“In the way of sport, I never saw any thing so magnificent, or so absurdly dangerous. No gladiatorial exhibition in the Roman arena could have surpassed this fight. The elephant was mad with rage; and, nevertheless, he seemed to know that the object of the hunters was to get behind him. This he avoided with great dexterity, turning, as it were, upon a pivot with extreme quickness, and charging headlong, first at one, and then at another, of his assailants, while he blew clouds of sand in the air with his trunk, and screamed with fury. Nimble as monkeys, nevertheless the aggageers could not get behind him. In the folly of excitement, they had forsaken their horses, which had escaped from the spot. The depth of the loose sand was in favor of the elephant, and was so much against the men, that they avoided his charges with extreme difficulty. It was only by the determined pluck of all three, that they alternately saved each other; as two invariably dashed in at the flanks when the elephant charged the third, upon which the wary animal immediately relinquished the chase, and turned round upon his pursuers. During this time, I had been laboring through the heavy sand; and, shortly after I arrived at the fight, the elephant charged directly through the aggageers, receiving a shoulder-shot from one of my Reilly No. 10 rifles, and, at the same time, a slash from the sword of Abou Do, who, with great dexterity and speed, had closed in behind him, just in time to save the leg. Unfortunately, he could not deliver the cut in the right place, as the elephant, with increased speed, completely distanced the aggageers: he charged across the deep sand, and reached the jungle. We were shortly upon his tracks; and, after running about a quarter of a mile, he fell dead in a dry water-course. His tusks, like the generality of Abyssinian elephants, were exceedingly short, but of good thickness.” The tactics employed in shooting Asiatic elephants are not always successful when applied to the African species; and the forehead-shot, referred to in the chapter on hunting the Asiatic elephant, is rarely made. The only forehead-shot that Sir S. W. Baker ever made was on the Settite River; the ball entering the base of the trunk, and lodging in the vertebræ of the neck,—a chance shot. At fifty feet, the temple-shot is often made; but the old hunters generally aim at the shoulder, or just behind it. The flesh of the elephant is greatly esteemed by some native Africans, especially the fat; while the feet, when well cooked, are considered delicacies by some European hunters. When the Bechuanas obtain a dead elephant, they not only enter the body, and literally mine for the fat,—hacking it out, and passing it to their comrades,—but besmear themselves with the blood from head to foot, considering that it will bring them good luck.