Evening star., 1923-10-14

him final punch, he was not killed,
but, of course. badly broken up.
Outram and a companion approach
ed an elephant that was shot and
down, when the animal suddenly rose,
grabbed outram in his trunk and
threw him. The elephant followed
him, but Outram scrambled into the
grass while the elephant trampled
his pith helmet into the ground,
whereupon Outram got right under
the elephants tail and stuck to this
position while the elephant turned
circles trying to find him, until be-
coming faint from his injuries, Out
ram dived into the grass at one side.
Outram's companion by this time got
back into the game and killed the
elephant.
Hutchinson's story I have forgotten
little now, but I remember that he
said the elephant caught him, brushed
the ground with him, and then threw
him. The elephant followed him and
Hutchinson put off fate a few Sec
onds by somehow getting among
the elephants legs. The respite was
enough. for the gun boy, by this
time. began firing and drove the
elephant off.
In all of these cases. unlike mine,
the elephants had used their trunks to
pick up their victims and to throw
them, and they had intended finishing
them by trampling on them. This use
OF the trunk seems more common than
the charge with the tusks that had
so nearly finished me. Up in Somali-
land Dudo Muhammud, my gun boy,
showed me the spot where he had
seen an elephant kill an italian prince.
Tho elephant picked the prince up in
his trunk and beat him against his
tusks. the prince. meanwhile. futilely
beating the elephants head with his
fists. Then the elephant threw him
upon the ground, walked on him, and
then squatted on him, rubbing back
and forth until he had rubbed his body
into the ground.
DUT elephants do use their tusks,
~ and use them with terrible effec-
tiveness. About the time we were in
Longdon were across Lake Victoria
Nyanza in the Belgian Kongo One
day Longdon shot a bull elephant and
stood watching the herd disappear,
when a COW came down from behind,
unheard and unseen, ran her tusk
clean through him and. with a toss of
her head. threw him into the bush
and went on. Longdon lived four
days.
Yet although the elephant is a
dreadful fighter in his own defense
when attacked by man. that is not his
chief characteristic. The things that
stick in my mind are his sagacity, his
versatility and a certain comradeship
which ! have never noticed to the
same degree in other animals. I like
| to think of the picture of the two old
bulls helping along their comrade
wounded by Maj. Harrison's gun, to
think of several instances 1 hays seen
of a phenomenon which I am sure is
! not accidental when the young and
husky elephants formed the outer
ring of a group protecting the older
ones from the scented danger.
I like to think back to the day I
saw the group of baby elephants play
ing with a great ball of baked dirt
two and a half feet in diameter which.
in their playing. they rolled for more
than half a mile, and the playfulness
with which this same group teased
the babies of a herd of buffalo until
the COW buffalos chased them off. /
think. too. of the extraordinary fact
that / have never heard or seen Afri-
! can elephants fighting each other.