CHAPTER VIII.

The elephant did not appear to be aware of the presence of the hunters. She was playing with her mammoth baby, about three years old, flourishing her trunk in evident enjoyment, fanning herself with her huge ears, and whisking her tail to and fro to show how thoroughly comfortable she was. When she was tired of these amusements she drew near a tree, called by the Arabs hegelig, and appeared to relish highly its fruit, known under the name of _lalôb_. Her appetite was, no doubt, rather tickled than satisfied, and very soon she was seen to wend her way towards a swamp, where, after having gambolled for a short time, she set to work on the seeds of the papyrus, _souteb_ in Arabic, which the African elephants on the banks of the Nile prefer even to the _lalôb_.

M. de Morin, as the most experienced sportsman of the community, assumed the direction of the hunt, and, first of all, warned the escort not to fire until he gave the word. But a Dinka, more hot-headed than his comrades, disobeyed him and let fly with his carbine.

The mother at once suspended her repast, raised her head, and tried to discover her enemy. In that she could not succeed, for an elephant's sight is defective, though the keenness of their scent more than makes up for that deficiency. The animal smelt the powder, and without any hesitation or apparent fear of failure she rushed off towards the spot whence the shot had been fired, followed by her baby.

The noise made by an elephant in its angry rush is indescribable; the earth shakes and trembles beneath the tread of its huge feet. One might almost imagine that the ground was about to open and display to view some subterranean volcano, or that thunder was rumbling in the distance. Every obstacle in the way of this impetuous rush is broken, crushed, torn up by the roots; the sturdiest plants are destroyed, the thickets disappear, inequalities become smooth, enormous trees are sometimes uprooted, and the grain fields of a whole district ravaged.

The two elephants, large and small, passed close to the Europeans without paying any attention to them, or even appearing to see them. They doggedly followed the course they had marked out for themselves, straight against the invisible foe, whose incautious shot had announced his presence and betrayed his hiding-place.

All the negroes of the escort set off at full gallop, but the Dinka hunter, who had most need to flee, had dismounted, and his horse, alarmed by the shot, had broken loose and was careering over the plain. The unfortunate black, thrown upon his own resources, made off with surprising celerity, but, in spite of all his efforts, he was speedily overtaken. The elephant seized him with her trunk, raised him in the air, and hurled him to the ground with the evident intention of trampling him to death. It very seldom happens, indeed, that the animal we are discussing tramples down his enemy at the first onset. He prefers to make use of his trunk, as we do of our arms, and knocks down his antagonist before he proceeds to make an end of him.

A Nubian, or any other negro would have fallen down, half fainting and almost dead with fright, at the very feet of the huge assailant. But the Dinkas, whose courage we have already mentioned, understand the art of keeping cool under adverse circumstances. The man who, after having been so roughly lifted up from earth, had fallen on the ground once more, got up quickly and ran for refuge under the belly of the baby elephant. The mother, rather taken aback by this novel mode of procedure, hesitated for a moment, and then very leisurely seized her prisoner once more, keeping her eyes fixed all the while very affectionately on her offspring.

The Dinka executed his little manoeuvre a second time, and again he was removed, but very quietly.

But now the elephant, whose anger appeared to have subsided, became furious again, and, after lifting the Dinka up again with her trunk, she swung him to and fro violently in order to stun him and render him incapable of further flight.

Another moment, and the poor wretch would have been lost.

Suddenly, a shot was fired, and the baby elephant fell.

It was M. Périères who did the deed. Finding it impossible to fire at the female, without running the risk of killing the man whom she held straight in front of her, and thinking, justly, that if he merely wounded her she would only become still more furious and would at once despatch her victim, he, in sheer despair, fired at the baby to draw off the attention of its mother.

