Meanwhile the chase had gone on across the kraal, and on the other side one of the cows had been wedged in between two decoys for the needful moment. A nooser had slipped down under the decoy’s belly for protection, and actually had the noose over her ankle when she felt him, and let loose that four-ton kick he had sought protection from. Luckily it missed him a hair’s-breadth; but the savage old lady got free by it, and the nooser was a crumpled, fearful ruin for the rest of that day. Again they caught her, but she snapped the inch-and-a-quarter hawser as if it had been twine. The third attempt was successful, but by now madam had regained her wits and gathered together her scattered forces for rescue work. No doubt she ached also to avenge her baby, for she headed a tremendous charge against the decoys, and the bulls had to knock her off her feet time after time before she gave up the project. Kalawane then decided that the rest of the herd would be subjugated more easily after she had been disposed of.
This was more easily decided upon than accomplished. The old cow was a tactician of the highest order, and her gifts as a fighter amounted to positive genius. Several times they had her cornered, but she smashed her way through. They scattered her followers, and finally managed to isolate her on a small knoll between the stockade and a deep gully. Here she successfully eluded the skill of the decoys for at least half an hour, and it was while I was endeavoring to obtain a closer view of this heroic last stand that I was treated to a bit of insight into elephant cunning that I am not likely to forget.
The decoys had the old cow nearly cornered in a space close to the stockade and about one hundred and fifty yards from me, with the gully before mentioned running between us. I started to cross to the scene of conflict, but before descending into the gully, and thus losing sight of the jungle about me for a moment, I took a glance around. It was fortunate that I did so, for about two hundred yards below me, on the same side of the gully, was one of the young bulls coming stealthily through the underbrush, and there was something in his manner which warned me that he “had intentions.” But the very moment I became aware of his state of mind he apparently became as exactly aware of mine; for he dropped his ears, stopped, and then, seemingly disgusted that he should have betrayed himself, deliberately turned his back on me and walked off in the direction whence he had come. Nor did he once glance back, but near the brink of the gully stopped again in some scrub and, with his head wholly averted from me, appeared to be lost in thought. This seemed my chance, so I ran rapidly down the side of the gully, and for only a few seconds lost sight of him.
But what was my astonishment, upon climbing up the other side, to see him coming toward me like a hurricane and not more than seventy yards away! He must have started at full speed the moment my back was turned. Fortunately the stockade was not far off, and I made for it—hurriedly. It is possible, though, that I might not have escaped him, for thin, wiry, and almost invisible creepers clutched my legs at every step, had not some of the spearmen rushed to my rescue. They actually threw sticks at him! But for me it was a very interesting moment.
However, I was in time to see the defeat of the old empress. After many vain and furious struggles she was noosed around the left ankle with the rope attached to the biggest of all the decoys. At the word, this magnificent, six-ton brute picked out a tree, and without even a pause dragged the old lady off her feet. To make her humiliation more complete, he actually “wiped up the earth with her” when she spread herself out on the ground in protest, dragging her along with no more effort than if she had been a baby-carriage. But madam had not done with them yet. Arrived at the tree, she put up a glorious fight, even breaking two ropes, and she might have won a brief liberty had not two of the decoys shown marvelous intelligence in blocking her flight, butting her into place and firmly lashing her there by winding their powerful trunks around her neck from each side. Then, while the ropes that forever withheld her from her liberty were being securely knotted about her legs, these two gigantic old frauds, looking all the while wonderfully benignant and solemn, alternately bullied and flattered her. While one caressed her gently with his trunk the other thumped her in the ribs, and sometimes, under the guise of affection, both of them together would lean their vast bulk against her and force her gently but irresistibly into the position desired of their masters. One knew that in elephant language they were talking to her somewhat after this fashion:
“Come, my dear, be reasonable! A little more to the right! Softly! Softly! Tut, tut! It’s for your own good. There, now; that’s better. Just look at us; and we used to be as wild and foolish as you are.”
And then they cuddled her a little, gave her a final pat while the last knot was being tied, and left her! For a little while the old cow raged horribly; and then, like her abandoned baby, she broke down and cried. It is in such scenes that the fascination of elephant-kraaling, is found. The animals not only display a really wonderful intelligence and the possession of those lovable qualities we are pleased to term “human,” but they exhibit at all times, the trained elephants especially, a noble temper and that kind of profound character which is associated in our thoughts with only the simplest and noblest of men. It must be admitted that the elephants that have been gentled and trained by man exhibit the finest intelligence and a majesty of port rarely if ever observed in the wild ones. They impress one as having become grand under servitude. It is difficult to observe them and believe that they would wish to return to their wild state. This is no doubt sentimentality on my part, but it is hard to be on close terms with a noble elephant and not be awakened to sentiment concerning it.
The noosing of their leader sealed the fate of the rest of the herd (not that it had ever been in doubt); but by sunset all had been tied to trees save two, and it was reasonably certain these could not escape. The last glimpse I had of them they were standing in grief-stricken silence before the prostrate figure of a tethered calf whose struggles had worn him out. All night the hoarse trumpetings of the fettered-up mothers and the wails of their calves filled the jungle with lamentation. Occasionally, far off in the wilderness, a deep-throated bull would send out a long call of sympathy. Somewhere in the darkness the herd that had escaped hovered near, but the beaters’ line of fires kept them back. The captured ten were lost to the jungle forever.
Next morning, in the earliest light, I went up to the stockade to have a last look. The youngsters were still bawling and plunging frantically against their fetters, but the old empress was motionless and silent. So still she stood that in the pale light I took a time exposure of her. Her hind quarters and her flanks sagged, and her head expressed all the ache of utter despair. Youth might still cry and struggle against its fate, but she had given up the fight. Two hours later they had harnessed her securely between two mighty bulls, and a pygmy man had climbed upon her back. Then she uttered one last and mighty burst of anguished rage before she fell into the captive’s stride that was to carry her to her new life of labor down on the low-country estates.
I have always been fond of big-game shooting, and I have longed to include this mightiest of beasts in my huntsman’s bag; but I came away from the kraal with one clear idea in my mind, dominating all others: I never shall willingly kill an elephant.