Elephant Song

Daniel had never married again and had left Chiwewe not long after.

The memories of Vicky were too painful to allow him to remain.  Now Joh

This morning Mavis had prepared a traditional Matabele breakfast of maize porridge and sour milk, thickened in a calabash gourd, the beloved amasi of the Nguni pastoral tribes.

Afterwards, Joh

These structures, peculiar to southern Africa, were known as rondavels. I thought you told me that the Park was closed to visitors, Daniel said.

One of the rondavels is still occupied, and there's a car parked outside it.  That's a special guest, a diplomat, the Ambassador of the Taiwanese Republic of China to Harare, Joh

We allow him special privileges.  He wanted to be here without other tourists, so I kept the camp open for him- Joh

He was younger than he would have expected a man of such rank to be.

Although it was often difficult for a Westerner to judge the age of an oriental, Daniel put him at a little over forty.  He was tall and lean with straight black hair that was oiled and combed back from a high intelligent forehead.  He was good-looking with a clear, almost waxen, complexion.

There was something about his, features that suggested that his ancestry was not pure Chinese, but mixed with European blood.  Though his eyes were liquid jet-black in colour, their shape was rounded and his upper eyelids lacked the characteristic fold of skin at the i

May I present Doctor Daniel Armstrong?  Joh

Forgive me, Doctor Armstrong, but I did not expect to find other visitors at Chiwewe at this time of year.  I was assured that the Park was closed.

Although his tone was friendly, Daniel sensed that the question was not an idle one.  Don't worry, Your Excellency.  My camera man and I are leaving this afternoon.  You will soon have the whole of Chiwewe to yourself, Daniel assured him.  Oh, please don't misunderstand me.  I am not so selfish as to wish you gone.  In fact, I am sorry to hear you are leaving so soon.  I am sure we would have had a great deal to discuss.

Despite the denial, Daniel sensed that Cheng was relieved that he was leaving.  His expression was still warm and his ma

The ambassador fell in between them, as they walked down to the ivory warehouse, and chatted in a relaxed ma

As each tusk was brought out, still crusted with freshly congealed blood, it was weighed on the old-fashioned platform scale that stood at the entrance to the warehouse.  Joh

He then allocated a registration number to it and one of his rangers stamped that number into the ivory with a set of steel dies.

Registered and stamped, the tusk was now legal ivory and could be auctioned and exported from the country.

Cheng watched the procedure with a lively interest.  One pair of tusks, although not heavy or massive, was of particular beauty.  They were delicately proportioned shafts with fine grain and elegant curves, an identical and perfectly matched pair.

Cheng stepped forward and squatted beside them as they lay on the scale.

He stroked them with a lover's sensual touch.  Perfect, he purred.  A natural work of art.  He broke off as he noticed Daniel watching him.

Daniel had been vaguely repelled by this display of cupidity, and it showed on his face.

Cheng stood up and explained smoothly.  I have always been fascinated by ivory.  As you probably know, we Chinese consider it to be a highly propitious substance.  Few Chinese households are without any ivory carving; it brings good luck to its owner.

However, my family interest goes even deeper than common superstition. My father began his working life as an ivorycarver, and so great was his skill that by the time I was born he owned shops in Taipei and Bangkok, Tokyo and Hong Kong, all of them specialising in ivory artefacts.  Some of my earliest memories are of the look and feel of ivory.  As a boy, I worked as an apprentice ivory-carver in the store in Taipei, and I came to love and understand ivory as my father does.  He has one of the most extensive and valuable collections he stopped himself.  Forgive me, please.  I sometimes get carried away by my passion, but that is a particularly beautiful set of tusks.  It is very rare to find a pair so perfectly matched.  My father would be ecstatic over them.  He watched longingly as the tusks were carried away and packed with the hundreds of others in the warehouse.

Interesting character, Daniel remarked, after the last tusk had been registered and locked away, and he and Joh

Yes, he seems pleasant enough, but there is just something a little odd.

Did you notice his face as he fondled that tusk?  It was, Daniel searched for the word, u