They Were Apparently Followed
Even Through The Dense Jungle By The Wild And Reckless Arabs.
I called
my men close together, told them to stand fast and hand me the guns
quickly, and we eagerly awaited the onset that rushed toward us like a
storm.
On they came, tearing everything before them. For a moment the jungle
quivered and crashed; a second later, and, headed by an immense
elephant, the herd thundered down upon us. The great leader came
directly at me, and was received with right and left in the forehead
from a Reilly No. 10 as fast as I could pull the triggers. The shock
made it reel backward for an instant, and fortunately turned it and the
herd likewise. My second rifle was beautifully handed, and I made a
quick right and left at the temples of two fine elephants, dropping them
both stone dead. At this moment the "Baby" was pushed into my hand by
Hadji Ali just in time to take the shoulder of the last of the herd, who
had already charged headlong after his comrades and was disappearing in
the jungle. Bang! went the "Baby;" round I spun like a weathercock, with
the blood pouring from my nose, as the recoil had driven the sharp top
of the hammer deep into the bridge. My "Baby" not only screamed, but
kicked viciously. However, I knew that the elephant must be bagged, as
the half-pound shell had been aimed directly behind the shoulder.
In a few minutes the aggageers arrived. They were bleeding from
countless scratches, as, although naked with the exception of short
drawers, they had forced their way on horseback through the thorny path
cleft by the herd in rushing through the jungle. Abou Do had blood upon
his sword. They had found the elephants commencing a retreat to the
interior of the country, and they had arrived just in time to turn them.
Following them at full speed, Abou Do had succeeded in overtaking and
slashing the sinew of an elephant just as it was entering the jungle.
Thus the aggageers had secured one, in addition to Florian's elephant
that had been slashed by Jali. We now hunted for the "Baby's" elephant,
which was almost immediately discovered lying dead within a hundred and
fifty yards of the place where it had received the shot. The shell had
entered close to the shoulder, and it was extraordinary that an animal
should have been able to travel so great a distance with a wound through
the lungs by a shell that had exploded within the body.
We had done pretty well. I had been fortunate in bagging four from this
herd, in addition to the single bull in the morning; total, five.
Florian had killed one and the aggageers one; total, seven elephants.
One had escaped that I had wounded in the shoulder, and two that had
been wounded by Florian. The aggageers were delighted, and they
determined to search for the wounded elephants on the following day, as
the evening was advancing, and we were about five miles from camp.
At daybreak the next morning the aggageers in high glee mounted their
horses, and with a long retinue of camels and men, provided with axes
and knives, together with large gum sacks to contain the flesh, they
quitted the camp to cut up the numerous elephants. As I had no taste for
this disgusting work, I took two of my Tokrooris, Hadji Ali and Hassan,
and, accompanied by old Abou Do, the father of the sheik, with his
harpoon, we started along the margin of the river in quest of
hippopotami.
The harpoon for hippopotamus and crocodile hunting is a piece of soft
steel about eleven inches long, with a narrow blade or point of about
three quarters of an inch in width and a single but powerful barb. To
this short and apparently insignificant weapon a strong rope is secured,
about twenty feet in length, at the extremity of which is a buoy or
float, as large as a child's head, formed of an extremely light wood
called ambatch (Aanemone mirabilis) that is of about half the specific
gravity of cork. The extreme end of the short harpoon is fixed in the
point of a bamboo about ten feet long, around which the rope is twisted,
while the buoy end is carried in the left hand.
The old Abou Do, being resolved upon work, had divested himself of his
tope or toga before starting, according to the general custom of the
aggageers, who usually wear a simple piece of leather wound round the
loins when hunting; but, I believe in respect for our party, they had
provided themselves with a garment resembling bathing drawers, such as
are worn in France, Germany, and other civilized countries. But the old
Abou Do had resisted any such innovation, and he accordingly appeared
with nothing on but his harpoon; and a more superb old Neptune I never
beheld. He carried this weapon in his hand, as the trident with which
the old sea-god ruled the monsters of the deep; and as the tall Arab
patriarch of threescore years and ten, with his long gray locks flowing
over his brawny shoulders, stepped as lightly as a goat from rock to
rock along the rough margin of the river, I followed him in admiration.
After walking about two miles we noticed a herd of hippopotami in a pool
below a rapid. This was surrounded by rocks, except upon one side, where
the rush of water had thrown up a bank of pebbles and sand. Our old
Neptune did not condescend to bestow the slightest attention when I
pointed out these animals; they were too wide awake; but he immediately
quitted the river's bed, and we followed him quietly behind the fringe
of bushes upon the border, from which we carefully examined the water.
About half a mile below this spot, as we clambered over the intervening
rocks through a gorge which formed a powerful rapid, I observed, in a
small pool just below the rapid, the immense head of a hippopotamus
close to a perpendicular rock that formed a wall to the river, about six
feet above the surface.
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