The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-18

hind a tree or to become the assailant and add another spear to the number already quivering in the animaPs vast | body.
 l The slaughter of an elephant by this mode of hunting is always a long and cruel process. Even when the hunters are furnished with the best firearms, number of wounds are generally infiict- ed before 1t dies the exceptional case, when it falls dead at the first shot, be- | ing very rare indeed
 Now, however powerful may be the practlsed aim of a Kaftir, and sharp as may be his weapon, he cannot drive 1t l through the inch-thiclI hide into vital part, and the consequence is that the poor animal is literally worried to death by a, multitude of wounds, singly | insignificant, but collectively fataE At | last the huge victim falls under the loss of blood, and great are the rejoicings 1T | it should happen to sink down in the ordinary kneeling posture, as the tusks | can then be extracted with comparative | ease, and the grove of spears planted | in its body can be drawn out entire whereas when the elephant falls on one side all the spears on that side are shattered to pieces, and every one must be furnished with a shaft.
 The first proceeding is to cut off the | tail, which is valued as trophy, and the next is to carve upon the tusks the name of the hunter to whom they be- long, who is always the man who in ficted the first wound. The next pro- ceeding is to cut a large hole in one side, into which a number of Kati1rs en- ter and busy themselves by taking out l the most valuable parts of the animal. The inner membrane of the skin IS saved for water sacks, which are made in a very primitive manner, a large sheet of the membrane being gathered together and a sharp stick thrust through the corners. The heart is then
 taken out, cut into convenient pieces, and each portion wrapped in piece Of the ear
 If the party can encamp for the night on the spot, they prepare a royal feast
 by baking one or two of the feet in the primitive but most effective oven which
 is in use not only in southern Africa,
 but in many other parts of the world.
 A separate oven is made for each
 foot, and formed thus: A hole is dug in
 the ground considerably larger than the foot which is to be cooked, and
 fire is built in it. As soon as it burns
 up, a large heap of dry wood is piled
 upon it and suffered to burn down.
 When the heap Is reduced to a mass of
 glowing ashes the Kaffirs scrape out
 the embers by means of long pole
 each man taking his turn to run to the
 hole scrape away until he can endure
 the heat no longer, and then run away
 again, leaving the pole for his success
 sor The hole being freed from embers,
 the foot is rolled into it and covered
 with green leaves and twigs. The hot
 earth and embers are then piled over
 the hole and another great bonfire
 lighted. As soon as the wood has en-
 tirely burned itself out the operation of
 baking is considered as complete, and
 the foot is lifted out by several men
 furnished with long, sharpened poles.
 By means of this remarkable oven
 the meat Is cooked more thoroughly
 than could be achieved in any oven of
 more elaborate construction, the whole
 of the tendons, the fat, the Immature
 hone. and similar substances being con
 verted into gelatinous mass, which
 the African hunter seems to prefer to
 all other dishes, excepting, perhaps, the marrow taken from the leg bones or
 the giraffe or the eland
 Sometimes the trunk is cut into thick
 slices and baked at the same time with the feet. Although this part of the el-
 ephant may not be remarkable for the excellence of it's flavor, it has, at all events. the capablity of being made
 tender by cooking, which Is by no
 means the case with the meat that Is
 usually obtained from the animals
 which inhabit southern Africa. Even ; the skull itself is broken up for the sake of the oily fat which fills the hon. | eycomb-like cells which intervene be- tween the plates of the skull. The rest 2 of the meat is converted into bic tongue" by cutting it into strips anc drying 1t in the sun. As a genera ,, rule the Kaffirs do not like to leave ar animal until they have dried or con
 stunned the whole of the meat Under ? the ready spears and powerful jaws ot the natives even an elephant is soon re - | duced to a skeleton, as may be imag 2 ined from the fact that five Kaffirs car eat a buffalo in day and half
 The skull and tuslss can generally bt :, left out on the spot for some time, a' the hunters respect each others marks 7, and will not, as a rule, take the tusk' ,. from an elephant that has been killed ;, and marked by another. The object il y allowing the head to remain untouched : is that putrefaction may take place anC = render the task of extracting the tusk'
 easier than is the case when they arr !. taken out at once..
 It must be remembered that the tusl' $ of an elephant are embedded in thu = skull for a considerable portion of thei, 7 length, and that the only mode of ex r tracting them is by chopping ava! | their thick, bony sockets, which is { :, work of much time and labor How :. ever, in that climate putrefaction take s place very readily, and by the time th T hunters have finished the elephant tn o tusks can be removed.
 = On the Great Plain of China. :, tFrom Harpers Wcekly.l I TJz ntt