o accompany me when I carried out
my plans. On second thoughts, however, it occurred to me that if I were
successful and Inyati were with me, I should do everything, but he would
get the honour, because he was a man, I only a boy. So I asked Inyoni
and Tembile if they would accompany me in an attempt to kill an
elephant.

They replied that to go near these elephants was very dangerous, and
that perhaps I did not know how very likely I was to be killed, so that
they hardly liked to go for fear I was trying to do too much. I said
they might trust me, as I had thought a great deal about what was to be
done, and that by my plan there would be very little danger.

From information I had gained from the Caffres, I learned that the
elephants usually drank every other night, and that unless disturbed
they would drink at the same pools of water. I hoped, therefore, that
if I climbed the large tree that I before mentioned, I might during the
night or early morning, find the elephants under this tree, when I
should have a chance of trying my plan upon them.

My plan was as follows:--The Bushmen that I had shot were armed with a
bow and two kinds of poisoned arrows. One kind were made of reeds with
a bone end, and were used for shooting small game; the other arrows were
stronger, and had a barbed iron end, covered with poison. The barbed
end fitted into a stout reed out of which it could be easily pulled.
The reason for this arrangement was, that if the arrow struck any large
animal such as a lion or a buffalo, the lion would scratch at the arrow
and pull it out, and the buffalo in rushing through the bush might do
the same. If, however, the reed end of the arrow were pulled, or rubbed
off from the animal, the barb containing the poison would remain in its
body, and so enable this poison to enter the circulation of the animal,
and eventually to cause its death.

If I climbed a tree, and the elephants came underneath it, I could fire
an arrow into the back of any one I selected, and by this means I hoped
to kill one, if not more elephants. I explained all this to Inyoni and
Tembile, and they agreed with me that it was a very good plan and likely
to succeed. So having obtained the arrows and a bow, we three started
for the tree when the sun was two hands'-breadth above the horizon, and
was going down. Before we entered the bush we walked in the wettest
parts of the marsh, so that our feet and legs might be covered with m