^iiinm}Kmmm\w/wm(miumwuiirrrz ^PfSOBSBmiS?'- w f s^ ;^ I UV\nAAAAnAAAAA/VVAAA/lAn/VAAAi tAAAAAAn/ V\njW m ^ji^Sf*«-:Mv; 7/> ^g:;??^^,:s- A NDE R s leep^^^v^ THIRTEEN YEARS AMONG THE WILD BEASTS OF INDIA THIRTEEN YEARS AMONG THE WILD BEASTS OF INDIA THEIR HAUNTS AND HABITS FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATION; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MODES OF CAPTURING AND TAMING ELEPHANTS BY G. P. SANDERSON OFFICER IN CHARGE OF THE GOVERNMENT ELEPHANT CATCHING ESTABLISHMENT IN MYSORE SEVENTH EDITION WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS EDINBURGH : JOHN GRANT 31 GEORGE IV. BRIDGE 1912 ^ 9-' TO COLONEL G. B. MALLESON, C.S.L LATE GUARDIAN TO HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJAH OF MYSORE. Mt dear Colonel, At the time that I commenced the operations of olephant-catching in Mysore, and when the experiment was regarded by many with at least distrust, you, unconnected with me by any official ties, came forward to give me the most practical proof of your confidence in my ultimate success by placing the resources in men and elephants of the Mysore Palace at my disposal. And you did this with such zeal and heartiness, your interest in my operations was so earnest, and your pleasure in my success so cordial, that I venture to ask you to accept the dedication of this account of my work, and of my life and adventures in the jungles of Mysore and Bengal — an account the compilation of which you suggested, and in the making up of which I have been encouraged to persevere by the example I have had before me in your own writings. Belie CHAPTER XIII AN ELEPHANT-CATCHING EXPEDITION INTO THE HILL-TRACT8 OP CHITTAGONG — {continued). Ghostly Night Visitor — Securing the Wild Elephants — Radhdpeary — A Vicious Female Attacks Me — Dangerous Position — Narrow Escape — Return to Gdsban —Meet a Fellow-Countryraan — Jooma Etiquette — Liquor — We Dine at a Jooma CONTENTS. xi Chief s— News of Gool Sudden's Success— March into the Myanee Valley— A Hill Village— Treat Some Patients— A Grand Chasm— Keach Bhow^dli— Thirty- two Elephants Captured— A Man Killed— A Portion of the Herd Gives Trouble —We are Obliged to Let Them Go— An Elephant Pays Me a Midnight Visit — Attacks my Tent — The Guard Punished — Shoot the Elephant — Complete a Kheddah in Two Days and Capture Thirteen Elephants — Jungle - Products — Commence Eeturn-March to Rungamuttea — Young Elephant Killed by a Tiger — I Shoot the Spoiler — Weight of a Tiger — Shoot a Troublesome Tasker — Lost in the Forest — Chorus of Elephants — A Hill-Dog — His Sagacity and Attachment — Reach Rungamuttea — Sad Mishap — Three Elephants Drowned — Joomas Eating Elephants — March to Dacca — Statement of Casualties. .... 153 CHAPTEE XIV. BIFLES AND CAMP-MANAGEMENT. General Remarks — Heavy Rifles — Opinions of Sir Samuel Baker and the Late Cap- tain James Forsyth upon Rifles — Heavy Game — Light Game — 4 and 8 Bore Rifles— HeaAry Charges — Battery for Indian Sport — Express Rifles — ObjectionB to the Express for Heavy Game— Shells — Camp-Arrangements — Malarial Fever — Probably Only Contracted at Night — Precaution against Malaria — Necessity for Sleeping Ofi' the Ground — Camp-Fires — Temperance — Boiled and Distilled Water — Indian Servants. . . . . . • . .178 CHAPTER XV. ELEPHANT -SHOOTING. Government Prohibition Regarding Elephant-Shooting — The True King of Beasts — Peculiar Excitement of Elephant- Shooting — Danger of the Sport — The Wild Elephant's Mode of Attack— Structure of the Elephant's Head— The Brain— The Best Shots— Guns for Elephant-Shooting — Sir Samuel Baker's Opinion — Shoot- ing Elephants l>ehind the Shoulder — The Former Method of Shooting with "Jinjalls" — The Elephant's Character as an Animal of Sport— Circumstances under which they usually Attack Man — How to Find the Tuskers in a Herd — The Alarm-Signal — Elephants' Rushes — Danger of Shouting at Elephants — A Courageous Female in the Chittagong Hills— Kills a Man— Charges my Riding- Elephant — Floor Her — Another Charging Female in Kdkenkotd— Single Ele- phante— Their Habits— Elephants Lying Down— Their Skill in Retreating— How to Follow Wounded Elephants — Danger of Shooting Rogue Elephants not Greater than Attacking Herds— Taking out Tusks— Dead Elephants— Native Ideas about their Flesh in Mysore — In Chittagong — Preparing Feet for Footstools. . . 