though it was doubtless an agoniz-
ing situation for the poor fellow, he presented a
most ludicrous spectacle, and even now, when I
remember the incident, I am obliged to laugh. At
the time, however, it was no laughing matter.
' What's the matter ? What's the matter ? ' I
whispered, trying to bring his frightened wits to
XI THE WHITE TRAIL iii
bear on the situation, and, recovering his senses
with some difficulty, he breathlessly told me what
had occurred. It appears that when he had flung
down his sack of rice, the charging elephant,
evidently mistaking it for a human being, had
immediately turned his attention to the load and
vented his pent up anger on the unoffending
object.
I at once made Baramaesi lead me to the spot
where the incident had occurred, and on arrival
there, we discovered the grass all trampled flat
and rice strewn in every direction, but not a
vestige of a trace of the sack. It was clear that
when wreaking vengeance on the load, he had
transfixed it with one of his tusks and had dashed
ofl" without being able to rid himself of the
incumbrance. For half a mile on his tracks, we
discovered a continuous white trail of rice, when
it abruptly ceased, and though we followed his
spoor for miles we never came up with him and
saw no further trace of the empty sack.
Afterwards, when talking over the incidents of
the day, my men indulged in roars of hearty
laughter over the ridiculous spectacle that Baramaesi
had presented when leaping wild-eyed through
the grass, and Baramaesi had received such a
fright on this occasion that he never again joined
one of my safaris. Discussing the curious incident
112 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
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.
H
The Wizard Elephant
Towards the close of 191 1, 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
XI THE WHITE TRAIL 113
the hindmost with a head shot. On approaching,
I discovered him lying on his side groaning, as
a dying elephant does, and to put him out of
pain placed the muzzle of my "318 rifle within
a foot of his head, at the correct angle to
reach his brain, and fired. As soon as the bullet
struck him, his huge body was convulsed with
spasmodic tremors and his tail stiffened — symptoms
invariably evinced by a recumbent elephant when
he has been shot in the brain — and I naturally
inferred that he was dead. Moreover, I have
finished scores of elephants off with this identical
shot.
My tracker, Simba, now mounted the beast's
body to get a better view of the surrounding
bush, while I sat for a five minutes' ' breather '
on the animal's head before starting in pursuit
of the ' remainder of the herd. Refreshed by the
brief rest, we set out once more on the spoor,
but discovering after about half-an-hour's work,
that the cunning beasts, in an endeavour to
get our scent were beginning to follow the wind,
which was variable, I decided to call a halt for
about an hour to see if the currents of air
would either subside or blow steadily in one
direction. Bidding one of my boys make tea, I
sent Simba back to cut the tail off the dead
elephant. In about three-quarters of an hour, he
I
114 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
returned and, with astonishment written all over
his black face, imparted the startling information
that the elephant had vanished ! So dumbfounded
was I at this extraordinary news, that I told my
tracker he must have taken leave of his senses,
and poor Simba, feeling somewhat hurt at my
casting ridicule on his statement, could only
assert more positively than ever that he was
speaking the truth. Knowing that my man was
a most reliable and accurate native, I was at
length obliged to credit his statement, and
picking up my heavy rifle, I hastened in his
company to where the elephant had fallen and
lain. On arriving at the spot, we could see from
the marks on the grround how the animal had
struggled to regain his feet, and how from the
trunks of some of the surroundino- trees he
had scrubbed patches of bark as he had
lurched against them in an effort to steady
himself. On following up his spoor, we also learnt
from the impressions made by his toes in the
ground, and the way in which the grass had
been brushed aside, how his manner of pro-
gression had gradually changed from staggering
to a firm gait, and from a firm gait to a good
steady pace. For six solid hours, we kept
relentlessly on his tracks, but had utterly failed
to come up with him when night put an end
XI THE WHITE TRAIL 115
to the pursuit and. obliged us to pitch camp on
his spoor. Next morning, we discovered, to our
chagrin, that, after meeting with a couple of
other bulls, he had in their company joined a herd
of females, and as there was no blood spoor
and his tracks were identical in size with those
of his male companions, it was impossible to
discriminate between them — factors which led to
our subsequently losing him altogether.
Naturally, such an incident, explicable enough in
the light of reason when all the details are known,
at once shrouds itself in a mist of fantasy to the
native mind, and, even to a European, borrows some
faint shadow of mystery from its setting in lonely
bush in a land where mysteries are many. Such an
effect had it on my tracker, Simba — at other times
an unusually rational native — that on our return to
camp he came up to me and said gravely : —
' Bwana, that was no elephant ; he was majavie
(wizard). In all our experience such a wonderful
thing has never occurred. First of all, you shot him
through the brain ; then, as he was lying groaning,
you again shot him through the brain, and all his
limbs trembled as if he were dying. I stood on his
side and you sat on his head and not a tremor went
through his frame. Then he gets up and goes
away ! No, bwana, he was not an elephant ; he was
certainly majavie 1 '
I 2
CHAPTER XII
THE RAID
At the present day (in the year 191 2), there are,
in Portuguese East Africa, vast tracts of country
where law and order are things unknown — such as,
for instance, the region that extends from the Mavia
country, east of the Lujenda River (a tributary of
the Rovuma), southwards towards British Nyassaland
and westward to the shores of Lake Nyassa. Here,
but in a modified degree, the same social conditions
exist as have existed from time immemorial. One
petty chief is continually at variance with another
petty chief, and, save in those instances where com-
mon cause is made against the hated Portuguese and
their regime, every man's hand is against his brother
man. In this vast region of primeval forest, dotted
with numerous native villages inhabited by a goodly
population, there exist only two or three Portuguese
bomas or forts. There are, 1 admit, several outposts
(each manned by one European and a few askaris
or native soldiers) which masquerade under the name
116
CH. XII
THE RAID
117
of bomas, but the authority they exercise is feeble
and confined to their immediate vicinity, while beyond
their spheres of influence rapine and pillage and
murder are rife.
The hilly plateau that walls in the eastern shore
of Lake Nyassa is in-
habited by the Wyao tribe
under several chiefs, of
whom the most powerful
and notorious are Mataka,
Malinganiro (orKisombi),
and Makanjira. These
people are the descend-
ants of the slave-raiders,
hunters, rubber and wax
collectors of old, from
whom were mostly re-
cruited the dreaded Ruka-
ruka, the force employed
by the Arab traders to
conduct their caravans of
slaves and ivory to the
coast. A certain admix-
ture of Arab blood has
crept into their composi-
tion, rendering them braver and more enterprising
than their lowland neighbours, and they are. to-
day, the prime source of most of the turbulence
A TYPICAL 'wyao' HEADMAN.
ii8 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
that exists. In by-gone days, they used to regard
the thickly-populated and fertile country fringing
the lake shore, and that forming the basin of
the Shire River as their happy hunting grounds ;
for in these districts were to be obtained all
that their hearts coveted — cattle and slaves and
concubines ! Hunting and slaving along the Shire
River, however, ceased to exist on the advent
of British rule, and now the operations of these
lawless chieftains are confined to the territory
running from the eastern shore of Lake Nyassa
westwards to the Lugenda River, and far northwards
to where the Rovuma divides Portuguese from
German East Africa. I know, for an absolute fact,
that Mataka's people still combine with Malinganiro's
and carry out pillaging expeditions against the
natives in Melanji's country, their forays extending
even to Unangu, where the University Mission has
a station in charge of one of its native missionaries.
And that the reader may thoroughly appreciate the
enormity of such a horror, I shall endeavour to
describe a typical raid, which actually came
under my own personal observation and that of my
friend, R. Battley, at Kisumba, some five or six
miles from the Portuguese Collectorate at Matengula
on Lake Nyassa.
It is night, as dark as an African night can be,
and over all the hush of a wonderful peace, broken
XII THE RAID 119
only by the low murmurous lap-lap of the lake,
now sinking to rest after a tumultuous and stormy
day. Inside the village huts, the native families
are contentedly sleeping, one of the members
waking now and then to replenish the family
fire, which is seldom allowed to die out, while all
are blissfully unconscious that danger is at hand,
or that the shadow of death, swift and brutal,
is drawing nearer and nearer — such is, at times,
the sublime cruelty of Fate ! Outside, under cover
of impenetrable night, silent sinister shapes move
stealthily about and finally take up their positions
in ones or twos at the door of every hut — these
are the raiders, prepared and eager for their foul
work. For a space, all is intensely still, and then,
in the vicinity of the headman's house, there
suddenly appears, in vivid contrast with the intense
darkness, a mysterious, glowing red spot, which
just as suddenly vanishes. A raider has carried
a smouldering stick from the last camp fire and
thrust it deep into the dry, inflammable thatch
of the roof. In a few moments, the smouldering
grass is blown into little, licking flames which,
caught by a gusty breeze, leap into long, shooting
tongues of fire, which, hissing and crackling, illu-
minate the surrounding huts and forest in a
ghostly glare. The roar of the conflagration soon
wakens the occupants of the blazing hut, and
120 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
there rings out on the night the startled cry of
' Moto ! Moto ! ' (Fire ! Fire !). Out rush the
unsuspecting inhabitants to assist in extinguishing
the flames, and as they emerge from their doors,
spears and knives flash, rifles crack, and dark
bodies fall heavily into the dust, writhe and
quiver and finally lie still. Realizing in a frenzy
of dread that they are the victims of another
raid, the unhappy villagers raise the shrill and
fear-instilling cry of ' Nkondo ! Nkondo!' (War!
War!). A wild panic now ensues; terror-stricken
natives run hither and thither, shrieking ; those who
have escaped the immediate attentions of the raiders
and have not lost their presence of mind in this dire
extremity, dash swiftly into the pori (forest), and
get away from the scene of butchery under cover
of the friendly darkness. Groans of pain and
piteous cries of entreaty fill the air and mingle
with hoarse shouts and fierce oaths where, here
and there, a villager, brought to bay and determined
to sell life dearly, fights tooth and nail until
overcome by superior numbers. And amidst all
this hubbub can be heard the low, moaning cry
of the native who is mortally hurt and in his
dying moments invokes the aid of the woman
who gave him birth — 'A mio ! A mio ! ' (My
mother I My mother !) — a cry that will haunt those
who have heard it throughout a lifetime.
XII THE RAID
The young women and children, shivering with
fear, and afraid to utter a sound, lest a piteous
cry or an appeal of any kind be answered with
a swift knife-thrust or a brutal smash with a rifle-
butt, stand herded together, surrounded by a ring
of warriors. Those of the old men and women
who have failed to make good their escape are
lying stark and stiff at the doors of their huts !
Time is passing swiftly, and as those who have
fled will carry the news to neighbouring villages
and return as quickly as possible with succour,
it behoves the raiders to make all haste with
their booty back to their fastnesses in the hills.
The captives, guarded strongly on all sides, are
therefore, hustled and hurried along without rest,
day or night, the laggards and weaklings being
mercilessly flogged with whips made of hippo-
potamus hide. A stronger body of raiders follows
up to guard the rear and frustrate any attempt
on the part of pursuing villagers to regain their
wives and children, many of whom will never
again set eyes on home and kith and kin.
All of a sudden, a male captive, whose mental
suffering is keener than any physical pain that
human hands can inflict on him, falls out.
' Meme siwaesi, bwana wae, nemechoka, unguvu
simequeisha ! ' he cries. (I am unfit, my master, I
am done, my strength is utterly finished !)
122 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
' Bas hia, gufa mauna halam, poteraeah bali!'
(All right, it is finished, die you son of a heathen !
Go to perdition !) comes the gruff reply, and a knife
is plunged into his heart without further aJo.
On the other hand, should the recalcitrant be a
handsome girl, she is subjected to the most in-
famous indignities in order to induce her to proceed.
Dawn breaks over a desolate village. Here and
there, in the hot sunshine, lie silent, dusky bodies,
punctured or gashed, while at times, from the bush,
a scared, wild-eyed face will cautiously peer to see if
the War God has passed, so that the remains of
those near and dear may be saved from the ghastly
attentions of the already wheeling vultures.
Away up in the hills, where the captors are
dividing their booty, an altogether different scene is
taking place. Wild excitement reigns, and there is
a deafening hubbub, for the captives, especially the
females, are being carefully inspected and appraised
by their captors with coarse jokes and ribald laughter.
Each warrior claims his individual capture (not
without occasional bickering and quarrelling among
rival claimants), though the chief may appro-
priate any woman that he particularly desires, the
loser having to surrender her with good grace.
Children are torn shrieking from their mothers, and,
without any compunction, at once sold to natives
XII THE RAID 123
hailing from remote villages ; the young women are
either bartered or kept by their captors and added
to their households as concubines. No sentiment
whatever is displayed for the feelings of those poor
souls, who are being shared out as if they were
inanimate objects.
It seems atrocious that such a state of affairs
should be allowed to exist at this very day in a
territory administered by a so-called civilized,
European Government.
CHAPTER XIII
STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI
It was on December 20th, 1909, while the
majority of people at home were distraught over the
vexed subject of Christmas presents and busy prepar-
ing for the hundred and one amenities of the festive
season, that I was on safari towards the coast with
my men and their wives and children. We had had
a couple of uneventful weeks, but the P'ates were
going to recompense us fully for the dull time by
some excellent excitement. We were making for
the upper reaches of the Mbarangandu River, when,
near the Lecundi stream, we came across the fresh
spoor of a herd of elephants. On our approach
they winded us and decamped, but, determined not to
let them escape, I set out on their tracks with four
of my men, leaving the rest of the caravan to camp
and await our return. A couple of hours' tramping
brought us up to them in a country abounding with
long grass, but they scented us once more and, as
they went crashing off through the tall growth, I
CH.xiii STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI 125
put a quickly-aimed bullet through the neck of the
only one I could see, and brought him down
instantly. Without wasting time, we dashed after
his fellows. What a chase they gave us ! We
crossed and recrossed the Mbarangandu River,
wading knee-deep through the water, and tore
THE FIRST ELEPHANT.
through long, dense elephant grass, full of itching
upupu bean, at times running almost doubled in two
along the tunnel formed by the reeds after the
elephant had passed. Under such conditions as the
last mentioned, tracking elephants is nervous work, for
it is quite impossible to see more than a couple of
yards in any direction, and should an animal double
back on his spoor and charge, there is nothing left to
126 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
do but face the monster and hope for the best. All
at once, Simba, who was just in front of me care-
fully following the spoor (while I followed with rifle
almost touching him, ready for instant action in case
of emergency), grew rigid and pointed to the path
a few feet in advance, across which an enormous
black snake, having either seen or heard our
approach, was gliding, hissing angrily as it went.
' Bwana, bahati sana ! ' whispered Simba, mean-
ing, * Master, this presages great good luck ! '
Letting the reptile pass, we grimly pursued
the elephants' spoor, and about five o'clock came
up with our quarry where they had been feeding
in a small patch of bush. Carefully as we had
approached and in spite of Simba's rosy pre-
dictions, they succeeded in getting a sniff of our
tainted air and bolted. Exasperated with these
successive disappointments, I felt that something
in the nature of a desperate attempt was imperative,
and just as they were making off, I dashed full
speed towards a clearing, a few hundred yards
further on to our left, in the hope of outflanking
them, for I fully expected that, in an effort to
reach a large patch of reedy grass beyond, they
would traverse this intervening open space. 1 was
just in time to see two of them on the point of
vanishing into this convenient cover, and swinging
my rifle, took a snap-shot at the hindmost, luckily
XIII
STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI
127
hitting him, as I subsequently discovered, in the
heart. Dashing madly forward, I was astonished
to find the animal only a few yards within this
belt of vegetation, lying on his side, apparently
dead, with his back towards me. As I approached,
somewhat incautiously I admit, he viciously swung
ONE OF THREE El.EI'HANTS SHOT ONE AFTERNOON.
his head and trunk round in an endeavour to
catch me, but, instinctively alert for any such
offensive move, I instantly sprang back out of his
reach and, kneeling down, gave him a finishing
shot in the brain.
While examining our prize (a beauty, with
tusks scaling 83 and 84 lbs.), we suddenly heard,
to our surprise, the noise of an elephant smash-
128 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
ing his way through the bush in our rear, on
the other side of the clearing whence we had
come ; and imagining that this was another
tusker altogether and not the dead one's companion
who had circled round, I snatched my rifle from
my gunbearer and rushed back, followed by my
trackers, Ntawasie and Simba. Though we
gradually approached, up-wind, to where we could
distinctly hear the noise of his movements in the
long grass, he must either have seen or heard us,
for when we were within thirty yards of him, he
suddenly charged us with lowered head, bursting
through the bush like a runaway railway engine, and
carrying a mass of broken branches and sundered
vegetation on his tusks. When he was within
twelve yards of me, I fired a right and left in
quick succession out of my double '577, striking
him in the forehead, but though momentarily
staggered by the impact, he recovered and
came thundering on ! As there was no
time to reload, and it was quite impossible to snatch
my light rifle from my gunbearer behind me or get
out of the elephant's way owing to the dense bush,
I felt that my fate was irrevocably sealed. In this
awful moment, when I had given up all hope, and
expected within a few seconds to be trampled out of
recognition, a bullet screamed past my head and
struck the elephant in the eye, making him swerve
XIII STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI 129
aside. This bullet most indubitably saved my life,
thanks to my trusty tracker, Simba, who, seeing my
predicament, and being only a few yards behind,
had promptly fired my 1075 ^^^^ ^^ the elephant's
face. Springing back at once, I hastily snatched
the rifle from my man's grasp and rained the three
remaining bullets into the retreating elephant, the
denseness of the bush, however, preventing my
placing a vital shot. He at once sought cover in
almost impenetrable elephant grass, fully twelve to
seventeen feet in height, clearing a narrow path from
which it was impossible for a man to diverge a foot,
owing to the intensely compact growth which rose as
impervious as a solid wall on either side. Knowing
that it would be futile to follow him up in this awful
jungle, I ran to the right in the hope of rounding him
ofi", and made for a hill comparatively free from
vegetation about two hundred yards further on, cal-
culating that, if the animal had not already collapsed
among the long grass, I should probably get
home a decisive shot from that eminence. My con-
jecture proved correct, for on reaching the summit
of the hill I could see him dragging himself along
among the giant grass — evidently in extremis, so
handing my heavy rifle to Simba and grasping my
light rifle, I dropped the animal with a bullet through
the heart. This was rather a fortunate shot, for, the
length and denseness of the grass only allowing me
K
I30 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
an occasional glimpse of the top of his back, heart
and brain shots were entirely a matter of guess work.
Upon coming up to where he lay, we found him lying
on his side moaning, so I put him out of pain with a
•577 bullet through the brain.
When my men were chopping out the tusks of the
ELEPHANT WITH SOME OF MY MEN AND THEIR WIVES.
latter elephant, my head tracker, Simba, came up to
me saying that he couldn't understand why the animal
had not succumbed to the first two shots, which, in
his opinion, had penetrated the brain. This con-
jecture we proved to be correct, for Simba, removing
with his knife the skin of the forehead from about
the wounds, and chopping a hole in the skull, inserted
his hand alone the course of the bullets and with-
XIII STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI 131
drew a portion of the brain matter. I, myself, made
a most careful examination and satisfied myself
beyond all doubt that both bullets had smashed
through the cerebrum. Now these solid, nickel-
covered bullets weighed 750 grains each, and were
driven at a muzzle-velocity of considerably over
2000 feet per second, and how an animal could
travel several hundred yards and live for fully half
an hour after receiving such terrible wounds, I
cannot for a moment imagine.
Though it is my experience that in ninety-eight
cases out of a hundred, a bullet through the brain
instantly kills an elephant, on two or three occasions
I have pierced the brains of large elephants with
small bore bullets without dropping the animals,
and have been obliged to finish them off after-
wards.
I may here add that, after every kill, I most
minutely scrutinize the course and effects of the
bullets, and the sum of my experience has taught me
that, even with the best and most powerful of modern
rifles, I can never be absolutely certain of stopping a
charging elephant.
II
About three o'clock next afternoon, some of my
men, who had gone back to chop the tusks out of
the first elephant shot on the previous day, returned
K 2
132 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
with the report that they had encountered the spoor
of two large elephants which had passed close to my
camp about half an hour before. At this good news,
I immediately set forth, taking with me my two
trackers, Simba and Ntawasie, and my boy, Tweegah
— the last carrying a couple of water-bottles.
After about half an hour's spooring, we came up
with our quarry, who were peacefully resting under
the spreading branches of a magnificent nquaju tree,
and every now and then tearing down a small branch
and consuming it. With their extraordinarily keen
scent, they became aware of our presence, and, to
our disappointment, stampeded off wildly in different
directions. We gave chase to the larger one, the
impressions of whose feet in the soft dry sand were
enormous and led us to hope that his tusks would
prove of exceptional size.
He showed himself a most wily old brute, for he
promptly took to the cover of long elephant-grass,
and for more than an hour kept dodging and
following the wind, leading us through a terrible
country, covered with a dense jungle of entangled
vegetation, full of the insufferable upupu bean, and
broken here and there by an occasional open space
with trampled grass, where elephants are wont to
rest. Just as the sun was setting, Ntawasie,
descrying our quarry, suddenly dropped to his knees
and pointed to a large tree, behind which the animal
XIII STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI 133
was standing, most likely on the look out for his
pursuers.
Owing to the shade of the tree and the
surrounding thicket of tall grass, a decisive shot at
the animal was impossible, for I could only discern
the top of one enormous ear, and the tip of his trunk,
the latter uplifted and sniffing for our scent. The
difficulty now was to decide on some satisfactory plan
of action, and I felt it would be inadvisable to tempt
the brute to charge us, for it is no easy matter to
place a bullet in a vital spot when the approaching
animal is almost entirely hidden by dense grass until
he is actually on you. Finding that the wind had
completely dropped, and noticing, about three
hundred yards to our left, a hillock from which it
was probable that I should be able to get a better
view of the elephant, we retraced our steps for some
thirty paces, and cautiously made our way towards
this eminence. From its summit, I could dimly
discern our quarry, so fixing a telescopic sight to my
light '318 rifle, I discovered that he had left the
shade of the tree and was now standing in the long
grass at an angle to the path which he had made.
Above the vegetation, I could clearly see his gigantic
black ears flapping, and being able, thereby, roughly
to calculate the position of his forehead, I decided
to risk a shot, knowing that if I deferred matters
much longer the failing light would make it impossible
134 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
to take definite aim. Adjusting the telescopic sight
to four hundred yards, I fired for what I took to be
the centre of his forehead, but, the bullet striking him
too high, he uttered a shrill scream of rage and
charged in our direction. As he came on, I gave him
a second bullet in the face, which deflected him from
his course and sent him crashing through the reeds
to our left. Fearing that I was now going to lose
him, I got Ntawasie, a fine strong, strapping fellow,
to hoist me on his shoulders, and from that coign
of vantage I quickly emptied the three remaining
cartridges out of my magazine into the departing
elephant, trusting to reach a vital spot or further
disable him, but they failed to bring him down, and,
shortly afterwards, the bush had again swallowed
him up. Suddenly we heard a terrified yell — and a
distinctly human one — coming from the direction
which the animal had taken, and, Simba, turning to
me, said excitedly : — ' Master, the elephant has met
our men who are following us up,' and his conjec-
ture, as we subsequently discovered, proved to be
correct. What had actually happened was as
follows. My cook and my other boy, Usufu,
fearing I might be obliged to pass a night without
food or water, had hastily packed a few necessaries
together and followed us up, and on hearing the
firing had departed from our tracks and veered to
the right, only to meet the elephant rushing madly
XIII STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI 135
in their direction. They promptly made themselves
scarce, and the enraged animal, having no currents
of air to assist him in locating them, kept dashing
hither and thither through the bush in an effort to
hunt them down. Seizing my double '577, I rushed
off, accompanied by my trackers, in the direction of
the yell we had heard, and had not gone far, when I
encountered my cook tearing headlong through the
grass, his eyes starting from his head with sheer
terror. In a few words he explained what had
occurred, saying that poor Usufu had most likely
been killed, for when they had met with the elephant
they had scattered in different directions and the
animal had dashed off in pursuit of Usufu. Making
the cook accompany me to show me where he had
separated from his companion, I hurried along,
fearing that the worst had happened, and, on arriving
at the spot, listened with strained attention for any
sound that might indicate the whereabouts of my
boy or the elephant, but a most ominous silence
reigned over the scene. As the sun had now sunk
behind the hills, and the light was fast failing, we
cautiously followed the elephant's spoor, and had
made very little progress, when, all at once, we heard
a succession of short, shrill screams, and the noise
of the animal dashing back through the bush on his
own tracks, right in our direction. When he was
within a few yards of us, I fired both barrels in his
136 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
face, dropping him on his knees, and ere he had
time to rise and try conclusions with us, I snatched
my second rifle from Simba and gave him the coup
de grace with a bullet in the brain. Leaving the
animal, we instantly set out in search of Usufu,
calling his name loudly as we went and hoping
ELEPHANT WHICH CHARGED MK AND NEARIA' KILLED MV BOV, LSLKL".
against hope that he might still be alive. To our
intense relief, we soon heard cries of * Bwana !
Bwana ! ' which we knew proceeded from Usufu, and
ere many minutes had passed, he turned up, none
the worse for his exciting adventure.
In relating his experiences, he told us that when
the elephant was almost on him, he had flung down
the package of food which he had been carrying for
XIII STIRRING TIMES AT LECUNDI 137
me, uttered a yell and sprung aside into the reeds,
and the animal, getting the odour of a human being
from the load, had promptly left him and turned his
attention to it, evidently taking it for a convenient
victim. Having driven his tusk through it and
trampled it out of all recognition, he had quietly
walked away, satisfied that he had accounted for his
man, who, having cautiously made his way to a tree
near by, had climbed it and been an eye-witness of
the whole performance.
We pitched camp in a clearing a few hundred
yards from the spot where the tusker had wreaked
his vengeance on our food supply, and though
deprived for the night of these necessaries, we were
inclined to be in a cheerful mood, especially after a
meal of toasted elephant's heart, for we were
conscious that we had had a most exhilarating time,
and though of close shaves there had been a few,
everyone was safe and sound. Close shaves,
moreover, are the fare that the elephant hunter
fully expects, and to him, of all people, the old
saying, ' All's well that ends well,' peculiarly
applies. Moreover, the ivory resulting from the
two days' hunt reached the grand total of 623 lbs.,
not at all a bad Christmas-box from the hands of
Fate.
