Though we were all happy to our wish in this enchanted mountain, the active spirit of Ayto Confu could not rest; he was come to hunt the elephant, and hunt him he would. All those that understood any thing of this exercise had assembled from a great distance to meet Ayto Confu at Tcherkin. He and Engedan, from the moment they arrived, had been overlooking, from the precipice, their servants training and managing their horses in the market-place below. Great bunches of the finest canes had been brought from Kuara for javelins; and the whole house was employed in fitting heads to them in the most advantageous manner. For my part, tho' I should have been very well contented to have remained where I was, yet the preparations for sport of so noble a kind roused my spirits, and made me desirous to join in it. On the other hand, the ladies all declared, that they thought, by leaving them, we were devoting them to death or slavery, as they did not doubt, if the Shangalla missed us, they would come forward to the mountain and slay them all. But a sufficient garrison was left under Azage Kyrillos, and Billetana Gueta Ammonios; and we were well assured that the Shangalla, being informed we were out, and armed, and knowing our numbers, would take care to keep close in their thickets far out of our way.
On the 6th, an hour before day, after a hearty breakfast, we mounted on horseback, to the number of about thirty belonging to Ayto Confu. But there was another body, both of horse and foot, which made hunting the elephant their particular business. These men dwell constantly in the woods, and know very little the use of bread, living entirely upon the flesh of the beasts they kill, chiefly that of the elephant or rhinoceros. They are exceedingly thin, light, and agile, both on horseback and foot; are very swarthy, though few of them black; none of them woolly-headed, and all of them have European features. They are called Agageer, a name of their profession, not of their nation, which comes from the word Agar, and signifies to hough or ham-string with a sharp weapon. More properly it means, indeed, the cutting the tendon of the heel, and is a characteristic of the manner in which they kill the elephant, which is shortly as follows:—Two men, absolutely naked, without any rag or covering at all about them, get on horseback; this precaution is from fear of being laid hold of by the trees or bushes, in making their escape from a very watchful enemy. One of these riders sits upon the back of the horse, sometimes with a saddle, and sometimes without one, with only a switch or short stick in one hand, carefully managing the bridle with the other; behind him sits his companion, who has no other arms but a broad-sword, such as is used by the Sclavonians, and which is brought from Trieste. His left hand is employed grasping the sword by the handle, and about fourteen inches of the blade is covered with whip-cord. This part he takes in his right hand, without any danger of being hurt by it; and, though the edges of the lower part of the sword are as sharp as a razor, he carries it without a scabbard.
As soon as the elephant is found feeding, the horseman rides before him as near his face as possible; or, if he flies, crosses him in all directions, crying out, "I am such a man and such a man; this is my horse, that has such a name; I killed your father in such a place, and your grandfather in such another place, and I am now come to kill you; you are but an ass in comparison of them." This nonsense he verily believes the elephant understands, who, chafed and angry at hearing the noise immediately before him, seeks to seize him with his trunk or proboscis, and, intent upon this, follows the horse everywhere, turning and turning round with him, neglectful of making his escape by running straight forward, in which consists his only safety. After having made him turn once or twice in pursuit of the horse, the horseman rides close up alongside of him, and drops his companion just behind on the off side; and while he engages the elephant's attention upon the horse, the footman behind gives him a drawn stroke just above the heel, or what in man is called the tendon of Achilles. This is the critical moment; the horseman immediately wheels round, and takes his companion up behind him, and rides off full speed after the rest of the herd, if they have started more than one; and sometimes an expert Agageer will kill three out of one herd. If the sword is good, and the man not afraid, the tendon is commonly entirely separated; and if it is not cut through, it is generally so far divided, that the animal, with the stress he puts upon it, breaks the remaining part asunder. In either case, he remains incapable of advancing a step, till the horseman returning, or his companions coming up, pierce him through with javelins and lances; he then falls to the ground, and expires with the loss of blood.
The Agageer nearest me presently lamed his elephant, and left him standing. Ayto Engedan, Ayto Confu, Guebra Mariam, and several others, fixed their spears in the other, before the Agageer had cut his tendons. My Agageer, however, having wounded the first elephant, failed in the pursuit of the second, and, being close upon him at entering the wood, he received a violent blow from a branch of a tree which the elephant had bent by his weight, and, after passing, allowed it to replace itself, when it knocked down both the riders, and very much hurt the horse. This, indeed, is the great danger in elephant-hunting; for some of the trees, that are dry and short, break, by the violent pressure of so immense a body moving so rapidly, and fall upon the pursuers, or across the roads. But the greatest number of these trees, being of a succulent quality, they bend without breaking, and return quickly to their former position, when they strike both horse and man so violently, that they often beat them to pieces, and scatter them upon the plain. Dextrous, too, as the riders are, the elephant sometimes reaches them with his trunk, with which he dashes the horse against the ground, and then sets his feet upon him, till he tears him limb from limb with his proboscis; a great many hunters die this way. Besides this, the soil, at this time of the year, is split into deep chasms, or cavities, by the heat of the sun, so that nothing can be more dangerous than the riding.
The elephant once slain, they cut the whole flesh off his bones into thongs, like the reins of a bridle, and hang these, like festoons, upon the branches of trees, till they become perfectly dry, without salt, and they then lay them by for their provision in the season of the rains.
I need say nothing of the figure of the elephant, his form is known, and anecdotes of his life and character are to be found everywhere. But his description, at length, is given, with his usual accuracy and elegance, by that great master of natural history the Count de Buffon, my most venerable, learned, and amiable friend, the Pliny of Europe, and the true portrait of what a man of learning and fashion should be.
I shall only take upon me to resolve a difficulty which he seems to have had,—for what use the teeth of the elephant, and the horns of the rhinoceros, were intended. He, with reason, explodes the vulgar prejudice, that these arms were given them by Nature to fight with each other. He asks very properly, What can be the ground of that animosity? neither of them are carnivorous; they do not couple together, therefore are not rivals in love; and, as for food, the vast forests they inhabit furnish them with an abundant and everlasting store.
But neither the elephant nor rhinoceros eat grass. The sheep, goats, horses, cattle, and all the beasts of the country, live upon branches of trees. There are, in every part of these immense forests, trees of a soft, succulent substance, full of pith. These are the principal food of the elephant and rhinoceros. They first eat the tops of these leaves and branches; they then, with their horns or teeth, begin as near to the root as they can, and rip, or cut the more woody part, or trunks of these, up to where they were eaten before, till they fall in so many pliable pieces of the size of laths. After this, they take all these in their monstrous mouths, and twist them round as we could do the leaves of a lettuce. The vestiges of this process, in its different stages, we saw every day throughout the forest; and the horns of the rhinoceros, and teeth of the elephant, are often found broken, when their gluttony leads them to attempt too large or firm a tree.