187 zii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVL INCIDENTS IN ELEPHANT-SHOOTING. Camp at Ponjoor — Want of Rain — Move Camp — A Tiger in a Sholaga's Hut — Sholaga Trackers — A Troublesome Cough — Find Elephants — Manoeuvre to get a Shot — KDl a Tusker — I Narrowly Escape an Inglorious End — Jungle -Trackers — My Youthful Tracker Gorrava — The Difference between Hitting and Bagging — Perse- verance—The Kdkankot^ Rogue — His Habits— Kills Two Travellers — Kdkankote — The Cubbany River — Forest — Kurrabas — Their Habits, Food, Appearance, Dwellings — Qarrow and Chittagong Wild Tribes' Dwellings — Kurrabas' Methods of Catching Wild Animals — The Flying Squirrel — Ethnology of the Kurrabas — Old Poojdree — Jungle Tribes' Fear of Elephants — I Reach Kdkankot6 to Hunt the Rogue— News of Him — Track Him — Heavy Rain — Fire at the Rogue — Wild Ele- phants' Rushes — The Rogue Escapes — Melancholy Reflections. . . .201 CHAPTER XVIL INCIDENTS IN ELEPHANT-SHOOTING (continued). Second Expedition after the Rogue — He Kills a Kurraba — Wound Him— A Chase — Kill Him — How to Make Fire with Two Sticks — Roll the Rogue's Carcass Over — Cut off His Head — Place His Head on View by the Roadside — The Rogue's Impertinent Friend the Muckna — Take Him Down a Peg — My Best Tusker — An Exciting Hunt — Large Tusks — Wound Him — The Proverbial Stern-Chase — Encounter Him Again — Further Pursuit — Kill Him — Reflections — Shoot an Elephant in a Pit by Accident — A Sporting Parson — The Garrow Hills — Narrow Escape from a Tusker — Sir Victor Brooke and Colonel Hamilton's Big Tusker — A Common Elephant - Shooting Story — Elephants' Powers of Getting Over Wounds 217 CHAPTER XVIII. THE INDIAN BISON {OAVjEUS GAURUS). Distribution in India — Appearance — Height — Size of Horns — Gregarious Nature — Food — Character — Habitat — Subject to Murrain — Indian Cattle Diseases — Bison- Calves — Sounds made by Bison — Flesh — The Bison and Mithun or Gayal of Bengal Compared — Never Brought Alive to England — My Opportunities of Ob- serving Bison — Probable Age Attained by Bison — Solitary Bulls — Their Disposi- tion— They Carry the Best Heads. ....... 243 CONTENTS. xill CHAPTER XDL ADVENTURES IN BISON-SHOOTINQ. E!njoyable Character of the Sport — Sporting Knivea — Heavy Rifles — Vitality and En- durance of Bison — How to Approach Bison — One of my First Attempts — My Ally H. — Camp at Yemmay Gudday — Floored with Fever — The Trackers find Bison — Wound a Bull — Follow Him Next Day — A Long Hunt — Brought to Bay — Kill Him — Fingers before Forks — Marrow - Bones — Honey — Bag another Large Bull — Capture Two Tiger-Cubs — Account of how P. and I Slew the Hanay- kerray Bulls — ioiother Old Bull — A Four Days' Hunt — Perseverance Rewarded —The Great Mother. . . . . . . . .253 CHAPTER XX. THE TIGER {FELIS TIGRIS). Different Sorts of Tigers— The Cattle-Lifter- Usefulness of Tigers— Small Value of Indian Cattle— The Game-Killer— The Man-Eater— Size and Weight of Tigers— A Tiger Killing and Eating Bears — Cannibal Tigers — Tigers and Wild Dogs — Tigers KiUingl Bison — Method of Seizing their Prey — Fight between Tiger and Buffalo — Hours of Feeding — Tigers Climbing Trees — Powers of Enduring Hunger and Thirst — Hunting-Ranges of Tigers — Breeding of Tigers — Methods of Hunting Tigers — Beating with Elephants — Driving with Beaters — Shooting over " Kills " or Water — Netting — Excuse for this ^iethod — Poisoning and Trapping Tigers. . . 266 CHAPTER XXL TIGER-SHOOTING IN SOUTHERN INDIA- Remarks on Tiger-Shooting on Foot — Not necessarily Foolhardy Sport — Effect of the Tiger's Roar — The lyenpoor Man-Eater — Her Ravages — KiUs a Man at Ndg- wuUy — Another Victim — An Unsuccessful Christmas Day's Hunt — A Herds- man's Fate— A Priest Carried Off— The Man -Eater's Cub — Horrible Death of a Villager — An Unsuccessful Pursuit — Her Last Victim — An Affectionate Son-in- law — News of the Man-Eater — An Evening Watch — Her Appearance — Kill Her — The Villagers of Hebsoor — Terrified Agriculturists — The " Don " Tiger — His Habits and Peculiarities — EflBgy of the Don — An Inland Cyclone — The Don's Gluttony — We Hunt Him — An After-Dinner Run — Wound Him — He Escapes for the Time — Continue the Chase next Day — His Death — Regrets — Boiling Down the Don's Fat. ......... 293 Juv CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XXIL TIGER-SHOOTING IN SOUTHERN INDIA — {continued). A Griffins' Exploit — A Netted Tigress — Our Narrow Escape — A Small Boy's Adven- ture with a Tiger — A Visitor Welcome at any Hour — News from Ponjoor — A Tigress Resists Bommay Gouda's Researches — I Assist in Pursuing Investiga- tions— The Cause of Her Contumacy — Shoot Her on Foot — A Courageous Cub — Bommay Gouda's Worthless Son — A Timid Tigress— Wound Her — A Marker Tree'd — Look for the Tigress on Foot — A Close Interview — We Retire Gracefully — A Dead Tiger comes to Life and Escapes — A Night- Watch — Kill the Tigress — A Cautious Tigress — Moonlight Scene — Shoot the Would-be Destroyer — Jackals at a Carcass — The Tiger's Arrival — A Warm Reception — Search for the Wounded Tiger on Foot by Moonlight — Recover Him. . . . . -314 CHAPTER XXIII. THE PANTHER, LEOPARD, AND CHEETA OR HUNTING-LEOPARD. The Difference between the Panther, Leopard, and Cheeta or Hunting-Leopard — Dis- tinguishing Marks — The Black Leopard — Habits and Disposition of the Panther and Leopard — The Cheeta or Hunting-Leopard — Dr Jerdon and General Shak- epear's Descriptions — Antelope-Coursing with the Cheeta. . . . 