ely called, when it was determined to rescue the
sufferer at all hazards, and twenty strong fellows, myself having the
command of the party, set off at full speed through the wood in the
direction of the cries,--every one of us bellowing as loud as we were
able.

A very short time sufficed to bring us within sight of the enemy. In an
open part of the forest was a troop of twenty or thirty hunters, but
very different in their appearance from those I have before described;
for these were nearly naked savages, on foot, and armed only with those
ridiculous things, bows and arrows--weapons which our good stout skins
enable us to laugh at. These wretches, as soon as they caught sight of
our formidable band, took to their heels in great confusion, flying in
every direction, like a herd of antelopes before the cruel tiger; we
did not deign to follow them, but hastened at once to the spot they had
left. Here we found a deep pit-fall, and at the bottom was an
exceedingly beautiful and very black female elephant unhurt by the
fall, for the pit being large, she had fortunately escaped the
murderous sharp-pointed stake, and her cry of distress was soon
exchanged for one of joyful recognition, as she saw so many of her
friends looking down upon her, and assuring her that they would leave
no means untried to rescue her from her prison. But this was a much
more difficult matter than we had supposed; for the pit was so deep,
that, when the captive stood up on her hind-legs, her eyes were but
just level with the ground, and though we made many efforts to lift her
out with our trunks, our attempts were always ended by our poor
friend's tumbling back again with great violence into the pit, and
nearly pulling three or four of us down with her. I now sent off a
messenger for our leader, who soon arrived, bringing the whole herd
with him; but numbers could not help us out of the difficulty.

At length, when we were beginning almost to despair, I chanced to
remember a plan, which I had heard was sometimes adopted by the
hunters, when they wished to take an elephant alive out of a pitfall.
Here, my children, was an instance of the advantage of _remembering
what we have heard_; and of remembering it at the right time too, for
our knowledge and experience are doubly useful to us when they enable
us to decide not only _wisely_, but _quickly_, in affairs of
difficulty.

The method, which, at my suggestion, we now adopted, was this;--with
our tu