HUNTING THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT.
From the huge size of its body and tusks, the African elephant affords,
if any thing, a better opportunity of testing the skill and endurance of
the hunter than its Asiatic ally. In former years, the great game was
found from the Southern limit of Sahara to Cape Town; but so insatiate
has been the greed for ivory, that it has been gradually driven from
the more exposed tracts, and is now confined to the most unfrequented
parts of the great continent; and as it is only with great difficulty
and incalculable hardship that it can be followed, the animal is rarely
hunted at the present day for pure sport, the ivory tusks alone being the
desideratum. As about one hundred thousand elephants are killed every
year, and they are slow breeders, their utter extermination seems only a
matter of time. If the present depletion of the numbers of the African
species continues, it will be but a memory of the past in a comparatively
few years.
The African elephant is followed in several ways. Some hunters, as
Baldwin, prefer to depend upon horses, and, so mounted, follow the herd
at full speed, leaping from the saddle, firing quickly, and avoiding the
charge by the fleetness of the horse. Others, as Selous, prefer shooting
on foot. The latter met with an extraordinary adventure while following
a fine elephant, and narrowly escaped. The following is his account:—
“My horse was now so tired that he stood well; so, reining in, I gave her
a shot from his back between the neck and the shoulder, which I believe
just stopped her from charging. On receiving this wound, she backed a
few paces, gave her ears a flap against her sides, and then stood facing
me again. I had just taken out the empty cartridge, and was about to put
a fresh one in, when, seeing that she looked very vicious, and as I was
not thirty yards from her, I caught the bridle, and turned the horse’s
head away, so as to be ready for a fair start in case of a charge. I was
still holding my rifle with the breech open, when I saw that she was
coming. Digging the spurs into my horse’s ribs, I did my best to get him
away; but he was so thoroughly done, that instead of springing forwards,
which was what the emergency required, he only started at a walk, and was
just breaking into a canter when the elephant was upon us. I heard two
short, sharp screams above my head, and had just time to think it was
all over with me, when, horse and all, I was dashed to the ground. For
a few seconds I was half stunned by the violence of the shock; and the
first thing I became aware of, was a very strong smell of elephant. At
the same instant, I felt that I was still unhurt, and that, though in an
unpleasant predicament, I had still a chance for life. I was, however,
pressed down on the ground in such a way that I could not extricate my
head. At last, with a violent effort I wrenched myself loose, and threw
my body over sideways, so that I rested on my hands. As I did so, I saw
the hind-legs of the elephant standing like two pillars before me, and
at once grasped the situation. She was on her knees, with her head and
tusks in the ground; and I had been pressed down under her chest, but
luckily behind her fore-legs. Dragging myself from under her, I regained
my feet, and made a hasty retreat, having had rather more than enough of
elephants for the time being. I retained, however, sufficient presence
of mind to run slowly, watching her movements over my shoulder, and
directing mine accordingly. Almost immediately I had made my escape,
she got up, and stood looking for me with her ears up and head raised,
turning first to one side, and then to the other, but never wheeling
quite round. As she made these turns, I ran obliquely to the right or
left, as the case might be, always endeavoring to keep her stern towards
me. At length I gained the shelter of a small bush, and breathed freely
once more.
“All this time I never saw my horse, which must have been lying amongst
the grass where he had been thrown to the ground. I thought he was dead;
or perhaps, to speak more truly, I was so engrossed with my own affairs
that I did not think about him at all. I stood now just on the highest
ground of a gentle rise, which sloped gradually down to an open glade,
in which, from where I was, I could see two dead elephants. Just then
I saw a Caffre coming across the opening, and went down to meet him,
leaving my elephant still standing on the spot where she had knocked
me down. Being unarmed,—for my gun had been dashed from my hand when I
fell,—I dared not go near her to look for it. Upon meeting the Caffre,
I hastily told him what had happened. The elephant was not now visible,
being just beyond the crest of the rise, about two hundred yards distant;
but I only stopped to take some cartridges from my trousers pocket, and
put them in my belt, and then, accompanied by the boy, returned to the
scene of the accident to look for my rifle, and see what had become of
my horse. On topping the rise, we saw him standing without the saddle;
but the elephant had walked away, and was no longer visible. Going up
to my horse, I found that he had received an ugly wound in the buttock
from behind, from which the blood was streaming down the leg: otherwise,
barring a few abrasions, he was unhurt. Whilst the boy was searching
for my rifle, I looked round for the elephant, which I knew had only
just moved away, and, seeing a cow standing amongst some bushes not two
hundred yards from me, made sure it was the one that had so nearly made
an example of me. The Caffre now came up with my rifle and saddle, the
girth of which was broken. The rifle, having been open at the breech
when it fell to the ground, was full of sand; so that it was not until
I had taken the lever out, using the point of the Caffre’s assegai for
a screw-driver, that I managed to get it to work. I then approached the
elephant, which all the time had been standing where I first saw her,
and, cautiously advancing to within fifty yards of her, took a careful
aim, and gave her a shot behind the shoulder, which brought her to the
ground with a crash. Pushing in another cartridge, I ran up, and gave her
a shot in the back of the head to make sure of her.”