327 CHAPTER XXIV. SPORT WITH PANTHERS AND LEOPARDS. My First Introduction to the Panther — The Shrdvana Balagdla Image — A Nocturnal Visitor — A Large Panther at Muddoor — Unsucceesful Hunts after Him — Bag Him at Last — Two Panthers near Rimanhully — Their Stronghold — Drive Them— In a Bush with the Panthers — Shoot One — Hints about Posting Markers — The Torreae of Mysore — News of a Large Panther — His Haunts— Jaffer's Diplomacy — Hunt the Panther — An Obtrusive Boar — The Panther turns Rusty — Wounds a Beater — Escapes to Another Stronghold — We Attack Him therein — Three more Men Clawed — The Panther Escapes — Shoot a Female Panther and Capture Her Cubs- Intractability of Panther-Cubs — A Pig-Hunt — A Night Raid into Camp by a Panther— She Carries off Old Rosie — Prompt Pursuit — Rosie's Escape — Shoot the Panther. .......... 333 CHAPTER XXV. SPORT WITH PANTHERS AND LEOPARDS — (contintied). News of a Panther and Two Leopards— Shikarie Subba— A Friend's 111 Luck— The MdderhuUy Garden— Arrange Plans for Driving the Panther and Leopards — CONTENTS. XT The Holoya Caste— The Native Beer of Mysore— Invest in a Donkey— The Beat — Shoot the Leopards — The Panther's Cunning Euse — A Sudden Eviction— Shoot the Panther — A Good Bag before Breakfast — Government Reward for Shooting Panthers and Leopards — Circumventing Cunning Panthers — Our Ears Deceive us — My Last Meeting with a Panther — His Strange Behaviour — The Interview Ter- minates Unsatisfactorily. ........ 352 CHAPTEE XXVL THE INDIAN BLACK BEAR (URSUS LAPJATUS). Description of — Habits and Disposition — She-Bears Carrying their Cubs — Wounded Bears Attacking Each Other — Food — Bears Drinking Henda — Eating Flesh — Danger of Meeting Bears — Modes of Hunting Bears — A Hard but Successful Day — Bag Four Bears — Jungle-Surgery — Bears at Sakrapatam — The lyenkerry Lake — Felonious Bears — Execute Two out of Five — Make a Further Example of Two More — Boxer and Rosie — Shoot a Bear before a Large Assembly — Native BeUef Regarding Bears Carrying off Women — KUling Bears with Dogs and a Knife. . 366 CHAPTER XXVIL DOGS FOR INDIAN HUNTING. Jackal-Hunting with Fox-Hounds — Greyhounds — Fox and Hare Coursing — A Foot- Pack in Dacca — Dogs for Hunting Formidable Game — Sir Samuel Baker's Sport in Ceylon — Bull-Dogs for Hunting Bears, Bison, Buffaloes, &c. — Constitution of a Pack — Incidents in Large-Game Hunting with Dogs — My First Attempt — The Pack Seize a Bear — Another Bear-Hunt — Obliged to Shoot the Bear — Damage Sustained by the Pack — A Bison-Hunt — Bill Sykes — Motto for Seizers — The Dogs are almost Choked — The Pack Seize a Young Elephant — A Commemoration Dinner — BlU Sykes Distingmshes Himself Single-Handed — Fight with a Panther — Objection to Spiked Collars for Hunting-Dogs. . - . . , 379 ILLUSTRATIONS. A MroNIGHT VISITOR (FIIONTIS PIECE), MAP OF INDIA, SHOWING MYSOEE 5 MORLAT HALL 33 THE DODDAY GOUDAN PARLIAH GORGE 38 HEADS OF INDIAN AND AFRICAN ELEPHANTS 59 KOOMERIAH ELEPHANT 85 MEERGA ELEPHANT 85 SKETCH-MAP OF NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MORLAY 102 BINDING WILD ELEPHANTS IN THE ENCLOSURE . . . . 115 SKETCH-MAP OF CHITTAGONG HILL-TRACTS, SHOWING ROUTE OF ELEPHANT-CATCHING PARTY 134 CHUMPA'S ROLL , . . . . 143 FISHING IN THE CHENGREE VALLEY , 148 DIAGRAM SHOWING THE POSITION OF THE ELEPHANT'S BRAIN . . 190 AN ESTEEMED FRIEND 212 A HARD-HEADED TUSKER 236 BULL BISON 258 XVI 11 A NIGHT WATCH ILLUSTRATIONS. TIGKR-NETTING THE MAN-EATEK'S VICTIM THE tiger's siesta PANTHEJt AND CHEETA . GRANITE ROCKS AT SHRAVANA BALAGOLA THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES AWAKENED BEAR-HUNTING WITH DOGS PAGE 282 286 300 309 329 334 371 383 THIETEEN YEAKS AMONG THE WILD BEASTS OF INDIA. CHAPTER I. SKETCH OF author's HUNTING EXPERIENCES. I LAND IN MADRAS — APPOINTMENT IN MYSORE — MY FIRST TIGER — APPOINTED TO SUPERIN- TEND AN EXPERIMENT FOR THE CAPTURE OF WILD ELEPHANTS IN MYSORE — RESULTS —SIMILARLY APPOINTED IN EASTERN BENGAL— TRACTS VISITED — CAPTURE EIGHTY- FIVE ELEPHANTS — RETURN TO MYSORE — FURLOUGH TO ENGLAND — REMARKS. I LANDED in Madras in 1864, and proceeded to a station in the Mysore country where I had friends. I was fresh from school and looked with delight upon the prospect of a coffee-planter's life, in which I had been promised a start by a friend, himself a planter. But coffee was in one of the vicissitudes with which that enterprise seems so frequently to be struggling — at least my friend's estate was — and before I had completed a voyage round the Cape he had been eaten out by the " borer " insect, or his pros- pects had shared the blight at that time affecting his trees' leaves — I for- get which. My hopes of a jungle-life seemed to be doomed ; my vision of wild elephants, tigers, and bison to be hopelessly dispelled ! However, in a month or two a friend who was engaged in prosecuting some surveys for Government took me with him, and in the next six months I learnt a little of the country and surveying, and a good deal about duck and antelope shooting. I then