Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08

O'Clock, and some time in the black
hours of the night a voice sang out,
rousing me to action. walked feeling that
had just begun to go to sleep, and wished the
kuku had died before it kwanzaed that morn
ing. A voice from tho mesquite net across the
tent echoed my feeling As sat up behind my
net and turned on the searchlght to find the
garments parked in the wall pocket the night
before had moments Of dour wonder as 70
why was sitting there dead for sleep, hauling
on q flannel shirt and khaki trousers, preparing
to sally out and seek an elephant.
I had ceased to have the slightest expectation
OF ever catching up with an elephant. Other
people could sit in q meadow and have an
elephant come out to them, but not knew
from bitterly repeated experiments what would
happen to me that day. We would walk for
an hour through the dimness, wading river or
two by way Of morning bath, and Sliding round
In elephant wallows, then the tracker would
lead us TO q series of depressions in the ground.
exclaiming "Kubwa. kubwa-large, Target" and
after gazing solemn1y at these marks of the
nocturnal marauders we would follow.
Presently the tracks would plunge into the
forest And we would plunge and continue
plunging for untold hours Of agony Of effort.
The tracks would grow warm and breaking
twig would tell US that we were near, very
near. We would then. knew. be in network
of vines, out Of which we would peer, seeing
perhaps three feet ahead of us. The guides
would steal ahead to see which way could
worm, the wind would veer, and a crashing
noise would tell us that the elephant had the
scent and was '.naquenda kuhisa." Then we
would make our way back. Thus six or eight
hours would pass, during several of which it
would rain violently. Ultimately we would
reach camp and learn that large elephant
with giant tusks had been parading up and
doublesterai hat.
THERE wasn't glow OF hope or optimism
left in me. had done this thing day after
day. and wondered what maniacal persistence
kept me dragging husband and friends out to
the thankleSs performance 1 tried to ten
myself that today we might be successful, but
I felt more relation TO success than to the
throne of England.
! pulled on the trousers of yesterday, stin
streaked with mud, q Wrinkled shirt and two
puttees that didn't match. The fuzzy one
didn't belong to me, anyhow. Dutifully
reminded myself that today I might shoot an
elephant and be photographed with the luckless
animal. but doggedly went on with the havoc
] was making Of my costume hurried out to
the mess tent, drank cup Of coffee, ate
slice of toast and three prunes and put on my
double terai hat.
over the air. The trees stood black against
the gray-blue of the sky. Figures of gloom
stood about In the darkness, the gun boys and
the dismal porters elected from their warm huts
to carry our spare guns and cameras and rain
coats Morosely eyed my fellow victims and
we started of, the three men and T. our four
boys and the porters, long file, like hunting
chorus in comic opera, our way through the
forest freshly marked with buffalo, across the
first river and across the second. The light
was breaking we came to the huts on the
long ridge of the hill from where we had seen
the first big herd Of buffalo.
No elephant had been seen that morning
except q COW elephant, and it had gone away
But the men sent out from the village were In
the grass ahead Of us and we went out to meet
them. Then the scene Of my fOrebodings was
enacted; there were the tracks-kubwa. kubwa
of q lone and large elephant, presumably Of
the sex We wished to assasinate. They were
about two hours old. On We went, following
the Windlings into q part Of the country where
we had not been before.
Now the spOOr delyed into the long grass. not
the matete, the Sharp-edged elephant grass, but
long. grazing grass. with occasional thiccets
Buffalo had been there just an instant or 90
ahead Of us and we began hearing them, nrst