CHAPTER XIV
SNAKES
Though the snake does not account for so great
a number of natives as either the lion or crocodile,
it is a source of danger ever present to the mind of
him who dwells in the pori, so much so that, after
some years of life in the wild, the mind becomes
instinctively alert to the possibility of encountering
these reptiles, and when trudging through the bush
the eye is always on the watch for them. In this
respect, the native's vision is intensely keen, and
the readiness with which he distinguishes the
reptile's body from the very similar appearance of
the dense vegetation around is astonishing. Before
spreading a blanket on which to lie, it is always
customary to scrutinize the ground for snakes,
though I have often seen natives, with their happy-
go-lucky natures, fling themselves down without a
thought.
Once, when travelling between Beira and the
Zambesi River, as my carriers were a long way
'33
CH. XIV SNAKES 139
behind with my camp equipment, my men and I
had settled down under some thick shrubs to pass
the niofht. It was a nig-ht of torrential rain, and
having warmly wrapped myself up in my blankets,
which I had fortunately brought along with me,' I
was about to fall asleep, when I felt a chill, slimy
contact with my skin and knew that a snake had
crawled under my blanket and curled itself up
between my legs. It was a horrible predicament ;
if I moved and alarmed the reptile, I should
probably be bitten and die a painful death within a
few hours, for all my medicines were behind with
my baggage, so calling as quietly as possible to two
of my men and explaining the situation to them, I
asked them to remove, with the greatest care, the
blanket covering me. This they did, disclosing a
large puff-adder that had probably crawled into the
position I have described to seek warmth and
shelter from the downpour of rain. Telling my
men to put their arms gently under my shoulders
and at a given signal to pull me with all their
strength clear of the danger, I counted one, two,
three, when they both heaved with a will, while I
simultaneously flung my legs apart to avoid further
contact with the reptile. I was simply shot clear of
the danger, and the snake, alarmed by the move-
ment, was about to make off when my men des-
patched it with sticks.
I40 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
On another occasion, when we were hunting, one
of my trackers came across his brother, who was
out in the forest in quest of honey and bees-wax,
and as we were not actually on the spoor of elephants,
they went off together to try to kill some rock
rabbits. They had not gone far, when they started
one of these rodents and my tracker, flinging his
stick, broke the animal's leg. At once, the rabbit
darted into its burrow, under a large boulder,
and my tracker's brother, running up, thrust his
hand into the hole to pull out the wounded
beast. Something promptly seized him by the
finger, and, for a moment, he thought that the rabbit
had bitten him, but on quickly withdrawing his
hand he discovered, to his horror, a snake (called by
the Mwera tribe, namaragwe, and by the Angoni,
nambaco) clinging to his finger. Within half an
hour the poor fellow was dead ! The above-
mentioned snake has a very black skin, and is
found chiefly in trees and among rocks. Many
natives, usually when out in the forest searching for
honey, are killed by it, and Simba, my tracker, tells
me that one of this species accounted for Fundi
Juma, who was one of the most famous native
elephant hunters in German East Africa.
Two years ago, when encamped near Chimbunga's
village, close to the Mbemcuru River, I had missed
several fowls from my fowl-house, and suspecting my
XIV SNAKES 141
natives of having stolen them for food, accused them
of the theft. They stoutly denied the charge, and
when my cook brought me several half-eaten onions
from my store, I came to the conclusion that some
animal or other had been the cunning marauder
in both cases. The tooth-marks on the onions,
however, were strange to me, but the natives were
positive in their assertions that the indentations had
been made by a snake. Curiously enough, some
days later, I happened to be rummaging in my
store, where I kept all my provisions and ivory,
and chanced to pull out from among the other
goods a large tusk, measuring some eight feet
in length. Now the root of every tusk is hollow,
and in this particular one the cavity was about two
feet six inches long and about seven inches in
diameter. Immediately I pulled it free from the
stack, a snake, some seven feet in length, shot out of
the hollow end of the tusk and slipped out of sight
among the pile of ,packages. Calling my men
together, I told them to prod with their sticks
among the wares, and ere long they drove the
reptile out into the open, where they beat it to death.
The skin of this serpent, which the Angoni call
lepinganombie, the Mwera, lebomah, was of a dark
mottled grey colour. This particular species is most
deadly and accounts for numbers of the natives'
cattle and goats.
142 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
While we were at the same camp at Chimbunga's
village, a native woman left the kraal to visit
another village some miles distant, carrying on her
head a majamanda, or native basket, and on her
back, tied securely to her, her little child. As she
threaded her way along the path that wound
through the forest, her child suddenly gave vent to
a pained cry, but comforting the mite, and unaware
of what had happened, the mother continued on her
way, and only discovered on arriving at her destina-
tion that her babe was dead. On the top of the
infant's head, the flesh of which was all swollen up,
were the indentations made by a snake's fangs.
Several natives of Chimbunga's village had been
killed at this identical spot, doubtless by the same
snake, and strangely enough, some weeks after the
unhappy incident narrated above, when I was
travelling along the same path on the way to a
distant village, where an elephant had been plunder-
ing the native shambas, my trackers pointed out to
me a laree snake coiled round a branch overhang-inor
the path. I blew the reptile's head off with a shot
gun and down came the writhing body across the
path. It proved to be a fine specimen (about nine
feet in length) of the nakahungu, a dull greenish
serpent with an exceptionally large head, a species
which is usually found in rocky, hilly places and
feeds on small game, such as rabbits, birds, etc.
XIV SNAKES 143
The natives all say that the nakahungu is the
largest poisonous snake in Africa with the excep-
tion of the dreaded songwe.
Among all the tribes of Eastern and Central Africa
with whom I have come in contact, I have heard
amazing stories of a snake called the songwe which,
the natives most positively assert, has a red comb
like a cock's on its head and crows in the same
manner as that bird. They allege that the songwe
deliberately waits on frequented paths for human
beings and kills them, and some of my men stoutly
affirm that they have been pursued by this reptile,
though I, myself, have never encountered it, in spite
of the fact that I have been in all kinds of country
where snakes abound. I have even offered a reward
to any native bringing me this redoubtable serpent,
either dead or alive, but this reward has never been
claimed. I am, therefore, inclined to think, though
I will not positively state, that the songwe lives only
in their imaginations, and Simba, my tracker, who is
a man of very sceptical and rational mind, says he
believes it to be a fabulous snake, or probably the
above-mentioned nakahungu, enlarged upon by those
who have been scared by it.
When encamped near the Lumasuli River, some
time ago, the path leading from my camp to the
actual hunting-ground passed through a village some
five miles distant, and on the path between my camp
144 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
and this village several natives had been killed by
snakes. On two occasions, when travelling along this
route, we encountered a large snake, sunning itself
in the middle of the way, which on our approach
immediately sought shelter in a convenient hole.
On the second occasion, we securely closed up the
entrance with sticks so that the reptile couldn't poss-
ibly escape, and as we heard of no further casualties
among the natives of the village, we inferred that
we had taken ample vengeance for those poor fellows
whom the reptile had killed. The snake in question
was one of a deadly poisonous species, called, by the
Angoni, najika, and by the Mwera, kolapongu.
The skin is of a greyish tint with three black stripes
on its neck, and the reptile attains a maximum
length of nine feet
There is a beautiful non-poisonous snake in the
pori, called by the Angoni, ulalu, and by the Mwera,
naru, which has a white skin marked with three
longitudinal blood-red stripes, and to meet it, when
hunting, is considered a most auspicious omen.
Very occasionally, I have encountered a large
black, spotted snake, called by the Angoni,
gulalahie, which is extremely poisonous, but not at
all vicious, and which is generally found in the
vicinity of ant-hills.
On one occasion, when we were hurrying along
on the spoor of elephants which had bolted, a small
XIV SNAKES 14^
black and white snake suddenly sprang out of the
grass bordering the track and bit one of my men in
the hip. As my man was of more importance to me
than elephants, I immediately gave up the pursuit
and, opening up his wound with a sharp pen-knife to
let the blood flow, injected permanganate of potash
all around the bite with a hypodermic syringe that I
always carry on my person for such occasions.
Though incapacitated for some days, the man
completely recovered from the effects of the poison.
This snake is called, by the Angoni, uwanjah, and
by the Mwera, cheringulabunda. It is a small,
hooded snake, varying in length from eighteen
inches to two feet, and is extremely venomous, the
natives saying that, unless the bite is treated, death
occurs within an hour or so.
There is a species of African snake, about
eighteen inches in length and of the thickness of a
man's middle finger, which somewhat resembles a
puff-adder in appearance and is called iperi tonga.
It is most venomous, and if you come upon it by
chance in the path, it will not attempt to escape, like
the ordinary snake, but will show fight. The puff-
adder, on the other hand, is not aggressive unless
disturbed or accidentally trodden upon, and often
gives warning of its presence by a hissing sound not
unlike that made by a gander.
In addition to the above-mentioned snakes, I
146 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xiv
frequently come across the black mamba and green
mamba, both very deadly and vicious snakes. The
black mamba is called, by the Angoni, duguwaloh,
by the Mwera, letaebo ; the green mamba is known
to the Angoni as the jokomahamba, to the Mwera,
as the namabamba.
As far as I can gather, practically the only
effectual antidote to snake poison known to the
natives is the root of a very small shrub called the
cherungu. The root is pulverized, and some of the
powder is taken internally with water, while some is
rubbed into the actual wound.
While on the subject of snakes, which are,
perhaps, of all living things the most repulsive to
man, I must make mention of a dreadful little animal,
which the natives are very averse to tackling. It
is about the size of a badger, is covered with coarse,
greyish-black hair, and has a white patch on the
back. The Angoni call the beast mculae or
chembulae, the Mwera, nculie. The extraordinary
feature about this animal is its habit of springing at
game and fastening on to its victim's testicles with
its teeth. Some years ago, I shot a koodoo and
found its testicles completely eaten away, and the
natives stoutly asserted that this had been the work
of the mculae, and averred that they had come
across innumerable instances of an exactly similar
kind.
CHAPTER XV
WHERE A MAN CAN RAISE A THIRST
The dry season, which, in Equatorial East
Africa, roughly extends from April to December,
though favourable for hunting, owing to the com-
parative sparseness of foliage in the bush and the
decay of the giant grasses which afford such excellent
cover for all kinds of game, is often rendered
by the terrible scarcity of water a most trying time.
Only he who has lived the strenuous life of a hunter
and seen the conditions that exist during a period
of exceptional drought in that Continent of the Sun,
can justly estimate the preciousness of this element
which, when in the form of rain, is so often looked
upon by those living in northern climes as an
unmitigated nuisance. Picture to yourself a land-
scape held in the grip of a pitiless, blinding sunshine,
the trees denuded of green foliage, the grass sere
and yellow, and at times stretches of country,
varying in extent from ten to thirty miles, without
a drop of water. Imagine tramping all day long
148 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
through such tracts ; in some places the air full of the
spores or irritating spicules blown or shaken from the
seed vessels of withered vegetation ; your shirt and
trousers soaked with perspiration ; arms, face, and
neck baked in the torrid glare, and not a mouthful of
water to slake the terrible thirst induced by such
circumstances ! The picture is not an inviting one,
and yet the trying ordeal of thirst is one frequently
suffered in greater or less degree by the elephant
hunter and his men.
The dry season of 1909 was an exceptional one,
adding to my experiences one that I shall not
readily forget, and the narration of it may conjure
up more fully before the reader's imagination the
picture I should like to convey.
Shortly after leaving camp, we came upon the
fresh spoor of four elephants and followed it, but
our quarry, winding us as we drew near, made off
at top speed to a country in which there were only
two or three water-holes, scattered at wide intervals
in absolutely trackless forest. Under the circum-
stances, I called a halt about 9 a.m., and instructed
my carriers to make for a water-hole some nine
miles distant, and await us there. At about
1 1 o'clock, after two hours' steady spooring across
peculiarly trying country, I got my boy to empty
one of my water-bottles and make tea for me, while
the contents of the remaining bottles I gave my
XV WHERE A MAN CAN RAISE A THIRST 149
men to drink. Feeling considerably refreshed, we
once more resumed our pursuit of the elephants,
but though we followed the spoor without resting,
they succeeded in keeping a safe distance ahead of
us until nightfall compelled us to give up the chase.
Keen as was our disappointment on the score of a
fruitless hunt, our failure to discover water was a
matter of much more serious import, and as dark-
ness precluded any further search in that direction,
we pitched camp. We now began to experience
the insistent pangs of thirst, and the silence that
suffering entails reigned over our little camp.
There was none of the chatter and laughter
inseparable from healthy, careless men, leading
free and open-air lives, and as nought was to
be gained by discussing the subject of our dis-
comfort, I turned in, only to be visited in my sleep
by all sorts of Tantalus-dreams, in which iced
champagne, hock and seltzer, and tankards of cool
beer engaged in a veritable devil-dance just beyond
my reach.
Next morning, deeming that the elephants we
had pursued were many miles away, we decided to
return to the water-hole whither our carriers had
gone the previous day. Hardly had we been an
hour on our journey, when Fate, as if in a wilfully
malignant mood, brought us across the fresh spoor
of three large bull elephants (the foot-prints of
I50 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
females are much smaller than those of their mates).
Parched with thirst though we were, the temptation
to give chase was irresistible, and only a hunter
who has lived by his rifle knows the power of that
allurement. So we turned aside, trusting that the
hunt might be brief and fortunate, and assisted
in our decision by the knowledge that our quarry
would in all probability lead us to water, even
should we fail to get a shot at them. On both
counts, however, we were doomed to bitter dis-
appointment, for, after following them till about
eleven o'clock, we discovered, to our intense
chagrin, that they had joined a large herd of
females, a fact which renders killing them a
matter of great difficulty and increased danger. To
' put the lid ' on matters, they got a whiff of our
tainted air and the whole herd decamped ! Where
the males had joined the females, we came across
some water-holes, and you can imagine our feelings
of disgust when we found that these were bone-dry !
We had not partaken of food or drink since the
previous morning, and all day long we had been
marching under a merciless, blistering sun, during
the hottest month of the year. Hunger, however,
was a minor matter in comparison with thirst, and
even during the intense excitement of the hunt, at
the back of our minds there had been the persistent
craving for water. Water ! water ! water ! the
XV WHERE A MAN CAN RAISE A THIRST 151
words had seemed to beat in a rhythm of pain with
the tramp of our feet, and it was only by a supreme
effort of will that we had forced ourselves along,
every step a torturing tax on our flagging energies.
And now we had to return ! We roughly computed
that, in a direct line, we were about six hours'
journey from where my men were encamped, and
knew that only by ceaseless, hard tramping could
we hope to reach them before evening. The situa-
tion was not one to ponder on at leisure ; there
was nothing left to do but make a start, and that at
once !
About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Malingum, my
tracker, the lines of whose face were drawn with
suffering, told me that he was completely exhausted
and would rather stay where he was and run the
risk of dying than go on any further in the sweltering
heat, and Usufu, my boy, in a similar state of
collapse, decided to throw in his lot with Malingum.
My other tracker, Hyiah, and my cook seemed in
better fettle, so leaving the latter to take care of the
* played outs,' and depositing all our ammunition,
save twenty cartridges each, in his charge, Hyiah and
I resumed our heart-breaking journey, bidding the
three be of good cheer until we returned with water.
On we foot-slogged — there is no other word for it —
making a bee-line for our camp, and taking care to
blaze the trees as we went, so that we should lose no
152 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
time on our return journey with the life-giving water.
By this time, our thirst was too painful to describe,
and Hyiah having reached such a stage of weak-
ness that he could no longer bear the weight of my
USUFU AND MALINGUM.
heavy rifle, we hid the weapon under a shrub and
marked the spot so that we could easily find it on
our return. Relieved of his burden, Hyiah managed
to stagger on behind me, but he was walking
mechanically and was so exhausted that I feared he
XV WHERE A MAN CAN RAISE A THIRST 153
might collapse at any moment. Inured though I am
to hardship, the terrible strain was beginning to
tell on me so much, that the desire to fling myself
down and await the cool of evening became well-
nigh irresistible. My tongue swelled up and stuck
to the roof of my mouth, my lips were cracked and
bleeding with the dry heat, even my light rifle
seemed to have acquired the weight of a heavy
baulk of timber, but the absolute necessity of a
weapon of defence, in case of untoward circum-
stances, precluded any idea of leaving it behind.
Moreover, the axe with which I was blazing the
trees seemed to grow in weight as my strength
failed, and the effort to wield it became so painful
that, once or twice, I almost decided to desist,
speciously arguing that a rest would freshen me and
enable me to reach camp. But apart from feeling
that it would be disastrous to show any weakness
before my tracker, Hyiah, who, to prove himself a
man, was simply dragging himself along, every
muscle drawn in acute suffering,- the thought of my
men behind me, dying of thirst and awaiting my
return as their only hope of salvation, gave me
strength and courage to totter on. I also reflected
on those gentle and refined beings who treasure the
baubles so wondrously carved and wrought from
the beautiful white stuff the quest of which had
landed me in my predicament, and wondered
154 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
if they ever pondered on the risks and hardships
endured by those who sought the raw material.
What a far cry from the deHcate objet cVart in
some dainty boudoir to the thirst-crazy hunter
wandering in primeval forest !
On, on we trudged, and as the sun sank on the
horizon like a globe of cooling iron, a large ant-hill
loomed ahead of us, and towards it we dragged
ourselves with painful steps. On reaching it, Hyiah
managed to crawl up it on hands and knees, and
simply stretching forth his hand and muttering the
one word * Bwana,' lurched forward on his face,
utterly exhausted. Coming up to where he lay, I
saw wreaths of smoke ascending about half a mile
away and knew they must be rising from the camp-
fires of my men. Dropping the axe, I fired our
usual signal, four rifle-shots in quick succession, and
threw myself down beside my tracker. After a few
minutes of keen suspense, I could distinguish the
voices of my men who, on hearing the reports of
my rifle, had at once set forth in search of us. Too
weak to shout in reply, I fired three more shots to
guide them to where we lay, and shortly afterwards,
to our intense relief, my boy Konyaki and three
carriers arrived on the scene, bearing a couple of
small calabashes of water and a bottle of whisky.
Never were whisky and water more welcome !
Pouring a little of the spirit into the palm of my
XV WHERE A MAN CAN RAISE A THIRST 155
hand, and diluting it with water, I emptied it into
Hyiah's mouth as he lay, and, immediately after-
wards, treated myself to a similar dose. After the
lapse of a brief interval, I gave him a few sips of
water from one of the calabashes, taking particular
care that he should not, in his extremity, greedily
swallow a considerable quantity of the liquid. In
another ten minutes, I handed him the calabash to
drink his fill, while I myself did ample justice to the
other. No gods ever brewed a nectar half so
delicious as that long draught of water ! I have
often thought since that occurrence how fortunate it
is that the reason can control the pressing demands
of the physical being, for had we in our eagerness
gulped down the water without restraint, the results
would, in all probability, have proved disastrous.
As Konyaki and the three carriers had brought
no food with them and barely enough water to
satisfy Hyiah and myself, I had to dispatch them
back to camp and await their return with further
supplies before we could set out to succour the men
whom we had left behind. After about an hour's
rest, during which we disposed of large quantities of
tea, supplemented with plenty of sugar — we were
too exhausted to eat — we started off. Fortunately,
the moon was in its third quarter and illumined the
forest sufficiently to enable us to track our way by
the blazed trees, yet, owing to the uncertain light and
156 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xv
the necessity of taking repeated rests on account of
our weak condition, we only reached our men about
eight o'clock next morning.
They were lying under the shade of a dense shrub,
Malingum and Usufu being in a very low state, the
cook in somewhat fitter condition. After putting them
through a process of revival similar to that to which
we had subjected ourselves, we all lay down for a
couple of hours' rest in the same convenient shelter,
and at the end of that time we felt strong enough to
partake of food. Our repast over, we set out and,
travelling at a moderate rate, arrived in camp late
the same evening. Next day, we did little else
than eat and sleep, and, owing to the fine physical
condition in which we always were, experienced
no prejudicial effects from our trying adventure.
CHAPTER XVI
BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING
Generally speaking, throughout Africa, the best
time for hunting, especially elephant hunting, is
towards the end of the dry season, and when the
early rains have begun. In German and Portuguese
East Africa, where I have spent most of my hunting
days, this period extends from September to the
end of January. I have always shot more elephants,
in the four months, September, October, November,
and December, than in the remaining eight months
put together, although I shoot steadily all the year
round. Various causes conduce to this result. In
the first place, most of the small pools and tributary
streams are dry, and water can only be obtained at
main streams and odd water-holes, so that elephants,
who during the previous months roam all over the
country, now perforce congregate within these
areas ; also, the heat being more intense during the
four months above mentioned, the quarry tires
158 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xvi
much more quickly in the chase than during the
cooler seasons.
In the rainy season (which usually extends from
December until March), and, in fact, right on to the
end of June, elephant hunting is beset with more
difficulties and dangers. The giant grass, which
grows rankly during the rains and attains its
maximum height ere the end of March, offers
almost impenetrable cover to all big game, until it is
somewhat levelled by the action of sun and wind
and the trampling of beasts, towards the end of
May and beginning of June, when the natives start
firing the bush. Besides, during the first six
months of the year, all wild animals consort more
together, and it is often extremely difficult, when
hunting, to select the males from the females in the
riotous luxuriance of the bush foliage, and especially
in the tall, reedy grass which elephants love to
frequent.
With regard to big game hunting, especially that
of elephants, I have at various times read, in books
written by sportsmen, statements which are at
variance with my experience. Some of these state-
ments have passed unchallenged into the general
currency of our everyday knowledge of the habits of
the denizens of the wild. As I have spent so many
years in what I might call close touch with these
creatures and have had unique opportunities of ob-
i6o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch,
serving them in their natural habitat, I feel that my
opinion will carry some weight with those competent
to judge. I should like to state that I express such
opinions, not out of a wanton love of contradiction,
but simply with a desire to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, and thereby remove
flagrantly erroneous conceptions from the minds of
those interested in such matters.
Some time ago, I read in a book on big game
hunting that, in our sense of the word, an elephant
never rests and that, except in water, he cannot lie
down on his side, but stands on three legs, swinging
the fourth. I cannot imagine on what basis the
writer makes such a statement. My considerable
experience of elephants has taught me the contrary.
On numerous occasions, I have come across elephants
lying down, and one of the illustrations in this book
depicts an elephant I shot while he was lying
sleeping. No doubt the shooting of a sleeping
elephant may seem unsportsmanlike to the reader,
and I can assure him that my feelings iji the matter
do not differ from his, but it must be remembered
that I was simply in quest of ivory as a means
of obtaining a livelihood, and that, under such
circumstances, scruples have to be brushed aside.
I hardly think that any man on a similar occasion
would politely wake the elephant before shooting
him, and my action in the case is absolutely on
XVI
BIG GAMK AND BIG GAME HUNTING
i6r
a par with the taking of a bullock's life for
food.
At the Rovuma River, in 1906, I came across
a female elephant and her calf, both lying down,
and I managed to approach within twenty yards of
ELEPHANT SHOT WHILST SLEEPINC;.
them before they saw me, when they simply jumped
up and bolted.
In October, 1907, one morning at dawn, we
chanced upon the spoor of three male elephants, and
at eleven o'clock came up with them at a spot where
ihey had just been feeding. The largest of the trio,
whose tusks weighed 74 and ']^ lbs., respectively,
was lying down at full length with his forelegs curled
under him, while his companions were standing
i62 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
beside him. On my approach, the recumbent one,
evidently having heard us, lifted his head and at
that moment I fired, putting a bullet through his
brain. Then I shot the remaining two.
At the Bangalla River, in 1 908, I had followed up
the spoor of four big males, and, coming up with
them, found one of their number lying down asleep,
while his companions stood beside him. Having
approached under cover of a large ant-hill to within
twenty yards of the herd, I had a perfect view of
the sleeping tusker, who was lying on his left side
with his head resting on its side and his feet
extended at right angles to his body. I sent a
single bullet from my '577 axite rifle through his
brain, and he never budged from his original
position, save for a few spasmodic kicks with his legs.
Of the remaining three, I had the good fortune to
pick off two as they were making off.
Very many other instances of elephants lying
down on their sides have come under my notice,
but I feel sure that those cited will serve to
explode the ridiculous theory mentioned above.
In addition, I may perhaps state that again and
again elephants, whom I have wounded in the
vicinity of the brain, have fallen andpro /em. lain on
their sides, but if not finished off, have eventually
risen and got away.
Finally though the elephant appears to be a big
XVI BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 163
and ungainly creature, he is by no means so awk-
ward as his size might lead one to believe. For a
short distance, he can run at a great pace, while
jumping ditches is for him a matter of comparative
ease. In short, his strength is in proportion to his
bulk, and he is admirably adapted to the nature of
the country in which he lives.
With regard to the risk attendant on hunting
various kinds of big game, (a subject on which
many famous hunters hold very diverse views,) all
my experience tends to confirm me in the opinion
that the pursuit of the elephant is, without doubt, the
most dangerous. Second, and on a par, I would
classify buffaloes and lions ; third, leopards. In
comparison with these, very little risk attaches to
the hunting of the rhinoceros. However, in any
such classification, so much depends on the manner
of hunting ; for it is obvious that to hunt alone, with
one or two natives as trackers, is accompanied by
considerably more danger, than to form one of a
party armed to the teeth with powerful modern
rifles. And when an old hunter chances, in his
reading, to come across an account of three white
men all helping each other to kill one poor lion, he
feels his gorge rise and, after making every possible
allowance for the state of modern civilized nerves, is
disgusted to think that such a wretched farce should
masquerade under the name of sport. Nor can that
M 2
i64 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER cH.
term be generously applied to the hunting down of
lions with dogs, for, while the lion's attention is
occupied with his canine opponents, to shoot him is
a matter 'of comparative ease and attended with
very little risk.
Lion-hunting entails a considerable amount of
risk when a wounded animal seeks cover in lonor
grass or dense bush, and the hunter follows his
quarry on foot with only his tracker carrying a
spare rifle. This requires a combination of nerve
and cunning and is excellent sport. The same may
be said of buffaloes and, in a greater degree, of
elephants.
It is my opinion that the risk attached to the
shooting of the rhinoceros is very small, for he lacks
the intelligence and cunning of the aforementioned
animals, and, though I have shot scores of them, on
no occasion has one charged me.
