The Bushmen select full-moon nights for the chase, on account of the coolness, and choose the moment succeeding a charge, when the elephant is out of breath, to run in and give him a stab with their long-bladed spears. The huge creature is often bristling with missile weapons like a porcupine, and though singly none of the wounds may be mortal, yet their number overpowers him by loss of blood.
In the Lake Districts discovered by Captain Burton, the elephant is hunted in a somewhat similar manner. A tusker having been artfully separated from the herd without exciting suspicion, the hunting party, consisting of from fifteen to twenty individuals, close in a deadly circle round the victim. The headman then rising with a shout, hurls the first spear, and his example is followed by the rest. The weapons are not poisoned—they are fatal by a succession of small wounds. The baited beast rarely breaks, as might be expected, through the frail circle of assailants; its proverbial obstinacy is excited, it charges one man, who slips away, when another with a scream thrusts the long stiff spear into its hind-quarters, which makes it change its intention and turn fiercely from the fugitive to the fresh assailant. This continues till the elephant, losing breath and heart, attempts to escape; its enemies then redouble their efforts, and at length the huge prey, overpowered by pain and loss of blood, trickling from a hundred wounds, bites the dust. The victors, after certain preliminaries of singing and dancing, carefully cut out the tusks, and devour the rich marrow upon the spot. The chase concludes with a grand feast of fat and garbage, and the hunters return home in triumph, laden with ivory, with ovals of hide for shields, and with festoons of raw meat spitted upon long poles.
The cutting-up of an elephant by a negro tribe is quite a unique spectacle. The men stand round the animal in dead silence, while the chief of the party declares that, according to ancient law, the head and right hind-leg belong to him who inflicted the first wound; the left leg to him who delivered the second, or first touched the animal after it fell, and different parts to the headmen of the different groups of which the camp is composed, not forgetting to enjoin the preservation of the fat and bowels for a second distribution. This oration finished, the natives soon become excited, and scream wildly as they cut away at the carcase with a score of spears, whose long handles quiver in the air above their heads. Their excitement becomes momentarily more and more intense, and reaches the culminating point when, as denoted by a roar of gas, the huge mass is laid fairly open. Some jump inside and roll about there in their eagerness to seize some precious morsel, while others run off screaming with pieces of the bloody meat, throw it on the grass, and run back for more; all keep talking and shouting at the utmost pitch of their voices. Sometimes two or three, regardless of all laws, seize the same piece of meat, and have a brief fight of words over it. Occasionally an agonized yell bursts forth, and a native emerges out of the huge carcase with his hand badly cut by the spear of his excited friend and neighbour.
A much more formidable enemy of this noble animal than the spears or pitfalls of the African barbarians is the rifle, particularly in the hands of a European marksman; for while the natives generally stand at the distance of a hundred yards or more, and of course spend all the force of their bullets on the air, the English hunters, relying on their steadiness of aim, approach to within thirty yards of the animal, where they are sure not to waste their powder. The consequence is, that when the Griquas kill one elephant, such marksmen as Gordon Cumming and Andersson will bring at least twenty to the ground, and this difference is the more remarkable as the natives employ dogs to assist them, while the English trust to themselves alone. It requires no little nerve to brave the charge of the elephant, the scream or trumpeting of the brute, when infuriated, being more like what the shriek of a steam-whistle would be to a man standing on the dangerous part of a railroad, than any other earthly sound, so that a horse unused to it will sometimes stand shivering instead of taking his rider out of danger, or fall paralysed by fear.
