"We have chosen," said I, "three places where we are going to lie in wait for elephants, so we must divide ourselves into three parties."
I had hardly said these words than they all cried with one voice, "I am going with you, Moguizi."
I replied, "Hunters, if you all go with me, then there will be only one party, and we will be too many together."
"That is so," they all answered. There was a pause.
Okili got up and said, "The Moguizi, Okili, and Niamkala will make one party. You know that the King said that I must be always by the side of the Moguizi."
"Yes," they all answered. "The King said so."
Then Okili spoke again, and said, "Obindji, Mbango, and Macondai will make the second party. Ogoola, Makooga, and Fasiko will make the third party."
Okili, who had much experience in hunting elephants, said, "Now listen to what I am going to tell you, and act accordingly. The great thing in elephant-hunting is for one to have a cool head, otherwise he had better stay at home. Often elephants, when wounded, charge those who fire at them. In that case, if the hunter runs away, he is lost, for the elephant is sure to overtake him, tramp over him, and one of his feet upon the hunter's body is quite enough to kill him instantly. The elephant may prefer to impale him on one of his tusks, or seize him with his trunk and dash him to the ground or against a tree.
"The only way to escape the elephant when he makes his furious charge upon you is to keep perfectly calm, then when you are sure of the direction of the huge beast, instead of facing him, move sideways; then when he is five or six yards from you, take three steps backward as quickly as you possibly can. His pace is then so rapid that he cannot deviate from his course, and he passes by you, and you are safe."
"Yes, Okili, you are right," I said. "I have been three times in the same predicament, and I did exactly what you tell us to do, and there are no other ways to escape the fury of the elephant."