appKed myself to the study of Canarese, the vernacular of Mysore, for a year, which I look back upon as perhaps the most judi- 2 MY FIRST TIGER. cicuiiy spent twelve- months of my existence ; and at the end of that time I obtained a Government appointment as Assistant Channel Superintendent Twenty-eight miles from Mysore, the former capital and still the seat of the native Court, is the Commissariat station of Hoonsoor, my appointed headquarters. My work consisted in looking after about 150 miles of river-drawn irrigation channels, all of them works of antiquity. Whilst traversing the Hanagode jungles through which the major portion of these flowed, I had sufficient leisure to gratify my taste for sport ; in fact I had only to carry a rifle or gun with me on the channels to get frequent shots at spotted-deer, pig, and jungle-fowl, which small game quite contented me then. There was nothing large, except tigers ; but though I used to be in some pleasurable apprehension of meeting them, as their footmarks were numerous, I never saw any. At last a friend, the Commissariat officer at Hoonsoor, got up a beat with elephants and took me with him, and I had the proud satisfaction of shooting my first tiger ! Shall I ever forget how anxiously I watched Major M. as he rode an elephant up to the tiger, pros- trate in a bush, to see if he was really defunct ? How earnestly I adjured him from my tree, " not to shoot at him if he was dead ; " and how be, nat- urally incensed at this advice from a griffin, stopped his elephant to inform me that he was " not such a fool as to shoot at a dead tiger ! " In two years, at the end of 1868, 1 attained a fair position owing to the advancement of officers above me, and reached the top of the tree of our small department. The whole of the irrigation channels in the Mysore province, aggregating 716 miles, then came under my charge, and the city of Mysore became my headquarters. I had a large extent of country, including several fine jungles in addition to my old haunts, to travel over in the prosecution of my work. I had a sufficient salary to afford a good battery, and the money necessary for getting good sport ; and I spent most of my leave and all my cash upon it. In 1873 an opportunity was affijrded me of changing what had hitherto been my favourite recreation only — sport — into the business of my Ufe. I had before this time shot aU the kinds of large game found in the Mysore country, and t.aii become familiar with jungle matters, I had been especially interested in noting the habits of wild elephants ; and upon my repeated representations, aided by the support of an official of high standing, a thorough sportsman, and able to form an accurate opinion on my proposals, the Mysore Govern- ment was induced to undertake the capture of some of the herds which roamed, useless and destructive, through various parts of the pro\dnce, and I was appointed to carry out the experiment. I succeeded, as I shall hereafter relate, in capturing a large number of APPOINTED TO SUPERINTEND ELEPHANT-CATCHING. 3 elephants, and in consequence was appointed to the temporary charge of the Bengal Elephant-Catching Establishment, in September 1875. I worked in Bengal for nine months, during which time I visited the Garrow and Chittagong hill tracts, wild and little-known regions. I returned to Mysore in June 1876, after capturing eighty-five elephants in Chittagong. But the famine which has recently devastated the south of India had then begun, and the scarcity of rain rendered elephant-catching impossible for a time, as fodder could not be procured for the support of any elephants that might have been captured; so myseK and hunting establishment were employed in apportioning the border forests into grazing blocks for the starv- ing cattle that flocked thither for pasture. Few of their owners had ever seen jungle before, and were terrified by exaggerated tales of tigers, wild •elephants, and evil spirits. Unless provision had been made by Government for their being accompanied by men accustomed to jungle-life, they would merely have crowded the borders of the forests, and never have reached the best grazing grounds. After organising arrangements for their convenience, by placing trackers and jungle-men in charge of different sections of the •forests, I found it necessary to return to England (in April 1877) on fifteen months' furlough on medical certificate, after a continued residence of tliirteen years in India. The peculiar opportunities which have been afforded me during that period from following my natural inclinations, and by the nature of my duties, of encountering the wild animals of Southern India and Eastern Bengal, have induced me to believe that my experiences may be of some interest to the general public, and perhaps of some se^^ice to the cause of natural history. In presuming to relate them I am but dealing with matters which have constituted my daily occupation. All that I narrate