We cut it into slices and fried it with fat, and I never tasted heart
to equal it, for the meat seemed to melt in one's mouth. By the way, I
examined the jaw of the elephant; it never grew but one tusk; the other
had not been broken off, nor was it present in a rudimentary form.

"Well, there lay the five beauties, or rather four of them, for Gobo and
another man were engaged in sawing the grand one in two. At last
with many sighs I ordered them to do this, but not until by practical
experiment I had proved that it was impossible to carry it in any other
way. One hundred and sixty pounds of solid ivory, or rather more in its
green state, is too great a weight for two men to bear for long across
a broken country. I sat watching the job and smoking the pipe of
contentment, when suddenly the bush opened, and a very handsome and
dignified native girl, apparently about twenty years of age, stood
before me, carrying a basket of green mealies upon her head.

"Although I was rather surprised to see a native girl in such a wild
spot, and, so far as I knew, a long way from any kraal, the matter did
not attract my particular notice; I merely called to one of the men, and
told him to bargain with the woman for the mealies, and ask her if there
were any more to be bought in the neighbourhood. Then I turned my head
and continued to superintend the cutting of the tusk. Presently a shadow
fell upon me. I looked up, and saw that the girl was standing before me,
the basket of mealies still on her head.

"'Marême, Marême,' she said, gently clapping her hands together. The
word Marême among these Matuku (though she was no Matuku) answers to
the Zulu 'Koos,' and the clapping of hands is a form of salutation very
common among the tribes of the Basutu race.