The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-11-08

kill the old ones and secure the young;
for after any of the beasts have grown
old enough to become accustomed to
the free life of the woods, and to hunt
their own food, they are treacherous,
and worth little for purposes of ex-
hibition.
Paul Luhn, one of Reiche Brothers
men, who has lately returned from Afri-
ca with rare birds and animals, tells in
teresting stories of the perils of the hunt.
He SAYS: "The lion is fierce creature,
and the lioness, when protecting her
young, very much worse; but from long
them. A good rifle, firm hands, and
steady eyes, and we can soon topple the
old fellow over. The old lady may take
a little longer, but in the end we are
sure to kill her, and then it is no trouble
to pick up and secure the cub. We try
to get these little fellows when they are
about three or four weeks old. They
are then like young puppies, easily man.
aged, and soon learn to know their keep
ers. Leopards, tigers, and all that kind
of animals we get in the same way, and
at about the same age. Baby elephants
are hard to get, and the hunt is very
dangerous The old ones seem to know
instinetively when we are after their
young, and their rage is something
terrible. The trumpeting of the par
ents can be heard for long distance, and
quickly alarms the whole herd. The
rifle is comparatively useless, and try
ing to approach them particularly haz-
ardous yet it has to be done. First, we
try to distract the attention of the fe-
male ffom her offspring. Then ma
tive creeps cautiously up from behind,
and, with one cut of heavy, broad
bladed knife, sewers the tendons of her
hind feet. She is then disabled, can
not walk, and soon falls to the ground.
We promptly kill her, secure the ivory,
and capture the little one. Of course,
we occasionally have a native or two
killed in this kind of hunt; but they
don't cost much-only So or Sc apiece.
The sheiks are paid in advance, and
don't care whether the poor devils come
back, and so we don't bother much
about them. Baby elephants we like to
get when they are about one year old.
Younger ones are too tender, and older
ones know too much. They soon get
acquainted with all the camp, and we
have lots of fun with them. They are
kindly, docile, and as full of capers as
the little niger babies that play with
them.''
"But of all fierce, ungovernable, lus-
ty brutes," the hunter continued, "the
hippopotamus with young is the very
worst, and whenever we start off to get
baby of that kind, we calculate to
come back with one or more men miss
ing. In the water they fight like dew
lis, and in five minutes will crush to
pieces the strongest boat we can use.
They are as quick as flash, too, not
withstanding their clumsy appearance,
and the oarsmen have to be wide awake
to keep out of their way. On shore
they are just as ferocious, and the way
they can hurry their stumpy little legs
over the ground would astonish you.
They die hard, too, and take heap of
killing. When such a job is over you
may be sure there is great rejoicing
among us; but as one little hippopota-
mus is worth as much as half dozen
lions, tigers, and such truck, we are
well content to take the risk. We can
not get these babies too young to suit
u.s. One l remember, though / was not
in the hunt, was captured the very day
it was born, and the hunters and attend
ants brought it up on the bottle. 1t is
the same animal that Barnum adver-
tised so extensively rs the Baby Hip
popotamus,' and it is now travelling
with his show Ostriches we run down
on horseback, and then catch them with
the lasso. 1t is an exciting chase, but
not particularly dangerous. On these
hunts we are entitled to only the young
animals we capture. The beautiful
skins of the leopards, lions, and other
animals we kill, the tusks of the ele-
phants, The feathers of the ostriches,
and all other similar spoils 60 to the
native sheiks and chiefs and those old
rascals are as sharp at a trade as the
shrewdest old clo' merchant you have
in Chatham Street.
" In the encampment the natives as
sist in taking care of the animals and do
general work, but the menial duties are
performed by Nubian slaves, who are
very cheap and can be bought in num-
bers to suit. Among the natives the
women are looked on as inferior. Wom-
en- never eat with their husbands. The
husband is allowed four wives, and as
many slaves as he can corral"
A sufficient number and variety OF
animals having been secured, a caravan
is formed to take them across the desert
to Germany or America. This usually
consists of about 100 eamels, each hav.
ing its native driver; thirty or forty
horses for the white men and the Arat
hunters and their attendants; flock ot
from $50 to 200 goats, for their milk