Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824Denham, Dixon
History
Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824
Denham, Dixon
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Africa, North
their teeth, which, however, as they are generally small, are sold
to the merchants for a very trifling profit. The manner of hunting
the elephant is simply this: from ten to twenty horsemen single out
one of these ponderous animals, and, separating him from the flock
by screaming and hallooing, force him to fly with all his speed;
after wounding him under the tail, if they can there place a spear,
the animal becomes enraged. One horseman then rides in front, whom
he pursues with earnestness and fury, regardless of those who press
on his rear, notwithstanding the wounds they inflict on him. He is
seldom drawn from this first object of his pursuit; and, at last,
wearied and transfixed with spears, his blood deluging the ground,
he breathes his last under the knife of some more venturesome hunter
than the rest, who buries his dagger in the vulnerable part near
the abdomen: for this purpose he will creep between the animal’s
hinder legs, and apparently expose himself to the greatest danger:
when this cannot be accomplished, one or two will ham-string him,
while he is baited in the front; and this giant of quadrupeds then
becomes comparatively an easy prey to his persecutors.
Jan. 12.—Karouash came to us this evening, with his dark Arab eyes,
sparkling with somewhat more than vivacity; and it was not long
before we found out the cause. The people of Gulphi, who inhabited a
town close to the banks of the Shary, had no other means of raising
their grain (the land surrounding their walls being all tributary
to the sheikh) than by planting it on the south bank of that river;
reaping in the season, and carrying the produce to their city by
means of their flat-bottomed boats. They had, of late, been so
little interrupted in their agricultural pursuits, by the boats
of the neighbouring towns, that a village of huts had sprung up
on this portion of land; and labourers, to the number of three or
four hundred, resided there constantly. The hostile movements of
the Begharmis had, however, made the sheikh’s people more on the
alert than formerly; and passing over the river in their own boats,
accompanied by several deserters from Gulphi, who, traitor-like,
consented to bear arms against the land that gave them birth, and
lead its enemies to the pillage of their brethren, the people of
Maffatai and Kussery had, a few nights before, made an attack on
this village, putting to death all the males, even while they slept;
and, as usual, dragging the women and children to their boats,
returned to their homes without the loss of a man, after setting
fire to all the huts, and more than four hundred stacks of wheat
and gussub. The effects produced by this midnight expedition, and
which was celebrated by singings and rejoicings throughout Kouka,
were indeed of a nature favourable to my prospects, notwithstanding
the shock humanity received from the cause. The Begharmis, who had
occupied the southern banks of the Shary for months, obliging even
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