all that comes in their way.

The two that now approached us in full career were flying before a crowd
of negroes who had already fixed a number of spears in their sides, from
which the blood was flowing copiously. To say that the bushes went down
before them like grass would not give a correct idea of the ponderous
rush of these creatures. Trees of three and four inches diameter were
run against and snapped off like twigs, without proving in any degree
obstructive.

By this time the negroes had crowded in from all sides, and as the
elephants approached the place where we stood, a perfect cloud of spears
and javelins descended on their devoted sides. I observed that many of
the active natives had leaped up into the trees and discharged their
spears from above, while others, crouching behind fallen trees or
bushes, threw them from below, so that in a few seconds dozens of spears
entered their bodies at every conceivable angle, and they appeared as if
suddenly transformed into monstrous porcupines or hedgehogs. There was
something almost ludicrous in this, but the magnitude and aspect of the
animals were too terrible, and our danger was too imminent, to permit
anything like comic ideas to enter our brains. I observed, too, that
the natives were perfectly wild with excitement. Their black faces
worked convulsively, and their white eyes and teeth glittered as they
leaped and darted about in a state of almost perfect nudity, so that
their aspect was quite demoniacal.

The suddenness and violence of the attack made near to us had the effect
of turning the elephants aside, and the next instant they were tearing
and wrenching themselves through the meshes of the tough and thorny
vines. The natives closed in with wild cries and with redoubled energy.
Nothing surprised me so much as to observe the incredible number of
spears that were sticking all over these creatures, and the amount of
blood that they lost, without any apparent diminution of strength
resulting. It seemed as if no human power could kill them, and at that
moment I almost doubted Peterkin's assertion that he had, while in
Ceylon, actually killed elephants with a single ball.

While Jack and Peterkin and I were gazing in deep interest and surprise
at the curious struggle going on before us, and holding ourselves in
readiness to act, should there be any chance of our game escaping, the
larger of the two elephants succeeded in disentangling himself by
back