travelling menagerie that was going to some new encampment. At the head
of the procession marched a large bull elephant, which I discovered
afterwards was an ill-tempered brute that had already killed a man and
should never have been allowed upon the roads. The sight of the pony
cart, or perhaps a red cloak which my wife was wearing, as she always
liked bright colours, for some unknown reason seems to have infuriated
this beast, which trumpeted. The pony becoming frightened wheeled round
and overturned the cart right in front of the animal, but apparently
without hurting anybody. Then"--here he paused a moment and with
an effort continued--"that devil in beast's shape cocked its ears,
stretched out its long trunk, dragged the baby from the nurse's arms,
whirled it round and threw it high into the air, to fall crushed upon
the kerb. It sniffed at the body of the child, feeling it over with the
tip of its trunk, as though to make sure that it was dead. Next, once
more it trumpeted triumphantly, and without attempting to harm my wife
or anybody else, walked quietly past the broken cart and continued its
journey, until outside the town it was made fast and shot."

"What an awful story!" I said with a gasp.

"Yes, but there is worse to follow. My poor wife went off her head, with
the shock I suppose, for no physical injury could be found upon her. She
did not suffer in health or become violent, quite the reverse indeed
for her gentleness increased. She just went off her head. For hours at
a time she would sit silent and smiling, playing with the stones of that
red necklace which those conjurers gave her, or rather counting them,
as a nun might do with the beads of her rosary. At times, however, she
would talk, but always to the baby, as though it lay before her or she
were nursing it. Oh! Quatermain, it was pitiful, pitiful!