46 IN A LAND DESERTED Villagers passed, and conversation took place ; they came with donkeys—as I thought, en route for their hut villages. " A plague on Babel !" thought I, as Ibrahim talked earnestly to me. We pressed forward, and only that night did I learn that the Inspector who had preceded me on a local visit that afternoon had met and killed his first elephant within a mile of the spot. Far away by this time was the herd, leaving one, fortunately, with the tiny '303 bullet in his brain to provide food for scores of villagers, who flocked like vultures to the kill.

The dissection and division of the carcass is one of the revolting sights of Africa, for brute man swarms in and around it, recking nothing of the gore, and finding fruitful cause of quarrel.

The tusks, brought in to Abu Hashim at night, made their presence known by an elephantine odour, and presented the characteristics of those of the Blue Nile as contrasted with the giants of the White Nile, being of 30 and 34 pounds weight only. It is difficult to account for the difference in size existing within so comparatively small a distance, as distances in Africa go, but variations in other animals appear in much the same way. For example, the maneless lion is common in this district, whereas farther south the mane is almost invariable. Moreover, one gathers that the Somaliland lion is of a more enterprising character in regard to human meat than his brother of the Sudan, who, as a rule, will let mankind alone if