demand of half of each elephant killed, and for
this advice they are well paid in beer. When we found that the
Portuguese argued in favour of this law, we told the natives that they
might exact tusks from _them_, but that the English, being different,
preferred the pure native custom. It was this which made Sandia, as
afterwards mentioned, hesitate; but we did not care to insist on
exemption in our favour, where the prevalence of the custom might have
been held to justify the exaction.

The cutting up of an elephant is quite a unique spectacle. The men stand
remind the animal in dead silence, while the chief of the travelling
party declares that, according to ancient law, the head and right hind-
leg belong to him who killed the beast, that is, to him who inflicted the
first wound; the left leg to bins who delivered the second, or first
touched the animal after it fell. The meat around the eye to the
English, or chief of the travellers, and different parts to the headmen
of the different fires, or groups, of which the camp is composed; not
forgetting to enjoin the preservation of the fat and bowels for a second
distribution. This oration finished, the natives soon become excited,
and scream wildly as they cut away at the carcass with a score of spears,
whose long handles quiver in the air above their heads. Their excitement
becomes momentarily more and more intense, and reaches the culminating
point when, as denoted by a roar of gas, the huge mass is laid fairly
open. Some jump inside, and roll about there in their eagerness to seize
the precious fat, while others run off, screaming, with pieces of the
bloody meat, throw it on the grass, and run back for more: all keep
talking and shouting at the utmost pitch of their voices. Sometimes two
or three, regardless of all laws, seize the same piece of meat, and have
a brief fight of words over it. Occasionally an agonized yell bursts
forth, and a native emerges out of the moving mass of dead elephant and
wriggling humanity, with his hand badly cut by the spear of his excited
friend and neighbour: this requires a rag and some soothing words to
prevent bad blood. In an incredibly short time tons of meat are cut up,
and placed in separate heaps around.

Sandia arrived soon after the beast was divided: he is an elderly man,
and wears a wig made of "ife" fibre (_sanseviera_) dyed black, and of a
fine glossy appearance. This plant is allied to the aloes, and its thick