The stratagem succeeded. In terror and despair the unhappy brute, instead of crushing the negro beneath her feet, left him to run to the assistance of her wounded offspring. She bent down to it, went on her knees, and with her trunk searched along its back and neck for the wound. Having found it she expelled water from her stomach and bathed the place. Then, as if she wanted to stop the flow of blood and close the aperture made by the bullet, she clung to her little one, holding it close to her, trying to heal its flesh with her own. At the same time she uttered low plaintive moans, almost human in sound, and from her eyes, so expressive, though so small, one might have supposed tears to be falling.

But the little elephant struggled in vain against death. Its body writhed convulsively, it rolled on to its side, its limbs became stiff, and life was extinct.

The mother, after a last moan, a more heart-rendering cry than all, got up suddenly and looked about for vengeance.

The Dinka was still running, but he had already put a considerable distance between himself and the elephant, and had nearly gained the forest where he sought a refuge.

Pursuit was useless, and the animal understood that. Perhaps, too, its marvellous intelligence led it to suppose that the fugitive was not the only enemy, and that other hunters were lying hidden in the clearing behind the thickets. These must be found and killed.

Lashing with its trunk in all directions, and trumpeting loudly, its gaze wandered over the high grass, and at length it made its way directly towards the spot where Madame de Guéran, Miss Poles, and their companions still remained.

The danger was becoming imminent and terrible, for the animal was not thirty paces, distant, when three shots resounded in the air and the elephant, hit in the shoulder, rolled over.

The hunters then left the brake and advanced cautiously, as they had been warned to do. Elephants, thought to be dead, have been known to struggle to their feet, and, with a supreme effort, charge into the midst of their adversaries, to expire, a moment afterwards, on top of their mangled and bleeding corpses. But this one was so thoroughly deprived of life that even Joseph was not afraid to approach it, after having, first of all, shut his eyes and let fly with his rifle into space. He did not neglect any precaution, and was determined to show how brave he could be in face of an enemy incapable of defending itself.

The natives, on whose ground the hunt took place, had withdrawn to a convenient distance on the first appearance of the elephant, but they were not altogether disinterested spectators. Hidden away in all directions, they followed with their eyes every incident from afar, and as soon as they saw the huge beast fall, they rushed upon her from all points of the compass with a celerity quite equal to that shown by them when running away. In speed they rivalled the kites and vultures which had scented the prey from on high, and now flew down from the sky, where a moment before they had been invisible, to share in the feast.

"I have often," says Schweinfurth, "had occasion to notice a similar occurrence in a clear sky. Almost as soon as the quarry has fallen, you may see black specks in the sky increasing gradually in size, and followed by other specks which become enlarged in an equal ratio. They come nearer, and their shape can be made out; they are kites, and vultures, and other birds of prey coming to claim their share of the spoil. One might almost suppose, with the ancients, that the sky is divided into several stages, where the birds of prey, ever on the watch, swoop down from the various regions they occupy, as soon as they see a tempting morsel below."

Crowding round the elephant and disputing its possession with the birds of prey, the natives measured the beast they were about to cut up. It had reached its full development, and was nearly nine feet high, or almost as tall as the males of the Asiatic species.

Joseph's despair was most ludicrous when he learnt that his masters were not only going to hand over the body, but also the precious tusks to the natives. What! did they make so light of those precious tusks which had appeared to him in all his dreams, and for which he had given up his beloved Rue Taitbout, his friendships with the waiters at Tortoni's, his intimacy with the hunter of the Helder, his professor of Arabic, and his much-appreciated negress? This splendid ivory, out of which a Parisian shopkeeper would have made such a handsome profit, which might have been converted so easily into so many choice articles for the toilet, had been handed over, under his very eyes, to these wretched niggers, half naked and naturally ignorant of the use of a clothes-brush and rice-powder. Fortunately, however, the hunt was not quite over, and there was still hope.

The death of the young elephant, the distress of its mother, and the sufferings of these intelligent beasts, had made a lively impression on the hunters and had in some degree moderated their bellicose ardour. But wonderful tales were told them of the forest lying before them; they had never penetrated into these vast jungles, where Nature appears to have launched out into magnificent extravagance; they were attracted by these gloomy haunts, these mysterious depths, and were anxious to pay them a visit.