is from personal observation; and whilst no one can be more alive than myself to the fact that, if the wielding of my pen is to be taken as a test of my ability with the tools of sport, it will lead to but a poor opinion of my accomplishments, I claim one merit for my jottings which I hope will cover their numerous failings — at least in the eyes of brother sportsmen — and that is, that they are all strictly true. Any one who has devoted him- self to Indian field-sports for some years as I have done must have been singularly unfortunate if he has not sufiicient exciting facts noted in his journal to fill a book without the necessity of resorting to fiction or exaggeration. I have dealt at some length upon the habits when wild, the mode of capture and training, and the management and conduct in captivity, of the elephant. The popular interest felt in that animal is perhaps more general 4 REMARKS. than that attaching to any other, whilst regarding none are there more fal- lacies and erroneous impressions. Few writers have been in a position to deal with the subject in all its branches. Many sportsmen have shot large numbers of elepliants, but have given us little information about their nature, disposition, and habits — matters with which it was at once my duty as a public servant, and my delight as a sportsman, to acquaint myself. In the chapters on the other wild animals with which I have dealt I have separated my observations on their habits, and recitals of adventures with them, as I believe that arrangement will be a convenient one for all readers, whether lovers of natural history or of mere tales of adventure. I have endeavoured to select incidents in hunting the various animals illustra- tive of their dispositions and habits ; and though in turning over the leaves of my journal the temptation to introduce more scenes of contest between rifle and wild beast has been considerable, I trust none will complain that my butcher's bill is too long ! I have given short accounts of the jungle -tribes with whom I have associated in pursuing their scarcely wilder fellow - inhabitants of the forests ; and as my recitals will be more intelligible when my readers have been introduced to the country in which most of the incidents chronicled have occurred, I shall venture to devote a short chapter to a sketch of the province of Mysore. The accompanying map indicates its position in the- peninsula of India. Hie Province, of MYSORE is colored blue, also ihf' HilL Tiacts of CHITTAGONG &the' GAR ROW HILLS referred to in Ihrl OCEAN 50 ICO ISC Svv 30C Raihyay.' CHAPTER II. THE PROVINCE OF MYSORE. DESCRIPTION — CLIMATE — POPULATION — REVENUE — THE LATE MAHARAJAH — CHARACTER OF PEOPLE — CULTIVATION — RIVERS — CHIEF TOWNS — MYSORE BREED OF DRAUGHT- CATTLE — SEASONS , THE Mysore country is an elevated, undulating plateau of 27,004 square miles, lying between 13° 6' and 15° 0' north latitude. Its length from north to south is 190 miles, and its width from east to west 230. Mysore is bounded on the north by the Bombay CoUectorate of Dharwar and the Madras CoUectorate of BeUary ; on the east and south by other districts of the Madras Presidency ; and on the west by Coorg, a dependent province, and the Western Ghats. Its chief town, Bangalore, is situated in the same latitude as, and 200 miles due west of, Madras. Mysore is a native State in subsidiary alliance with the British Government. The general level of the country is from 2500 to 3000 feet above the sea, the lowest point being 1800 feet, and it descends steeply on all sides into the low country. High mountains, some 2500 feet above the ordinary level of the plateau, bound it on the west : these are called the Western Ghats, and extend from the extreme south of India, through Travancore, Malabar, Mysore, and Bombay, to Kandeish, or about 950 miles, at a mean distance of some 5 0 miles from the coast. They break the force of the mon- soon from the west ; and the deluges of rain common in the country between them and the coast are modified in Mysore into showers and temperate rains. Bounding Mysore on the south are the Neilgherry Hills, attaining an elevation of 8700 feet. Ootacamund, the chief sanitarium of Southern India, is easily accessible from Mysore. Its elevation is 7300 feet. In the south-east are the BOliga-Eungun hills, the highest point of 6 STATISTICS. which is about 5000 feet above sea-level. Wild elephants are very abun- dant throughout this range and the forests at its foot. The country in the interior of the province is undulating and in many parts hiUy. A peculiar feature in many localities are the granite hills, often sheer rock, sometimes consisting of huge masses piled on each other, and forming caves where panthers and bears are occasionally found. Soli- tary fortified hills, called droogs, are numerous : many of these are still crowned with the remains of old fortresses which were used in former days as strongholds by robber chieftains. The border