The hunting of the hippopotamus is the very
tamest of sports, and even when shooting from a
native canoe, the hunter is comparatively safe, for in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the beast, when
wounded, will make every effort to escape without
showing fight.
Taking all smaller game into consideration, I
cannot say that their pursuit is fraught with much
peril to the sportsman. Quite recently, I have read
what I can only term as somewhat hysterical accounts
XVI
BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING
165
of hunters being charged by roan and sable antelopes,
and of the redoubtable and vicious fighting character
of the bushbuck, which, so says one account, will
charge a man without hesitation. In all my hunting
career, and I have shot dozens of the three last-
MY TWO TRACKERS. SIMBA (ON LEFT), TQMBO (ON RIGHT).
mentioned game, on no occasion have I ever been
charged by any of them.
Almost any wounded animal, when you approach
him, will instinctively endeavour to defend himself,
and the statement would apply to the ordinary billy-
goat at home ; but to class any of these antelopes as
dangerous is, in my opinion, purely and simply
i66 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
a misrepresentation of facts. Only the very in-
experienced hunter could possibly misconstrue this
simple defensive action of a wounded animal
into a threat of mischief, and I feel sure that
many a blind rush to escape the danger at hand,
which chanced to come in the direction of the
hunter, has been mistaken for a wilful and vicious
charge.
I should like, at this point, to discountenance the
assertion made by many writers and believed by the
general public at large, that all kinds of African big
game — especially elephants — are being swiftly and
surely exterminated. They who make such sweep-
ing statements most certainly know little about the
subject, and probably draw their conclusions from
the insufficient data that they acquire by following
the beaten track. In the Congo State, in German
East Africa, in Portuguese East Africa, in British
East Africa, and in Uganda there are, quite apart
from innumerable game reservations, thousands of
square miles of quite uninhabited country in which
there are hundreds of thousands of elephants and of
every other kind of game, with the exception,
perhaps, of giraffes.
Taking into consideration the laws promulgated
during the last few years by all civilized countries
for the preservation of big game within their
African possessions, instead of any risk of exter-
XVI BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 167
mination, there seems a probability of a decided
increase in the numbers of such game. Such an
increase, let me say, would prove a serious calamity,
for it would give a great impetus to the propagation
of the deadly tse-tse fly, which follows big game
and breeds in their dung. This pest, as is well
known, means death to all domestic animals, and
thus renders uninhabitable by Europeans vast
tracts of country which would otherwise make
admirable colonizing grounds. The matter reduces
itself to the simple question — is Africa going to
serve as a colony for surplus European populations,
or as a collection of big game reserves ?
On the subject of bodily hygiene and of a dietary
suitable for the tropics, a great deal has been
written. Naturally, in such matters individuals
differ ; one man's food is another man's poison.
My personal experience differs somewhat from the
usual and may prove interesting, if not useful, to
those intending to pass any considerable time in
these regions. Firstly, with regard to baths, I
have never departed from the good old-fashioned
cold tub and rub down, preceded by exercise on
rising, while in the evening, I wash down thoroughly
with soap and hot water and finish off with a cold
douche. Before retiring, I always rub myself all
over with cocoa-nut oil to keep my skin in perfect
condition.
1 68 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
With regard to the question of food and bever-
ages, first thing in the morning, I drink a cup of
cocoa ; after my bath, I have a cup of perfectly
made tea with a couple of biscuits. When in camp,
MY TENT AND HANDA WITH PRIVATE SERVANTS.
lunch and dinner differ little from the same meals
in the Old Country, though often supplemented
with a thick porridge made from native matama
flour. Vegetables consist of onions and of herbs
found in the forest, several species of which are
almost identical with spinach. Mahometan cooks.
BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 169
being past-masters in the art of serving up a perfect
curry, cooking a fowl, or roasting a joint of buck,
civilization has few advantages to offer in the
matter of food. On safari, and when tracking-
elephants, as time does not permit of the cooking
of a solid meal, I have to be contented with picnic
fare, and I find that during a spell of strenuous
work there is nothing so energizing as a mixture of
cocoa and sugar taken at intervals. In the even-
ing, when I have finished my day's work and
bathed, I always indulge in a stiff whisky and
soda ; with dinner, I regularly consume half a
bottle of port wine (it really is port wine), and ere
retiring to bed another strong peg or two of whisky.
For a few months' hunting, it is quite immaterial
what one eats or drinks, but I find that, to endure
month in month out, year in year out, the arduous
work and strain of elephant hunting in a hot and
enervating climate, a considerable quantity of
alcohol is absolutely essential to my physical well-
being, and seems to help in the assimilation of my
food and give me refreshing sleep at night. Of
course, during actual work and in the heat of the
day, alcohol is certainly prejudicial, and when in
a temperate climate I feel little or no desire for
stimulants in any shape or form. After years of
this dietary and hard life, I feel in perfect physical
condition, and a recent medical examination
I70 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
revealed that all my organs were sound and
healthy.
A considerable supply of clothes, such as khaki
shirts and trousers, and of lio-ht shoes for
running in, is a necessity, and I find that very thin
cotton vests, which I immediately change when
soaked with perspiration, are the best. My boy
carries two or three changes of these vests in a
small waterproof wallet over his shoulder.
Perhaps, when discussing big game and big game
hunting, a few remarks on rifles will not be out of
place, but as the subject is naturally one open to
endless discussion, I shall express a personal
opinion rather than dogmatize. During my hunt-
ing career, I have used all kinds of rifles from the 4
bore, black powder, elephant rifle downwards, but as
the black powder rifle is a thing of the past, I shall
confine my attention to modern high-velocity, smoke-
less powder rifles, which are infinitely superior to
their predecessors on account of their greater range,
velocity, power and lightness.
In the first place, the man behind the rifle is so
obviously of primary importance that the fact may
be dismissed without further comment, while the
great consideration in all hunting is to kill and not
merely to wound the game fired at. With regard
to the weapon, practically any modern rifle will kill
game if the bullet penetrates a vital part such as the
XVI BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 171
brain, heart or vertebrae, but under ordinary con-
ditions, such as dense cover with sharp contrasts of
light and shade, these shots are difficult, and what
is requisite is a rifle with a flat trajectory, which
will, should a vital spot be missed, deliver a smash-
ing, disabling blow.
With a "303, I have killed all kinds of game from
elephants downwards, but it must be remembered
that the hunter who uses a weapon of such calibre
against large and dangerous game at close quarters
in bush country, runs considerable risk of losing his
life, for the bullet has neither the requisite weight
nor velocity always to prove thoroughly effectual.
And with regard to their use against smaller game,
though such light bullets have great penetration,
they do not administer a sufficiently paralysing blow
to prevent a wounded animal from bolting and
thereby obliging the hunter to pursue his quarry
for miles, with a chance of losing it altogether and
leaving it to die a lingering death in the bush. My
experience has, therefore, taught me to consider the
•303 a thoroughly unsuitable and unsportsmanlike
weapon, the use of which should most emphatically
be discontinued. For all kinds of game, save
rhinoceroses and elephants, my ideal rifle is one
that fires a bullet, lead-nosed or copper-capped,
weighing between 350 and 400 grains, and leaving
the muzzle with a velocity of 2,300 ft. or more
172 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
per second ; for the simple reason that such a
bullet expands, tears a large hole and spends all its
energy in the animal without slipping through.
Against small game, I have for some years used
a '318 rifle and find it, especially in conjunction
with Westley Richards patent copper-capped
bullets, immeasurably superior to either the "256
■577 BULLET SHOWING IDEAL CAPPING; '577 BULLET (iN CENTRE)
SHOWING IDEAL MUSHROOMING ; ON RIGHT, '500 SOLID NICKEL
COVERED BULLET.
or '303, and one which has, on account of its high
velocity and ideal form of expanding bullet, all the
advantages of long range and flat trajectory
associated with the small bore, and a large amount
of the shock-giving qualities obtained with a larger
bore rifle, without the recoil inseparable from that
weapon.
XVI
BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING
173
The elephant and rhinoceros, being in a class by
themselves, require a rifle firing a much heavier
bullet. After experimenting with and using all
kinds of rifles, I find the most effective to be the
double '577 with a 750 grains bullet and a charge
in axite powder equivalent to a hundred grains of
RHINOCEROS.
cordite. The heavier double-barrelled '600 bore
rifle, with a bullet weighing 900 grains, lacks the
penetration of the "577, while its weight (16 lbs.
against 13 lbs. of the latter) renders it a much more
awkward weapon to handle. I think the superiority
of the "577 over the '450 and '500 rifles, will be
evident when I state that I have lost elephants
with these last two rifles, while I have bagged
174 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
Others with identically the same shots from a
•577-
When using double-barrelled rifles against big
and dangerous game, it is of supreme importance to
have a thoroughly reliable ejecting mechanism, and
I find that a single trigger is a vast improvement on
the old double-trigger, for, apart from eliminating
the risk of a bruised finger, the single trigger is
infinitely quicker, enabling a double shot to be
placed almost simultaneously, if necessary. I have
used the single trigger for some years and would on
no account go back to the double. Another factor
to be considered with regard to a rifle for big game
is the length of the barrels. It is my opinion that
they should be as short as possible, certainly not
longer than twenty-six inches ; for a rifle with
barrels exceeding this length is extremely awkward
to manipulate in bush country. The double-
barrelled '577 which I have used for several years
and found admirable in every detail was built for me
by Westley Richards & Co., of Bond Street. The
construction of the locks is excellent and simple to
a degree, so that should anything go wrong with the
mechanism in the bush, where you cannot take a taxi
to your gunmaker, there is no difificulty in instantly
detaching a lock by hand and replacing it with a
duplicate. The single trigger and ejector attached
to this rifle have on no occasion failed to act.
XVI BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 175
In open country, against elephants and
rhinoceroses, where the quarry is difficult to
approach and long shots are often required, I find
that I can do all that is requisite with a small bore
rifle, such as the '318, using, of course, solid nickel-
covered bullets, for, owing to the easy manipulation
afforded by such a weapon, a more deliberate aim
can be taken than with a heavy rifle.
I have dwelt at some length on this subject of
rifles, for I feel that the matter is one of importance,
from the point of view not only of the hunter, but
of the game. The point of view on which I insist
is one of common humanity, and the young hunter
should think deeply over the subject of weapons
before going out against game with any small bore
magazine rifle. For, as I have already said, the
penetration of these rifles is great and the bullet so
small, that an animal hit in any but a vital spot may
escape to die in agony in the bush, while the sports-
man, finding that he has not bagged his quarry, often
indiscriminately empties his magazine into other
animals of the herd, trusting to drop one or more out
of the number. There is no censure strong enough for
this reckless cruelty, and I feel that much of it
would assuredly be avoided, if the hunter would
only give the foregoing notes his careful
consideration.
CHAPTER XVII
MALINGANIRO AND HIS IVORV
Malinganiro, whose villages used, in the old days,
to lie on the plateau close to the eastern shore of Lake
Nyassa, within two or three days' journey of the
Portuguese Collectorate at Matengula, was the least
powerful of the three notorious chiefs, rulers over
the turbulent and warlike Wyao tribe. (Since the
date of the episode, which I am going to relate,
his people have removed to the Awembe Mountains
in Mataka's country, three or four days' journey
further east, and are now under the headship of a
descendant of the same name.) Up to 1900, though
Malinganiro had not openly acknowledged the
supremacy of the Portuguese Government, and never
allowed the Portuguese askaris (or native soldiers)
to enter the district under his sway, no actual
rupture had occurred. Stormy times, however, were
ahead, for all the factors conducive to trouble were
at hand.
In the first place, it was well-known that Malin-
176
tn. xvit MALINGANIRO AND HIS IVORY 177
ganiro had accumulated a large quantity of
ivory ; for, apart from the fact that most of his men
were elephant hunters, he had acquired a con-
siderable portion of his stock of that precious com-
modity by plundering the villages on the lake shore.
This knowledge was sufficient to rouse the cupidity
of the Portuguese, but Fate required another piece
in order to play the strangely malign little game that
it had in its mind, and that piece was at hand.
There lived at Matengula a thorough scoundrel, one
Abdullah Nkwanda, a negro with a considerable
admixture of Arab blood in his veins, who, for some
years, had been trading in a small way in this part
of the country, and he and the Portuguese were not
long in putting their heads together and evolving a
plan worthy of the occasion and the booty at stake.
Getting permission from Malinganiro, Abdullah
took up a stock of goods to the chiefs head village
and announced his intention, were he properly
treated, of making his home there. Malinganiro
was delighted with the idea, and by way of giving
an assurance of his friendliness towards the new-
comer, sent Abdullah Nkwanda one of his
daughters.
It did not take Abdullah long to satisfy himself
that Malinganiro really had plenty of ivory, and,
what was more important, was willing to dispose of
it, and the only difficulty that stood in the way of
N
178 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
good business was that he, Abdullah, had only a
small stock of goods and none at all of what
Malinganiro most desired — kegs of gunpowder.
However, determined to overcome all obstacles, he
promptly told Malinganiro that the Portuguese had
plenty of this commodity at Matengula, but gave it
out only to reliable chiefs on their personal atten-
dance. As for goods, well, he, Abdullah, could
procure plenty from English territory, but would not
dare to bring so large a quantity so great a distance,
and hinted that Malinganiro, himself, might not be
above stealing them when they did arrive. To
overcome the difficulty, therefore, Malinganiro, so
suggested the wily Abdullah, should bring his ivory
down to Matengula in person, and there receive the
goods and gunpowder in exchange.
It must have taken considerable persuasion to
induce Malinganiro to fall in with this plan, but he
eventually did so, and arrived at Matengula in 1901,
bringing with him about sixty loads of ivory. The
Portuguese received him in good style, and, for a
time, all went well — in fact, until bargaining for the
ivory commenced. Then Malinganiro discovered,
to his surprise, that no gunpowder was forthcoming,
and as the price offered for his ivory was ridicu-
lously low, announced his intention of taking his
tusks into English territory and disposing of them
there. Thereupon, the Portuguese politely informed
XVII MALINGANIRO AND HIS IVORY 179
him that if he wished to do this, he must first bring
his ivory into the boma, have it weighed, and receive
export papers made out in the latest European style.
Suspecting nothing, Malinganiro took his ivory into
the boma — only to find himself made a prisoner!
Then the old and well-rehearsed farce was enacted
once more : to save his life, Malinganiro was
obliged openly to acknowledge the supremacy
of the Portuguese, and on his submission was
released, but his ivory was confiscated, or, as they
tactfully put it, ' held as security for the good
behaviour of himself and his people.' What
Malinganiro thought of this delightful euphemism,
it would be difficult to say, but from that hour
until his death the Wyao chief made every
effort to recompense the Portuguese for their
kindness. Malinganiro became a name of terror
to the dwellers on the lake shore ; village after
village was sacked and burnt ; askaris were way-
laid and killed ; mutilation, torture, and death
were meted out with impartiality to anyone con-
nected with the Portuguese and their detestable
rule.
My memories of Malinganiro are still vivid.
He was a short, jolly, rotund man, who passed
much of his time drinking beer and smoking
bhangi — royal occupations in the eyes of a native —
and yet, in spite of his debauchery, there was about
N 2
i8o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
him that air of distinction which unmistakably
denotes the chief. On two occasions I happened to
pass through his village. On the first, I encamped
just on the outskirts of his kraal, and he came down
to meet me with a retinue of about seventy men, all
armed with muzzle-loading rifles, to inquire what I
was doing in his country, and whether I wasn't
afraid to come there without his permission and
with so few men. I replied that I was an English-
man, and had nothing to fear ; that I had seven
rifles, five of which had ten cartridores in each of
them, and should trouble arise, each cartridge
would mean at least one dead man. I assured him,
however, that I was not there for fighting, but
simply on my way to the Lujenda River, in search
of elephants, and desired to purchase some food for
my men and myself from his villagers, to which he
replied that an Englishman was welcome to pass
through his country, but that he would spill his last
drop of blood in resisting the aggression of the
Portuguese shensis (heathens). To show that I
was desirous of being friendly, I gave him a cupful
of whisky and a bowl of tea, and no sooner had he
put these out of sight, than he begged for more.
This I promised to let him have next day, and on
returning to his village, he sent me fowls, eggs, and
goats for myself, and plenty of flour and native
beer for my men.
XVII MALINGANIRO AND HIS IVORY
On his death, the chief succeeding him adopted
the name of Malinganiro, and has continued
to carry out the policy laid down by his pre-
decessor of murdering, enslaving, and pillaging,
whenever the opportunity arises, down to this very
day.
CHAPTER XVIII
TERRIER V. ELEPHANT
In the depths of the heart, where I treasure the
memories of the friends I have and of those I have
had and are now no more, there is a soft spot which
belongs to a Httle fox-terrier who was for some
time a companion of mine through the storm and
stress, the joys and sunshine of the lonely pori.
He was not a thoroughbred terrier — merely a
mongrel — but there are occasions when breeding is
not everything. Whisky (for that was his name)
was one of Nature's gentlemen. For affection,
for sheer pluck, for that downright impertinence
so characteristic of the terrier, this dear little fellow
was hard to beat.
To say that a terrier would have the audacity
to tackle an elephant seems so ridiculous that many
will be inclined to think the story which follows
something in the nature of fiction, but I can assure
the reader that this is not so. Let me relate the
incident exactly as it happened.
x8a
CH. XVIII
TERRIER K ELEPHANT
183
During the forenoon of September 15th, 1909, at
Kitulika stream, a small tributary of the
Mbarangandu, I shot a couple of fine, big tuskers,
and the remaining one of the herd, decamping
and progressing in a semi-circle, came across my
carriers, who were following up about a mile
TWO TUSKERS. THE SECOND JUST DISCERNIBLE IN THE BACKGROUND.
behind. Getting their wind, he immediately turned
back on his tracks, which I was following, and, all
of a sudden, I heard him about a couple of hundred
yards off, forging his way through a thicket of long
grass and coming straight in my direction. As my
trackers and I were standing in a patch of country
free from vegetation, the grass having been
i84 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xviii
burnt by native bush fires somewhat earlier in the
year, I decided to wait and see if the animal would
venture out of cover and give me an unobstructed
field for shooting. A few seconds afterwards, he
reached the verge of the long grass, about a
hundred yards from where we lay expectant, so
bidding my tracker Hyiah stay behind and take
charge of Whisky, I gradually crept on hands and
knees towards my quarry, Ntawasie, my second
tracker, crawling stealthily in my wake with my light
rifle. The elephant, who, I could see, had a
magnificent pair of tusks, sticking fully five feet out
of his head, had now partially emerged from the
jungle, so motioning to Ntawasie to stay where he
was, I stole forward, feeling quite confident of bag-
ging him with the first or second shot. Nearer and
nearer I crept, and was about fifty yards from the
elephant, when I heard a furious growling behind
me, and, next moment. Whisky, who had evidently
slipped his leash, bounded past me and dashed
straight towards the tusker. I instantly raised my
rifle, fully expecting that the elephant, warned by
Whisky of our presence, would clear back into the
long grass : but instead of doing so, he came
quickly forward, as if wondering what new species
of animal he had suddenly come across. As he was
now only forty yards off and presenting a perfect
view for a shot, I felt that I could place a bullet in
i86 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
any inch of his anatomy that I desired, especially as
he seemed quite unconscious of my presence, and
wholly occupied with my terrier. Whisky, quite
undaunted and growling furiously, bounded up to
the monster, and the little devil's whole attitude
seemed to convey a warning to the mountainous
bulk beside him that there was little doubt in his
mind as to who would get the worst of an encounter.
The huge beast, with an elephant's characteristic
inquisitiveness, extended his trunk and began to
sniff at my dog, who, no doubt, considering this an
indignity not under any circumstances to be
tolerated from a mere elephant, made a vicious
snap at the latter's investigating proboscis. Whether
the elephant had in the first instance intended to
grab the game little dog I don't know, but consider-
ing this act of Whisky's an opening of hostilities,
he simply seized his tiny antagonist and flung him
some twenty yards into the jungle. Then, quietly
turning round, as if expecting the audacious little
dog to return, he moved slowly towards the long
grass into which his opponent had incontinently
vaijished.
I felt that it was now high time for me to take a
hand in the unequal contest, but so interested had I
been in the strange incidents of the past few minutes
that I had let slip the chance of getting a good
shot, and had to be satisfied with aiming a short
XVIII TERRIER V. ELEPHANT 187
distance behind the brute's ear so as to get the line
of his brain. He instantly dropped to his knees,
but rose again almost at once. My second bullet
struck him in the vicinity of the heart and sent
him crashing back into the long grass, where he fell
ere he had travelled another forty yards.
Whisky was none the worse for his unexpected
trip through the air, and though, at first, he fought
shy of approaching the elephant's carcase, he
seemed at once to realize, when I placed him up on
the beast's back, that his formidable opponent was
dead. The photograph illustrating this episode,
shows him standing proudly on his fallen foe, no
doubt convinced that though his master had slain
the monster, the result would have been vastly
different, if he hadn't given that poor fellow a
helping hand.
CHAPTER XIX
THE TROPICS AND THE CALL
It seems to be the general opinion in Europe
that those who spend the greater part of their h'ves
in the tropics eventually come back to northern
climes morally and physically bankrupt, and this
conception is, no doubt, founded on a considerable
basis of truth. Many who return from tropical
countries have acquired a * liver,' and the sallow
skin and hollow eyes accompanying that complaint,
to say nothing of the various frailties that fever
leaves in its wake. Tropical Africa is, without a
doubt, a hard task-master, and demands certain
qualifications in those who wish to live and pioneer
successfully in that continent. The physical weak-
ling, and those who cannot get along without the
good things of this life, had better stay away : they
will only go to join the long list of victims that the
trying climate of the equator claims, year in, year
out. Nor is sound physical equipment the only
i83
CH. XIX THE TROPICS AND THE CALL 189
requirement : a man must be so mentally balanced
that he can withstand moral temptation in its worst
form, and be blessed with that equable temperament
which refuses to be worried by the petty disappoint-
ments and discomforts inseparable from a pioneer's
life. Even then, he must pay ceaseless attention to
his physical well-being in order to stand the climate.
As for those who are prepared to do this, and feel
that they have the other necessary qualifications, let
them try the tropics and they will not be disap-
pointed ! The question of being able to make a
living in the Old Country is no criterion of a man's
colonizing capabilities. If he is a waster, stern
Nature, I'm afraid, will soon eliminate him ; if his
is the temperament that loves action and feels
restricted by the monotonous round of life in a
great city, if he feels a pressing desire for the wild,
and finds solitude a solace instead of a boredom,
then he has some of the elements that fit him for
' roughing it ' in the tropics. I think there is a
peculiar charm in the freedom of these vast open
spaces, the ever-changing scenes that delight the
eye, and the little adventures that are inseparable
from a wild life. Unfortunately, our old world
seems to be getting filled at an enormous pace,
and there are few places left where the traveller,
seeking the delights of untamed nature, is many
days distant from civilization in some form or other.
I90 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
I have often wondered what will happen when
there is no wild to tempt the daring spirit from
the comparative safety and comfort of civilization
to wander forth and seek adventure for the
very exhilaration that it affords. Surely, love
of excitement will always be a part of human
nature !
It is a generally accepted fact that nearly all those
who have lived a considerable portion of their lives
in the tropics experience a decided desire to return.
It is a yearning that is well-nigh irresistible, and,
more often than not, obeyed — a call which is felt
by the West Coaster as strongly as by his brother
of the East Coast. I have heard many opinions
expressed on the subject and have frequently tried
to analyse the nature of this peculiar yearning.
In the first place, a man living away from civiliza-
tion is naturally free from all the restraints of that
civilization, and those confining influences which,
in his youth, drove him from the compensating
luxuries of an old country to seek the heart of the
wild, are naturally more irksome to him on his
return than ever. Away in the back of beyond, he
is not obliged to observe the innumerable petty
points of convention with which public opinion
demands compliance in densely populated areas,
and which to many minds reduce existence, in a
phrase of Carlyle, to a 'highly complicated egg-
XIX THE TROPICS AND THE CALL 191
dance,' to be danced without breaking a single egg.
Another point on which I should like to insist is
that, among natives, the white man is respected and
obeyed, and even granting this to be a surface
allegiance, it imparts a sense of superiority, which,
however conscious a philosophic man may be of its
ultimate futility, indubitably enlarges his own
innate sense of self-respect. I do not think anyone
who looks this fact coldly in the face can deny its
power among all races and men, for it is certainly
at the root of all sane human social systems, how-
ever much people may try to think otherwise.
This salutary sense of superiority is, moreover,
certainly assisted by the fact that in the wild a man
has only his own sense of right and wrong to guide
him, a circumstance which makes him morally his
own master and ruler, and gives him complete
confidence in his own judgment. On the other
hand, when he returns home, he feels physically
lost in the swarm of human beings that throng a
great city, and experiences the disconcerting idea
that he has, somehow or other, lost his personality
and dwindled to insignificance in the vast sea of the
commonplace. Also, in a white man's dealing with
natives, his word is essentially his bond, and there
is no going back on that word if you are to breed
confidence and trust among your men. You may
break that word if you wish, for there is no written
192 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ctt.
and stamped agreement to bring you before a
tribunal, but you will eventually lose more than you
have temporarily gained. I think this reliance of
one man upon another breeds sincerity, and in-
sincerity is such a marked defect of all civilized life.
Then, in civilization, there is the almost universal
worship of wealth, the ceaseless striving for which
cannot bring out the best in a man's mind or body.
In the tropics, you may chance, if luck favours
you, to make enough to keep you in comparative
comfort for the rest of your days, but you have,
in most instances, to make it by healthy work in
the open, generally by the sweat of your brow,
and under conditions which give you leisure to
think.
Lastly, there is the beautiful country and the sun !
There may be some people who yearn for grey
skies ; the majority, I think, prefer the joy and
brightness of sunshine. Gorgeous flowers and
butterflies, that surpass in their tints the most
beautiful of enamels, song-birds that keep the
forests cheery with their music, the perpetual
laughter and chatter of natives, the mystery of the
lonely, uninhabited pori, the glorious moonshine and
the startling brilliance of the stars, the absolute
freedom from the noise of cities — all go to create a
romantic atmosphere which seems to tinge the mind
and creep insidiously into the blood. The memory
XIX THE TROPICS AND THE CALL 193
of these things (and what a glamour memory can
cast over the reahties of the past !), I think,
constitutes that wistful yearning which is termed
the call, and you have only to live the life for some
years to experience the irresistible pull that it gives
to the heart-strings.
o
CHAPTER XX
SOME NOTES ON THE LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE
To the white man who has not spent any of his
time in Africa, the Hfe of the average African native
is a sealed book ; and as there are very great
differences of opinion as to the value of that phrase,
'the happy savage,' especially in relation to the
social conditions of the masses in civilized countries,
a brief description of the usual way in which that
* savage ' lives may be of interest and furnish
material from which the reader can draw his own
conclusions.
