in the bush--so quiet, that you
might be within fifty yards of a herd of elephants and not know they
were there. If, however, a man disturbs the herd when they are thus at
rest, the animals will very likely charge at him, and hunt him through
the bush just as a pack of hounds will hunt a fox. At this time of year
the elephant bulls, cows, and calves, all keep together; but later on
the bulls separate and sometimes travel alone. When thus alone, the
bulls are very savage; and if two bulls meet in the bush a terrible
battle ensues. The Caffres consider that a bull-elephant is a match for
100 Caffres, and even then the animal may get the best of the fight.

I was much interested in these accounts of the elephants, and began to
think how I could manage to kill an elephant; for it was my ambition to
do so.

The Caffre name for an elephant is _inglovu_, and the words _inglovu_
and _ama inglovu_ were frequently heard during the next few days; for
the expected arrival of the elephants was a most serious incident in the
daily life of these people; and forty moons ago the elephants had
suddenly travelled into this country and had destroyed all the crops of
the Caffres near this village. It was all done in one night, and on the
morning the people discovered that their yearly crop of corn had
vanished. The season was too far advanced to sow again; consequently
they were compelled to buy corn and to purchase it with cattle. So that
their loss had been very severe.

Taking the first opportunity of speaking to Inyati, I inquired what he
intended to do in order to protect his fields and gardens. He replied
that the only thing to do was to light fires round the gardens, and to
assemble and shout. I inquired why he did not dig a great ditch round
his gardens; but he replied that it would take too long, and that the
elephants could manage to cross almost any ditch that could be dug.

He also told me that sometimes pits had been dug for elephants; and some
years ago an elephant fell into one of these pits, and had been helped
out by other elephants; so that it was no use attempting anything
against them, as they were as clever as men. That night I thought over
every plan by which I could kill an elephant, and at length an idea
occurred to me; but I kept my thoughts to myself, as I intended to try
by myself if I could not kill one of these enormous animals. Great
preparations were made by the Caffres for the arrival of the ele