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attacking them in an astonishingly daring manner. For as the beast in its wandering comes near the tree in which the watcher happens to be hidden, the moment it is passing the spot he seizes its tail with his hands and plants his feet against its left flank; he has hanging from his shoulders an axe, light enough so that a blow may be struck with one hand and yet exceedingly sharp, and seizing this in his right he hamstrings the elephant's right leg, raining blows upon it and maintaining the position of his body with his left hand. And they bring an astonishing swiftness to bear upon this task,

He hangs onto the elephants tail and tries to hamstring it with an axe !!!!!

In reply to:

since there is a contest between the two of them for their very lives; for all that is left to the hunter is either to get the better of the animal, or die himself, the situation not admitting any other conclusion, as for the beast which has been hamstrung, sometimes being unable to turn about because it is hard for it to move and sinking down on the place where it has been hurt, it falls on the ground and causes the death of the Ethiopian along with his own, and sometimes squeezing the man against a rock or tree it crushes him with its weight until it has killed him. In some cases, however, the elephant in the extremity of its suffering is far from thinking of turning on its attacker, but flees across the plain until the man who has set his feet upon it, striking on the same place with his axe, has severed the tendons and paralysed the beast. And as soon as the beast has fallen they run together in companies, and cutting the flesh off the hind-quarters of the elephant while it is alive they hold a feast".

I wonder how many of these elephant hunters ended up as pan cakes? And what was there life expectancy?

The full story