Though customs differ in different districts, there
is a great similarity in the home life of natives of
most African tribes, more especially those inhabiting
that tract of Africa between the Zambesi River and
Khartum. The negro comes into the world without
either much pain or much forethought on the part of
his mother, and goes through life happy and
careless. Till the age of eight or nine, he plays
about his village as blithe and merry as a puppy or
CH. XX NOTES ON LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 195
kitten : no school-board officer troubles his sunny-
days ; he has no perpetual nightmare of scamped
lessons to disturb his childish slumber. His sole
occupation, save when he is sent on an errand by his
parents, consists of his games, .into which he enters
with all the gusto of an absolutely untrammelled
MY TRACKER SIMBA WITH THKKli INSWALA JUST SHOT.
nature. He has also his little toy puzzles like
civilized children, and the game which has been
given the name of diabolo in England has been known
to African children time out of mind. His education
is short and terminates with his ability to count ten,
though his imagination and mental powers are
certainly enlarged by the tales and legends he hears
from his elders as they sit around the fire at night.
o 2
196 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
The close of his childhood may roughly be fixed at
the age of ten, when he enters more fully into the
life of the village and accompanies his elders on
hunting and fishing expeditions, either participating
in the sport or assisting as a carrier. Coming to
maturity early, as all Africans do, he usually marries
between the ages of ten and twelve, and is then
admitted into full companionship with his elders.
He now sets up house, so to speak, he and his wife
building their future home together, There is no
necessity to buy furniture on the instalment system,
for theirs is actually the simple life. A bed, some
mats, calabashes for water, utensils for grinding corn
and crushing and cooking food, form all their house-
hold goods — in fact, you could put the furniture of
a whole village into a pantechnicon. From the date
of his marriage commences the most arduous portion
of his life. He has now to make himself a shamba
(garden), so that he may grow the simple necessaries
that form his daily bread. There is no question of
landlord and tenant to worry him ; he simply marks
out the earth that no man owns and clears it for
cultivation, and the natural freedom of this act has
always presented to my mind a vivid contrast to the
trespass laws, the barbed wire and the lordly sense
of proprietorship that attach to land in the Old
Country.
After a while, our native may fall in love with
XX NOTES ON LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 197
other lips and other eyes, and finally decide to take
a second wife. The first wife may feel the pangs
of jealousy and the humiliation of being superseded
in her husband's affections by another, but these
trifles she will have to look at philosophically, or to
put it expressively, if vulgarly, she will have to
' lump it.' For his second wife, our amorous native
must build a new hut, and to her he must give a bed
of her own, while she provides a mat. Now, he
chiefly confines his attentions to hunting and fishing,
and making expeditions into the forest for honey,
bees-wax and rubber, leaving his wives to do most
of the manual labour in the shamba.
Bye and bye, if he is well-to-do, he may decide to
add another wife to his household, and from this
event, we may roughly date the beginning of his
declining years. His physical powers begin to
wane, and he passes his time in the village
gossiping, very much as the aged English villager
does in the village inn. By this time he has a
family of one, two, or three children, large families
being an exception, and these children, especially
the girls, assist their mother in the housework.
Sometimes, he will make little trips to adjacent
villages and exchange a fowl for some tobacco
or for seed for his garden. With such trifles he
whiles away the time.
At thirty-five to forty he is an old man, and then
198 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
his principal care Is to see that his wives do not
make love to other women's husbands — perhaps the
most difficult of all the tasks he has ever undertaken,
and one in which, I can assure the reader, he
generally fails.
Among the natives of East Central Africa, the
status of a woman varies according to whether she
is a wife or merely a slave. Though the husband is
lord and master, let not the reader infer that he
treats his wife inhumanly, or that the little amenities
which characterize the union of civilized men and
women are lacking from the married lives of
natives. At worst, a negro is more or less a
mentally undeveloped man : elemental feelings such
as love of wife, children and parents, of fraternity
and of friendship are his as well as ours, and, as we
know, the varnish of civilization does not always
tend to strenorthen these basic factors of human
character. Among them, just as among ourselves,
a woman, if she has a grievance, may have recourse
to the law — rude as that law in many instances is.
If a man maltreats his wife, she can always complain
to her relatives, who either settle the matter with
the husband or bring it for justice before the
headman of the village. If the quarrel is merely in
the nature of a tiff, the wife may run away to her
mother, but there is no budding humorist to
discover the funny side of such an act and keep the
XX NOTES ON LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 199
joke green in so-called comic weekly papers. On
such occasions, the mother, bringing a wide
experience to bear on the subject, will probably
tell her daughter not to be silly, and, ere long, the
young couple have made friends and discovered
that a lover's quarrel merely means the renewal of
love. Should the difference be of a serious nature
the husband will probably divorce his wife, but after
such an event, she does not live as a woman with a
lurid past. There is always another husband
waiting for her, and the fact of her being a divorcee
does not cast the slightest reflection on her
eligibility for remarriage.
The native woman's appearance, apart from the
facial aspect which may be displeasing to the eye of
the white man, is certainly prepossessing, for the
exercise of her household duties, of grinding food, of
carrying water and working in the shamba,
develops her to physical perfection. She is, more-
over, if she has adopted the Mahometan faith — and
most of the natives of Eastern and Central Africa
are rapidly becoming followers of the Prophet —
scrupulously clean as to her person, washing her body
once or twice a day and always before retiring.
Like fier white sister, she takes great care of her
appearance : her hair and skin she keeps soft and in
perfect condition with the application of a little oil,
usually the ufuta, which is odourless and so readily
200 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
absorbed by skin and hair that it is neither sticky
nor greasy. Her hair she washes once a month,
using the leaves of a saponaceous plant instead of
soap, which latter-day product the natives say
dries up the hair and makes it turn grey. She
cleans her teeth with a utensil which she fashions
by chewing a twig of a saponaceous shrub until it is
fibrous, and this natural but effective tooth-brush
requires no dentifrice. In addition to the above
care of her person, her food is wholesome and
deliciously cooked, consisting of fish, vegetables,
flour-foods, fruit, and occasional fowls, and there are
no afternoon teas to disturb her digestion and affect
her nerves. She does not indulge in late and
mysteriously cooked suppers, but retires to rest
about two hours after sun-down and is up again at
sunrise. Her clothing has the looseness that per-
mits of perfect freedom of action, and in this respect
she closely, if unconsciously, follows the Grecian
ideal. A woman's dress usually consists of two
pieces of cloth (called kangas), which she winds
gracefully about her person. All native women
love jewellery, such as rings, bracelets, and neck-
laces ; and silver ornaments form an excellent
contrast to their dark skins. Both sexes are
passionately fond of dancing.
The physical endurance of the African native is
great, and my carriers constantly carry loads
XX NOTES ON LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 201
varying from 60 to 80 pounds from early morning
till evening under the rays of a tropical sun, often
going without food, or water, or both, when circum-
stances demand. Moreover, the journey is per-
formed through the most exacting country, up hill
and down dale, doubling under branches and bent
trees, and winding through thick, thorny elephant
grass. If we have the luck to come across water,
all the better, if not, we sleep without food or water
until it is reached the next day. Even then, the
rest is often of the briefest duration ; food is
hurriedly cooked and eaten, and we are off again.
Combined with the native's bodily vigour, is
usually the cheerful contentment that good health
promotes, and his open-air life and habits give him
a certain amount of physical courage. I have
chosen my trackers particularly on account of their
fearlessness and presence of mind in the face of
danger, and they and my carriers are as keenly
interested in hunting as I am myself Several
times, when I have been following up elephants and
there has been a probability of our not coming up
with them, a circumstance which may entail our
sleeping on the spoor, passing a thirsty night, and
starting after them again at dawn, I have waited for
the arrival of my carriers, and told them that, as we
might not find water again that day, they were at
liberty to retrace their steps to the last water-hole
202 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
and await my return. They have invariably replied
in the negative, saying that if my trackers and I can
endure the hardship, they also can and will, and
pointing out that if they were to return to camp and
I kill an elephant in their absence, they would only
be objects of derision to their womenfolk.
Though the native — I do not refer to the coast
native — is instinctively fond of hunting, he lives on
what he grows in his shamba or garden, and in com-
parison with the labourer in civilized countries gets
the necessaries of life easily. When about to clear
the virgin forest for his garden, he asks his wife to
make a lot of beer, and then invites all his friends
to come and help him with the undertaking. They
arrive and set to work with a will, and ere long
they have the trees cut and stacked aside. When
the work is finished, the host treats them to unlimited
beer, and if a wife makes good beer, she is known
for miles around. The shamba is now ready for
cultivation, and with very little labour yields him
anything between one to four crops of Indian corn
a year. In addition, he grows matama (their chief
grain food), sweet potatoes, rice, mealies, bananas,
several kinds of beans and peas, melons, and
pumpkins and vegetable marrows in variety. He
seldom suffers from lack of food, and experiences,
therefore, no difficulty about feeding his children,
while day in, day out, all the year round, he himself
XX NOTES ON LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 203
can drink beer, either the liquor brewed by his
friends, or that made from the products of his own
garden. I think this forms a striking contrast to the
absolute penury and struggle for a bare existence,
among wretched surroundings, that is the lot of the
greater part of the working classes in civilized
countries to-day. With reference to the cheapness
of food, it may. interest the housewife to know that
six to eight fowls may be bought for one shilling and
fourpence, and fifty to a hundred eggs for the same
money.
Considering the native as to his mental aspect, I
should describe him as intensely natural, and when
his mind comes into contact with European ideas of
justice, the consequence is sometimes ludicrous in
the extreme. Let me give an example in
illustration.
A year or so ago, a native came to the Boma
at Liwale to complain that a confederate had
swindled him out of the proceeds of a robbery, and
begged the Bwana Mkubwa (Big Master) to see
that justice was done. Asked to state his case, he
said that, during the native rebellion in 1906, he and
another man had murdered an Indian trader and
looted his stock of goods and money, and that, up
to date, his accomplice in the crime had not divided
the spoil in an equitable manner. The magistrate
managed to keep an unmoved countenance and sent
204 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
the plaintiff with a couple of askaris to arrest the
confederate. This was done, and he was brought
and charged before the magistrate. Ludicrous as it
may seem^ his defence was that, as he had murdered
the Indian himself, with very little assistance from
the plaintiff, he was naturally entitled to the lion's
share of the spoil. Subsequently, they were both
tried, found guilty of murder, and executed, and
even to the very last they were firmly convinced
that someone in authority had blundered, and that,
somehow or other, there had been a dreadful mis-
carriage of justice.
On another occasion, one of my servants came
to me in great distress, saying that his wife's
murderer had just arrived in the district, and asking
me to have him arrested. Explaining the matter,
he said that the murder had been committed ten
years ago, and on my asking him how he recognized
the delinquent after the lapse of so many years, he
replied that he could not be sure of his identity, but
felt certain that the man must be the actual murderer,
for he had been boasting of the deed. I sent for
the man in question and he came quite willingly.
He made no secret of the fact that ten years
previously he had killed a woman, but said he was
rather hazy as to whether it was my man's wife or
not.
I sent him to the nearest magistrate, but the
XX NOTES ON LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 205
latter refused to take any action owing to the length
of time that had elapsed since the perpetration of
the crime.
With regard to religion, most of the coast natives
and a great number of those of the interior have
embraced Moslemism. The remainder are practi-
cally without religion at all, and are called shenzis
(heathens) by their Mahometan brothers. They
have some conception of a Supreme Being, but
very little idea of a hereafter, save perhaps the
belief in a reincarnation in the form of some
animal or other. Simba, my tracker, a man of
great force of character and absolutely without fear,
once expressed his views on this subject of re-
incarnation to me.
'Master,' he said, 'when I die, I should like
my spirit to go into a wild dog, because the wild
dog can kill almost any of the beasts of the
forest. He is swift and tireless, and can get
food with ease and is the only animal against
which the black man's hand is never turned.'
I once had a tracker called Matomoro, who was,
by the way, a very gay Lothario, and, on one
occasion, preparatory to going on a hunt, I heard
Matomoro's father, well primed with pombe, giving
his son the following brief lecture on the conduct
of life. It may be a simple one, but aptly fits the
native mind.
2o6 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xx
' When it's war — well, that's our work ! When
it's hunting, well, that's our work ! When it's love-
making, there's no denying that that's our work
too ! But, my son, whichever it is, do it thoroughly
and " Fanisa kassee kinaoomi " (play a manly
game).'
CHAPTER XXI
THE WILD MAN OF THE GOLAMBEPO MOUNTAINS
Some years ago, I was hunting in the Golambepo
Mountains that fringe the eastern shores of Lake
Nyassa, and my camp was pitched near the
Letombochie stream. The country that sweeps
from the Golambepo to the Awembe Mountains,
with lofty ridge and deep ravine, is perhaps the
most romantic that it has been my lot to see.
Early in the morning, snowy mists cap the peaks,
and from their chilly heights, clear, cold rivulets
leap and dash, shining in the sunlight, to the warm
valleys far below. High up, where the vegetation
is stunted, the aspect is bleak and heartless, and,
gradually, the flora, as if gaining strength in the
descent, like some mountain stream, becomes more
and more beautiful and finally bursts into wild
tropical luxuriance in the heat of the lowlands. In
the uplands, the air is so cool that, on occasions, for
want of other fuel, we have been obliged to gather
dry elephant dung for a fire, in order to enjoy
2o8 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
XXI WILD MAN OF THE GOLAMBEPO MOUNTAINS 209
it had been a man, but now all human intelli-
gence seemed to have departed from the eyes, and
left behind only the quick, furtive glance of the
v/ild animal. His hair and beard were long, grey,
and unkempt ; his face haggard, weather-beaten and
deeply lined ; his form gaunt and wizened with age
and privation. Clothes he had completely dis-
pensed with, and there was in his attitude and de-
meanour that timorous shrinking from contact with
man so characteristic of wild nature. Altogether, he
was an object of pity, the deeper on account of its
hopelessness — this creature that had once been like
others of his kind !
I questioned my men as to how they had come
by him and Usufu, my boy, said that they had
been into the forest in quest of honey and had
found him sleeping ; that he was well known to
them as the wild man of the Golambepo, and had
often before been caught by others of my men.
After some questioning, I managed to elicit from
them the whole story of the poor fellow's career.
Long, long ago, before ever the white man had
been heard of, this old fellow had been the head of
a big village on the Msinjie River. His people
were living contentedly and happy ; there were lots
of children and plenty of food, when, without any
warning, came disaster, as disasters often occur in
this world. One night, when all the village were
2IO ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
peacefully sleeping, a party of Arab slavers and
their miscreant followers, the ruka-ruka, swooped
down upon the huts, butchered the old men and
women in cold blood, and captured the young men,
women and children for slaves. Wakened by the
noise of the burning thatch and the agonized cries
of the wounded and dying outside, the headman
had risen from his kitanda (bed) and rushed out of
the blazing hut. His wife, carrying their only child,
had just dashed out before him, and ere he could
overtake them, he saw in the light from the
conflagration a ruka-ruka run up and despatch the
woman and babe with a scimitar before his very
eyes. Springing upon the fiend, he killed him with
a blow from his knife, and fled into the comparative
safety of the forest.
From that evil day, he had never returned to the
haunts of men, but had ever since dwelt in the
pori, living on locusts and fruit and wild honey,
supplemented with the birds and small game that he
had managed to trap. Constant brooding on the
awful disaster that had befallen him and his people
had at length driven him mad. Often, the people of
the neighbouring villages had caught and brought
him into their kraals and treated him kindly, but he
had never stayed long with them, usually seizing the
first opportunity to escape.
I made my men cut the ropes with which they
XXI WILD MAN OF THE GOLAMBEPO MOUNTAINS 211
had bound him, and asked them to give him food,
a hut to sleep in, and to be kind to him, hoping
that tactful treatment might induce him to remain
comfortably among his fellows. I gave him clothes,
but after wearing them a few hours he discarded
them altogether and never wore them again.
During the week or so that he stayed with me, he
remained most of the time in the seclusion of his
hut, as if averse to mix with human beings, and
after going and seeing him a few times, I came to
the conclusion that his mind was beyond all hope
of return to the normal. Then, one morning,
when my boy wakened me, he told me that the
wild man had gone back to the pori. During the
night, when all were asleep, he had quietly slipped out
of our camp and returned to his retreat in the lonely
Golambepo Mountains. I never saw him again,
but every time I chance upon slaves in my travels,
it recalls to me the sad story of that poor maniac
wandering homeless through the trackless forests,
once a human being, now scarcely more than a
wild beast, a tragic example of * man's inhumanity
to man.'
p 2
CHAPTER XXII
HIPPO AND LION
The hippopotamus, imbued, like all wild animals,
with an instinctive fear of man, only ventures at
night in search of food from the security of the
river or pool that he frequents, and when bent on
this search will, at times, wander quite a distance
from the actual water.
Prior to the incident which I am going to relate,
my natives had often told me that they had found
dead hippos at a considerable distance from water,
and that, from marks upon the carcases, they were
absolutely certain that lions had killed the animals
and fed upon the flesh. I had always discredited,
or, perhaps, to put it more aptly, taken their stories
with a pinch of salt, until on one occasion, near the
Msinjie River, I met with an experience which
fully corroborated their statements. As we were
tramping along parallel with the river, about
seventy yards from the banks, I heard the re-
peated snorts of a hippo, and, at once going
CH. XXII HIPPO AND LION 213
in the direction of the sound, came upon an
extraordinary sight. A lion, having sprung upon
a hippopotamus, was tearing fiercely at the poor
animal's head with his cruel claws and biting
him viciously in the region of the ear, while
the hippo, dazed with the onslaught and blinded
with the pain, was crashing aimlessly through
the grass, going round and round in circles, in
a futile effort to rid himself of his antagonist.
In the struggle, they got clear of the long
grass, and came into the open, where I had a
splendid view of the one-sided contest ; but so
keen is the scent of a lion that, intent as he
was on trying to kill his victim, he caught a
whiff of our scent and, looking round and seeing
us, dropped from the hippo's shoulders and made
swiftly for the long jungle grass. Taking hasty
aim, I fired, the bullet striking him in the hip
just as he disappeared, while the hippo, freed
from his persecutor, rushed madly down to the
river and plunged into a deep pool. Following
the animal's tracks, I came down to the water
and, about a quarter of an hour afterwards,
when he rose to the surface to blow, I fired and
felt sure that the bullet had penetrated his brain
by the peculiar upward jerk that he gave his head
and the way he instantly sank. Leaving some of
my men to wait for his body to float (which
2 14 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.xxii
usually occurs about two hours after death), I
set off in pursuit of the lion. We followed his
tracks for some hours, but as he had only received
a flesh wound and the blood spoor was very
slight, we eventually lost all trace of him.
Towards evening, I returned to the river, where
I found that my men had already succeeded in
dragging the hippo's lumbering body ashore. On
examining the carcase, I discovered that the lion,
besides covering the animal's face and head with
claw marks, had gouged out his left eye and
almost bitten off his right ear, the nature of the
wounds leaving little doubt in my mind that he
would have managed to kill his victim, had I
not appeared so inopportunely on the scene.
CHAPTER XXIII
SUPERSTITION AND A SEQUEL
Everything connected with elephant hunting
and the buying and selHng of ivory is inseparably
interwoven in the native mind with an extraordinary
medley of superstition ; and the snake, which has,
through all the ages, awakened in the human
imagination a sense of mystery mingled with horror,
plays a prominent part in these strange beliefs. For
instance, should a hunter, while hunting, suddenly
encounter a snake, more especially a puff-adder, he
considers the meeting a good augury. On the
other hand, should he meet a chameleon, it
is an extremely inauspicious omen, and to kill the
reptile only makes matters worse.
While on the spoor of elephants, I frequently
encounter snakes and my trackers, on such
occasions, never fail to presage that the result of the
hunt will be favourable, and, though I usually laugh
at their predictions, I must admit that in most
instances they turn out true. Whenever this is the
2i6 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
case, my natives always jokingly remind me of the
fact by saying, ' Bwana, you don't believe in our
superstitions, yet you see there is something in
them after all.'
Once, near the Myaeah Mountains and in the
vicinity of the Lumasuli River, I came across the
tracks of three elephants and after an arduous
chase shot one of the herd, the other two effecting
their escape. As we were dog-tired, I called a halt
and pitched camp, and soon a cheery kettle was
singing, over glowing embers, a paean in praise of
that most refreshing of beverages — tea. After
a brief rest and before settling down for the evening,
I set out with my trackers to reconnoitre the
surrounding country, never dreaming that we should
encounter elephants on the way. As we trudged
easily along, we suddenly came across a beautiful
pool of water, fringed with rustling bamboos and
starred with waterlilies ; and entwined among the
re^ds overhanging the margin of the mere, lurked
the deadly coils of a snake known to the natives as
the jokomahamba (or green namba), one of the
largest and most venomous snakes in Africa. The
reptile was evidently lying in wait for any small
game that might come to drink at the pool, so
raising my 1075 ^'i^^, I took aim and fired,
the bullet cutting its body in two. Both sections
fell to the ground, the forepart containing the
xxui SUPERSTITION AND A SEQUEL 217
head at once coming straight towards me, and
a similar incident, incredible as it may seem,
has occurred to me more than once in my hunting
career. Shooting again, I cut the advancing fore-
part in halves, this time about eighteen inches
from the head, and still the reptile strove to
wriggle towards us, until one of my men, running
up, finished matters by smashing its head to a
pulp with a stick. It has always seemed an
amazing fact to me that the shattering action of a
bullet does not, in severing a snake in two,
utterly paralyse the section containing the head.
However, to resume my story, only a few minutes
after this rencontre with the jokomahamba, we came
across the fresh manure of the two elephants that
we had persuaded ourselves were miles away, and
starting off at once in pursuit, managed without
undue difficulty to bag both of them, Simba stoutly
averring that we had been lucky on our hunt simply
because we had met with the snake.
Sometimes, a dying elephant will take hold of a
tree with his trunk to prevent himself falling, and
when this occurs the inference drawn by the natives
who are hunting is that the wife of the man who
fired the first shot is undoubtedly proving faithless
to him. If an elephant or buffalo charges a native
after he has fired and wounded it, the same deduc-
tion is drawn, but should he be charged by the
2i8 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
quarry before firing, the hunter in question at once
returns to his home, saying the safari is logoed
(bewitched), probably because his wife is proving
herself a disciple of Messalina Valeria. On reach-
ing his village, he puts his suspected wife or female
slave through the poison ordeal, which is so
arranged that some one is ultimately made the
scapegoat, and as wives and slaves are generally
considered much too precious to lose, the poison is,
in most cases, administered to an unoffending fowl.
If the fowl dies, the accused is at once punished ;
if it lives, the accused, to put it in hackneyed
phrase, 'leaves the court without a stain on her
character.' Now, some one is certainly guilty of
misbehaviour and she must be found, so another
wife is accused and the fowl house is called upon
to supply another martyr to justice. Probably,
thouorh it can never be asserted as an incontro-
vertible fact, the native hunter has predetermined
which wife is to receive punishment, and when her
turn for trial comes round, gives a more potent dose
of poison to the fowl that is to serve as an index to
her probity or guilt.
Some years ago, at the Lumasuli River, I
engaged an elephant hunter of the name of
Makabuli to take me to the haunts of elephants in
this district, and one evening, having encamped
near a water-hole, we heard, near by, the smashing
XXIII SUPERSTITION AND A SEQUEL 219
of trees by an elephant. Rushing out in pursuit,
we found that the animal was only a young male
with insignificant tusks, who, as an elephant often
will, came inquisitively on to see what new species
of animal he had suddenly encountered. Makabuli
at once sprang away to the rear, and the young
elephant made a short, easy rush after him, as if
wishing to give him a good fright. At the same
instant I fired in the air, hoping to scare the animal
away, and, as I had expected, the noise of the dis-
charge sent him oft" full speed in the opposite
direction.
That night Makabuli, obsessed with the idea
that one of his wives was proving faithless to him,
was in such a state of excitement that he could not
sleep, and no amount of assurance on my part that
his troubles were merely imaginary would pacify
him. He expressed a wish to return to camp at
once, but I was obliged to refuse him this favour,
because he was the only one of our party who was
well acquainted with the country.
Early next forenoon, having come across the
fresh spoor of four large tuskers and decided to
follow them up, I all at once discovered that
Makabuli, who was carrying extra cartridges for my
heavy rifle, my binoculars, and rifle telescope, was
missing, and thinking that a lion must have seized
him, or that some other mishap had befallen him, I
220 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch
immediately sent my men to scour the long grass in
search of him. But all they discovered was Maka-
buli's tracks leading straight back to camp, and, as I
could not spare men to send in pursuit of him at
such an awkward
time, we continued the
hunt and managed to
bag a couple of the
herd.
Next day, we
turned our steps
homeward, and, on
arriving at our des-
tination, learned that
Makabuli had
reached camp on the
previous evening.
Still brooding over
the little incident of
the charging elephant,
he had gone in search
of his wives, and had
found one of them actually drinking pombe (beer)
and flirting with one of my men. Burning with
jealousy, Makabuli was more convinced than ever
that his suspicions were not utterly groundless,
so, taking his wife to his hut, he belaboured her
soundly, burning her hands and tearing all her
MAKABULI
xxni SUPERSTITION AND A SEQUEL 221
clothes by way of chastisement for her unseemly
conduct.
Those of my men who had been left in camp
then asked him how it was that he had returned
with my cartridges, binoculars, etc., to which he
replied that I had given him permission, but they,
with the keen intuition of their race, guessed that
he had deserted, and promptly tied him up pending
my return. My men's wives, infuriated at the
brutal way Makabuli had treated his wife, begged
me on my return to punish him severely. Feeling
that Makabuli deserved it, I told them that they
had better take the law into their own hands and
mete out the punishment they thought most appro-
priate to the occasion. This they promptly did :
about a dozen of them (and I may say that a native
woman is no weakling) soundly thrashed him, and,
as a native can suffer no greater humiliation than to
be beaten by women, Makabuli, I think, thoroughly
expiated his misdemeanour.