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.
AFRICAN ELEPHANT. LEANING AGAINST A TREE.
_Pages 17 and 165._]
Hunters do not always escape so fortunately as did Mr. Selous. One of the
native hunters employed by him, named Quabeet, followed a bull elephant
into the bush, and was never seen alive again. The brute must have laid
in wait for him, and rushed out, taking him unawares. The bushes around
the locality were levelled to the ground; and, when finally the body
was discovered, it was torn in three pieces. “The chest, with head and
arms attached, which had been wrenched from the trunk just below the
breast-bone, lying in one place; one leg and thigh, that had been torn
off at the pelvis, in another; and the remainder in a third. The right
arm had been broken in two places, and the hand crushed; one of the
thighs was also broken; but otherwise the fragment had not been trampled
on. There is little reason to doubt,” continues Selous, “that the
infuriated elephant must have pressed the unfortunate man down with his
foot or knee, and then, twisting his trunk round his body, wrenched him
asunder. This feat gives one an idea of the awful strength of these huge
beasts, and how powerless the strongest of men.”
Sometimes the elephant is attacked with javelins, or spears, and so
killed. Dr. Livingstone thus describes an instance that he witnessed:—
“I had retired from the noise, to take observations among some rocks of
laminated grit, when I beheld an elephant and her calf at the end of a
valley, about two miles distant. The calf was rolling in the mud, and
the dam was fanning herself with her great ears. As I looked at them
through my glass, I saw a long string of my own men approaching on the
other side of them. I then went higher up the side of the valley, in
order to have a distinct view of their mode of hunting. The goodly beast,
totally unconscious of the approach of an enemy, stood for some time
suckling her young one, which seemed about two years old: then they went
into a pit containing mud, and smeared themselves all over with it; the
little one frisking about his dam, flapping his ears, and tossing his
trunk incessantly in elephantine fashion. She kept flapping her ears,
and wagging her tail, as if in the height of enjoyment. Then began the
piping of her enemies, which was performed by blowing into a tube, or the
hands closed together, as boys do into a key. They called out, to attract
the animal’s attention,—
‘O chief, chief! we have come to kill you:
O chief, chief! many others will die beside you;
The gods have said it,’ etc.
Both animals expanded their ears, and listened, then left their bath. As
the crowd rushed towards them, the little one ran forward to the end of
the valley, but, seeing the men, returned to his dam. She placed herself
on the dangerous side of her calf, and passed her proboscis over it again
and again, as if to assure it of safety. She frequently looked back to
the men, who kept up an incessant shouting, singing, and piping; then
looked at her young one, and ran after it, sometimes sidewise, as if
her feelings were divided between anxiety to protect her offspring, and
desire to revenge the temerity of her persecutors. The men kept about a
hundred yards in her rear, and some that distance from her flanks, and
continued thus until she was obliged to cross a rivulet.
“The time spent in descending and getting up the opposite bank allowed of
their coming up to the edge and discharging their spears at about sixty
feet distance. After the first discharge, she appeared with her sides
red with blood, and, beginning to flee for her own life, seemed to think
no more of her young. I had previously sent off Sekweba with orders to
spare the calf. He ran very fast, but neither young nor old ever enter
into a gallop: their quickest pace is only a sharp walk. Before Sekweba
could reach them, the calf had taken refuge in the water, and was killed.
