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 Fiorian'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. Having my
measuring-tape in a game-bag that was always carried by
Abdoolahi, I measured accurately one of the elephants that had
fallen with the legs stretched out, so that the height to the
shoulder could be exactly taken:--From foot to shoulder in a
direct line, nine feet one inch; circumference of foot, four feet
eight inches. The elephant lying by her side was still larger,
but the legs being doubled up, I could not measure her: these
were females.
We now left the jungle, and found our horses waiting for us in
the bed of the river by the water side, and we rode towards our
camp well satisfied with the day's work. Upon entering an open
plain of low withered grass we perceived a boar, who upon our
approach showed no signs of fear, but insolently erected his tail
and scrutinised our party. Florian dismounted and fired a shot,
which passed through his flank, and sent the boar flying off at
full speed. Abou Do and I gave chase on horseback, and after a
run of a few hundred yards we overtook the boar, which turned
resolutely to bay.
In a short time the whole party arrived, and, as Florian had
wounded the animal, his servant Richarn considered that he should
give the coup de grace; but upon his advancing with his drawn
knife, the boar charged desperately, and inflicted a serious
wound across the palm of his hand, which was completely divided
to the bone by a gash with the sharp tusk. Abou Do immediately
rode to the rescue, and with a blow of his sword divided the
spine behind the shoulder, and nearly cut the boar in half. By
this accident Richarn was disabled for some days.
Upon our arrival at the camp, there were great rejoicings among
our people at the result of the day's sport. Old Moosa, the half
fortune-teller, half priest, of the Tokrooris, had in our absence
employed himself in foretelling the number of elephants we should
kill. His method of conjuring was rather perplexing, and,
although a mystery beyond my understanding, it might be simple to
an English spiritualist or spirit-rapper; he had nevertheless
satisfied both himself and others, therefore the party had been
anxiously waiting our return to hear the result. Of course, old
Moosa was wrong, and of course he had a loop-hole for escape, and
thereby preserved his reputation. The aggageers expected to find
our wounded elephants on the following morning, if dead, by the
flights of vultures. That night the lions again serenaded us with
constant roaring, as they had still some bones to gnaw of the
buffalo's remains.
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 (Anemone
mirabilis), that is 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, like the English, 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
grey 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.
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