CHAPTER XXIV
NERVES AT NTUNKWAE
In June, 1908, whilst on the way from Lindi to
the Mahenge district, I was obliged to lie up at a
small village near Ntunkwae Hill, about three days'
journey from the Songea Coliectorate ; for I had
been suffering for about a month from recurrent
attacks of tick-fever, which had reduced me to a
thoroughly exhausted condition.
One morning, during my enforced stay in the
locality, I was roused from sleep and informed by the
village headman, Potosambo, that two of his men,
who had been into the forest in search of bees-wax,
had just returned with the report that a large elephant,
which had killed a native hunter the previous even-
ing, was only a few miles off in the neighbourhood.
Hearing that a European was encamped in the
village, they had travelled all night to inform him of
this disaster, in the hope of inducing him to come
and slay the elephant, which, they averred, was well
CH.xxiv NERVES AT NTUNKWAE 223
known to them, and had exceptionally small feet in
comparison with the enormous size of his tusks.
The idea of an elephant hunt did not appeal to me
in my low state of health as the most desirable thing
on earth, but, persuaded by their persistent entreaties,
I at length decided to set out in a maschilla for the
native hunters' camp, for I was much too weak to do
any prolonged marching. Arriving at my destina-
tion about ten o'clock, I saw the remains of their
companion who had been killed the previous
evening, and, as long as I live, I shall never
forget the sight! His body was shockingly
trampled, his head crushed to a pulp, as if it
had been pounded under a steam hammer, and in
his stomach there was a frightful gash inflicted by
the animal's tusk. To a man whose energy had
been sapped by a month's fever, the spectacle was
not an encouraging preliminary to setting out on an
elephant hunt, so, striving to forget the ghastly
details of the affair, I took leave of the native
hunters and, accompanied by my trackers and men,
began my search for the murderer's spoor. Ere
long, we came upon his tracks, which crossed and
recrossed in the bamboos and long jungle grass
abounding in this part of the country, and after a
few hours' steady progress, knew, by the clear
impressions of his feet, that we were drawing closer
to our quarry. I now got out of my maschilla, and
2 24 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
cautioning my men to keep a considerable distance
behind, lest they should disturb the elephant, pro-
ceeded to follow up the spoor on foot, my tracker,
Malingum, carrying my heavy double rifle, and
Ntawasie my light 1075 "^^n. After another
hour's work, we came up with the animal standing
stock-still in a thicket of bamboos about fifty yards
distant, with his head turned away from us ; and, as
the wind was blowing at a dangerous angle from us
to him and the level, bamboo and grass-covered
country rendered a detour difficult, I decided to
wait a few minutes, hoping that he might turn
slightly and give me the opportunity of placing a
bullet in a vital spot. At this juncture, a faint trace
of our scent must have reached him, for he began
tentatively sniffing the wind with his trunk, and
turned his head slightly to the left. The moment
was an anxious one, and Malingum, growing im-
patient, whispered : ' He has winded us, bwana ;
fire, or he will be off ! ' So, aiming several inches
behind the animal's ear, at an angle that I
calculated would ensure the bullet reaching his
brain, I fired my first barrel, but was very much
surprised to find that the brute did not even budge
from where he stood. (I discovered on subsequent
examination that the bullet had struck him too high
up to be effective.) I promptly emptied my second
barrel iilto him aiming for his heart, and the instant
XXIV NERVES AT NTUNKWAE 225
the shot struck him he slewed round and charged
us like lightning. Having no time to reload, I
dropped my heavy rifle and, snatching my 1075
from Ntawasie, who, with Malingum, now rushed
to the rear for dear life, I sent my first shot full in
the elephant's face, but the bullet had absolutely no
ELEPHANT WHICH NEARLY KILLED ME.
Stopping effect, and on he came, the very embodi-
ment of malign fury ! When he was almost on me,
I drove a second bullet into his skull and brought
him down, only three yards from where I stood,
and ere he could rise, I finished him with a third.
My post-mortem on the animal revealed to me
that the heart shot that I had attempted with my
•577 had struck him too high and too far back, while
Q
226 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
the first shot from my 1075 mm. had passed
through the upper portion of his forehead, and I can
only ascribe my poor shooting on this occasion to
my weak condition and the unsteady state of my
nerves, due to the repeated heavy doses of quinine
that I had taken as a febrifuge. I can, moreover,
assure the reader that it is no easy matter, after a
solid month's fever, to manipulate in bush country a
rifle weighing thirteen pounds.
The elephant which I had bagged proved to be a
comparatively small animal, measuring just about
eleven feet at the shoulder. His feet, as the natives
had remarked, were peculiarly small for such an old
beast, but, what was more important, his tusks were
beautifully long and straight and weighed 113 and
107 lbs., respectively. On his carcase we counted
the scars of twenty-seven old bullet wounds, and
three fresh bullet wounds received from the native
hunters whose companion he had killed on the
previous day. One of the last-mentioned bullets had
become imbedded in the vertebrae of his tail, and
must have caused him considerable pain and
rendered him unusually vicious.
This veteran of a hundred fights had, so the
native hunters informed me, killed three other
hunters in this district within the previous few years;
one of them, Fundi Bakali, by driving a tusk through
his chest and afterwards kneeling on his body ; a
XXIV NERVES AT NTUNKWAE 227
second, Chokoma, of the Chacunda tribe, by a blow
.from his trunk and trampling on him ; the third,
Hongo, an Angoni, in a similar manner to Fundi
Bakali.
The above little casualty list, I think, goes to
prove that elephant hunting is not the tame sport
that some writers would like to make out.
Q 2
CHAPTER XXV
MAD BUFFALO AND FAITHLESS WIFE
I DO not wish to express any opinion as to the
value of native superstitious behefs, but their
connection with an experience I once had with a
buffalo brought about an extraordinary sequel. I
will relate the story and leave the reader to
formulate his own ideas upon the subject.
At the time in question, I was encamped at the
Sultan Leanduka's village near the Luwegu River,
a tributary of the Rufiji. One morning, about
2 o'clock, I was awakened by Malingum, one of my
trackers, who came to tell me that some natives had
just arrived, in a state of great excitement, with the
report that an elephant was in the act of plundering
one of their shambas, or gardens, and that in half
an hour they could conduct me to the scene of
spoliation. Feeling tired and sleepy and a little
annoyed at this ruthless interruption of my
peaceful slumbers at such an unearthly hour, I bade
Malingum convey my sincere sympathy to the
aaS
CH.xxv MAD BUFFALO AND FAITHLESS WIFE 229
natives in question and tell them that they must
wait till dawn, when I should come and try
conclusions with the marauder. In a few choice
but comprehensive phrases, I summarized my
feelings on elephants and natives generally, and.
BUFFALO AND THE WOUNDED MALINGUM.
somewhat relieved, pulled my blankets about me,
and slipped once more into dreamland.
Half an hour after day-break found us in the
shambas, where the elephant had wrought consider-
able havoc, and, picking up his spoor, we plunged
into a dense thicket of long grass, which towered
twelve to fifteen feet in height. My tracker,
Malingum, carrying my 1075 rifle, was in front of
me, intent on the spoor, my other tracker followed
230 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
in my wake with my heavy double 577, while a
few native carriers, with some light baggage, were
bringing up the rear, at a distance of several
hundred yards. Confident that the elephant, who
had gained a good start, was a long way ahead of
us, we were hurrying along the spoor with some-
what less than our usual caution, when, all of a
sudden, we heard, in the grass to our right, a loud
crashing, accompanied by a series of short, angry
grunts, which only too clearly indicated a charging
buffalo. So taken by surprise were my men, that
Malingum dashed away forward as hard as his legs
could carry him and Hyiah promptly beat a hasty
retreat, each carrying a rifle and leaving me to face
the awkward situation unarmed. The buffalo
emerged from the long grass only a few feet in front
of me and, catching sight of Malingum making
his record sprint, charged madly after him. The
animal was fast overtaking my speedy tracker,
when, to my horror, the latter caught his foot on
some exposed root or other obstacle and went
sprawling headlong to earth. Either being dazed
by his fall or retaining his presence of mind,
my tracker lay perfectly still, holding my rifle at
arm's length above his head, slightly to the right of
him. On thundered the buffalo, and, catching with
his horns the rifle that Malingum held aloft, he
tossed the weapon some twenty yards away.
XXV MAD BUFFALO AND FAITHLESS WIFE 231
fortunately, as we afterwards discovered, without
injuring it, though the stock still bears the
marks of the rude encounter. Before my tracker
had time to rise, the animal had turned, and was
about to gore him, when Malingum, with frantic
determination and admirable coolness, plunged his
knife into the beast's right eye. This temporarily
disconcerted the animal and gave my tracker
time to roll aside, but, feeling that his victim
was about to escape, the brute returned to the
fray and, making a savage lunge at my man,
fortunately missed him, and smashed his right horn
on the ground. Next moment, Malingum had
nimbly regained his feet and was flying headlong
in my direction, pursued by the enraged buffalo.
At this critical juncture, Hyiah, having recovered
from his fright, reappeared and handed me my
heavy rifle, but as Malingum, disregarding my
shouted orders to jump aside, only came on all the
quicker, straight as a die to where we stood, it
was quite impossible for me to get a shot at his
pursuer. Next moment, the beast overtook the
poor fellow, and with a sharp blow of his gigantic
horns tossed him several yards away to the right.
As he turned to finish his victim, I seized the
opportunity for which I had been waiting and
brought the brute down with a bullet through the
shoulder, and ere he could rise, my second barrel
232 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
gave him the coup de grace. Rushing up to my
tracker, who I felt sure had been killed, I was
delighted to find not only that he was alive but
that his injuries were far less serious than the
nature of the encounter would have led one to
expect. The blow that he had received from the
buffalo's horn had badly bruised his thigh and cut
a deep gash in the flesh, but luckily no bones were
broken. The flesh wound I speedily disinfected
and stitched up, a fine slip of sharpened bamboo
serving as needle, the thread being procured by
unravelling the twill of my khaki shirt — such is
the rough and ready surgery of the pori — and ere
a month had passed, Malingum had quite recovered
from the ill-effects of his unexpected encounter.
The natives of the neighbouring village after-
wards informed me that this very buffalo, which
they said was undoubtedly mad, had killed two of
their comrades who had followed it up.
The sequel attaching to this little adventure is
as follows. When Malingum had quite recovered
from his injuries, I noticed that he suffered from
severe mental depression, and as he was one of
those happy, laughing, devil-may-care, God-send-
holidays-and-Sundays-often kind of fellows, who
appeared to have a sweetheart in every village
through which we passed, I was naturally at a loss
to account for his strange change of manner. On
• XXV MAD BUFFALO AND FAITHLESS WIFE 233
my inquiring of him the cause of his unusual low
spirits, he replied : —
* Oh, bwana, do you wonder at my feeling de-
pressed ? My wife must have taken another
husband, for that is why the buffalo tried to kill
me.'
All my endeavours to laugh the fellow out of
this curious belief proved futile, and he, for whom
life had always been an affair of bubbles and
butterflies, went about his work a changed being.
Curiously enough, two months after this little
conversation, some of Malingum's friends, hailing
from the Fipa country, near Lake Tanganyika,
about three hundred miles away, turned up at
my camp, bringing with them a note for my
tracker from his brother. On learning from this
missive that his wife had deserted him for another
man, my tracker at once brought the note for
my perusal.
* Read this letter, bwana ! ' he cried. ' Didn't I
tell you that my wife must have been faithless to me
when that accursed buffalo endeavoured to kill me?
You laughed at what you called my superstitious
beliefs — what do you think of them now ? However,
now that I am certain, my mind is at rest. She is
nothing to me, for I can get plenty of younger and
prettier women in every village to which we go. As
for a wife, when I return to my own kraal, I shall
234 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xxv
marry a woman who is both old and ugly, and who,
instead of frittering away her time in love-making,
will spend it wisely in preparing food and pombe for
me. After all, what else does a man want a wife
for?'
Ere many weeks had elapsed, Malingum had
recovered all his old gaiety, and it was cheerful to
hear his wholesome laughter and light-hearted
chatter in the camp once more.
In explanation of the above episode, let me state
that the idea is firmly imbedded in the mind of every
native hunter of these parts that, if an elephant or
buffalo charge him without provocation, or if his gun
hang fire in the chase, it is purely and simply because
his wife is proving unfaithful to him. Should such
an incident occur when he is hunting, he usually
returns at once to his village, calls the villagers
together, accuses his wives, and subjects them to
the poison ordeal, a description of which rite I have
given in another chapter.
CHAPTER XXVI
MY TWO WILD DOGS
One day, when tramping after elephants through
primeval forest, near the Lukumbuli stream, I
came upon a pack of wild dogs, which, as wild dogs
usually do, barked, and slinking off to a safe
distance, inquisitively awaited our approach, only to
disappear again as we came up to them. All at
once, Simba, my tracker, calling my attention to a
peculiarly subdued yelping, said : — ' Bwana, I hear
the wild dogs' pups ! ' and, listening intently to
ascertain their whereabouts, we finally came to a
lair made by the imbavie in which the dogs had
taken up their abode. As we hadn't discovered
elephant spoor and our time was our own, I decided
to try to unearth these pups, but the task was
more onerous than we had anticipated, and it took us
two days to dig down to where they lay. Selecting
three of the ugly little devils, who, by the way,
gave off a most pronounced and disagreeable odour,
235
236 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
I took them back to camp with me, resolved to
make an attempt to domesticate them.
In this effort I only partially succeeded, for even
when on their best behaviour, they evinced un-
mistakable signs of their wild nature, and their
odour remained unchanged to the last, surviving
repeated attacks of the strongest of scented soaps.
I used to call them to food with a cry resembling
their own eerie howl, when prowling at night
among the mysterious shadows of the forest, and
they soon learned to come at once in response,
but during feeding they reverted to wild animals
pure and simple. Their diet, by the way, from the
puppy stage, consisted solely of meat, in fact, they
would touch no other kind of food, and as they
were particularly fond of young, fat hippo, I have
occasionally shot these animals in the Rovuma
River on purpose to give them a treat.
After three months of 'civilization,' the first,
through some cause unknown to me, sickened and
died, and when eighteen months old, the second
picked up poison and came to an untimely end.
The third, whom I called Jumbo, I kept for more
than two years. He became a great pet of mine,
and, considering his ancestry and nature, conceived
an extraordinary affection for me, assiduously follow-
ing me out on my hunting expeditions, and often,
at evening, in camp, rolling and jumping about
XXVI MY TWO WILD DOGS 237
me in an unmistakable invitation to join his
play.
On one occasion, he fell ill, and as I was setting
out from camp on a hunt, I decided to leave him
behind in charge of some of my men, hoping that
with rest and plenty of good food he would recu-
perate. On my return, about a month afterwards,
Jumbo was delighted to see me, and having
thoroughly recovered from his indisposition, came
running up to me in a state of wild excitement,
licking my hands and scampering round me and
through my legs for sheer joy, but I had not been
long in camp before I learned that he had
developed a very nasty temper towards my natives.
Apiart from the fact that he had bitten two of them,
and there was a chance of blood-poisoning ensu-
ing, my head man informed me that my natives
threatened to leave me if I kept the dog. Now, on
setting out from camp, I had left fowls for Jumbo's
food, and told my natives to snare quails, pigeons
and guinea-fowls to supplement this diet, but I felt
certain that Jumbo had seen little of these luxuries
intended to restore him to health, and had been ill-
treated into the bargain. So I forgave him his sins,
and having cajoled my men into a better frame of
mind, things ran smoothly once more. But alas !
Jumbo's very faithfulness to me brought about his
end, for, one day, a native, when approaching me,
238 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xxvi
sharply threw up his hand in a military salute, and
my dog, who was standing- by me at the time,
doubtless mistaking this action of the native for a
preliminary to striking me, flew at him and seized
him by the jaw, tearing him very badly. There
was nothing else to do but have poor old Jumbo
destroyed ! I hadn't the heart to shoot him myself,
so commissioned one of my men to perform this act
for me, but his death upset me, and, even now, the
memory of this wild pet of mine is green in my
mind.
The natives, without exception, say that lions
will never come near wild dogs, and there may be
some truth in this, for a pack of them would prove
a formidable foe to any beast of the forest. They
are very swift and almost tireless, and their fangs
are peculiarly adapted for tearing their prey to
pieces. I once saw a couple of wild dogs pursue a
hartebeeste, and they kept pace with this fleet beast
with the greatest of ease, every now and then
springing at and plucking a mouthful of living flesh
from its flanks. I shot the hartebeeste, and, scared
by the report of my rifle the wild dogs promptly
bolted.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE GENTLE ART OF POISONING
The African native is a past-master in the art of
poisoning. The practice is so common that his out-
look on Hfe is always tinged with a fear that, at any
moment, he may fall a victim to this death that gives
no warning of its approach. He, therefore, takes
every precaution to prevent an untimely and painful
end at the hand of a treacherous enemy, who,
suffering from some real or imaginary wrong, has no
compunction in doing him to death, while seemingly
on fairly friendly terms. For instance, when a
native on a journey comes to a village and begs a
drink of water or beer, he always waits until the
donor drinks first as a pledge of good faith ; and he
will never partake of a dish of food, until the host
has eaten some beforehand.
To the average European, who probably labours
under some misconception that the negro is stupid,
the almost devilish cunning with which he removes
an enemy without incurring any risk to himself, will
240 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
come as something in the nature of an eye-opener.
Let me briefly describe the modus operandi which is
often adopted, and, after perusal, the reader may
draw his own conclusions as to the quality of mind
necessary to originate such an ingenious plan of
murder.
Suppose Mputa is labouring under the idea that
Manjora has wronged him. Open murder is out of
the question — it may be a more manly method of
getting rid of him; it is certainly crude, and impolitic.
Life is dear to Mputa, and he is most averse to
endangering it over such a nonentity as Manjora :
therefore, he must poison him. The first step in the
undertaking is to procure the necessary poison with-
out rousing suspicion, and this is managed very
cleverly and simply ; he persuades a friend, Usufu,
living in a distant village, to get the commodity
from a medicine man there. This effected, he
arranges with another dear friend, H amice, to per-
form the delicate and difficult operation of
administering the deadly stuff, and Hamice, being
quite friendly with Manjora, can carry out this
portion of the scheme without rousing the suspicion
of anyone, and is, moreover, not at all averse to
becoming an accomplice in the crime, provided
Mputa assures him of a quid pro quo when the pain-
ful death of that heathen Manjora has become a
thing of the past. There is no prick of conscience
XXVII THE GENTLE ART OF POISONING 241
to disturb his rest, for he has no belief in an
avenging deity, nor any lucid conception of a here-
after, and the only thing that troubles him is the
risk of discovery, a catastrophe which he employs
all his skill to avoid.
The preliminaries all settled, Hamlce finds that
Manjora is such a good fellow that it is distinctly a
duty to ask him to a quiet meal. This, however, is
most discreetly done ; there is no necessity to make
any definite appointment with regard to the affair,
and over such a ticklish operation time is not a
matter of consequence. So it happens that Manjora
chances to pass one day as Hamice is waiting to
partake of food that his wife is preparing, and, in a
most casual way, Hamice asks him to share the
meal. Manjora, being hungry, accepts the invita-
tion, and Hamice immediately repairs to the spot
outside the house where his wife is preparing the
food. From her hands, he takes the dish and,
carrying it through the hut to where Manjora sits
on a mat in pleasurable anticipation of a savoury
meal, on the way inserts a portion of the poison
into the dish of food, taking particular care to note
the exact position of the lethal stuff by some
distinct mark on the platter.
' Come, let us eat, friend,' he says jovially, as he
puts down the food between himself and Manjora,
and soon they are eating and chatting, as if nothing
R
242 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
at all were the matter. Manjora, having done
justice to an excellent repast, and made a clean
job of his side of the dish, is doubtless inwardly
thinking that Hamice's wife is a most dainty cook.
He has not the slightest suspicion of the
treacherous game that Hamice has played on him,
for the poison which he has swallowed is absolutely
tasteless. Some of the food still remains on the
dish and Jiamice, to put an artistic touch to the
whole drama, passes it over to his own children,
bidding them eat and be strong, which they do
with alacrity, and the whole fiendish deed is
accomplished.
About an hour or so afterwards, Manjora, who
has left his friend and gone on his way, feels an
irresistible desire to sleep, so adjourns to the
shelter of his hut. There, he begins to suffer from
an unquenchable thirst, and is subsequently seized
with acute internal pains, which leave the poor
fellow writhing in agony. A little while after he
is no more.
Should any suspicion attach to Hamice, he can
easily prove his innocence ; for did not he and his
own children partake of the very same food as
Manjora? Besides, why should he do Manjora to
death ? He bore the man no ill-will ; on the con-
trary, he was one of his best friends.
Some months afterwards, Mputa, the hidden and
xxvii THE GENTLE ART OF POISONING 243
moving spirit of the whole piece of diabolic
treachery, meets H amice, recompenses him for his
kindly assistance, and together they drink pombe
and indulge in a hearty laugh at the way in which
that fool Manjora thoroughly enjoyed his last
meal.
There are many ways of poisoning, and I
should like to describe another method sometimes
used as an alternative to the above, which is also
conspicuous for the clever manner in which the
perpetrator avoids all suspicion, the poisoner, how-
ever, in this case, doing his own dirty work.
Procuring little sharp stakes, he hollows the points
and inserts poison into the cavities, the poison
generally used being that made from the ujungu
tree, perhaps the most deadly of the various poisons
known to the native and the particular kind that
they apply to their spears and arrows. The next
move is to insert the little stakes at a slight angle
to the path which leads from the enemy's hut
to his garden and await results. Sooner or later,
the intended victim slightly lacerates his foot with
one of these sharp stakes, and being accustomed
to scratches, takes no notice of the matter, but ere
many minutes have passed, his foot and leg begin
to swell, and in an hour or so he expires in great
pain. Both the victim and his relatives know
exactly what has happened, but, as the whole plan
K 2
244 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
has been carried out with the utmost secrecy, there
is very little chance of the culprit being discovered
and brought to justice.
The above practices are known to few, if any,
Europeans living in those parts of Africa in which
they obtain ; and the reader may naturally wonder
how I have managed to become acquainted with
therri. Let me explain. During my ten years of
hunting, I have been in many life and death
escapades with my trackers and men, and, as the
reader can see by my narrative, we have again and
again pulled one another out of a tight corner.
This fact alone is apt to breed an intimacy of
thought among men, however diverse the races to
which they may belong. Besides, I speak their
language as fluently, perhaps more fluently, than I
do my own, and often, for. the very sake of com-
panionship, I will let drop the strict sense of master
and man, and joke and laugh with them in a
familiar way. They appreciate this without taking
any advantage of it, and when in a communicative
mood, tell me things that intimately concern their
private lives, a subject which they rarely, if ever,
touch upon with a European.
I shall now set down a list of the more virulent
poisons generally used by the natives, either for
personal revenge, for poisoning arrows and spears,
or for use in the poison ordeals.
XXVII THE GENTLE ART OF POISONING 245
The most widely used is that brewed from the
inner bark of the mwavie tree, of which there are
two species, very similar in appearance, the one
being distinguished from the other by a slight
difference in the leaves. The commoner species of
mwavie is used for the poison ordeals, and the effect
depends upon the quantity administered, a small
dose causing death, but a large one only inducing
violent vomiting, which obviates a fatal issue. The
other species (also extracted from the inner bark of
the tree) is used by the tribes inhabiting the regions
about Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika, and is called
lepunganonie by the Angoni. A dose of this poison
means certain death, but it has this distinctive
quality — when inserted in native beer and left for
two or three hours, it imparts a reddish tinge to the
liquor and thus discloses its presence. The
powdered bark, however, is almost colourless
and tasteless, and, when mixed with food, defies
detection.
Another most virulent poison is procured by
reducing the roots of the manyanga shrub to a
powder, but it has one defective quality as far as its
use by natives is concerned, i.e., it exudes a most
obnoxious odour. Unfortunately, it is so deadly
that a small dose mixed in beer or food may pass
undetected, and death will ensue in about two hours
after consumption.
246 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
From the roots of a creeper, called letaegaera by
the Angoni, the natives extract a most virulent
poison, which will prove fatal in about an hour, the
effects of the poison being peculiar in that, prior to
death, it causes paralysis of the nerve centres
affecting speech.
Another largely used poison is distilled from the
blossom of the strophanthus shrub, the natives about
Lake Nyassa calling it combe. An infinitesimal
dose of this drug is used in European medicine as
a cardiac stimulant.
That great enemy of the native, the crocodile,
also adds indirectly to its list of native victims by
its own death, for its gall, when dried in the sun
and pulverized, makes a most deadly poison.
There are many poisons used by the natives for
their arrows, poisoned stakes, etc., but of all these,
by far the most deadly is that obtained from the
ujungu tree. This tree, found chiefly in the Mhega
district of the Wangindo country, German East
Africa, is of a peculiar whitish colour, and of so
deadly a nature that only certain natives will
venture to cut it, for a splinter causes terrible
inflammation and often proves fatal. It seems as
if Nature has mercifully restricted these trees to
very distinct localities, and, unlike other trees,
they are neither plentiful nor beautiful. This being
so, natives will travel hundreds of miles to purchase
XXVII THE GENTLE ART OF POISONING 247
this poison, to procure which, the tree itself is burnt
and the ashes mixed with water. This mixture is
then boiled down until it is highly concentrated and
of the consistency of thick paste, when it is ready
for use. Native hunters use it for poisoning the
bullets which they fire from their muzzle-loaders.
First, they dip the bullet in the poisonous paste,
then, to keep the poison in place, bind the missile
with very fine twine, and dip it at once in boiling
bees-wax. When such a bullet penetrates game, a
certain amount of the poison is naturally carried
into the animal, and I can only ascribe the huge
scars that I have at times discovered on elephants
that I have shot to the brutally cruel effect of these
poisoned projectiles. The natives say that neither
moths nor snakes will venture near this deadly tree
and that birds never rest in its branches.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TWO LEOPARD STORIES
Lake Nyassa is, for the most part, surrounded by
high hills, which send down ridges and ravines
almost to the water's edge. The land between the
mountains and the actual lake being very fertile, the
natives settle there in great numbers ; in fact, the
whole of the eastern shore of this expanse of water
may be said to consist of a continuous line of villages.
