Adventure Magazine Cover — page 148: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

712 ported that there were about two hundred elephants in the herd, including many bulls, and that one of these, the leader, was very large, with tusks about six feet long. This meant nine feet when the ivory was taken out, since the lip covers about six inches and two feet and a half are in the head. There was a feast that night. Around a huge fire the moran leaped and shouted, breaking the silence of the night with the doleful sound of the elephant-hunt song and appearing, with the flickering firelight shin- ing upon their dark bodies, more like strange demons than human beings. At last they ceased the ceremonies. Quiet came, dis- turbed only by the occasional deep-throated growl of a lion stalking its prey, and now and then by the dismal cry of a hyena in the hills. But after a while my rest was interrupted by a fresh outbreak of noise among the Wanderobos and I arose to see what the sav- ages were about. They had thrown more fuel upon the fire, and Labersonie, the chief, tall and very old, stood in its light, with the moran gathered around him at attention. He was giving them a shaurt, or talk, and I crept up quietly to listen. ‘El moran, my warriors,” the old chief was saying, “to-morrow we hunt the beast which gives us all we require, plenty of meat, food for our wives and children, a skin that makes good sandals, and ivory which we can sell for cows and oxen, and so have milk for our children when sickness comes. Now, the elephants must be slain only by men with strong arms and without fear. Per- haps some of you are afraid. If this is so, there is time to return to the women. ‘“‘Menutukie, this is your first time with the great animal of the forest. Your father was a hunter when he and I were moran together, but perhaps his son has not the courage of the warrior who is gone, who met his death through the terror of the bush, the buffalo. Perhaps you would like to climb a good tree, and watch how warriors kill the forest king.” Menutukie became greatly excited at these words, leaping into the air and wildly shaking his bow. I think there was a half smile on Labersonie’s face, for he was in the habit of thus inspiring his warriors on the n ght before a foray, and evidently was a master of the art, as some of his moran became so frenzied that others had te‘hold them. I felt that the coming hunt would be Adventure a good one, but feared that the loud and continued shouting might alarm the ele- phants. (TITOOYH feed “THE grass was wet and the air chilly 7 «When we started at sunrise toward the herd. Three moran had been sent out an hour earlier to ascertain whether the elephants had shifted during the night. The close proximity of the latter was indicated, after a tramp of an hour or so, by the sudden appearance of a rhino, which tore out of the bush and, maddened with fear of the ele- phants, the rhino’s mortal enemy, was ready to attack and trample any moving thing in his way. Lumberingly but swiftly he was bearing down upon us, yet I did not want to take the chance of startling the elephants by a shot. This somewhat trying situation was relieved by some moran, who rushed at the rhino with their spears and succeeded in turning him to the right. We reached the top of a high hill called the Soiat, and there we came upon the men who had gone out in advance. They pointed down the slope to a stretch of level ground where, just visible above the tall grass, I saw the big backs and heads of the grazing herd. The elephants were feeding slowly toward a belt of forest, in which, after their morning’s grazing, they would lean against trunks of trees until the noon- day heat had passed. Knowing that the Wanderobos will never attack elephants in the open, I called a hait. We rested, and watched the herd disappear beneath the branches. Then we made ready for the onslaught. Each warrior streaked his face with a black powder prepared from burnt wood by the witch doctor, to render him invisible to the elephants. Old Laber- sonie sent some men across the level to the edge of the forest where, I was told, two saplings would be bent together into an arch through which everybody must pass in order to please Engai, the spirit. We had arranged that two companies of twenty men each should take positions on either side of the elephants; that I and twenty men should line up where the ani- mals were likely to leave the forest, and that the remainder of the party should circle around the herd and drive it toward us. We separated and quickly took our stations. For a while we waited. Then I heard a faint crashing, steadily becoming louder. In a moment I could distinguish the differ- COMCMOOCKS. ECO