MODE OF PROCURING IVORY.

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to what use the material is applied. Although knives with ivory hafts, combs, and toys of the same material, are shown to them, and they are convinced that the ivory thus manufactured was originally part of a tooth, yet they are not satisfied. They suspect that this commodity is more frequently converted in Europe to purposes of far greater impor tance, the true nature of which is studiously concealed from them, lest the price of ivory should be enhanced. They cannot, they say, easily persuade themselves that ships would be built, and voyages undertaken, to procure an article which had no other value than that of furnishing handles to knives, &c., when pieces of wood would answer the pur pose equally well.

In the interior countries of Africa elephants are very numerous, and it is from those countries that the greater part of the ivory which is sold on the Gambia and Senegal rivers, is brought. The lands towards the coast are too swampy, and too much intersected with creeks and rivers for so bulky an animal as the elephant to travel through without being discovered; and when once the natives discern the marks of his feet in the earth, the whole village is up in arms. The thoughts of feasting on his flesh, making sandals of his hide, and selling the teeth to the Europeans, inspire every one with: courage; and the animal seldom escapes from his pursuers. But in the plains of Bambarra and Kaarta, and the extensive wilds of Jallonkadoo, the elephants are very numerous; and, from the scar. city of gunpowder in those districts, they are less annoyed by the natives.

Scattered teeth are frequently picked up in the

144 MODE OF HUNTING THE ELEPHANT.

woods, and travellers are very diligent in looking for them. It is a common practice with the elephant to thrust his teeth under the roots of such shrubs and bushes as grow in the more dry and elevated parts of the country where the soil is shallow. He easily overturns these bushes and feeds on the roots, which are, in general, more tender and juicy than the hard, woody branches or the foliage; and when the teeth are partly decayed by age, and the roots more firmly fixed, the great exertions of the animal in this practice frequently cause them to break short. At Kamalia Park saw two teeth, one a very large one, which were found in the woods, and which had been evidently broken off in this manner. Indeed, he says, it is difficult otherwise to account for such a large proportion of broken ivory as is daily offered for sale at the different factories; for when the elephant is killed in hunting, unless he dashes himself over a precipice, the teeth are always extracted entire.

At certain seasons of the year the elephants assemble in large herds, and traverse the country in quest of food and water. In this search they are compelled to approach the banks of the Niger, where they continue until the commencement of the rainy season, in the month of June or July; and during their stay they are actively hunted by such of the natives as have gunpowder to spare. The elephant-hunters generally go out in parties of four to five; each man having furnished himself with powder and ball, and a quantity of cornmeal in a leathern bag, sufficient for the consumption of five or six days, they enter the retired parts of the woods, and examine carefully every

MODE OF HUNTING THE ELEPHANT.

145

thing that can lead to the discovery of the elephants. In this pursuit great nicety of observation is required; the broken branches, the foot-marks, and other indications are carefully inspected. Many of the hunters, as soon as they observe the footmarks of an elephant, will tell almost with certainty at what time the animal passed, and at what distance it will be found.

When the hunters discover a herd of elephants, they follow at a distance until they perceive some one stray from the rest, and come into such a sit. uation as to be fired at with advantage. They then approach with great caution, creeping among the long grass until they have got near enough to be sure of their aim. They then all discharge their pieces at once, and throw themselves on their faces mong the grass. The wounded elephant immediately applies his trunk to the different wounds, but, being unable to extract the balls, and seeing nobody near him, becomes quite furious, and runs about among the bushes until by fatigue and loss of blood he has exhausted himself, and affords the hunters an opportunity of firing a second time at him, by which he is generally brought to the ground.

The skin is now taken off, and extended on the ground with pegs to dry, and such parts of the flesh as are most esteemed are cut up into thin slices, and dried in the sun, to serve for provisions on some future occasion. The teeth are struck out with a light hatchet, which the hunters always carry along with them, not only for that purpose, but also to enable them to cut down such trees as contain honey; for, though they carry with them only five or six days' provisions, they will remain

146 PARK'S DEPARTURE FROM KAMALIA

in the woods for months if they are successful, and support themselves upon the flesh of such elephants as they kill, and wild honey.

CHAPTER XIII.

Park's Departure from Kamalia with a Coffle of Slaves for the Gambia.-Difficulties of the Journey.-Crossing the Jallonka Wilderness.-Melancholy Fate of a Female Slave.-Arrival of the Coffle at Jindey.-Park's Arrival at Pisania.-His Voyage Home. His Arrival in London.

[1797.]

THE departure of the coffle was repeatedly dc. layed on various grounds, with the characteristic procrastination of the negroes, in whose eyes, Park remarks, time is of no importance. The delay was a source of great annoyance to our traveller. Habit had indeed reconciled him to the African mode of life, and a smoky hut and a scanty supper, to use his own expressions, gave him no great uneasiness; but he became at last wearied out with a constant state of alarm and anxiety, and felt “a painful longing for the manifold blessings of civil. ized society."

66

At length, on the 19th of April, 1797, the longwished-for departure took place. The coffle, on leaving Kamalia, consisted of twenty-seven slaves for sale, the property of Karfa and four other Slatecs; but was soon afterward joined by five at Marboo, and three at Bala, making, in all, thirty-five

WITH A COFFLE OF SLAVES.

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slaves. The free men were fourteen in number, but most of them had one or two wives and some domestic slaves; and the schoolmaster, who was now upon his return for the place of his nativity, took with him eight of his scholars; so that the number of free people and domestic slaves amount. ed to thirty-eight, and the whole amount of the coffle was seventy-three. Among the free men were six jillakeas (singing men), whose musical talents were frequently exerted either to divert the fatigue of the party, or to obtain them a welcome from strangers. "When we departed from Kamalia," says Park, "we were followed, for about half a mile, by most of the inhabitants of the town, some of them crying, and others shaking hands with their relations, who were now about to leave them; and when we had gained a piece of rising ground, from which we had a view of Kamalia, all the people belonging to the coffle were ordered to sit down in one place, with their faces towards the west, and the townspeople were desired to sit down in another place, with their faces towards Kamalia. situation, the schoolmaster, with two of the principal Slatees, having taken their places between the two parties, pronounced a long and solemn prayer; after which they walked three times round the cof fle, making an impression on the ground with the end of their spears, and muttering something by way of charm. When this ceremony was ended, all the people belonging to the coffle sprang up, and, without taking a formal farewell of their friends, set forward."

In this

The journey from Kamalia occupied more than six weeks; it was one of great labour and difficul.

M