Rice gardens flourish along the margin of the Lake,
and other gardens lie behind them and stretch back
to the hills. All this country forms an ideal home
for the leopard, for he can pass the day in the cool
shade of the deep gulleys, and at night steal down
to the villages to look for the dainties he loves so
well — especially sheep, goats, dogs, and fowls.
Some time ago, I was encamped at Chingomangie's
village, near the Lake shore, and had with me, at
the time, a flock of thirteen ducks. In the light of
good old superstition, an adverse fate was bound to
cut short their career, and, to assist fate in the matter,
243
CH. XXVIII TWO LEOPARD STORIES 249
the district abounded with leopards. For greater
safety, I used to pen the birds at night in a large
box, which I kept quite close to my tent ; but in
spite of all my precautions, I discovered, one morning,
that they had all disappeared. Having heard no
noise during the night, I came to the conclusion that
the birds had managed to find a way out of their
pen and strayed, and immediately sent out my boy in
search of them. He returned shortly afterwards,
saying that he had discovered them all dead in a
patch of bush, not far from my camp, and following
him to the spot, I found his story correct in every
detail. The whole thirteen were there, nearly every
one minus its head, while on the soft, damp ground
between my camp and the patch of bush, we could
clearly see the spoor of a leopard. It was evident
from the impressions of his feet that he had made a
separate journey for each duck, and there is little
doubt that he had seized the birds by the head to
prevent them creating the slightest noise.
I laid all sorts of traps to entice that leopard
back to my camp, but he was a wily brute, and never
gave me the chance of putting a bullet into him.
At this time, I had a bull-terrier, called Brandy,
whom I had reared from a puppy. He was a perfect
specimen of his breed, and on one occasion, at
Blantyre Dog Show, carried off the first prize for his
class against all British Central Africa. 1 was ex-
250 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
ceptionally fond of the dog, and wherever I went on
my hunting expeditions always took him with me,
chaining him at night to one of my tent-poles, lest
he should be carried off by a lion or a leopard. One
night, it was a night of glorious tropical moon-
THE author's bull TERRIER * BRANDY '
shine, I had him chained in the above manner at the
door of my tent, while quite close to the tent was a
fire by which sat a watchman, who replenished it
throughout the night as it burned low. I had also
arranged cut thorn bushes in such a way that any
prowler of the night would have to pass close to the
XXVIII
TWO LEOPARD STORIES
251
fire ere he could reach the door of the tent, and
feeling that everything was secure, had gone peace-
fully to sleep. I was awakened, some hours later,
by the yell of a frightened human being and the
snarling growls of a leopard. Instinctively seizing
my magazine pistol, which I always keep under my
pillow, I jumped out of bed to find a leopard and my
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bull terrier in the throes of a fierce encounter, the
faithful watchman having long since made himself
scarce. Now, Brandy was endowed with all the
pluck and fighting instinct of his breed, besides
being fully trained to take care of himself, and at
the very outset of the combat had, with his usual
tactics and extreme quickness, managed to fasten
his teeth into the side of the leopard's neck. There
he hung^ on like grim death, his own neck being
252 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
fortunately protected by a broad, brass-studded collar.
Afraid of wounding my dog, I fired two shots in
quick succession into the leopard's hip and instantly
another into his shoulder ; but these failed to give
him his quietus, and the conflict continued as fiercely
as ever. As they writhed and fought, I could see
every movement of the leopard in the bright tropical
moonshine, and seizing the first favourable oppor-
tunity, sent a bullet through his heart, instantly
killing him. Even then, Brandy clung to his op-
ponent, as if determined to avenge himself for the
mauling he had received, and it was some time be-
fore I could coax the plucky dog to loosen his hold.
When I did so, I found that my bull-terrier's chest
and left hip were terribly torn by the leopard's sharp
claws. Very gently I cleaned, disinfected and
stitched up the warrior's wounds, and made him as
comfortable as his injuries would permit, but so
badly had he been lacerated in the struggle, that it
took him two months to recover thoroughly from
the effects.
Poor Brandy ! he afterwards succumbed to that
bane of tropical Africa, the tse-tse fly. At the time
of his death, I happened to have a store in the
district for the purchase of rubber, bees-wax, etc.,
from the natives, and wrapping up the remains of
my poor old friend in a roll of cloth, I buried him in
a hole in the earthen floor of the same store. So
XXVIII TWO LEOPARD STORIES 253
upset was I at losing my chum, that, somehow or
other, that store all at once became intensely
obnoxious to me ; it symbolized the unhealthy district
and the dreaded fly that had accounted for poor
Brandy, so putting a match to the place, I sent it
with its stock of goods and chattels heavenwards in
smoke and flame — a funeral pyre to as fine a dog as
anyone could have wished to meet. I left the
district the same day and have never returned.
CHAPTER XXIX
MAHOMETAN FAITH AND ELEPHANT MEAT
The Mahometan, as is well known, never
partakes of the flesh of an animal that has not been
killed by cutting its throat with the usual formalities
prescribed by the religion, and, of course, the ele-
phant, like the pig, is one of the animals that
is taboo among the followers of the Prophet.
Some time ago (it was in October, 1907), I
witnessed a most amusing spectacle in which
temptation and faith engaged in a bitter struggle for
mastery, a spectacle which might have served to
illustrate an old saying inverted — ' the flesh is strong
but the spirit is weak.' At the time of which I
speak, I had among my men several who were pure
and unadulterated heathens — and splendid fellows
to boot ! On one occasion, the day after I had shot
some elephants, these happy pagans were making a
good meal on the fat, juicy flesh done to a turn over
a clear, wood fire, when several natives of the
Wangindo tribe, Mahometans by faith, came
CH.xxix MAHOMETAN FAITH, ETC. 255
upon the scene and stood spectators of this goodly-
repast. For a while, they watched the eating
unmoved ; then the savour of the cooked flesh,
making a swift onslaught on their most sacred
beliefs, they grew hesitant ; and, finally, after a brief
consultation, arrived at a unanimous decision.
Elephant meat had won the day, and they came
forward, saying that they had been foolish long
enough in adhering to such an austere faith, and
henceforth were going to consume whatever food
the gods sent them and elephant meat in particular.
So sitting down, they joined my men's feast,
toasting and eating and making merry over the
savoury flesh, while the Mahometan faith was
relegated, for the time being, to the region of
unpleasant memories.
In the midst of this rude but cheerful banquet,
there appeared on the scene an old man, wearing
under his arm a board on which was written a
Mahometan prayer, a custom followed by many
devotees of that faith, and after the usual salaams
had been exchanged, one of my men jokingly asked
him to join the repast, never for a moment dream-
ing that he would do so. At first, the old man
emphatically refused, and, as if afraid that proximity
to such impiety would defile him, went and sat
down a short distance away and closely watched his
degenerate brothers, who had so weakly lapsed into
256 ADVENTURES OF|AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
heathenism. Whether he was * pitying them and
offering up a silent prayer on their behalf, I do
not know, but, with man's frail nature, looking
temptation in the face is admittedly an unwise
proceeding, and when the old fellow asked the
feasters what the meat tasted like, and whether it
was tough, I felt that the ice of his asceticism was
beginning to thaw in the sunshine of their epicur-
eanism, and pondered on the insatiability of human
curiosity as to the nature of sin ! My men replied
that it was delicious, and Ntawasie, my tracker,
playing the good old role of tempter, coolly took
a steak that he was toasting over the fire and
offered it to the old man. He looked at it with a
gaze in which desire and renunciation were curiously
blended, and muttering something about being
insulted, rose, walked away a few yards, and once
more sat down. Thereupon, my boy, Usufu, went
up and chatted .with him and gave him a pinch of
snuff to soothe his wounded feelings. After so long
an exposure to the appetizing odour of roasting
elephant meat, that friendly pinch of snuff proved
his undoing, for, a few seconds later, he sprang up
and excitedly shouted :
* Yes, the temptation is too great for me ! Why
should I continually deny myself the pleasure of
eating this delicious meat, because it has been
forbidden by the Mahometan faith ? No, I'm sick
XXIX MAHOMETAN FAITH, ETC. 257
of the faith, and am finished with it now and
forever ! '
With these words, he took his prayer-board from
under his arm, broke it in pieces, and flinging the
fragments on the fire, sat down to a right royal
' tuck in,' while my men, most of whom are
Mahometans from the coast, and the Wangindos,
unable to resist the humorous side of this little
tragi-comedy, simply rolled in the sand and yelled
with laughter.
I'm afraid that the Mahometan religion has lost
many of its adherents in Africa owing to the
temptation of elephant meat, for I have, on many
occasions, been present when this taboo and the
teaching of the Prophet have fought a pitched
battle in the arena of a native's simple soul, to the
complete discomfiture of Moslemism.
CHAPTER XXX
A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER
In 1907, whilst hunting in the neighbourhood
of the LumasuH River, a tributary of the Rovuma, I
had become friendly with an old Macua native
elephant hunter, called Makakora, and during one
of many conversations on the game that was so
closely bound up with our lives, he urged me to pay
a visit to the Bangalla River where, he assured me,
good sport was to be obtained. He promised to
conduct me to the elephant district there, simply for
the pleasure of seeing a few elephants killed to
avenge the deaths of a couple of his hunting
companions, who had, some years ago, met their
fate in the chase in that locality. Won over by his
glowing assurances, I resolved to give the place
a trial, and as this narrative will disclose, was not to
regret my decision.
Reaching the Bangalla River about the middle of
December, an excellent month for hunting, I
formed my main camp at Karanji's village, and got
258
CH. XXX A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 259
away to the pori (forest) to try my luck, but,
disappointed at meeting with no fresh elephant
spoor during the first three days, I decided to return
to camp and provision my party for fifteen days,
a period which would enable me to scour all the
country towards the source of the river near the
Kibali Hill.
But the best laid schemes of mice and men gang
aft agley ! We had just left a small water-hole in
the neighbourhood of which we had slept overnight,
and were hopeful of reaching camp in a few hours,
when, to our intense joy, we came across the fresh
spoor of three large elephants. Broken branches,
the freshly expectorated fibre of chewed hemp
leaves, as well as the presence of comparatively
warm droppings, gave us unmistakable evidence
that they had passed by quite recently, so we fell
into our customary formation and followed the spoor.
After about an hour's tracking through seemingly
interminable glades of tall dry grass and rustling
bamboos, we all at once came up with our quarry,
standing in a group, their dark, hulking bodies
clearly discernible through the interlacement of
vegetation. One of them, as if lost in elephantine
meditation, was standing in a beautiful position for
placing a shot ; the other two, quite heedless of the
approaching danger, were placidly feeding among
the bamboos. I took most deliberate aim at the
s 2
26o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER cH. xxx
first, and instantly dropped him with a solid '577
bullet in the brain. He never budged again ! I
promptly emptied the second barrel into one of the
remaining two, but as I had slightly miscalculated
the vicinity of his heart, owing to intervening
bamboos, the bullet struck him too far back, and
like lightning, he made tracks for a dense belt of
bush in our rear and from which we had just
emerged. The third animal, scared by the first
shot, had already made good his escape, so handing
my heavy rifle to my tracker, Malingum, I caught
my 1075 ^^- from my other tracker, Simba, and
dashed after the wounded elephant. Now, several
hundred yards on the other side of the same patch
of bush, my carriers, having laid down their burdens
and moved some distance away from the spoor, on
hearing the first shot — a plan I invariably make
them adopt for their own safety — stood awaiting
developments. On seeing the elephant suddenly
emerge from the bush into the open country
in which they had come to a halt, they began
to shout in the hope of turning him, and
the animal, thoroughly scared by their lusty
yells, immediately changed his plans, slewed
round, and came running back at a great pace
towards the friendly cover of the thicket of
bamboos. At this juncture, my trackers and I,
unaware of what had happened, although we had
262 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
heard the yells, came out of the thicket at a sharp
canter, and you can judge of our surprise when
we saw Behemoth thundering down, straight as a
die, in our direction, with the disconcerting mo-
mentum of a locomotive ! All at once, he caught
sight of us, and, dismayed at the unexpected en-
counter, pulled up and stood stock-still, as if
hesitating what to do. Recognizing that he had,
to put it metaphorically, got between the lines of
the enemy, he decided to give battle, and, uttering
a shrill scream, charged straight at me. When he
was about sixty yards distant, I fired in his face,
the bullet, however, penetrating his skull a little too
high to reach his brain. Instantly pressing another
cartridge out of the magazine into the breech, I
fired and struck him in the forehead ; then another ;
but for all the effect they had, I might as well have
fired them into an advancing battleship. On he
came as fast as ever, with lowered head and
unmistakable purpose ! Jerking my last cartridge
into the breech, and instinctively dropping to my
knee, I pulled the trigger, the bullet striking him
a little above and right between the eyes, and
smashing through skin and skull into his brain.
Down he fell with a crash, and lay only seven
measured paces from where I stood !
During this excitement, the old hunter,
Makakora, who had followed up close behind me
XXX A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 263
to watch the actual avenging of his comrades, on
seeing three bullets fail to stop the elephant, had
completely lost his head, and uttering a terrified
yell, had, to put it gently, beat a hasty retreat. In
his wild career, he unfortunately tripped over the
protruding root of a tree, and with a loud impreca-
tion fell headlong to earth. He severely sprained
his ankle in the fall, but painful as this mishap
undoubtedly was, he had, after the danger was
over, to suffer the jibes and jeers of my men, who,
having witnessed the whole incident, burst into
roars of derisive laughter over the recollection of
the accident, as is their wont when any of their
companions get into difficulties. We rigged up a
maschilla for Makakora and carried the old fellow
back to the village, where a week's rest put him on
his feet acrain.
The tusks of the first elephant shot scaled 75
and 76J lbs., respectively; those of the second 62
and 69 lbs. One of the ears of the latter animal
was badly frayed, the result of native bullet-holes,
having been torn and enlarged by branches when
the beast was forcing his way through the bush.
Both animals bore the scars of many old and recent
bullet wounds inflicted by native hunters.
264 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
II.
A couple of days after the incidents related above,
we followed up the spoor of four more elephants
and succeeded in coming up with them, but in such
THREE VERY FINE ELEPHANTS TAILS, AND ONE ABSOLUTELY DEVOID
OF HAIR,
dense bush that, though we could hear them
bursting their way through the growth, seeing them
was well-nigh impossible. In the midst of this
exasperating state of affairs, the wind suddenly
veered round, gave them our scent, and sent them
crashing off through the jungle at a tremendous
pace. Twice again, we came up with them, but the
XXX A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 265
amazing luxuriance of the vegetation hid them from
us as completely as if they had been separated from
us by a stone-wall, rendering tracking a painfully
slow and dangerous operation. To add to the ex-
citement, a thunderstorm now broke over our heads,
flash after flash of vivid lightning illuminating the
impenetrable tangle of the jungle in a devilish glare,
followed by crash after crash of thunder. Down
came the rain in a deluge, hissing and splashing
and pattering among the foliage, soaking us to the
skin and chilling us to the marrow, while, in the
intervals between the ear-splitting peals, we could
hear the elephants moving about in the bush as if
they were the presiding spirits of this forest inferno.
Then, as swiftly as it had approached, the storm
moved away ; the lightning grew more and more
intermittent, the growls of the thunder more and more
subdued. As evening was fast approaching, I now
told my men that I intended to tackle the quarry,
but that, if they again cleared, we should pass the
night where we were, and take up the spoor in the
morning. Their limbs shaking, their teeth chattering
with cold, owing to the drenching they had received,
and tired out into the bargain, my trackers clearly
showed that they did not hail this decision with
acclamation. Being a trifle out of temper, I snatched
up my double '577, and telling them that they were
useless to me and had better stay behind and nurse
266 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
one another, I hastened after the elephants. But I
had not gone more than a hundred yards, when I
heard a rustlingf in the bush a short distance behind
me, and on turning, saw, to my surprise, my trackers
hurrying after me.
My head tracker, MaHngum, came up to me and
said : —
' Look here, bwana, it's much too risky to tackle
elephants in such dense bush, for if you get near
them, you will be quite unable to plant a decisive
shot, and should they get frightened and clear in
our direction, we run great risk of being trampled
to death, as it is well-nigh impossible to dodge aside
to avoid their rush In this mass of entangled vegeta-
tion. However, if you insist on going, we will
follow.'
* Right you are ! Come on, we'll go through
with it,' I replied, feeling that this was no occasion
for leisurely discussion, and pushing on, drew
nearer and nearer to the quarry.
As the elephants were now not more than thirty
yards distant, it behoved us to use the utmost
caution, and it was with every faculty alert, that we
gradually crept closer and closer to them along the
tunnel they had bored through the thicket. All at
once, Malingum, excitedly tapping me on the
shoulder, pointed a little to my right, and, looking
to where he indicated, I could see the herd standing
XXX A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 267
in an open space of about fifteen yards in diameter.
Three of them were facing away from us, the fourth
was stolidly gazing in our direction as if expecting
our approach, although we were to the lee of him.
Motioning my men to keep absolutely still, I slowly
raised my rifle, but the brute, seeing the movement,
advanced rapidly in my direction. When he was
within ten yards of me, I fired the first barrel, the
bullet striking him a little above the right eye, and
finding that this failed to stop him, I again pressed
the trigger and gave him the contents of the second
barrel knocking him clean over with a bullet right
between the eyes. Meanwhile, the others had
started in our direction and the foremost, charac-
terized by a complete absence of tusks, uttered a
shrill scream and charged us. I dropped my empty
rifle, seized another from my tracker, Ntawasie, and
blazed in the animal's face. He immediately turned
and, joined by his companions, smashed through the
bush at headlong speed, sundering the network of
impeding branches and creepers like so much
cobweb.
I now turned my attention to the first elephant,
and finding that he was not dead, gave him his
quietus. Reloading my rifle, I went in pursuit of
those that had decamped, but in spite of the copious
blood spoor, dusk closed in before we could come
up with them and obliged us to retrace our weary
268 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
steps to where the dead tusker lay. We pitched
our camp within easy reach of the carcase, and,
early next morning, cut out the tusks, which were
of beautiful ivory and weighed 89 and 87 lbs.,
respectively.
During the night, however, whilst tossing on
THE DEAD TUSKER.
my camp bed with a touch of fever resulting from
the exertion and subsequent drenching of the day,
I was all at once roused by a succession of alarmed
yells from my tracker, Malingum. Fearing all
sorts of contingencies, I picked up my rifle, and
rushing to where my man lay, about a score of
yards away from me, found him in a state of great
perturbation. During the night, a puff adder,
XXX A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 269
probably in search of warmth, had crept between
the blankets, and Malingum, in turning over, had
unwittingly rolled on his unwelcome bed-fellow,
and promptly been bitten in the thigh. As the
bite of a puff adder is most venomous, and often
results in a painful death, it was an occasion for
a desperate remedy. Unfortunately, I had neither
permanganate of potash with which to counteract
the poison, nor caustic to cauterize the wound, so
whipping out my knife, I immediately cut the
punctured flesh to induce a copious flow of blood,
and placing some gunpowder on the incision, put
a match to the explosive. Then, pouring out a
tumblerful of neat whisky, I bade Malingum
swallow it — an order which he obeyed with
alacrity — and in half an hour supplemented this
genial physic with strong coffee. After the lapse
of another thirty minutes, I repeated the dose of
whisky, and again alternated it with coffee, and
thus staved off the lethal drowsiness that invariably
follows snake-bite. Next morning, Malingum,
though suffering much pain from a badly swollen
leg and thigh, was well out of danger, and, as it
was quite impossible for him to accompany us
further in the chase, I sent him back in a maschilla
made out of his own blankets to camp. In about
a week, he had thoroughly recovered from the
effects of his painful experience.
2 70 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
On the night of the mishap, one of my men
killed the puff adder that had caused the trouble
and eventually presented the skin to Malingum,
who, in a spirit of sardonic humour, fashioned it
into a belt, saying : —
* You tried to kill me and now I shall revenge
myself by making use of your old hide ! '
A few days after this episode, while we were in
pursuit of three elephants, a peculiar incident
occurred. The largest of the three, whose tusks
were below the average, only weighing 46 and 48
lbs., each, I shot with comparative ease ; the other
two, being young bulls with quite insignificant
tusks, I left severely alone. Scared by my first
shot, however, they had bolted, and doubling back
on the spoor, met my carriers who were following
me at a distance of about a mile. Being in a
dangerous mood, one of these bulls, on seeing my
men, charged them furiously and they, dropping
their loads with fright, scattered in all directions.
Two of the party, who had been carrying an empty
maschilla, slightly in advance of the others, were the
first to discard their burden and flee for dear life,
and the infuriated elephant, catching sight of this
object lying in the path of his pursuit, angrily
grabbed it and began wreaking his vengeance on it
as he bore it along. This operation he performed
to his thorough satisfaction — tearing the canvas to
XXX A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 271
shreds, crunching the pole in his powerful jaws, and
finally flinging the unrecognisable remains of the
offending object aside. He had, in all probability,
scented the odour of human beings from the
maschilla and mistaken it for some portion, or
strange species, of the living individual — at least,
this is the only explanation of this curious incident
that occurs to me.
We had now been fifteen days in the pori, and as
our food supply was running low, and we had
temporarily had our fill of adventure, I decided to
return to camp for a few days' rest. On our arrival,
we found that Makakora, whose ankle was now
quite well again, was eager to return at once to his
home. He gave as reason for this sudden desire to
leave us, that he was afraid of the village headman,
Karanji, bewitching him ; for, some years ago, he had
eloped with Karanji's favourite wife, and Karanji, as
he explained in a luminous phrase, now loved him
as he would a snake. Under the circumstances, it
behoved him to make himself scarce, for death by
poison or violence would certainly be the price of a
lengthier stay in the neighbourhood. He further
informed us that he had decided to plunge into the
forest and only converge on the direct homeward
path some miles from the village, because he feared
that Karanji, having become acquainted with his
intention to depart, might have arranged poisoned
272 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
stakes along that path in the immediate neighbour-
hood. Should any of these stakes penetrate his
foot, it would mean farewell to his hunting and his
women, whom he loved as only a hunter can, and
he was, he added, in no hurry to leave this enjoyable
world at present.
Makakora, I may mention, had four wives, the
favourite among whom he pointed out to me on
several occasions. She was a Mwera woman, and
after the manner of most women of that tribe, wore
a large ivory ring in her upper lip, which caused
that lip to protrude in a most unsightly way, about
two inches at right angles to her face.
' That is the one woman for me ! ' he used to say,
with pride. ' She is an excellent cook, makes the
best beer in the country, and works assiduously in
my garden. She is old, no doubt, while my other
wives are young, but my young wives do not count ;
for they are simply waiting for me to die so that
they may seek the arms of their younger lovers.
Fickleness is in their blood ; it is in the blood
of all young women. But their future husbands
are welcome to them — I have had their early
love.'
When on my way down to the coast, homeward
bound, on this last occasion, Makakora made a two
days' journey to bid me farewell, bringing along
with him two of his young wives, carrying food for
XXX A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 273
myself and my men as a parting gift. His last
words to me were in the nature of advice on his
favourite subject.
* Don't marry young wives, bwana, when you get
to Europe,' he said paternally, 'they will only be as
faithless to you as mine have been to me ! '
CHAPTER XXXI
SOME PECULIAR FOODS
When I shoot an elephant within reasonable
distance of a village, I usually send a couple of
messengers there to purchase food for my men, and
eggs and fowls for my own consumption. Shortly,
after their return, the headman of the village
usually appears on the scene, accompanied by his
wives and a horde of men, women and children, all
elated at the prospect of gorging themselves to
repletion with nyama (meat). On their arrival,
my men are perhaps busy cutting out the tusks, so
they stand aside and await the conclusion of this
operation, which is a tedious work, requiring trained
men, for it must be remembered that two to three
feet of these enormous teeth are embedded in the
skull, and that in extracting them, one careless
stroke with an axe may chip the tusk and
diminish its value. On the completion of the
task, all the natives set to with a will, and, ere long,
the Carcase is being quickly hacked to pieces.
T 2
276 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
Scores of men, women and children, make merry,
yelling, laughing, chattering and quarrelling as they
slash and grab at the choicest portions of the meat,
while some of the more boisterous spirits get right
into the carcase, from which they emerge, later on,
in a horrible mess, with bodies smeared and hair
matted with congealed blood, and looking more
like devils than human beings. The dexterity with
which these people use their knives is amazing, and
how they avoid severely cutting themselves has
always been a mystery to me, for their razor-edged
blades are continually criss-crossing and ripping
away in all directions in a seemingly reckless
fashion.
Although I have read many eulogies on elephant
meat as a food, I must say that I think it tough
and coarse-fibred and without any flavour of game.
The feet make good eating, being very gelatinous,
but in my opinion the trunk is by far the most
palatable portion of the elephant. The method of
cooking these titbits is curious : a fire is kindled in
a large hole dug in the ground, and when it has
burned clear, a light layer of earth is placed over
the hot embers, the trunk or foot being inserted in
this layer and covered with more earth. A huge
fire is then kindled over this strange oven, and in
about thirty-six hours, the meat is ready to serve.
Elephant's heart, toasted, is good, but has, in my
XXXI SOME PECULIAR FOODS 277
opinion, been somewhat overrated, and cannot
compare with either the feet or trunk. The
natives have a method of drying elephant and
other kinds of meat by exposing the flesh to the
sun during the day and smoking it over a fire at
night, after which treatment, it will keep in a
satisfactory condition for a considerable length of
time. When it is in this preserved state, the
natives will eat it without further cooking, but
though I have read of certain African tribes eating
raw meat, this custom does not obtain among any
of the numerous tribes with whom I have come in
contact.
Of other kinds of game, young buffalo, inswala,
eland, reedbuck and bushbuck are the most tooth-
some. The flesh of the rhinoceros is excellent,
being of a very fine texture, considering the
enormous size of the beast ; while hippopotamus
meat makes an ideal curry, as the fat and lean are
so nicely in proportion.
Among their various foods, the natives have one
which they consider a special delicacy, although
I am afraid it would hardly appeal to a civilized
palate. This is a maggot, some three inches in
length, which they call the maungo, and which bores
into and lives in the decaying trunks of the mungo,
incunia and tumbie-tumbie trees. It is a perfectly
white mass of fat, and I have often seen a native
2 78 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
woman, after nipping the head off a maungo, give
the remainder to her child to suck as a teat.
