ud,
when we should not leave any scent from our tracks; for the elephant is
very keen-scented, and would avoid any place where the scent of a man
was strong. These elephants, however, were not much afraid of man,
because in this part of the country guns were not used against them, and
they were accustomed to see men run away from them. So that the
elephants had it all their own way.

We climbed the tree without difficulty, and having broken off the
branches that intercepted my view, I seated myself on a stout branch,
high enough to be beyond the reach of an elephant's trunk. Inyoni and
Tembile were close beside me, and held the case containing the poisoned
arrows. It was nearly full moon, but clouds occasionally made it rather
dark in the bush, though not so dark as to prevent me from seeing
anything beneath me.

The night came on, and the moon had gone over about half its course,
when we heard a branch broken at some distance from us; and shortly
after, the bushes made a rustling noise as though a gust of wind had
shaken them; and then I saw something white and shining, and around this
white object loomed a black mass. I almost immediately recognised the
white object as the tusks of an enormous elephant, and the animal itself
was the black mass. I took one of my arrows from Tembile, and fitted it
to the bow, and waited for this elephant to come close to me. I was
acquainted with the elephant in India, and was not surprised to find how
quietly it walked in the bush: its steps made no noise, and the only
sound audible was the slight rustling of the leaves as the animal moved
along through the bush, and an occasional blow through its trunk as it
sniffed the air around.

Careful as we had been to cover our feet with mud, still we must have
left some scent; for the elephant came on very slowly, blowing through
its trunk and shaking its great ears as it listened for some sound. At
last it strode forward and came exactly beneath me, and, aiming at its
back just clear of the backbone, I discharged one of my arrows with all
my force. Immediately the elephant felt the prick of the arrow it gave
a sharp cry and moved rapidly forward. It then stood still, listening,
and apparently watching for some enemy, but it could not see us in the
tree. After a short time it gave another and different cry, and
immediately several other elephants, some large, some very small,
shuffled along under the tree. One of these was a ver