In A Little More Than An Hour And A Half, Two Objects Like The Backs Of
Turtles Appeared Above The Surface.
These were the flanks of the two
hippos.
A short time afterward the men arrived, and, regardless of
crocodiles, they swam toward the bodies. One was towed directly to the
shore by the rope attached to the harpoon, the other was secured by a
long line and dragged to the bank of clean pebbles. We had now a good
supply of food, which delighted our people.
I returned to the camp, and several hours elapsed, but none of the
aggageers returned, and neither had we received any tidings of our
people and camels that had left us at daybreak to search for the dead
elephants. Fearing that some mishap might have occurred in a collision
with the Bas-e, I anxiously looked out for some sign of the party. At
about 4 P.M. I observed far up the bed of the river several men, some
mounted and others upon foot, while one led a camel with a
curious-looking load. Upon a nearer approach I could distinguish upon
the camel's back some large object that was steadied by two men, one of
whom walked on either side. I had a foreboding that something was wrong,
and in a few minutes I clearly perceived a man lying upon a make-shift
litter, carried by the camel, while the Sheik Abou Do and Suleiman
accompanied the party upon horseback; a third led Jali's little gray
mare.
They soon arrived beneath the high bank of the river upon which I stood.
Poor little Jali, my plucky and active ally, lay, as I thought, dead
upon the litter. We laid him gently upon my angarep, which I had raised
by four men, so that we could lower him gradually from the kneeling
camel, and we carried him to the camp, about thirty yards distant. He
was faint, and I poured some essence of peppermint (the only spirits I
possessed) down his throat, which quickly revived him. His thigh was
broken about eight inches above the knee, but fortunately it was a
simple fracture.
Abou Do now explained the cause of the accident. While the party of
camel, men and others were engaged in cutting up the dead elephants, the
three aggageers had found the track of a bull that had escaped wounded.
In that country, where there was no drop of water upon the east bank of
the Settite for a distance of sixty or seventy miles to the river Gash,
an elephant, if wounded, was afraid to trust itself to the interior. One
of our escaped elephants had therefore returned to the thick jungle, and
was tracked by the aggageers to a position within two or three hundred
yards of the dead elephants. As there were no guns, two of the
aggageers, utterly reckless of consequences, resolved to ride through
the narrow passages formed by the large game, and to take their chance
with the elephant, sword in hand. Jali, as usual, was the first to lead,
and upon his little gray mare he advanced with the greatest difficulty
through the entangled thorns, broken by the passage of heavy game; to
the right and left of the passage it was impossible to move. Abou Do had
wisely dismounted, but Suleiman followed Jali. Upon arriving within a
few yards of the elephant, which was invisible in the thick thorns, Abou
Do crept forward on foot, and discovered it standing with ears cocked,
evidently waiting for the attack. As Jali followed on his light gray
mare, the elephant immediately perceived the white color and at once
charged forward. Escape was next to impossible. Jali turned his snare
sharply around, and she bounded off; but, caught in the thorns, the mare
fell, throwing her rider in the path of the elephant that was within a
few feet behind, in full chase. The mare recovered herself in an
instant, and rushed away; the elephant, attracted by the white color of
the animal, neglected the man, upon whom it trod in the pursuit, thus
breaking his thigh. Abou Do, who had been between the elephant and Jali,
had wisely jumped into the thick thorns, and, as the elephant passed
him, he again sprang out behind and followed with his drawn sword, but
too late to save Jali, as it was the affair of an instant. Jumping over
Jali's body, he was just in time to deliver a tremendous cut at the hind
leg of the elephant, that must otherwise have killed both horses and
probably Suleiman also, as the three were caught in a cul de sac, in a
passage that had no outlet, and were at the elephant's mercy.
Abou Do seldom failed. It was a difficult feat to strike correctly in
the narrow jungle passage with the elephant in full speed; but the blow
was fairly given, and the back sinew was divided. Not content with the
success of the cut, he immediately repeated the stroke upon the other
leg, as he feared that the elephant, although disabled from rapid
motion, might turn and trample Jali. The extraordinary dexterity and
courage required to effect this can hardly be appreciated by those who
have never hunted a wild elephant; but the extreme agility, pluck, and
audacity of these Hamran sword-hunters surpass all feats that I have
ever witnessed.
I set Jali's broken thigh and attended to him for four days. He was a
very grateful but unruly patient, as he had never been accustomed to
remain quiet. At the end of that time we arranged an angarep comfortably
upon a camel, upon which he was transported to Geera, in company with a
long string of camels, heavily laden with dried meat and squares of hide
for shields, with large bundles of hippopotamus skin for whip-making,
together with the various spoils of the chase. Last but not least were
numerous leathern pots of fat that had been boiled down from elephants
and hippopotami.
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