Even the most experienced hunters have many dangers to encounter while facing their gigantic adversary. Thus, on the banks of the Zouga, Mr. Oswell had one of the most extraordinary escapes from a wounded elephant perhaps ever recorded in the annals of the chase. Pursuing the brute into the dense thorny bushes met with on the margin of that river, and to which the elephant usually flees for safety, he followed it through a narrow pathway by lifting up some of the branches and forcing his way through the rest; but when he had just got over this difficulty, he saw the elephant, whose tail he had but got glimpses of before, now rushing full speed towards him. There was then no time to lift up branches, so he tried to force his horse through them. He could not effect a passage, and as there was but an instant between the attempt and failure, the hunter tried to dismount, but in doing this one foot was caught by a branch, and the spur drawn along the animal’s flank; this made him spring away, and throw the rider on the ground with his face to the elephant, which, being in full chase, still went on. Mr. Oswell saw the huge fore-foot about to descend on his legs, parted them, and drew in his breath, as if to resist the pressure of the other foot, which he expected would next descend on his body. His relief may be imagined, when he saw the whole length of the under part of the enormous brute pass over him, leaving him perfectly unhurt.
In Abyssinia the elephant is hunted in an original manner. The men who make this their chief occupation dwell constantly in the woods, and live entirely upon the flesh of the animals they kill. They are exceedingly dexterous, both on horseback and on foot; indispensable qualities, partly inherited and partly acquired by practice. Completely naked to render their movements more easy, and to prevent their being laid hold of by the bushes, two of these bold huntsmen get on horseback; one of them bestrides the back of the steed, a short stick in one hand, the reins in the other, while behind him sits his companion, armed with a sharp broadsword. As soon as they perceive a grazing elephant, they instantly ride up to him, or cross him in all directions if he flies, uttering at the same time a torrent of abuse, for the purpose, as they fancy, of raising his anger. With outstretched trunk the elephant attempts to seize the noisy intruders, and following the perfectly trained horse, which, springing from side to side, leads him along in vain pursuit, neglects flight into the woods, his sole chance of safety; for while his whole attention is fixed on the rapid movements of the horse, the swordsman, who has sprung unperceived from its back, approaches stealthily from behind, and, with one stroke of his weapon, severs the tendon just above the heel. The disabled monster falls shrieking to the ground, and incapable of advancing a step, is soon despatched. The whole flesh is then cut off his bones into thongs, and hung upon the branches of trees till perfectly dry, when it is taken down and laid by for the rainy season.
African ivory is a not unimportant article of trade. The annual importation into Great Britain alone, for the last few years, has been about 11,000 cwts., which, taking the average weight of a tusk at thirty pounds, would imply an annual slaughter of about 20,000 elephants, doomed to destruction in order to provide us with umbrella, stick, or knife-handles, card-marks, fancy boxes, or buttons.
The Asiatic elephant inhabits Hindostan, the ultra-Gangetic peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, and Ceylon. In the latter island especially, he was formerly found in incredible numbers, so that thirty years ago, an English sportsman killed no less than 104 elephants in three days.
A reward of a few shillings per head offered by the Government for taking elephants was claimed for 3,500 destroyed in part of the northern provinces alone, in less than three years prior to 1848, and between 1851 and 1856 a similar reward was paid for 2,000 in the southern provinces. In consequence of this wholesale slaughter, it cannot be wondered at that the Ceylon elephant has entirely disappeared from districts in which he was formerly numerous, and that the peasantry in some parts of the island have even suspended the ancient practice of keeping watchers and fires by night to drive away the elephants from the growing crops. The opening of roads, and the clearing of the mountain-forests of Kandy for the cultivation of coffee, have forced the animals to retire to the low country, where again they have been followed by large parties of European sportsmen, and the Singhalese themselves, being more freely provided with arms than in former times, have assisted in the work of extermination.
The practice in Ceylon is to aim invariably at the head, and, generally speaking, a single ball planted in the forehead ends the existence of the noble creature instantaneously. Thus, while Prince Waldemar of Prussia, during his visit to the island, was hunting in the forests in company with Major Rogers, a celebrated Nimrod, they were charged by two elephants, the one furiously trumpeting in their rear, while the other pushed its enormous head through the bushes in front. The major, however, soon put an end to their offensive demonstrations, for springing between them, he instantly lodged one bullet behind the ear of the one, and a second in the temple of the other. As if struck by lightning, they sank to the earth with a deep hollow groan, and the remainder of the herd, terrified by their fall, hurried away into the depth of the woods.