The pace of the dam gradually became slower: she turned with a shriek
of rage, and made a furious charge back among the men. They vanished at
right and left angles from her course; and, as she ran right on, she went
through the whole party, but came near no one, except a man who wore a
piece of cloth on his shoulders. She charged three or four times, and,
except in the first instance, never went farther than one hundred yards.
She often stood, after she had crossed a rivulet, and faced the men,
though she received fresh spears. It was by this process of spearing, and
loss of blood, that she was killed; for at last, making a short struggle,
she staggered round, and sank down dead, in a kneeling position.”
While this method is certainly a fair one,—the natives exposing
themselves, and meeting the elephant in the open field,—it seems a
murderous operation to torture such a noble animal, especially when she
is defending her young.
Among the narrow escapes of elephant-hunters in Africa may be mentioned
Mr. Oswold. He was fleeing from an elephant, near the shores of the
Zonga, when his horse stumbled, and he fell in a thicket, face to the
huge brute who was coming like an avalanche—a veritable mountain of
flesh. He gave himself up as lost; but, by a miracle, the animal passed
within a few inches, missing him in its blind rage.
Elephants are remarkable for their scent, and hunters always try to
keep to the leeward. Charles Volk, a Dutchman, while hunting, concealed
himself in the brush, hoping to take an elephant unawares. But he was in
the wrong direction: the great game scented him, and a moment later was
upon the unfortunate hunter, and had crushed him into a shapeless mass.
On another occasion, a party came upon two large elephants in an open
spot. They immediately made for cover, the hunters wounding a female as
she ran. Hoping to cut off her retreat, they put spurs to their horses,
and were well upon her, when the male, a large tusker, charged upon them
from a thicket. Some of the men had dismounted to fire; and, though taken
by surprise, they succeeded in reaching their horses, with the exception
of a young man, who was standing with his arm through the bridle, and
loading his gun. The infuriated animal caught him before he could move,
drove both his tusks through his body, and tossed him dead and bleeding a
great height into the air; then, returning to its mate, both animals made
off.
Karol Kreiger’s name is often mentioned by the Dutch African colonists as
a bold hunter, who killed many elephants in his day, and was extremely
fortunate in avoiding their rushes. He finally met his death while
engaged in the sport of his choice. He was following a wounded elephant,
when the latter suddenly whirled about as if on a pivot, took him in
its trunk, and tossed him like a ball into the air, and, when he fell,
trampled him underfoot in a frenzy of rage. When the body was recovered,
it was completely torn in pieces.
While Europeans are remarkably courageous in facing a charging elephant,
they are exceeded in daring by the Hamran Arabs, who, without any of the
appliances of a modern sportsman, face the largest and most ferocious
elephants with a simple sword and shield. The Hamran Arabs are skilled
horsemen, and are distinguished from their countrymen of other tribes
by the length of their hair, which is worn in long curls, and parted in
the centre. Their sole method of defence and attack is the sword and
shield. The latter is of two kinds: one is circular in shape, either of
rhinoceros or giraffe hide, stiffened by a stout piece of wood that
passes down the centre. The shield is about two feet in diameter, and
resembles, according to Baker, a broad hat with a low crown terminating
in a point. In the crown, there is a bar of leather used as a grip; while
the outside is protected by a piece of scaly crocodile-hide. The swords,
which are manufactured at Sollingen, are all of one pattern, being longer
or shorter according to the strength of the owner. The blade is long and
straight and two-edged; the guard being a simple bar, or cross, a fashion
presumably adopted after the Crusades. Some of the wealthy Arabs decorate
the handles with silver; and a good sword is highly prized, and handed
down from generation to generation. Metal scabbards are not used; the
case being two thin strips of an elastic, soft wood covered with leather,
all of which is to preserve the edge; for this double-edged weapon is so
delicate and keen, that it will cut a hair, and could be used as a razor.
On the march, the sword is looked after with the greatest care, and is
slung from the pommel of the saddle, passing beneath the thigh. When
the Arab dismounts, he invariably draws it, and, after examining both
edges, strops it upon his shield, and, having shaved a hair from his arm,
returns it to the scabbard.
