On one occasion he went down the
slopes of the hills after bison and other large game, taking some seven
or eight Burghers with him as gun carriers (besides other things
necessary in jungle-walking--axes to clear the way, knives and ropes,
&c.). He found and severely wounded a fine elephant with tusks.
Wishing to secure these, he proposed following up his quarry, but could
not induce his Burghers to go deeper and further into the forests; they
feared to meet the "Mula Curumbers" who lived thereabouts. For long he
argued in vain, at last by dint of threats and promises he induced them
to proceed, and as they met no one, their fears were allayed and they
grew bolder, when suddenly coming on the elephant lying dead (oh, horror
to them!), the beast was surrounded by a party of Mulu Curumbers busily
engaged in cutting out the tusks, one of which they had already
disengaged! The affrighted Burghers fell back, and nothing Mr. K---
could do or say would induce them to approach the elephant, which the
Curumbers stoutly declared was theirs.
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