HUNTING ELEPHANTS

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 15 February 1930, Page 18

HUNTING ELEPHANTS

‘ ‘irpilE most cruel sport in the world ’ ’ aptly describes the methods with which the Arabs hunt down elephants, armed only .With a long throwing spear and a broadbladed thrusting knife (writes T. A. Glover in the ‘“Daily Mail”). (What a magnificent sight they make as, with the good wishes of the old men and women, they ride from their encampment, mounted on their surefooted desert-'bred horses.

Madly they race through the narrow lane of grass huts, scattering pedestrians, bumping and boring, their long white burnouses sipreading behind them. The soft sand muffling the beats of their madly racing steeds makes them appear like ghost riders'. Only the high-pitched screams o'f the -wild riders give them any semblance to human beings. The encampment behind, a more circumspect -pace is assumed and absolute silence is maintained.

Reaching the last fringe o;f forest bordering the plain, they wait patiently for the Pagan tracker who has brought them the news of the ele- . phants ’ close proximity. /Riding silently (forward in close formation to within 50 yards of the herd, and having unerringly ascertained the position of the largest tusker, they rush down on the startled animals, streaming like demented) devils. Turn and wheel', as the elephants will, the racing mob gallop after them. (Foaming and blood-splashed horses frantically fight to fling off the cruel Arab -bits that bite into their tongues. One rider, more daring than the rest, dashes into the midst of the herd. He ranges alongside the big bull, which,,

Arabs’ Methods

Avinded beyond endurance, stops and turns ta gi\-e fight. Ilis trunk curls to strike, and like a flash the mounted man shoots fonvard, lying low over his horse’s Avitliers, to escape the tusks raised aboA’e him. By inches he misses their gleaming whiteness and is past, racing UAvay from the death that follows him.

Another rider dashes across to intercept the beast at right angles, loosening his heavy thro,wing-gear from its leather thong as he rides. With a lightning twist of the wrist he dispatches it. It hits its -mark, turning the elephanlt’s attention from the horse and man that are fast becoming exhausted.

Another way the elephant charges, frantic with pain. iCrash fall the horse and man right in his path! The man lies still, but luckily the horse rises and takes the full impact o'f four tons of charging muscle that flings l him skywards as easily as a child flings a ball.

The horse tries to rise, but his broken hind legs splay grotesquely beneath him.

The poor toiunented bull, goaded by the pain from the numerous spears that stick from his carcass like porcupine quills, again charges the struggling hoi'se, and with his tusks and knees pounds him into a shapeless heap. But' the men relentlessly thrust and stab, driving the blood .from his veins until the scene is a shambles.

Weak and helpless he rolls drunkenly an his legs, still willing to fight. A lucky thrust opens a throat vein, and with his. death ibellow echoing through the busF he crashes, raising the dust round him like a shroud, as if to hide this work of man