Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1887 — Hunting Elephants with a Sword. [ARTICLE]

Hunting Elephants with a Sword.

I turned the conversation to sport, on which Zebhr is a great authority. Most, it not all, of the big game of Africa have fallen to his rifle, and he told me some wonderful yarns of his adventures with lions and elephants. He told me that his favorite method of hunting the latter was on horseback and armed only with a sword. His plan was to ride up alongside the elephant and, rapidly dismounting, hamstring him with a blow from the sword, and when the huge beast was thus put hors du combat he was dispatched with spears. It is necessary to have several mounted men, one of whom attracts the attention of the elephant while the others creep up and hamstring him. This method of hunting was reported on by Sir Samuel Baker as common among the Hamram Arabs; but Zebhr is the only Arab I have met who has told me he has practiced it.—Philadelphia Times.