mountains of Mysore are geneiuQy well wooded, but some of the highest summits are clear of forest, being grass downs with woods in the hollows, where moisture favours their growth. The climate of Mysore is temperate, the mean deduced from observations (in the shade) at Bangalore being V2°6'. The mean diurnal range is 15° 6', the greatest recorded being 32° in one day in February. The greatest extremes recorded are 53° and 95°, in February and May respectively of 1866. The average rainfall is about 40 inches, though in the western forest tracts and hills it is frequently from 80 to 100 inches. The last census, taken in 1871, gives the population at 5,055,412, of wliich 4,839,421 are Hindoos, 208,991 Mussulmans, and about 7000 Europeans and half-castes. The revenue in 1875 was £1,100,000; of this one-fourth is paid as subsidy to the British. Mysore was acquired by the British in 1799, upon the death of Tippoo Sultan, at the siege of Seringapatam. The former dynasty was then restored by the British in the person of Krishna Eaj Wadeyar, then five years of age, who was installed as Ptajah. The Government during his minority was ably conducted by the Brahmin Dewan (or Prime Minister) Poornaya, under the control of the Political Eesident, Colonel Sir Barry Close. The troops were commanded by Colonel Arthur WeUesley (subsequently Duke of Wellington). His Highness's liberality and kindly disposition made him a universal favourite with both Europeans and natives. But he fell into the hands of injudicious advisers, and in 1830 the disturbed state of the country rendered necessary the intervention of the paramount Power. Since that period the territories of his Highness have been governed by a Commission, which is under the direct orders of the Government of India. Before his death in 1868 the Maharajah, in the absence of male heirs, adopted a successor who is to resume the government of the country when he attains the period of maiority — that is, the age of eighteen years — which will be about 1880. MYSORE DRAUGHT-CATTLE. 7 Under European tutelage he is receiving a more liberal education than was within the reach of the late Maharajah. The Hindoo people of Mysore are peaceful, orderly, and good-natured, but lacking in enterprise. The Brahmins are intelligent and ambitious ; they have always filled most of the posts in Government offices. The Mussul- mans have sunk into deep poverty, chiefly through their own laziness, since the overthrow of the Mussulman power in 1799. A few engage in mercan- tile and agricultural pursuits ; many are enlisted in the Mysore Horse and the Sepoy corps ; they also find employment as elephant and camel attend- ants, and horse-keepers. The domestic servants of Europeans in Mysore are all Madrassees, as the Canarese people have never taken to indoor service. The country is well cultivated in many parts, the wisdom of former rulers having provided it with irrigation, both by channels drawn from the rivers passing through it, and from tanks or lakes formed by embankments thrown across the valleys. These ancient works are constructed upon such scientific principles that little can be done by European engineers to improve them. The lakes store the surplus rain-water for the use of the land further down the valley, and the cultivation thus artificially watered is called " wet" in India, in contradistinction to " dry," or that dependent on rainfall alone. The chief rivers in Mysore are the Cauvery, Toongabhadra, Hemavutty, Cubbany, and Lutchmenteert ; the latter three are tributaries of the Cauvery, joining it within the Mysore province. Where it leaves the plateau for the low country of Madras the Cauvery forms fine falls of about 200 feet in height. The falls of Gairsoppa in the north of Mysore are not so widely celebrated as they deserve to be. They are on the Sharavati river, and a portion of them have a sheer overfall of 960 feet. The chief towns in the Mysore province are Bangalore (3031 feet above sea-level) and Mysore (2525 feet). Seringapatam, the celebrated fortress, is situated on an island in the Cauvery, nine miles from Mysore. From Bangalore to Mysore the distance is 88 miles. Bangalore is connected by rail with Madras, the distance being 216 miles; of this line 48 1 miles only lie in Mysore, and there is no other railway in the province. There is no water carriage, as the rivers are rocky and swift. The roads, however, are excellent, and the Mysore breed of bullocks is celebrated for speed and endurance. Travelling is usually done by bullock-coach ; for long distances from four to five miles an hour, with bullocks posted every five miles, is a fair pace. Bullock-carts do all the heavy trade. A pair of bullocks wHl draw a load of 15 cwt., exclusive of the cart, twenty miles a-night for many consecutive nights. Post-bullocks cost 3 annas (4|d.), and 8 SEASONS. a baggage-cart and bullocks 1 \ anna, per mile. Pack-bullocks penetrate the remoter tracts with merchandise. It was in a great measure owing to the superiority of the Mysore bullocks that Hyder Ali and Tippoo Sultan maintained a lengthened war with the British and Maharattas at the end of the last century. The best breed of buUocks is sedulously maintained at the Government Public Cattle Establishment at Hoonsoor, and extensive pastures are allotted for the grazing of the herds throughout the province. A certain number of first-class bulls are at times distributed to large villages for the free use of the agriculturists' herds. The seasons in Mysore are three — the cold, hot, and rainy — and are distributed as below : — p „ \ December. 