The natives of many tribes such as the Mwera,
Macua, Wangindo and Amatengo, evince a decided
partiaHty for the flesh of puff-adders and pythons.
These delicacies are usually toasted on a spit over
the embers of a fire, but occasionally enter into the
composition of a curry, the principal flavouring
ingredients of which are bissari, chillies, ginger and
cloves, and these constituents (excepting of course
the puff-adder and python) are used by my cook in
preparing a curry for myself.
The Upanga and Ubena, two tribes living to the
north-east of Lake Nyassa, are extremely fond of the
flesh of dogs, while porcupines are considered a
delicacy by many natives, who dig the animals out of
their holes and spear them. I have often eaten
porcupine flesh and consider it an excellent food.
The natives of many tribes among whom I have
lived are very partial to ants, using them for food
only in the rainy season when they are winged.
They either eat the insects alive, after plucking off
the wings, or crush and mix them with water or
monkey-nut oil, and having stewed the resultant
paste over a fire, use it as a relish. There are
several varieties of ants, but they all go under the
Mahometan name of njeremba.
The Atonga and Sokeri tribes, dwelling about the
XXXI SOME PECULIAR FOODS 279
western and northern shores of Lake Nyassa,
capture myriads of small midgets that come in
clouds on the wind, and make a kind of cake from
the dough procured by crushing the insects. In
the same category, may be classed locusts, which are
eaten by most native tribes, who, after plucking off
their wings, fry and devour them. I have tried
locusts fried in butter, as an experiment, and found
them not distasteful.
Many of the native tribes dwelling near rivers and
lakes show a decided penchant for crocodiles' eggs,
which equal those of a duck in size, and are
to be found in the sun-warmed sand near the
water.
Wild honey, of which there are several kinds, is
eaten by almost all the native tribes with whom I
have come in contact. First, comes the honey,
called asari, obtained from the hive of the ordinary
wild bee and closely resembling in flavour the
honey produced by the garden bee in the Old
Country. Second, I would rank that of a small
midget which makes its hive in the cavities of trees.
This honey, called by the most tribes insoma, but
by the Angoni, chingwaengie, has a most delicious
flavour with a faint odour of musk — ^just a delicacy
for the epicure. Another kind, called lecamaL and
resembling insoma in flavour, is the product of a
larger midget which makes its home in ant-hills.
28o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
Lepalie is the name given to a honey found in the
hollows of trees and gathered by a fly a little larger
than the ordinary house-fly. Another fly, called
lependura, and almost identical with the ordinary
house-fly, secretes a deliciously-flavoured honey in
the earth.
The tuberous roots of a forest creeper, called
hanguy, are used by the natives when short of other
kinds of food, but a lengthy process of preparation,
resembling that used in the manufacture of tapioca,
is necessary before they are edible. After boiling
for about two hours, the tubers are peeled and
sliced, and the slices are then boiled for about eight
hours, after which they are dried in the sun and
ground to a flour. Hanguy roots are very poisonous,
and unless the poison is thoroughly extracted, death
usually supervenes about two hours after the
unfortunate consumer has partaken of them, the
patient losing his power of speech and behaving as
if he had been bitten by a snake.
Acca is the name given by the natives to a small,
green shrub, which grows about a foot in height,
and bears a pale green fruit of a pleasant, sweetish
taste. The fruit is boiled and skinned. The
remaining kernels are then allowed to simmer from
eight to ten hours, and are afterwards dried in the
sun, but preparatory to consumption, they must be
boiled again for another hour, in order to soften
XXXI SOME PECULIAR FOODS 281
them. Before the above process, the fruit of the
acca is a slow poison : severe stomachic pains follow
on eating them, and death ensues in about ten hours.
In times of lean harvests, the itching buffalo bean,
called by most tribes the upupu, by the Angoni,
chepungu, and the Wyao, lequania, is prepared and
used as an article of food.
A species of wild potato, called by the Mwera,
matuku, and by the Angoni, mepama, is found in the
bush. It is perfectly white in colour, almost tasteless,
and of the same texture as an ordinary potato. The
method of cooking is exactly similar to that adopted
in the case of cultivated potatoes.
Msindaeka is the name given to a herb closely
resembling spinach, of which there are several wild
varieties, while many kinds of grass such as timbaw-
eesi, mlinda and kalialikamoschie are prepared and
eaten as vegetables.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE LORD OF THE RIVER
Next to the lion, comes the crocodile as a
perpetual menace to native life. The average
black man, too, is so careless and so imbued with
fatalistic ideas, that thousands of them are annually-
killed by these monsters of river and pool, when the
exercise of a little caution would obviate the
majority of such fatalities.
When I was living in the vicinity of the Shire
River, in Nyassaland, crocodiles were continually
catching and devouring natives — usually women —
who, heedless of danger, came down to the banks
to draw water or bathe in the shallow reaches ; while
at Fort Johnston, on the Upper Shire, an incredible
number of natives fell victims to these insatiable
reptiles.
At Mpimbi, also on the Shire River, crocodiles
actually made a practice of upsetting native canoes,
in order to secure the occupants, and it became a
favourite pastime of Europeans resident at that
282
CH. XXXII THE LORD OF THE RIVER 283
Station to sit with their rifles in wait for these
brutes, and scarcely an evening used to pass with-
out one of these amphibians being shot.
Some years ago, I had rather a gruesome ex-
perience on the Upper Shire River. I had just
returned to camp from hunting in the vicinity, when
I was suddenly startled by a tremendous commotion
among my natives and those of a neighbouring
village, and above the hubbub I could hear the
strident voices of men and women, yelling
* Ngwena ! Ngwena ! ' (Crocodile ! Crocodile !).
Concluding that someone had been taken by one of
these monsters, I seized my "303 and rushed to the
scene of the tumult. On the river bank, I found
a crowd of natives, all jabbering excitedly, and after
some inquiry, elicited the information that one of
their number, a woman, had gone down to draw
water, and while she was in the act of filling her
calabash, a crocodile had seized her by the hand
and endeavoured to pull her into the stream.
Fortunately, the woman had had the presence of
mind to clutch and hold on with her disengaged
hand to the reeds growing near her and to yell with
all her might for help, and luckily, too, the crocodile
had been a young one, or she would have been
dragged off without further ado. Some men and
women, who were in the vicinity, at once rushed to
her aid, and catching hold of her feet, strove to
284 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
wrest her from the reptile's grasp. An awful tug-
of-war now ensued, and in the struggle, the child,
which the poor woman was carrying tied to her
back, fell into the water. Like a flash, the
crocodile let go his hold upon the woman's hand,
seized the child in his jaws and disappeared, and
the dark, swift waters of the Shire mercifully hid
the remainder of the tragedy from the distraught
mother's eyes.
Hardly had this awful drama been concluded,
when one of the villagers, who at times suffered
from fits of dementia and had, on such occasions,
to be kept under constraint, appeared on the scene.
Brandishing a spear above his head, he kept calling
out, • Where is the crocodile ? Where is the
crocodile ? ' and before any of his fellows could
restrain him, he had rushed headlong into the river.
In a moment, a crocodile seized him by the waist,
another by the head and shoulders, and a terrible
struggle ensued, crocodiles rushing from all sides, as
if eager for the fray — the very water seemed to
seethe with them. The native fought as only a
madman can fight, but, naturally, such a conflict
was bound to be brief, and when I arrived on the
actual scene it was difficult to distinguish man
from beast. Firing quickly, I managed to kill
several of the brutes, but could not prevent the
others from dragging the poor fellow under water
XXXII THE LORD OF THE RIVER 285
and taking him (as we could see from the commo-
tion beneath the surface of the stream) to the other
side of the river.
The hand and arm of the woman who had been
seized by the reptile were badly bitten, so I dressed
and disinfected the wounds to prevent blood-poison-
ing setting in, and after repeating this operation for
several days the girl was practically quite well again.
Strangely enough, on her recovery, she came to me
and, to my intense surprise, asked me for a present
because I had cured her, a demand which greatly
amused me, for, thinking in European fashion, I,
somehow, dimly felt that, if the question of presents
entered into the affair, I should be the recipient
instead of the donor.
One would naturally think that her experience
would have taught this girl a lesson, but, in illustra-
tion of my remark about the absolute carelessness
of natives, less than six months after this occurrence,
she and another woman were dragged into the river
and devoured by crocodiles at the very same place.
On another occasion, I shot a very large croco-
dile on the Upper Shire River, and my men, on
opening up the reptile's stomach, made a gruesome
find in the shape of several native brass bangles,
which had doubtless once adorned the arm of some
hapless girl whom the brute had seized while she
was bathing or drawing water.
286 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xxxii
At Mpimbi, there occurred, some years ago, a
most extraordinary incident. A native, having just
stepped into his canoe and being in a talkative
mood, remarked to a companion standing on the
bank : — * Only a week ago, a crocodile killed my
mother and some day, I dare say, I shall share the
same fate.' With these words he bent down to
reach for the pole with which he propelled his canoe.
Immediately a crocodile seized him by the arm, and
before his friend could even make an attempt at
rescue, the poor fellow had vanished into the water,
never to reappear.
Once, on the Shire River, a similar tragedy was
only averted by the timely presence of a European.
As a canoe was being poled across stream by a
native, a crocodile thrust his snout over the frail
vessel, capsizing it, and, as the occupant fell
headlong into the water, seized him by the arm and
was about to disappear, when a European (I believe
his name was Henderson) who was fortunately on
the opposite bank of the river, on the look-out for
crocodiles, seeing the native's predicament, at once
fired and killed the reptile. The injured man was
promptly rescued and taken ashore, where his arm
was amputated, and, recovering from his dreadful
experience, for years earned his living as a letter-
carrier.
CHAPTER XXXIII
THREE SLAVE GIRLS
When hunting on the Rovuma River, some years
ago, I had an experience which is interesting as an
illustration of the way in which slave women are
bartered throughout German and Portuguese East
Africa.
I had just finished lunch, and was enjoying a cigar
in my tent, when my private boy came and told me
that the Sultan Mperembe, a big Wyao chief, whose
people inhabit the country about the Lujenda River,
had sent a couple of his men with three slave girls
as a present for me, asking, in exchange, a barrel of
gunpowder, some percussion caps, and some
medicine for killing elephants.
With regard to the last item, let me explain that
the native mind is firmly imbued with the idea that
it is not due to the precision and power of a modern
rifle that a white man kills an elephant, buffalo or
rhinoceros, as the case may be ; but that his success
in the chase is won by the potency of some secret
287
288 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
concoction that he drinks, or with which he inoculates
himself, or by the efficacy of some charm or amulet
that he wears. Like many modern civilized people,
he is not satisfied with the factors which his senses
convey to him as forming definite knowledge ; he
must have some occult power manipulating the wires
and, therefore, every act of his life is tinged with
superstition in one form or other. The native
elephant hunter, very much after the manner of the
old alchemist, brews some concoction and, cutting
the flesh of his arm, rubs in the charmed mixture
ere he sets out on his adventures. This, in addition
to an amulet or talisman which he wears, ensures
his success in the chase, and not only do his fellows
believe in the efficacy of this humbug, but he himself
reposes complete confidence in it, and if he becomes
a renowned hunter, others of his profession will
come from hundreds of miles around to buy his
medicine. Superstition, however, does not prevent
his making a * good thing ' out of his secret ; on
the contrary, he rises to the occasion with all the
astuteness and alacrity of a patent medicine vendor.
It will now be clear to the reader why Sultan
Mperembe asked me for medicine for killing
elephants.
Leaving my tent, and desperately striving to
bring my confused wits to bear on the situation, I
went over to where Mperembe's men stood with my
XXXIII
THREE SLAVE GIRLS
289
present of three handsome slave girls. Can the
reader wonder that I was in a quandary as
to what to do with such a useless encumbrance?
Let the bashful young man ask himself what plan he
would adopt if suddenly saddled with a trio of dusky
belles, and he will begin to
realize my difficulty ! Bootle's
predicament with his baby
cannot be classed in the same
category : it was merely
child's play.
On my approach, one of
the girls told me that some
four weeks previously she had
been taken from a village on
the Locheringo River, and
that her two companions had
been carried off by Mataka's
people from a village near
the English mission station
at Unangu. She piteously
begged me to keep her and
her companions, for, if I
refused, they would, she said, simply be treated
as slaves and spend the rest of their lives in
absolute misery. Feeling sorr}"^ for the poor
creatures, I told Mperembe's men to inform their
chief that I had neither gunpowder nor percus-
u
290 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
sion caps, but that I could give him a specific
for killing elephants, which he would find an
equitable exchange for the three slave girls. The
prescription was, I said, a simple one, yet, if
followed out to the letter, most potent and effectual.
He must, if ever he desired to be a successful
elephant hunter, indulge in two cold baths per day
to strengthen his heart, and as weak or unsteady
nerves might mean death at any moment in the
excitement of the chase, it was necessary to tone
them up with a goodly consumption of tobacco, than
which there was no better solace to be found. This
advice, I insisted, was worth its weight in ivory, but
just to show that I was by no means a skinflint, I
would throw in, for luck, a bundle of blue calico and
some native kangas — pieces of cloth about two
square yards in size, which the native women wind
round their bodies as robes.
Next day, Mperembe's men (laden with my
presents to their chief) set out for their homes, and
I can only conjecture that Mperembe was satisfied
with his deal and the 'elephant medicine,' for not
long after this incident, when I was on safari to the
coast, he sent me a load of rice as an expression of
his good-will.
After the departure of their guardians, I told the
slave girls that they were at liberty to return to
their homes should they wish to do so; but they
XXXIII THREE SLAVE GIRLS 291
replied that they entertained no such desire, for,
their homes being many days distant and the
journey thither through a hostile country, it was
more than likely that they would be captured on
the way and enslaved once more. My men's wives,
too, had had a long conversation with them since
their arrival and, with feminine love of match-
making, had, no doubt, pointed out the fact that
there were several eligible young men in my
caravan. Moreover, I had not failed to notice the
behaviour of my men, who ever since the arrival of
the three girls, had been hovering round them like
flies round a honey-pot, ogling them as amorous
young men are wont to ogle pretty young women.
Now, it chanced to be the day on which I call all
my men together and give them money to purchase
food, so when they were all standing in rank, I
brought the girls before them and, pointing out
what a fine handsome lot of fellows they were, said
each might, if she wished, choose a husband from
the number. As for my boys, they were one and
all desirous of becoming husbands there and then,
and were shouting, ' Bwana, I should like to marry
this one! Bwana, I'll marry that one!' But the
girls thought that the choice of a husband was
a matter not to be lightly entered upon, and
said they would wait a little while and live
among my natives ere they selected their victims.
u 2
292 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER xxxiii
Evidently the natives, though they do not formu-
late it, have an idea analogous with that expressed
by us in the proverb : ' Marry in haste, repent at
leisure.'
All three maids afterwards chose husbands from
my gallant band.
CHAPTER XXXIV
A FEW days' hunting
After some days of promiscuous hunting, during
which I had managed to get several fine heads,
including sable and roan antelopes, a leopard, an
eland, and one or two elephants, I arrived, one
pitch-dark night, at a little village on the Luhan-
yando stream, and being thoroughly tired and
feverish into the bargain, decided to stay there till
morning. . In the middle of the night, I was
awakened by a noise as if an army of dancing
dervishes had invaded the village, and, on inquiring
the cause of the hubbub, learned that the natives
were shouting and beating drums to scare away
some elephants that were having a * night out ' in
the matama corn. This pandemonium failed to
have any other effect than keeping me awake, and
the marauders continued their feast until an hour or
so before dawn, when they felt that it was advisable
to depart.
At break of day, we rose, and, going into the
shambas, which looked as if they had been visited
S93
294 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
by a tornado, picked up the spoor and started off
in pursuit. At about 8 o'clock, we came up with
the herd feeding in a belt of dense bush several
hundred yards in width, on the banks of the
Luhanyando, and hearing the crash of a breaking
tree, my two trackers and I made a bee-line in the
direction of the sound. We had managed to crawl
to within forty or fifty yards of our quarry, when
the wind, suddenly veering, flung them our scent
and sent them stampeding in all directions through
the bush. Selecting the spoor of one large tusker,
who had taken to a more open part of the country,
we hurried along in pursuit, but he proved to be a
wary old stager, up to every move of the game.
XXXIV
A FEW DAYS' HUNTING
295
and gave us as arduous a time of it as the most
indefatigable hunter could desire. On three
separate occasions, we came up with him, but he
always managed to elude us and get safely away.
Just as the brief, tropical twilight was approaching,
we once more o-ot in touch with him in almost
^ft^UC ANTELOPE.
impenetrable bush, above which I could only discern
the tip of his trunk moving to and fro in an
endeavour to wind us. As it was impossible to
aim, I judged the probable location of his forehead
and fired, but the bullet only sent him crashing
madly through the bush, smashing up the impeding
branches as if they were so much matchwood.
Wearily we tramped along until night closed in
296 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
and compelled us, dog-tired and disappointed, to
pitch camp on the spoor. That night, being too
worn out either to eat or sleep, I tossed restlessly
on my stretcher till dawn bade me once more start,
in spite of physical reluctance, on the tracks of the
wounded elephant. By ten o'clock, we found that
he had joined a herd of five other males, and now
there followed some solid, dogged tramping, up hill
and down dale, over sand and across marsh,
through thorn-scrub, and bush and long grass !
Twice I stopped to give my men a mixture of sugar
and cocoa to brace them up against this arduous
work, while I, myself, had recourse to a most
welcome Thermos flask containing hot tea. Finally,
towards five o'clock, the spoor became fresher, and
we could see that the elephants had begun feeding.
About this time, too, the herd divided, four of
them taking to the long grass, the other two
making for a python- and crocodile-infested swamp,
into which it would have been folly to pursue them.
I decided to follow up the four, and had not made
much further progress, when the noise of a breaking
tree disclosed their proximity, but, as the long grass
completely hid them from our view, I climbed a
small tree and from this point of vantage could see
them browsing on the branches and foliage of the
tree they had just smashed. As it was impossible,
however, to aim at a vital spot in any of them
XXXIV
A FEW DAYS' HUNTING
297
owing to the screening vegetation, I decided to
await developments, hoping to get a better view if
they came nearer, or moved further away from us.
After twenty minutes of patient watchfulness up in
my uncomfortable quarters, one of the four, having
apparently got a whiff of our scent, began moving
HARTEBEESTE [dicklensteiit).
his proboscis about in all directions, and feeling that
any further delay might prove fatal, I decided to
risk a shot and trust to luck to penetrate his brain,
or spine. As the tree, however, presented serious
obstacles to the easy manipulation of a heavy rifle,
I got my tracker to hand me up my 1075 ^"^»
judging the position of the restive elephant's brain,
as well as conditions would allow, I fired ; but the
298 ADVENTURES OF ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xxxiv
only effect the bullet had was to bring the animal
twenty yards nearer, as if curious as to the direction
from which the shot had come. I could now see
his head perfectly, and taking advantage of the
opportunity, sent a bullet through his brain, which
dropped him instantly, while his companions, seeing
him fall, advanced towards him, as if puzzled as to
the exact nature of his behaviour. I promptly sent
a bullet through the heart of one who presented a
favourable view for the shot, and, after lumbering
heavily for some twenty yards through the grass, he
collapsed and lay still. Scared by the second shot,
the remaining animals cleared, so, quickly descend-
ing from the tree which had proved of such service,
I went in pursuit, only to discover, after about
another mile of tracking, that they had joined a
herd of twenty or more females who were feeding.
On our approach, the whole herd stampeded,
clearing a path through the long grass as if a troop
of cavalry had ridden by. Returning to where our
prizes lay, I got my men to chop out the tusks,
and as we all felt thoroughly tired, pitched camp
in the vicinity. The first elephant's tusks, which
were very thick, weighed 102 and 103J lbs.,
respectively ; those of the other, only 25 lbs., each.
Having heard some elephants feeding near our
camp during the night, we set out at dawn on
their tracks, and, as if to recompense me for the
300 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
trying experiences of the previous day, after some
easy going, two of them fell to a right and left
from my '500 cordite rifle, while a third came down
to a '303 bullet in the region of the brain. The
last elephant lay on his side as if dead, and ere I
could make matters doubly sure, one of the female
elephants among the herd charged me furiously,
my gun-bearer getting such a fright that he bolted,
carrying my '500 cordite rifle with him. I
managed to send the female tearing off" with a
bullet in the face, but found myself in rather an
unenviable position, i.e. with an empty '303 rifle
and only a few split bullets suitable for smaller
game, but with six '500 cordite cartridges and no
■500 rifle. Creeping up to the top of a neigh-
bouring ant-hill, I yelled myself hoarse to my
tracker to return with my rifle, but he had got
such a fright that he never stopped running until
he reached my carriers about half a mile away. To
them, he was good enough to report that I had
been killed, while I, very much alive, stood
helplessly gazing at the wounded bull, lying
spasmodically kicking his legs, a retinue of females
standing round and watching his antics. After
a period of ten minutes, the whole of which time
he had lain on his right side, the bull gave a few
desperate kicks, got to his feet, and calmly started
to walk away with the females. As he was moving
XXXIV A FEW DAYS' HUNTING 301
off, I put five split •303's into him without the
slightest effect, and disappointed and very angry,
returned to find my carriers coming to look for
their dead master, my tracker following somewhat
cautiously in the rear with my "500 cordite rifle.
After giving him a luminous homily on the wicked-
ness of deserting at a critical moment with his
master's rifle, I severely boxed his ears, and taking
the weapon from him, and accompanied by another
of my men, I followed up the wounded elephant.
That night, we were obliged to sleep on the spoor,
but about nine o'clock, next morning, came up with
the animal quietly feeding, as if nothing untoward
had occurred on the previous day. As he presented
a back view, I aimed a little above the root of his
tail, and the bullet, crashing into his spine, brought
him to his haunches. A second bullet gave him
the coup de grace. His tusks, which were of
beautiful ivory, weighed %*] and 91 lbs., respectively.
During the night following the death of the
above elephant, I was awakened by a yell of pain
from my guide, Nepaha, sleeping some twenty or
thirty yards away from me, and on rising and
inquiring what had happened, found that a hyaena
had bitten off his right ear. I thoroughly disin-
fected the wound and bandaged it up, and though
poor Nepaha's looks were not enhanced by his loss,
he was quite well again in about a month's time.
CHAPTER XXXV
LOVE AND FAREWELL
In the early months of 1906, just after the close
of the native rebellion in Angoniland, my head boy,
Seremani, who had accompanied me throughout the
war, advised me to go to that part of the country
from which he came, assuring me that plenty of
elephants were to be found there. He was of the
Mwera tribe, who live near the coast in the vicinity
of the Mbemcuru River.
Leaving Songea Collectorate with a caravan of
about sixty people, the majority of whom were
armed, because parties of rebels were still roaming
about the country, we started for the coast, and after
a journey of ten days or so, reached one of my old
hunting grounds in the neighbourhood of the
Lukumbuli stream. After spending a couple of
months there in quest of elephants, we set out for
Lindi on the coast, arriving at our destination some
three weeks later. At Lindi, I paid off my Angoni
carriers, who were anxious to return to their homes.
CH.xxxv LOVE AND FAREWELL 303
and engaged coast men in their stead for a trip to
the Mbemcuru River.
Now, while in Lindi, Seremani, who had, in the
days gone by, quarrelled with and left his wife on
seremani and his love, amina, with the
author's terrier.
the score of jealousy, fell under the charms of a
slave girl, Amina by name — an exceptionally pre-
possessing African beauty. As she belonged to one
of the big Arab coast traders, and a secret liaison
304 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
with her, if discovered, would assuredly have meant
imprisonment for my boy, he came to the conclusion
that there was only one solution to the problem — he
must redeem Amina from slavery and marry her.
The question resolved itself into a question of
money, generally a scarce commodity with Seremani,
who was one of those rollicking, good-natured
fellows, gifted with a happy knack of always looking
at the laughing side of things, and who, like most
good fellows, spent his money as quickly as he got
it. He pondered long over the delicate subject, and,
as love overcometh all things, it disclosed to him a
way out of his difficulty. One day he came, with
the dejected mien that only a man caught in the toils
of love can assume, and laid the whole matter
before me, confessing that he had spent fifty rupees
in a week on his light o' love and had not a sou left,
much less the price of Amina's ransom, and asking
me if I would redeem her for him. I gave him the
money he required, and, as soon as he possibly could,
he bought Amina's freedom and married her.
Fortunately, it is not given to mortals to see what is
in store for them — in this litde picture of life, behind
the figure of Cupid, there loomed the dread shadow
of Atropos.
Leaving the coast, we arrived, after a seven days'
journey, at Seremani's old home, in the vicinity of
which we decided to form our main camp. Thence,
XXXV LOVE AND FAREWELL 305
we sallied out on a hunting expedition, and had
been several days absent without discovering any
fresh elephant spoor, when, one morning, we
chanced upon the tracks of a very large bull
elephant, who had been digging up the sand at a
water-hole to the depth of four or five feet, a
customary proceeding with elephants when in quest
of water in the dry season. We decided, there and
then, to track down this animal, if possible, and as
one of my trackers, who was suffering from
fever, had been left behind in camp, Seremani
volunteered to perform his duties. So we set forth
on the spoor and, after a spell of hard tramping,
succeeded in coming up with our quarry about
eleven o'clock. As the wind was variable, he got a
whiff of our scent, and was just about to disappear
into the adjoining bush when I sent a bullet into the
region of his heart, unfortunately a little too far
back to arrest his career. He incontinently
vanished and travelled so strong, that it was well
nigh four o'clock before we again caught sight of
him. On this occasion, he was standing still,
about a hundred yards away from us, in a thicket of
bamboos, and cautiously though we had advanced,
he saw us and promptly charged. As he came
furiously on, I drove a couple of solid bullets out of
my '500 cordite into his face, but they failed to turn
him, and he continued his career till well within ten
3o6 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
yards of where I stood. Still keeping my eyes
intently fixed on the elephant, I mechanically
extended my hand for my second rifle, which
Seremani was carrying, only to discover, to my
intense dismay, that my boy, instead of following me
like my shadow, had fallen a few yards behind. It
was now too late for him to reach me, so resigning
myself to the fate which I was always ready to meet, I
stood absolutely still, feeling that my only chance of
escape lay in not attracting the animal's attention by
the slightest movement. Seremani, a few yards
behind me, also cognizant of the fact that any
hope of safety lay in perfect immobility, strove for
a few seconds to face the situation, but the terrifying
spectacle of the huge beast, standing so close and
staring at us with blood streaming down his face,
unnerved the poor fellow and he dashed wildly to
the rear into a clump of bamboos. That action
saved my life, for, like a flash, the elephant rushed
past me and after Seremani, and ere my boy had
gone many yards, and before I could reload and fire,
the animal overtook him, thrust his tusk through
the poor fellow's thigh and knelt on his chest. It is
hardly possible for anyone to realize how swiftly
this awful drama had taken place, but some idea
may be formed of the celerity of the action when it
is remembered that it was completed before I could
eject my empty cartridge and reload. Raising my
XXXV LOVE AND FAREWELL 307
rifle, I drove a bullet into the elephant's skull, a
little behind his ear, sending him reeling away from
my boy, and reloading with utmost speed, I reached
his brain with my next shot, dropping him not more
than six yards away from the body of his victim.
