These Beans Are Sometimes Fraudulently Soaked In
Shea-Butter To Make Them Heavy, And I Once Saw A Pebble Ground
Exactly Into The Form Of One Of Them; But Such Practices Are Not
Very Common.
Having now related the substance of what occurs to my recollection
concerning the African mode of obtaining gold from the earth, and
its value in barter, I proceed to the next article of which I
proposed to treat - namely, ivory.
Nothing creates a greater surprise among the negroes on the sea-
coast than the eagerness displayed by the European traders to
procure elephants' teeth, it being exceedingly difficult to make
them comprehend to what use it is applied. Although they are shown
knives with ivory handles, combs and toys of the same material, and
are convinced that the ivory thus manufactured was originally parts
of a tooth, they are not satisfied. They suspect that this
commodity is more frequently converted in Europe to purposes of far
greater importance, the true nature of which is studiously concealed
from them, lest the price of ivory should be enhanced. They cannot,
they say, easily persuade themselves that ships would be built and
voyages undertaken to procure an article which had no other value
than that of furnishing handles to knives, etc., when pieces of wood
would answer the purpose equally well.
Elephants are very numerous in the interior of Africa, but they
appear to be a distinct species from those found in Asia.
Blumenbach, in his figures of objects of natural history, has given
good drawings of a grinder of each, and the variation is evident.
M. Cuvier also has given in the Magasin Encyclopedique a clear
account of the difference between them. As I never examined the
Asiatic elephant, I have chosen rather to refer to those writers
than advance this as an opinion of my own. It has been said that
the African elephant is of a less docile nature than the Asiatic,
and incapable of being tamed. The negroes certainly do not at
present tame them; but when we consider that the Carthaginians had
always tame elephants in their armies, and actually transported some
of them to Italy in the course of the Punic wars, it seems more
likely that they should have possessed the art of taming their own
elephants than have submitted to the expense of bringing such vast
animals from Asia. Perhaps the barbarous practice of hunting the
African elephants for the sake of their teeth has rendered them more
untractable and savage than they were found to be in former times.
The greater part of the ivory which is sold on the Gambia and
Senegal rivers is brought from the interior country. The lands
towards the coast are too swampy and too much intersected with
creeks and rivers for so bulky an animal as the elephant to travel
through without being discovered; and when once the natives discern
the marks of his feet in the earth, the whole village is up in arms.
The thoughts of feasting on his flesh, making sandals of his hide,
and selling the teeth to the Europeans, inspire every one with
courage, and the animal seldom escapes from his pursuers; but in the
plains of Bambarra and Kaarta, and the extensive wilds of
Jallonkadoo, the elephants are very numerous, and, from the great
scarcity of gunpowder in those districts, they are less annoyed by
the natives.
Scattered teeth are frequently picked up in the woods, and
travellers are very diligent in looking for them. It is a common
practice with the elephant to thrust his teeth under the roots of
such shrubs and bushes as grow in the more dry and elevated parts of
the country, where the soil is shallow. These bushes he easily
overturns, and feeds on the roots, which are in general more tender
and juicy than the hard, woody branches or the foliage; but when the
teeth are partly decayed by age, and the roots more firmly fixed,
the great exertions of the animal in this practice frequently cause
them to break short. At Kamalia I saw two teeth, one a very large
one, which were found in the woods, and which were evidently broken
off in this manner. Indeed, it is difficult otherwise to account
for such a large proportion of broken ivory as is daily offered for
sale at the different factories, for when the elephant is killed in
hunting, unless he dashes himself over a precipice, the teeth are
always extracted entire.
There are certain seasons of the year when the elephants collect
into large herds, and traverse the country in quest of food or
water; and as all that part of the country to the north of the Niger
is destitute of rivers, whenever the pools in the woods are dried up
the elephants approach towards the banks of that river. Here they
continue until the commencement of the rainy season, in the months
of June or July, and during this time they are much hunted by such
of the Bambarrans as have gunpowder to spare. The elephant-hunters
seldom go out singly - a party of four or five join together, and
having each furnished himself with powder and ball, and a quantity
of corn-meal in a leather bag sufficient for five or six days'
provision, they enter the most unfrequented parts of the wood, and
examine with great care everything that can lead to the discovery of
the elephants. In this pursuit, notwithstanding the bulk of the
animal, very great nicety of observation is required. The broken
branches, the scattered dung of the animal, and the marks of his
feet are carefully inspected; and many of the hunters have, by long
experience and attentive observation, become so expert in their
search that as soon as they observe the foot-marks of an elephant
they will tell almost to a certainty at what time it passed and at
what distance it will be found.
When they discover a herd of elephants, they follow them at a
distance, until they perceive some one stray from the rest and come
into such a situation as to be fired at with advantage.
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