1 Mornings and evenings cold and bracing ; days bright ( February. ) ^^ sunny. !| Hot, and occasionally sultry, but the nigbts usually tern- March, pered by sea-breezes from the west. The hot weather April. ) in Mysore is by no means unbearable. Showers and May. I heavy thunderstorms occur at intervals during April [ and May ; these prelude the south-west monsoon. ■June. f The south-west monsoon commences in June; heavy Hot Season, /"June. (■ ine soutn-west monsoon commences m June; neavy j July. I rains and showery and overcast weather prevail till ■R T-wv Sparon ^ August. | September. In October the north-east monsoon com- A NY SEASON, . September. \ mences, and thunderstorms and heavy downpours are common. In November the weather is often bright and cold, but rain falls now and again. (September. \ October. 1 November. \ From May to December are the chief cultivation and harvest months, though some crops, as sugar-cane, &c., which are irrigated, are grown the whole year round. CHAPTER III. THE MYSORE JUNGLES. BEST SEASONS FOR SPORT — MOVEMENTS OP GAME — JUNGLE- FIRES — FORESTRY — NATURAL CLASSES OF JUNGLE — DISTRIBUTION OF WILD ANIMALS — LIST OF ANIMALS FOUND IN MYSORE — REMAINS OF ANTIQUITY — RUINED VILLAGES IN THE FORESTS — ANCIENT IRRIGATION WORKS — A DESOLATED VALLEY. IN the jungles the young grass commences to spring with the first showers in April, and by July has attained the height of a man. This is the case chiefly in hill tracts; in the low-country jungles it is more backward, as there is less rain and it is grazed down by cattle. By "grass" in Indian jungles is meant the broad-bladed and long-leaved lemon-grass and other coarse kinds, which grow in large tufts ; also reeds in swampy ground, and small ground-creepers. This season is the time par excellence for stalking and shooting large game. The animals are intent on the new supply of fodder ; occasional rain makes tracking easy ; and after May the sky is usually obscured by clouds and driving mist in the hiUs, and con- siderable exertion may be undergone without discomfort. From July to January the grass is so high and thick that game cannot be got at in it, and many places where good sport is obtainable earlier then become impenetrable. Driven out by the wet and discomfort, and tormented by myriads of flies, many animals leave the high and close cover at this time for the lighter shelter and choicer grazing to be had amongst the young and tender grass on the outskirts ; but they retreat readily to the grass jungles if disturbed. By January the grass has all seeded and become dry, and it is then fired by the jungle -people. The hitherto impenetrable jungles are now reduced to clear forests of trees, interspersed wdth separate evergreen thickets. Moving about in such forests is rendered easy, but warm, work, the heat rising from the blackened earth under a tropical sun being "ery 10 MOVEMENTS OF GAME. trying where the forest is not dense. The jungle-people burn the grass tc admit of their gathering certain fruits and jungle-products, especially the gall-nut, used in tanning. This burning insures a supply of sweet grass as soon as showers fall on the fertilising ash. During the months when the jungles are clear, the wanderings of the game are necessarily curtailed, not only by want of cover, but also of food and water. The Ixerds of elephants, bison, and deer collect in moist and deep valleys where the grass is green, and fires do not enter. The difficulty of finding these secluded places however, is great, as they are in such heavy and moist jungles that the very few wild people's dwellings that do exist are seldom near them, and unless the sportsman is well equipped for a march into difficult country, away from supplies of all kinds, they are inaccessible. To any one ignorant of the extent of the wild animals' hot- weather retreats it seems almost magical, after experiencing the difficulty of finding them during that season, to observe how they reappear on all sides with the first rains. It is a magnificent sight to see the jungles of a hill-range burning. Sometimes immense tracts are on fire at once, and at night give forth a lurid blaze which lights up the country for miles round. If the fire is near, the roaring noise is truly appalling, and impresses one with a sense of the dread power of the element. Huge billows