At once, I rushed to Seremani's side, but, on seeing
the shocking injuries he had received, knew it would
only be a matter of moments ere he was done with
all earthly things. I hastily applied a water-bottle
to his lips, but he was too far gone to drink, and
catching hold of my hand, managed to mutter feebly :
' Quhaeri, bwana, wango, nimi gufa lao ! '
(Good-bye, my master, to-day I shall be dead).
His brother, Pombe, coming up at this moment
to where he lay, Seremani recognized him and
muttered his last words : ' Quhaeri, Pombe.' Then,
looking into my eyes and still gripping my hand, he
passed away.
We carried the remains of my poor boy for two
days, and when within an hour's 5ourney of his home,
laid him to rest in the glorious burial-ground of the
free, wild, forest.
Shortly after this unhappy event, I left the
district, and so grieved was I over the death of my
boy (he is the only servant that I have had killed in
all my hunting expeditions), that I could not bear to
continue hunting in that locality.
X 2
3o8 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. xxxv
This elephant, whose tusks weighed 99 and
1 05 J lbs., proved to be well known to the natives of
the district, owing to one of the toes of his right
foot being much larger than the others, and hence
they had given him the name of ' Cherunda.'
During the few years previous to the death of
my boy, Cherunda had managed to account for
several native hunters.
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE hunter's end
There are so many risks, as well as privations,
incidental to the life of an elephant hunter, that he
has only to keep at the game long enough to meet
with an untimely end, and that, as a rule, a violent
one. Even should he survive the many dangers
attendant on the calling, in the long run, he gener-
ally undermines his constitution and lives on a mere
wreck of his former self. Still, while the life lasts,
it is one of the most glorious and exhilarating on
earth, for again and again the chase resolves itself
into an exciting duel 'twixt man and beast, and
though the chances, even in dense jungle, are in
favour of the man, occasions frequently arise when
the latter's life trembles in the balance. The hunter
knows absolutely that if his rifle or cunning fails
him in the least, he is as good as dead, and it is on
this simple understanding that he joyfully sets out.
The three little episodes which follow, will, I think,
give the reader a glimpse into the tragic side of a
309
310 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
life devoted to the chase, a side upon which a
hunter seldom lets his mind dwell, but to omit
which would be to state only one half of my case.
I
A few years ago, an old friend of mine, Goddard
by name, and one of the best of fellows, was killed by
an elephant in North Eastern Rhodesia. Goddard
was by no means an amateur at hunting — on the
contrary, he was exceptionally cool, an excellent
shot, and had accounted in his time for a consider-
able number of elephants.
It appears that one evening he set out in search
of small game, taking with him a '303 rifle only, and,
judging from subsequent events, must have come
upon an elephant quite unexpectedly and been
tempted by the prospect of a pair of heavy tusks to
follow the animal into a patch of dense bush. His
bearers, having waited a considerable time for him
and finding that their master did not return, decided
to follow his tracks into the thicket, but had not
gone far before they discovered Goddard's dead
body shockingly trampled and with a gaping wound
in the chest where a tusk had been driven clean
through. Beyond the fact that he was killed by an
elephant, the exact manner in which Goddard came
to his end is unknown. The sad event may have
XXXVI THE HUNTER'S END 311
occurred in many ways, and I can only offer a few
alternative suggestions in an endeavour to throw
some light on the affair. Goddard's rifle may have
hung fire, owing to a defect in the cap of the cart-
ridge (a mischance which has occurred on two or
three occasions to myself, even when face to face
with a charging elephant), or he may have fired at
the animal and failed to place the bullet in a vital
spot, the brute at once turning on him and killing
him. Again, the elephant may have hidden silently
in cover waiting for him, as elephants very often do
when pursued, and, when Goddard was only a few
paces distant, rushed out and taken him unawares.
Lastly, there is a possibility that in his excitement
he may have forgotten to reload his rifle.
II
A few years ago, a German, named Ringler, met
with a violent end while hunting elephant in the
Mbwehu bush, Kilwa district. Some two months
afterwards, when in the same neighbourhood, I en-
listed the services of the identical tracker that
Ringler had engaged, and from him I secured an
account of how the hunter had come by his death.
He told me that Ringler, one day, wounded an
elephant, and, on the day following, while tramping
through the forest, suddenly came across an elephant.
312 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
lying down. Ringler's men warned him that the
animal might only be sleeping, and advised him to
eliminate all possibility of a mishap by putting a
bullet into the beast, but the hunter, confident that
the animal was dead and the identical one that he
had wounded on the previous day, went up to the
recumbent monster and, encircling one of the tusks
with his fingers, exclaimed : * What glorious ivory ! '
Like a flash, the elephant, who was only dozing,
caught him with his trunk and smashing him with
his tusk, killed him on the spot.
Ill
Somewhere, deep in the forest, between Lake
Nyassa and the sea, probably in the vicinity of the
Locheringo River, there lies buried an Englishman
of the name of Watkinson. Exactly where, no
white man knows. Possibly some natives do, but
there are some things which black men do not tell,
and this is one of them.
In 1903, Watkinson, accompanied by ten carriers,
two boys and a gun-bearer, left the lake with the
intention of following the Rovuma River down to
the sea, shooting as he went, and hoping to reach
the coast with a goodly stock of ivory. The boys
and gun-bearer had been in his service for years ;
the carriers were only raw natives engaged for the
XXXVI THE HUNTER'S END 313
trip. As it was the rainy season, and an exception-
ally wet one at that, his friends at the Lake advised
him to postpone his safari until the rains had
ceased, but Watkinson was not to be persuaded,
and so went forth on his last shoot.
Four months later, three diseased and emaciated
men arrived at the Lake : they were Watkinson's
two boys and gun-bearer. Depending for food on
what they could kill, and covered with sores owing
to the privations they had suffered, they had made
their way through a hostile country and at length
managed to reach Matengula, bringing back in
safety their master's guns, a few personal belong-
ings, and his diary. In the diary was a portrait of
his mother.
After leaving the Lake shore, Watkinson and
his party had travelled for some ten days through
an uninhabited and foodless forest between the
Msinjie and Lujenda Rivers, where, at the time, I
had been hunting for about two years, and, during
this portion of his journey, his carriers had basely
deserted, leaving him and his two companions
to fare as best they could. Having put all
the loads that they were unable to carry, up in
trees, where they would be secure from the atten-
tions of wild animals, they had plodded slowly
on. Judging from the painfully brief entries
in his diary, Watkinson was now in a very weak
314 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch.
State, suffering from constant fever, yet tramping
day after day through long grass, wading through
water and marshes, night after night sleeping in
wet clothes, and never a blink of sunshine durincr
the whole time to enable him to dry his kit. The
very small quantities of flour, tea, and sugar which
he had been able to take with him when his carriers
had bolted, now ran out, and as sores had broken
out in his mouth and throat, he was incapable of
eating meat, which was the only food procurable.
When he was absolutely unable to proceed any
further, his boys built him a small grass shelter,
under which he lay, hoping in a short time to regain
strength enough to reach some village where food
such as fowls, eggs, and vegetables might be
obtained. It was here that a strange tragedy was
enacted. One day, when his boys were preparing
the roots of a wild plant, called acca, which they
had found in the forest, and which are poisonous
till cooked to shreds with several changes of water,
something after the manner of tapioca, Watkinson,
by this time delirious with sickness, suddenly
emerged from his shelter, and seeing the pot steam-
ing over the fire, proceeded to help himself to some
of the deadly contents. Only one boy was present at
the time, and he, warning his master that the poison
had not been eliminated, strove to dissuade him
from partaking of the baneful roots ; but Watkin-
XXXVI TFIE HUNTER'S END 315
son, with the obduracy of dementia, insisted that if
a native could eat it, he himself could eat it also.
That night the end came, and he passed away in
great agony, accusing his boys to the last of having
deliberately poisoned him and, next day, those
staunch fellows, who had stuck faithfully to him till
death, buried his body and placed stones over the
grave to prevent hyaenas disturbing his remains.
The last entry in his diary reads : — ' Feel like
dying, but must get right. Nothing to eat for
seven days. Elephant here if only I could get
after them.'
Could any words be more vividly characteristic
of a hunter, or so full of poignant tragedy as that
last sentence of Watkinson's — ' Elephant here, if
only I could get after them ! ' Poor fellow, he was
game to the last ! Can any man wish to be more
when the ' Angel with the darker draught ' draws
nigh?
APPENDIX A.
Creepers from which water can be obtained in the dry season
in East African forests.
Letuku (Mwera language). — The tuber of this creeper
is found about a foot beneath the surface of the soil,
and resembles a turnip in size and colour. The tuber
is full of a cool, watery fluid.
Namumbu (Mwera language). — Is a large tree with a
silver-grey bark. The natives dig down to the roots
and, by cutting them, obtain an almost tasteless fluid,
which forms an excellent substitute for water.
Ntamba. — A creeper found in many parts of the forest,
and sometimes equalling a man's arm in thickness.
The stems, when cut in lengths of about two feet,
exude a beautifully fresh, almost tasteless water.
MpupuLU (Mwera language). — A creeper, resembling the
Ntambo, but found only in bush country.
Tandandumbie (Mwera language). — A creeper found
only on the banks of streams. Its stems supply a
fairly palatable liquid.
APPENDIX B.
Wild Fruits.
I. Mbinjie. — A large bush, producing a kind of wild
almond. The fruit is oblong, of the size of a pigeon's
^ZZ^ and of a beautiful, reddish colour. The pulp has
a bitter sweet flavour and encloses a large stone, which
encases the almond.
3x6
APPENDIX 317
2. Mbura, — A splendid tree, with magnificent branches,
bearing a round fruit, which attains the size of a golf-
ball. The colour of the fruit is brownish golden ; its
flavour resembles dates, but with a suspicion of bitter-
ness. Elephants are extremely fond of this fruit.
The natives gather them in large quantities, and
pound them up to extract the stones. The pulp is
kneaded with flour and made into cakes.
3. Haekaera. — A large tree, bearing clusters of a light
golden fruit, which is about the size of a hen's egg.
The fruit is oblong in shape, contains three seeds, and
has a delightful odour.
4. KOOSEE. — This fruit, borne on a large tree, is the size
of a pigeon's egg, and has one large stone. The skin
is very thick and of a reddish brown tint. The tree
is found in great numbers in Angoniland.
5. Matonga. — A greenish fruit, the size of an apple
found on small trees. The inside is filled with large
seeds imbedded in a fleshy pulp. The taste is bitter-
sweet, and I have found the fruit an excellent thirst
quencher. Buffaloes and elephants are extremely
fond of it.
6. Maveero. — A small, yellowish fruit, about the size of
a gooseberry, found on low trees. The taste is
peculiar. My men are continually chewing them when
tramping through the forest. The pulp is scanty and
encloses three pips.
7. Masuko. — A tree, producing a fruit about the size of a
plum. The colour of the fruit is dark red. The flesh
resembles an apple in flavour and contains a few large
seeds. The natives are extremely fond of it. All
game such as lions, leopards, wild pigs, warthogs, and
wild dogs are partial to the Masuko. My wild dog,
Jumbo, used to eat them with avidity. I have re-
peatedly found the spoor of lions and leopards around
3i8 APPENDIX
these trees and unmistakable evidence of their having
consumed the fallen fruit.
8. MatabeAnnie. — A small tree, found near streams,
and in valleys ; it bears a round fruit about i inch in
diameter and of a yellowish green colour. The fruit
is very soft and juicy, and contains one seed, about
I inch in diameter.
9. Mlola. — A large tree, bearing a fruit similar to that
found on the Undendie shrub, an account of which
follows. The whole of the Mlola fruit is eaten — skin
and all.
10. Mbuie. — A very large tree, sometimes of tremendous
girth, with fruit as large as cocoa-nuts. Elephants
are particularly fond of these fruits, and shake them
down from the trees. The fruit, which is enclosed in
shell thinner than that of the cocoa-nut, is of a pale
green shade, is full of seeds, and tastes something
like a lime sweetened.
11. Msara. — A fruit, something similar to the Matonga
but smaller and sweeter. Its flavour is rather nice,
and something akin to a sweet lemon.
12. Ndava. — A large bush, bearing a chocolate-coloured
fruit, something larger than a cherry, but full of little
seeds. I have eaten a great deal of this fruit, and
think they would be delicious if cultivated. Elephants
are very partial to them.
13. Nyonio. — A magnificent tree, with wide-spreading
branches, which bears a slightly oblong, chocolate-
coloured fruit, about the size of a cherry, in clusters
of three and four. The fruit is borne in profusion,
and would, I believe, repay cultivation.
14. PiTIMBlE. — A large tree, bearing tremendous quantities
of a cherry-sized fruit. This fruit is also borne in
clusters, but has only one seed, and is bitter-sweet in
flavour. When ripe, the skin is black.
APPENDIX 319
15. Sahutanie. — A large tree, bearing fruit of a bright
red colour and about the size of large gooseberries.
The pulpy flesh surrounding the one or two seeds, is
of a bitter-sweet flavour.
16 TOPIE-TOPIE. — A small tree with wide-spreading
branches, bearing a profusion of light green fruits
containing several back seeds. The fruit is about two
inches in diameter, and the natives eat the whole of
it, except the seeds.
17. Undendie. — A small shrub, about two feet in height
bears clusters of reddish fruit (about the size of raisins)
with small seeds like the gooseberry. My cook often
used to prepare them for me, and they make excellent
eating. The natives eat the whole fruit skin and all.
APPENDIX C.
Ngekhe. — A small shrub, from which the natives procure
a remedy for dysentery. The inner bark is boiled and
the concoction drunk, and in a day or two the sufferer
begins to recover.
Tangalero. — A creeper that bears a kind of vegetable
marrow, which is somewhat larger than a Jaffa orange,
and of a mottled green colour. The natives use the
pulp as a substitute for soap in washing their clothes.
The seeds inside, after being dried, are fried and
eaten.
Maungo. — The roots of this tree give off a most objection-
able odour, and the natives most emphatically assert
that if some of the roots are placed in a house no
snakes will enter. They tie strands of it round their
ankles while hunting in the forest for honey, to safe-
guard themselves against being bitten by snakes.
320 APPENDIX
APPENDIX D.
LiNYANYANBUIE. — A caterpillar, which attains a length of
two or three inches and is covered with long brown
spiky hairs. If the caterpillar be brushed off the arm,
neck, etc., some of the hairs penetrate the skin and
set up an intolerable itching for several hours. The
natives have a most expert, though cruel, method of
getting rid of these unwelcome caterpillars. The
caterpillar is touched with a hot iron, round which it
promptly curls without leaving behind any of its
obnoxious hairs.
Kashata. — Another caterpillar, which, if it gets on the
skin, causes considerable pain for hours — but no
itching.
INDEX
Abdullah Nkwanda, 177
Acca, a plant, 280, 314
Ahellas ^ Hades), 67
Aniateng tribe, 278
Amina, a slave girl, 303, 304
Angoni, a tribe, 140, 141, 144, 145,
146, 222, 245, 246, 279, 281, 302
Ants (njereniba), 278
Antelope, 295
Asalie, a maiden, 83, 84, 85
Asari, honey, 279
Askari, native policeman or soldier,
75, 116, 179, 204
Atonga tribe, 278
Awembe Mountains, 176, 207
IUngalla River, 79, 109, 162, 258
Baramaeri, a carrier, no, in
Batley (R.), 1 18 ^
Heira, a town, 138
l^hangi, a kind of tobacco, 179
Binguni (Paradise), 67
Bissari, a vegetable, 278
Blantyre Dog Show, 249
Boma, a fort, 1 16, 117, 179, 203
Brandy, a terrier, 249 et seq.
British East Africa, 166
British Nyassaland, 1 16
Buffalo flesh, 277
Bushbuck flesh, 277
Chacunda, a tribe, 227
Chameleon, an animal, 215
Chepungu bean, 281
Cheringulabunda, a snake, 145
Cherunda, an elephant, 308
Cherungu, a shrub, 146
Chillies, a vegetable, 278
Chimbunga, a chief, 140, 142
Chingendo, a tracker, 18, 88, 89, 90,
91 » 103
Chingoniangie's village, 248
Chingwaengie, honey, 279
Chiperjeri, a stream, 86
Chokoma, a hunter, 227
Combe (Strophanthus), a shrub, 246
Congo State, 166
Crocodile's eggs, 279
Dembo, a boy, 16
Diabolo, the game, 195
Dichlenstein (hartebeeste), an animal,
297
Dietary and hygiene, 167 ct seq.
Dog-flesh, 278
Duguwaloh, or black mamba, a snake,
146
Eland, an animal, 277, 294
: Elephants, eyesight of, 95, 96
at rest, 160 et seq
FlPA COUNTRY, 233
Fundi Bakali, a hunter, 226, 227
Fundi Juma, the elephant hunter, 40
German East Africa, 118, 157, 166,
246, 287
Goddard, Mr., 310
Golambepo hills, 59, 61, 65, 207, 209,
211
Gulalahie, a snake, 144
Gwia, a chief, 78
IIaekaera, a fruit, 317
Hamice, a man, 240, 241, 242
Hanguy, a root, 280
Hartebeeste (dichlenstein), an animal,
238, 297
Henderson, Mr., 286
Hippopotamus, 277
Honey (asari), 279
Hongo, a hunter, 227
322
INDEX
Hygiene and dietary, 107
Hyiah, a tracker, 78, 79, 1 51-155,
184, 230, 231
Incunia tree, 277
Insoma, honey, 279
Inswala flesh, 277
Iperi tonga, a snake, 145
Iperie, a chieftain, 42, 44
Johnston-Fort, 282
Jokomahamha (green namba), 146, 216,
217
Kalialikamoschie, a grass, 281
Kanga, a woman's dress, 200, 290
Kapopo, a tracker, 67
Karanji, a chief, 258, 271
Kashata, a caterpillar, 320
Kibali Hill, 109, 259
Kilwa district, 311
Kis-ombi (or VValinganiro), a chief,
117, 118
Kisumba, a town, 118
Kitanda, a l>ed, 210
Kitulika stream, 183
Kolapongu, a snake, 144
Kom Kom (an elephant), ch. xiv
Konyaki, a boy, 154, 155
Koodoo, an animal, 146
Koosee, a fruit, 317
Leanduku (Sultan), 32, 77, 228
Lelx>mah, a snake, 141
Lecama, honey, 279
Lehombero River, 41
Leoto, water-hole, 100
Lepalie, honey, 280
Lependura, honey, 280
Lepinganombie, a snake, 141
Lepunganonie, a tree, 245
Lerongie jungle, 42, 44
Lequania, bean, 281
Letaebo (black mambu), a snake,
140
Letaegaera, a shrub, 246
Letuka, a creeper, 316
Limbo, water-hole, 10 1
Lindi, a town, 222, 302, 303
Linyanyanbuie, a caterpillar, 320
Liwale, a town, 203
Locheringo River, 57, 65, 289, 312
Locusts, 279
Luhanyando stream, 70, 293, 294
Lujenda River, 116, 118, 180, 287
Lukumbuli stream, 83, 235, 302
Lumasuli River, 143, 216, 218, 258
Luwegu River, 32, 41, 70, 93. 94, 112,
228
Macua tribe, 258, 278
Mahenge, district, 222
Mahometanism, ch. xxix
Majamanda, a basket, 84, 142
Majavie, a demon, 115
Majemba, a tracker, 78, 79
Makabuli, an elephant hunter, 218,
219, 220, 221
Makakora, a hunter, 258, 262, 263,
271, 272
Makanjira, a. chief, 117
Makanyanga, a head-tracker, 65
Malinganiro (or Kisombi), a chief, 117,
118, ch. XVII, 176
Malingum, a tracker, 151, 156, 224,
225, 228-234, 260, 266, 268-271
Mamba, black and green snakes, 146
Manganga, a shrub, 245
Mangu, a tree, 30
Manjora, a tracker, 112, 240-242
Marseilles, 3
Maschilla, a hammock, 37, 79, 223,
263, 269, 270
jMasuko, a fruit, 317
Matabeannie, a fruit, 318
Mataka, a chief, 57, 60, 61, 117, 118,
176, 289
Matama, corn, 44, 81, 202, 293
Matergula, a Portuguese Collectorate,
118, 176, 177, 178, 313
Matomoro, a tracker, 2^5
Matonga, a fruit, 317
Matuku, a [wtato, 281
Maungo, a tree, 319
Maveero, a fruit, 317
Mbarangandu, a river, 87, 88, 124,
125, 183
Mbenicuru River, 17, 30, 86, 140, 302,
303
Mbinjie, a fruit, 316
Mbuie, a fruit, 318
Mbura, a fruit, 317
Mbwehu bush, 311
Mculoe, a snake, 146
Medicine-man, 53
Melanji, a chief, 118
Mepama, a potato, 281
Mewalie, a stream, 112
Mhega, a district, 246
Midgets, 279
Mlinda, a grass, 281
Mlceravana, a tree, 54
INDEX
323
Mlola, a fruit, 313
Monkey-nut, 54
Mosleraism, 205
Mperembe (Sultan), 287, 288, 289,
290
Mpimbi, a town, 282, 286
Mpupulu, a creeper, 316
Mputa, a man, 240, 242
Msara, a fruit, 318
Msindaeka, a herb, 281
Msingie river, 65, 209, 212
Mungo, a tree, 277
Mwavie, a tree, 265
Mwera, a tribe, 140, 141, 144, 145,
146, 272, 278, 281, 302
Myaeah Mountains, 216
Nagoromenia's Kraal, 42
Najika, a snake, 144
Nakahungu, a snake, 142, 143
Namabamba or green namba — a snake,
146
Namaraswe, a snake, 140
Nambaco, a snake, 140
Namumbu, a creeper, 316
Naru, a snake, 144
Nculie, a snake, 146
Ndava, a fruit, 318
Nepaka, a guide, 301
Ngekhe, a shrub, 319
Njenjie River, 105
Njercmba, an ant, 278
Njerembo, a tracker, 83, 84, 85
Nlunkwae Hill, 222
North Eastern Rhodesia, 310
Nquangwa, a tree, 45
Ntamba, a creeper, 29, 316
Ntawasie, a tracker, 49, 103, ic6, 107,
108, 128, 132, 134, 184, 224, 225,
256, 267
Nyama, meat, 274
Nyassa (Lake), 75, 116, 117, 118, 176,
207, 245, 246, 248, 278, 279,
312
Nyassaland, 282
Nyonia, a fruit, 318
Palaver (Shauri), 59
Pitimbie, a fruit, 318
^ Poisoning, ch. xxvii.
Pombe, native beer, 14, 53, 205, 220,
242
Ponibe, a boy, 307
Porcupine flesh, 278
Poria forest, 3, 15, 69, 120, 139, 144,
182, 210, 259
Portuguese East Africa, 116, 118, 158,
166, 287
Potosanibo, a headsman, 222
Puff-adder, 139, 145, 215, 268, 270,
278
Python, 278
Quaju, a tamarind tree, 18
Raid, The, ch. xii.
Reedbuck flesh, 277
-VRehgion, 205, ch. XXIX.
Rhinoceros flesh, ^77
Rifles, 170 et seq.
Ringler (Herr), 311
Rovuma River, 57, 78, 116, 118, 161,
236, 258, 287, 312, 313
Rufiji River, 228
Ruka-ruka, a force of soldiers, 117,
210
Sabutanie, a fruit, 319
Safari, 85, in, 124, 169, 218
Seremani, head boy, 302, 307
Shamba, a garden, 44, 81, 82, I12, 142,
196, 202, 228, 229, 293
Shauri, a palaver, 59
Shenzi, heathen, 59, 67, 180, 205
Shire River, 80, 118, 282, 286
Simba, a tracker, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24,
25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 45, 47,
49, 71. 72, 73. 94> 98, 113, "4,
115, 126, 128, 129, 130, 132, 134,
136, 140, 143, 205, 217, 235, 260
Snakes, ch. xiv.
Snuff, 20
Soheri tribe, 278
Songea coUectorate, 78, 222, 302
Songwe, a snake, 143
Strophanthus (combe) a shrub, 246
Sutherland (James), Report of death, 40
Swasuri, a maid, 60, 64
Tamarind tree (quaju), 18
Tandandumbrie, a creeper, 316
Tangalero, a creeper, 319
Tanganyika (Lake), 233, 245
Timbaweesi, a grass, 281
Tombacco (an elephant), 85 et seq.
Topie-topie, a fruit, 319
Tse-tse fly, 167, 252
Tumbie-tumbie tree, 277
Tumbo, a boy, 37, 54
Tweegah, a tracker, 62, 132
Ubena tribe, 278
Ufuta, oil, .199
324
INDEX
Uganda, 1 66
Ujungu tree, 243, 246
Ulalu, a snake, 144
Unangu, a village, 66, 118, 289
Undendie, a fruit, 319
University Mission, 118
Upanga tribe, 278
Upupu, itching buffalo bean, 46, 125.
281
Usufu, a boy, 134, 135, 136, 151, 156,
209, 286
Usufu (not the boy), 240
Uwanjah, a snake, 145
VVanginuo country, 246, 254, 257,
278
Wangoni, a tribe, 42
Watkinson (Mr.), 312-315
Westley- Richards bullet, 172, 174
Whiskey, the terrier, 182
Wild dogs, Ch. xxvi.
Wyao tribe, 117, 176, 179, 281,
287
Yao, 58
Zambesi river, 138
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