ered by a small bull-elephant, which came
shuffling along with an old-fashioned look of intelligence, and ran in
front of his mamma. He stood a little while with an air of wisdom, as
though to intimate, that although young and small, he was still quite up
to everything, and could teach his mother many a "neat plant:"--he
looked a most precocious young elephant. Presently he advanced a few
yards, and swung his trunk about over the footprints of the Kaffir,
whose naked feet, I imagine, left a better scent than my
"_veld-schoens_." Young elephant then screwed up his trunk, and twisted
it in the air, with an expression as much as to say, "Now, really, this
is a dreadfully bad smell." During all this time we remained perfectly
still in the tree, and the elephants, trusting but little to their
sight, and not expecting their enemies to be up aloft, had not noticed
us.

The young one was evidently much admired by his mamma, and continued
following our footsteps to the end of our walk, and to where we had
stood for a short time, and then returned: there he was at fault, and
could not make things out at all.

I had remained perfectly still during this performance, as I did not
wish the elephants to know that I was up the tree. Had they gone near
the guns, I should at once have tried the effect of an English yell,
with a second shout from my Kaffir; but Inyovu, beginning to be alarmed,
tried to get higher up the tree. I felt convinced that we were quite
safe, as the branch on which we were standing was at least twenty-five
feet from the ground, and was also very stout.

The noise that my Kaffir made in mounting higher seemed to puzzle the
elephants; they twisted round, flapped their ears about, and turned the
muzzle of their trunks in every direction. My attention had been so
taken up with the two elephants that I have mentioned, that I had not
noticed a large bull which had approached from the other side to watch
proceedings. A slight noise that he made drew my attention to him,
when, on viewing his gigantic ivories, I became ambitious, and could not
resist the temptation of trying to get to my guns to obtain a shot. I
caught hold of the wild vine, and was swinging myself down, when the
noise that I necessarily made seemed to alarm the elephants. The old
lady gave two or three grunts, which recalled her hopeful child, and
they all waddled off in the most absurd manner. It was a very pretty
family picture.

The ele