Ivory, However, That Is Obtained By Murder Is Private Ivory.
The
public ivory trade among the Fans is carried on in a way more in
accordance with European ideas of a legitimate trade.
The greater
part of this ivory is obtained from dead elephants. There are in
this region certain places where the elephants are said to go to
die. A locality in one district pointed out to me as such a place,
was a great swamp in the forest. A swamp that evidently was deep in
the middle, for from out its dark waters no swamp plant, or tree
grew, and evidently its shores sloped suddenly, for the band of
swamp plants round its edge was narrow. It is just possible that
during the rainy season when most of the surrounding country would
be under water, elephants might stray into this natural trap and get
drowned, and on the drying up of the waters be discovered, and the
fact being known, be regularly sought for by the natives cognisant
of this. I inquired carefully whether these places where the
elephants came to die always had water in them, but they said no,
and in one district spoke of a valley or round-shaped depression in
among the mountains. But natives were naturally disinclined to take
a stranger to these ivory mines, and a white person who has caught -
as any one who has been in touch must catch - ivory fever, is
naturally equally disinclined to give localities.
A certain percentage of ivory collected by the Fans is from live
elephants, but I am bound to admit that their method of hunting
elephants is disgracefully unsportsmanlike.
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