t the load
and the food were discharged into the leopard's mouth at the same
moment. Thus, by degrees as my settlement grew, the beasts receded
from the promontory and its adjacent grounds; and in a couple of
years, the herds were able to roam where they pleased without danger.

Cape Mount had long been deserted by elephants, but about forty miles
from my dwelling, on the upper forests of the lake, the noble animal
might still be hunted; and whenever the natives were fortunate enough
to "bag" a specimen, I was sure to be remembered in its division. If
the prize proved a male, I received the feet and trunk, but if it
turned out of the gentler gender, I was honored with the udder, as a
royal _bonne-bouche_.

[Illustration: AN ELEPHANT HUNT.]

In Africa a slaughtered elephant is considered public property by the
neighboring villagers, all of whom have a right to carve the giant
till his bones are bare. A genuine sportsman claims nothing but the
ivory and tail, the latter being universally a perquisite of the king.
Yet I frequently found that associations were made among the natives
to capture this colossal beast and his valuable tusks. Upon these
occasions, a club was formed on the basis of a whaling cruise, while a
single but well-known hunter was chosen to do execution. One man
furnished the muskets, another supplied the powder, a third gave the
iron bolts for balls, a fourth made ready the provender, while a fifth
despatched a bearer with the armament. As soon as the outfit was
completed, the huntsman's _juju_ and _fetiche_ were invoked for good
luck, and he departed under an escort of wives and associates.

An African elephant is smaller, as well as more cunning and wild, than
the Asiatic. Accordingly, the sportsman is often obliged to circumvent
his game during several days, for it is said that in populous
districts, its instincts are so keen as to afford warning of the
neighborhood of fire-arms, even at extraordinary distances. The common
and most effectual mode of enticing an elephant within reach of a
ball, is to strew the forest for several miles with _pine-apples_,
whose flavor and fragrance infallibly bewitch him. By degrees, he
tracks and nibbles the fruit from slice to slice, till, lured within
the hunter's retreat, he is despatched from the branches of a lofty
tree by repeated shots at his capacious forehead.

Sometimes it happens that four or five discharges with the wretched
powder used in Africa fail