Mahomet Returned, Accompanied By A Large Party Of Hamran Arabs,
Including Several Hunters, One Of Whom Was Sheik Abou Do Roussoul, The
Nephew Of Sheik Owat.
As his name in full was too long, he generally
went by the abbreviation "Abou Do." He was a splendid fellow, a little
above six feet one, with a light active figure, but exceedingly
well-developed muscles.
His face was strikingly handsome; his eyes were
like those of a giraffe, but the sudden glance of an eagle lighted them
up with a flash during the excitement of conversation, which showed
little of the giraffe's gentle character. Abou Do was the only tall man
of the party; the others were of middle height, with the exception of a
little fellow named Jali, who was not above five feet four inches, but
wonderfully muscular, and in expression a regular daredevil.
There were two parties of hunters among the Hamran Arabs, one under Abou
Do, and the other consisting of four brothers Sherrif. The latter were
the most celebrated aggageers among the renowned tribe of the Hamran.
Their father and grandfather had been mighty Nimrods, and the
broadswords wielded by their strong arms had descended to the men who
now upheld the prestige of the ancient blades. The eldest was Taher
Sherrif. His second brother, Roder Sherrif, was a very small,
active-looking man, with a withered left arm. An elephant had at one
time killed his horse, and on the same occasion had driven its sharp
tusk through the arm of the rider, completely splitting the limb, and
splintering the bone from the elbow-joint to the wrist to such an extent
that by degrees the fragments had sloughed away, and the arm had become
shrivelled and withered. It now resembled a mass of dried leather
twisted into a deformity, without the slightest shape of an arm; this
was about fourteen inches in length from the shoulder. The stiff and
crippled hand, with contracted fingers, resembled the claw of a vulture.
In spite of his maimed condition, Roder Sherrif was the most celebrated
leader in the elephant hunt. His was the dangerous post to ride close to
the head of the infuriated animal and provoke the charge, and then to
lead the elephant in pursuit, while the aggageers attacked it from
behind. It was in the performance of this duty that he had met with the
accident, as his horse had fallen over some hidden obstacle and was
immediately caught. Being an exceedingly light weight he had continued
to occupy this important position in the hunt, and the rigid fingers of
the left hand served as a hook, upon which he could hang the reins.
My battery of rifles was now laid upon a mat for examination; they were
in beautiful condition, and they excited the admiration of the entire
party. The perfection of workmanship did not appear to interest them so
much as the size of the bores. They thrust their fingers down each
muzzle, until they at last came to the "Baby," when, finding that two
fingers could be easily introduced, they at once fell in love with that
rifle in particular.
On the 17th of August, accompanied by the German, Florian, we said
good-by to our kind friend Sheik Achmet and left Wat el Negur. At Geera,
early at daybreak, several Arabs arrived with a report that elephants
had been drinking in the river within half an hour's march of our
sleeping-place. I immediately started with my men, accompanied by
Florian, and we shortly arrived upon the tracks of the herd. I had three
Hamran Arabs as trackers, one of whom, Taher Noor, had engaged to
accompany us throughout the expedition.
For about eight miles we followed the spoor through high dried grass and
thorny bush, until we at length arrived at a dense jungle of kittar - the
most formidable of the hooked thorn mimosas. Here the tracks appeared to
wander, some elephants having travelled straight ahead, while others had
strayed to the right and left. For about two hours we travelled upon the
circuitous tracks of the elephants to no purpose, when we suddenly were
startled by the shrill trumpeting of one of these animals in the thick
thorns, a few hundred yards to our left. The ground was so intensely
hard and dry that it was impossible to distinguish the new tracks from
the old, which crossed and recrossed in all directions. I therefore
decided to walk carefully along the outskirts of the jungle, trusting to
find their place of entrance by the fresh broken boughs. In about an
hour we had thus examined two or three miles, without discovering a clew
to their recent path, when we turned round a clump of bushes, and
suddenly came in view of two grand elephants, standing at the edge of
the dense thorns. Having our wind, they vanished instantly into the
thick jungle. We could not follow them, as their course was down wind;
we therefore made a circuit to leeward for about a mile, and finding
that the elephants had not crossed in that direction, we felt sure that
we must come upon them with the wind in our favor should they still be
within the thorny jungle. This was certain, as it was their favorite
retreat.
With the greatest labor I led the way, creeping frequently upon my hands
and knees to avoid the hooks of the kittar bush, and occasionally
listening for a sound. At length, after upward of an hour passed in this
slow and fatiguing advance, I distinctly heard the flap of an elephant's
ear, shortly followed by the deep guttural sigh of one of those animals,
within a few paces; but so dense was the screen of jungle that I could
see nothing. We waited for some minutes, but not the slightest sound
could be heard; the elephants were aware of danger, and they were, like
ourselves, listening attentively for the first intimation of an enemy.
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