Ngouta and the Ajumba used to sit down, and rest
with them, and I also, for a few minutes, for a rest and chat, and
then I would go on alone, thus getting a good start.
I got a good
start, in the other meaning of the word, on the afternoon of the
first day when descending into a ravine.
I saw in the bottom, wading and rolling in the mud, a herd of five
elephants. I remembered, hastily, that your one chance when charged
by several elephants is to dodge them round trees, working down wind
all the time, until they lose smell and sight of you, then to lie
quiet for a time, and go home. It was evident from the utter
unconcern of these monsters that I was down wind now, so I had only
to attend to dodging, and I promptly dodged round a tree, and lay
down. Seeing they still displayed no emotion on my account, and
fascinated by the novelty of the scene, I crept forward from one
tree to another, until I was close enough to have hit the nearest
one with a stone, and spats of mud, which they sent flying with
their stamping and wallowing came flap, flap among the bushes
covering me.
One big fellow had a nice pair of 40 lb. or so tusks on him,
singularly straight, and another had one big curved tusk and one
broken one.
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