The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter

Part 1

THE WANDERINGS OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER

First published in 1923

Frontispiece.]

THE WANDERINGS OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER

BY W. D. M. BELL

LONDON

PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICES OF “COUNTRY LIFE,” LTD., 20, TAVISTOCK ST., COVENT GARDEN, W.C.2, AND BY GEORGE NEWNES, LTD., 8-11, SOUTHAMPTON ST., STRAND, W.C.2 NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

MCMXXIII

Printed in Great Britain.

CONTENTS

PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii

CHAPTER

I. HUNTING THE BIG BULL ELEPHANT 1

II. THE BRAIN SHOT AT ELEPHANT 5

III. THE BODY SHOT AT ELEPHANT 8

IV. AFRICAN “MEDICINE” OR WITCHCRAFT AND ITS BEARING ON SPORT 12

V. KARAMOJO 20

I. INTO THE UNKNOWN 20

II. IVORY AND THE RAIDERS 31

III. THE COMING OF PYJALÉ 44

VI. DABOSSA 59

VII. THROUGH THE SUDD OF THE GELO RIVER 78

VIII. THE LADO ENCLAVE 87

IX. HUNTING IN LIBERIA 105

X. BUBA GIDA, THE LAST AFRICAN POTENTATE 128

XI. BUBA GIDA AND THE LAKKAS 135

XII. THE ASCENT OF THE BAHR AOUCK 149

Part 2

XIII. BUFFALO 170

XIV. AFRICAN LIONS 175

XV. RIFLES 179

XVI. AFRICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 184

INDEX 188

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Native Attack Frontispiece

The Falling Spear: the Deadliest Native Elephant Trap Facing 2

The Marauding Bull ” 3

Spear Weighing about Four Hundred Pounds ” 3

The Deadliest and Most Humane Method of Killing the African Elephant ” 6

The Brain Shot from Behind ” 6

The Position of the Brain when the Head is Viewed from the Front ” 6

Locating the Brain with the Side of the Head to the Sportsman ” 6

The Elephant, after the Brain Shot, Dies Quietly ” 7

The Angry Bull ” 8

Where the Windpipe enters the Body is the Spot to Hit ” 8

Elephant in the Country Most Suited to the Body Shot ” 8

With One Eye Shut ” 8

With Both Eyes Open ” 8

The Dotted Lines show the Position of the Heart and Lungs ” 8

With the Herd in the Pairing Season ” 9

Elephant Slinking Away, Warned of the Approach of Man by Honey-Guides ” 14

Medicine indeed! ” 15

He Shook His Head so Violently in the Death Throes that a Tusk Flew Out ” 16

A M’Boni Village ” 17

M’Sanya Bow and Poisoned Arrow ” 18

Part 3

A Patriarch ” 18

“A Small Native Boy was in the Act of Pinking an Enormous Elephant” ” 19

Poor Karamojans, showing Periwigs ” 34

Carrying the Ivory ” 35

Elephant Snare Net Set, but not yet Covered ” 36

Karamojan Warrior ” 37

That Lunatic Pyjalé Spears an Elephant ” 44

Longelly-Nymung, the Author’s Blood Brother ” 56

The Return of the Safari ” 57

“The Elephant nearly fell over with Fright” ” 64

Watching the Northern Trail for the Returning Raiders ” 65

From the Look-out Hill ” 72

The “Elephant Cemetery” ” 73

The Camp Chronicler ” 76

Abyssinian Slavers ” 77

A Shot from the Shoulders of a Tall Native ” 86

Telescope Tripod as Stand in High Grass ” 87

Elephant in the Upper Nile Swamp ” 94

In the Lado Enclave: White Rhino, Lion and Elephant ” 95

Looking into the Brilliantly Lit Open Space from the Twilight of the Forest ” 102

Suliemani bumps into his Bull ” 104

The Arrival in West Africa ” 105

A Colony of “Chimps” Fruit-gathering ” 118

Small Elephant of Liberia ” 119

The Palaver with the King ” 124

The Silent Town ” 128

Outside the Walls ” 129

Commanders of Regiments ” 130

Part 4

Chiefs in Armour with Arrow-proof Quilts ” 131

An Enormous Man, Fully Seven Feet High, rose from a Pile of Rags ” 132

Whenever the King Sneezes, Coughs or Spits the Attendant Slaves break into Loud Wailing ” 133

In Buba Rei ” 136

A Foot Soldier ” 137

Lakkas, Shy and Nervous ” 140

Buba Gida’s Elephant Hunters ” 141

He Disappeared into the Thick Stuff ” 146

There He was now Facing Me ” 147

Gallery Forest and Baboon ” 150

Camp on Lake Léré ” 151

A Man-Eater, from whose Inside a Woman’s Bangle was taken ” 152

Native Decoys ” 154

Whistling Teal and Locust Storks ” 154

Rolling up Hippo ” 154

The Small Canoe Up-streaming ” 155

Hippopotamus in the Shallows ” 156

W., in the Small Canoe, runs into a Rising Hippo ” 157

Spur-winged Geese ” 158

Male Egyptian Geese in Breeding Season ” 159

Sky Black with Wildfowl ” 160

Rhino nearly have our Cook ” 161

Musgum Village ” 162

Mud Huts: Musgum ” 163

A Water Buck ” 164

Female Water Buck on Sandbank ” 165

Doe Kob and Calf well Camouflaged ” 166

Cow Hippo and Calf ” 167

Part 5

Arab Spear for Ham-stringing Elephant ” 168

Portaging Canoes ” 168

The Kilangozi or Head Porter who carried this Tusk (148 lbs.) for Sixty-three Consecutive Marching Days ” 169

