lat. by the expedition sent by Mehemet Ali Pasha, the tusks were
considered as worthless, and were treated as bones. The death of an
elephant is a grand affair for the natives, as it supplies flesh for an
enormous number of people, also fat, which is the great desire of all
savages for internal and external purposes. There are various methods of
killing them. Pitfalls are the most common, but the wary old bulls are
seldom caught in this manner.
The position chosen for the pit is, almost without exception, in the
vicinity of a drinking place, and the natives exhibit a great amount of
cunning in felling trees across the usual run of the elephants, and
sometimes cutting an open pit across the path, so as to direct the
elephant by such obstacles into the path of snares. The pits are usually
about twelve feet long, and three feet broad, by nine deep; these are
artfully made, decreasing towards the bottom to the breadth of a foot.
The general elephant route to the drinking place being blocked up, the
animals are diverted by a treacherous path towards the water, the route
intersected by numerous pits, all of which are carefully concealed by
sticks and straw, the latter being usually strewn with elephants' dung
to create a natural effect.
Should an elephant, during the night, fall through the deceitful
surface, his foot becomes jammed in the bottom of the narrow grave, and
he labours shoulder deep, with two feet in the pitfall so fixed that
extrication is impossible.
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