The swords are about three feet five inches in length; and about nine
inches of the blade is bound with cord, which is grasped with the right
hand, the left seizing the handle, so that it becomes a two-handed
weapon. Thus armed, four aggageers, as the professional elephant-hunters
are called, are ready to attack the largest elephant. Their method is,
if they have no horses, to follow the great game on foot, and endeavor,
between the hours of ten A.M. and twelve M., to find one sleeping. If
this can be accomplished, they steal upon it, and with one blow of
the terrible sword sever the trunk, producing a wound from which the
elephant will die in an hour. A well-equipped party, however, consists
of four aggageers on horseback. When the trail of a herd is struck,
they dash in pursuit; and when the animals are discovered, endeavor to
single out the largest tusker, generally an old bull. Galloping after the
fleeing elephant, they soon gain on it, and endeavor to make it turn and
charge,—a matter of little difficulty. The men now have each a duty to
perform. One places himself immediately in front of the animal, and tries
to attract its attention, as does the matador in the bull-fight. This is
a most dangerous position; as, if the horse stumbles before the desperate
charges of the enraged animal, both horse and rider will be crushed to
death. But, while the nimble aggageer in front is tantalizing the great
beast, the others are watching their opportunity. Galloping up behind the
fleeing animal until within a foot or so of its heels, one springs to the
ground lightly, sword in hand, though at full speed, and, racing along on
foot for a few seconds, strikes the elephant a terrific blow, severing
the back sinew of the foot, so that the first pressure after the stroke
dislocates the joint. As the hunter leaps to the ground, his companion
seizes his horse, and, as soon as the blow is made, he remounts: two
or three ride near the unfortunate elephant’s trunk, to give the third
aggageer an opportunity to sever the sinew of the other hind-foot, which
is soon done; and the huge animal, thus helpless, is literally killed by
two blows of a sword.
The force of the blow given in this way can be imagined when it is
known that a native has been seen to sever the spine of a wild boar at
a single stroke. The aggageers often meet with terrible accidents. One
employed by Sir S. W. Baker had his leg almost severed by his own sword.
Another Arab, Roder Sherrif, had had his horse killed from under him by
an elephant, whose tusk at the same time entered his arm, rendering it
useless for life. Yet this maimed man was considered the finest hunter,
and always chose the most dangerous post, running ahead of the elephant’s
trunk to attract its attention; and it was in doing this that he had met
with the terrible wounds.
The wonderful daring of these hunters, of whom Sir S. W. Baker said
that he felt like taking off his hat to, is well shown in the following
account given by that well-known hunter and explorer:—
“Having the wind fair, we advanced quickly for about half the distance,
at which time we were within a hundred and fifty yards of the elephant,
which had just arrived at the water, and had commenced drinking. We now
crept cautiously towards him. The sand-bank had decreased to a height of
about two feet, and afforded very little shelter. Not a tree nor bush
grew upon the surface of the barren sand, which was so deep that we
sank nearly to the ankles at every footstep. Still we crept forward, as
the elephant alternately drank, and then spouted the water in a shower
over his colossal form; but, just as we had arrived within about fifty
yards, he happened to turn his head in our direction, and immediately
perceived us. He cocked his enormous ears, gave a short trumpet, and for
an instant he wavered in his determination whether to attack or fly;
but, as I rushed towards him with a shout, he turned towards the jungle,
and I immediately fired a steady shot at the shoulder with the ‘Baby.’
As usual, the fearful recoil of the rifle, with a half-pound shell and
twelve drachms of powder, nearly threw me backwards; but I saw the mark
upon the elephant’s shoulder in an excellent line, although rather high.
The only effect of the shot was to send him off at great speed towards
the jungle. But at the same moment the three aggageers came galloping
across the sand, like greyhounds in a course, and, judiciously keeping
parallel with the jungle, they cut off his retreat; and, turning towards
the elephant, they confronted him, sword in hand. At once the furious
beast charged straight at the enemy. But now came the very gallant but
foolish part of the hunt. Instead of leading the elephant by the flight
of one man and horse, according to their usual method, all the aggageers
at the moment sprang from their saddles; and upon foot, in the heavy
sand, they attacked the elephant with their swords.