In Thick Stuff ” 170

Worthy Game ” 170

Some Retreating Cleverly Backwards and Receiving the Charging Animals’ Rushes on their Shields ” 171

Driven Out of the Reed Beds ” 176

“A Magnificent Male deliberately Turned and Stood Facing Me” ” 176

Chasing Off an Intruder ” 176

Spotted! ” 177

THE WANDERINGS OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER

HUNTING THE BIG BULL ELEPHANT

The most interesting and exciting form of elephant-hunting is the pursuit of the solitary bull. These fine old patriarchs stand close on twelve feet high at the shoulder and weigh from twelve thousand to fourteen thousand pounds or more, and carry tusks from eighty to one hundred and eighty pounds each. They are of great age, probably a hundred or a hundred and fifty years old. These enormous animals spend their days in the densest part of the bush and their nights in destroying native plantations.

It is curious that an animal of such a size, and requiring such huge quantities of food, should trouble to eat ground nuts—or peanuts, as they are called in this country. Of course, he does not pick them up singly, but plucks up the plant, shakes off the loose earth and eats the roots with the nuts adhering to them. One can imagine the feelings of a native when he discovers that during the night his plantation has been visited by an elephant.

The dense part of the bush where the elephant passes his day is often within half a mile of his nightly depredations, and it is only through generations of experience that these wicked old animals are enabled to carry on their marauding life. Many bear with them the price of their experience in the shape of bullets and iron spear-heads; the natives set traps for them also, the deadliest one being the falling spear. Of all devices for killing elephants known to primitive man this is the most efficient. The head and shank of the spear are made by the native blacksmith, and the whole thing probably weighs about four hundred pounds and requires eight men to haul it into position. To set the trap a spot is chosen in the forest where an elephant-path passes under a suitable tree. A sapling of some twelve feet in length is then cut. One end is made to fit tightly into the socket of the spear-head and to the other end is attached a rope. The spear end of the rope is then placed over a high bough at a point directly over the path, while the other end is taken down to one side of the path, then across it and made fast to a kind of trigger mechanism. It is placed at such a height from the ground as will allow buffalo and antelope to pass under it but not a full-grown elephant. He will have to push it out of his way. This part of the rope is generally made of a bush vine or creeper. If all goes well, an elephant comes along the path, catches the creeper on his forehead or chest, pushes it sufficiently to snap it off, and then down hurtles the huge spear, descending point first with terrific force on neck, shoulder or ribs. I have seen taken from an old bull’s neck a piece of iron three feet long and almost eaten away. The wound had completely healed and it may have been there for years. If, however, the spear strikes the spine, death is instantaneous.

To get within hearing distance of these old elephants is comparatively easy. You simply pick up the enormous tracks in the early morning and follow them into their stronghold. Sometimes, after going quite a short distance through fairly open forest, you begin to find it more and more difficult to force your way along. The tracks are still there, but everything gives way before the elephant and closes in behind him again. Here in the dark cool parts there are no flies, so that the flapping and banging of ears, the usual warning of an elephant’s presence, are lacking. The light begins to fail; air currents are non-existent, or so light they cannot be felt; the silence is profound. Monkeys and parrots are away in the more open parts. You may expect to hear your game at any moment now. You hope to see him, but your luck is in if you do. At the most you will see a high and ghostly stern flitting through the undergrowth, sometimes disconcertingly close in front of you. Literally nothing indicates the presence of such an enormous animal, and if it were not for the swish of the bush as it closes in behind him you would find it hard to believe that he was so close. His feet, softly cushioned with spongy gristle, make no sound. He seems to know that his stern is invulnerable alike to bullets or spears; while his huge ears, acting as sound-collecting discs, catch with their wide expanse the slightest sound of an enemy. He shows no sign of panic; there is no stampede as with younger elephants when they are disturbed; only a quiet, persistent flitting away. You may concentrate on going quietly; you may, and probably do, discard your leg gear in order to make less sound; you redouble your stealth; all in vain. He knows the game and will play hide-and-seek with you all day long and day after day. Not that this silent retreat is his only resource—by no means—he can in an instant become a roaring, headlong devil. The transformation from that silent, rakish, slinking stern to high-thrown head, gleaming tusks and whirling trunk, now advancing directly upon you, is a nerve test of the highest order. The noise is terrific. With his trunk he lashes the bushes. His great sides crash the trees down in every direction, dragging with them in their fall innumerable creepers. The whole forest is in an uproar. Much of this clatter the experienced hunter writes off as bluff, for after a short, sharp rush of this sort he will often come to a dead stop and listen intently. Here, again, his long experience has taught him that his enemy will now be in full retreat, and in most cases he is right. Certainly no native hunter waits to see, and most white men will find they have an almost uncontrollable desire to turn and flee, if only for a short way. With the deadliest of modern rifles it is only a very fleeting chance that one gets at his brain. The fact that the distance at which his head emerges from the masses of foliage is so small, and the time so short until he is right over you, in fact, makes this kind of hunting the most exciting and interesting of any in Africa, or the world, as I think most men who have experienced it will agree. If the shot at the brain is successful the monster falls and the hunter is rewarded with two magnificent tusks. And great will be the rejoicing among the natives at learning of his death, not only for the feast of meat, but also to know that their plantations have been rid of the marauding pest.

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