“In the way of sport, I never saw any thing so magnificent, or so
absurdly dangerous. No gladiatorial exhibition in the Roman arena
could have surpassed this fight. The elephant was mad with rage; and,
nevertheless, he seemed to know that the object of the hunters was to
get behind him. This he avoided with great dexterity, turning, as it
were, upon a pivot with extreme quickness, and charging headlong, first
at one, and then at another, of his assailants, while he blew clouds
of sand in the air with his trunk, and screamed with fury. Nimble as
monkeys, nevertheless the aggageers could not get behind him. In the
folly of excitement, they had forsaken their horses, which had escaped
from the spot. The depth of the loose sand was in favor of the elephant,
and was so much against the men, that they avoided his charges with
extreme difficulty. It was only by the determined pluck of all three,
that they alternately saved each other; as two invariably dashed in
at the flanks when the elephant charged the third, upon which the wary
animal immediately relinquished the chase, and turned round upon his
pursuers. During this time, I had been laboring through the heavy sand;
and, shortly after I arrived at the fight, the elephant charged directly
through the aggageers, receiving a shoulder-shot from one of my Reilly
No. 10 rifles, and, at the same time, a slash from the sword of Abou Do,
who, with great dexterity and speed, had closed in behind him, just in
time to save the leg. Unfortunately, he could not deliver the cut in the
right place, as the elephant, with increased speed, completely distanced
the aggageers: he charged across the deep sand, and reached the jungle.
We were shortly upon his tracks; and, after running about a quarter of a
mile, he fell dead in a dry water-course. His tusks, like the generality
of Abyssinian elephants, were exceedingly short, but of good thickness.”
The tactics employed in shooting Asiatic elephants are not always
successful when applied to the African species; and the forehead-shot,
referred to in the chapter on hunting the Asiatic elephant, is rarely
made. The only forehead-shot that Sir S. W. Baker ever made was on the
Settite River; the ball entering the base of the trunk, and lodging in
the vertebræ of the neck,—a chance shot. At fifty feet, the temple-shot
is often made; but the old hunters generally aim at the shoulder, or just
behind it.
The flesh of the elephant is greatly esteemed by some native Africans,
especially the fat; while the feet, when well cooked, are considered
delicacies by some European hunters.
When the Bechuanas obtain a dead elephant, they not only enter the body,
and literally mine for the fat,—hacking it out, and passing it to their
comrades,—but besmear themselves with the blood from head to foot,
considering that it will bring them good luck.
The native Africans have never been known to tame or utilize the
elephant: though, in what is known as the fly country, they are the only
animals perfectly free from attack, and would be of the greatest value,
and a great saving of life, as it is estimated that every tusk that comes
out from the interior of Africa, causes the death of at least one slave
or native.
That the African elephant was hunted in very early times, is very
evident. On an Egyptian tomb at Qournah, of the time of Thothmes III.,
there is a representation of the elephant, telling the story of the
tribute brought by the people of the upper Euphrates to that prince in
1500 B.C. The celebrated black obelisk (now in the collection of the
British Museum) of Shalmaneser II. (858-823 B.C.) bears a delineation of
an elephant which formed part of a tribute brought by the Muzri, a people
of Kurdistan at the head waters of the Tigris, to the Assyrian monarch.
The human figures on the stone are shown bearing elephants’ tusks upon
their shoulders.
These inscriptions and figures, while they may be considered a part of
the adornment of obelisks and tombs, are, in reality, the historical
records of the time; and the representations of the elephant are often
of value in showing its geographical distribution in former times. Thus,
according to the stele of Amenemheb, an officer of the time of Thothmes
III. and Amenophis II., translated by M. Chabas, the elephant was hunted
near Nineveh, in the reign of Thothmes III.; and that there were found in
great numbers, is shown by the statement, that the king “captured one
hundred and twenty elephants for the sake of their tusks in the country
of Nineveh.” Later than this, according to an Assyrian inscription on
the prism of Tiglath-pileser I. (1120 B.C.), now in London, the elephant
was hunted on the Tigris. The account translated reads, “I killed ten
full-grown elephants in the country of Harran; and on the banks of the
Khabour [an affluent of the Tigris], I captured four elephants alive. I
brought their skins and their tusks, with the living elephants, to my
city of Alassar” [Asshur].