of thick smoke, in which lighted grass and leaves are whirled forward, roll heavily and slowly along, whilst a sound as of incessant discharges of small-arms is caused by the bamboos and grass stalks exploding. The noise lulls and swells with every alternation in the breeze and in proportion to the thickness of the undergrowth. Long after the main conflagration has passed, isolated bamboo-clumps and dried trees are seen burning fiercely like pillars of flame, till they fall over with a sullen crash, and are quenched. Many trees smoulder for months. I knew one of enormous size, the roots of which, some of the girth of a bullock, or greater, burnt for three and a half years, the fire smouldering slowly underground in the roots long after the parent stem had fallen. During the day countless buzzards and fly-catchers hover over the smoke, preying on the bewildered insects which are escaping from it. The destruction of noxious vermin by the fires must be considerable ; but many animals and reptiles, as the land-tortoise and snakes, whose powers of speed do not enable them to escape by those means, survive by burying them- selves in holes or burrows amongst rocks. I have never seen jungle-fires advance at any great rate, except in very dry and long grass, unshaded by trees, and under the influence of a strong JUNGLE-FIRES. 11 wind. Here burning leaves and hot ashes are carried far ahead of the main fire, and a fresh blaze starts up at once where they fall. I do not think jungle-iires ever travel four miles in an hour. The devouring element Hcks up all before it in some places with wonderful rapidity, but it seldom pro- ceeds far without a check. Wild animals retreat before conflagrations ; but many, as for instance herds of elephants encumbered with young, could not always escape if the fires travelled at any great rate. I have never known any animals, except a few young sambur, too young to walk far, to be caught in the fire ; but jungle-people have been burnt on occasions. This has always occurred through their not heeding the danger, and staying to search for some near asylum, instead of at once starting for a known place of safety. Three men of a village near my camp in the BiUiga-rungun hills, who were cutting bamboos, were burnt in this way, through not liking to leave their work further than the shelter of a ravine near, which proved insufficient to protect them from the wave of flame and smoke that passed over them. Elephants, bison, &c., do not retreat straight before a fire, but to one side or the other. The fires seldom form a long front, so this outflanking movement readily succeeds. At the first distant crackle, or smeU of smoke, wild animals at once retire. Fires are much less dangerous than is sup- posed if anything like prompt means are taken to effect a retreat. The jungle-people secure their houses by cutting some of the grass round, and firing it early in the season, before it is very dry. This stops the onward rush of the larger fires later on. Fires burn much more fiercely during the day than at night, as there is usually more wind, and everything is dry and brittle ; whilst at night the heavy dews have a marked effect on the progress of the burning through making the grass damp ahead. The conflagrations are only fierce and general for one month, usually March ; they begin in January. A good deal is said in connection with forestry in India regarding the destructiveness of the annual fires to young trees, and attempts are con- stantly made, but rarely succeed, to exclude fires from reserved Government forests. It is, perhaps, doubtful whether they are so destructive as is believed, and whether the young plants of teak and other trees would flomish well if constantly choked and overshaded by undergrowth. At any rate there are splendid forests where, though fires have raged annually from time immemorial, the timber is as close as the ground can support it. The grass is not so high or thick under shade as in open ground, and as artificial teak nurseries are usually made in land from which the timber has been removed, and where, in consequence, grass grows apace, the fires are 12 FORESTS AND WILD ANIMALS. there more severe on the young plants than in their natural forests. There are always numerous young plants of timber-trees in every forest which can never live, as they grow more thickly than the ground can support when mature. The fittest survive ; and though fires may scorch and shrivel up their leaves, I have not observed that the saplings which take root soon after the burning of one season are killed by the fires of the next, though many of those which are but a few months old when the fires commence are destroyed. I have been told by experienced jungle-men that timber-plants are burnt down for five or six consecutive years, the roots meanwhile tliick- ening and strengthening underground, until they give birth to a plant suffi- ciently strong to withstand the effects of the momentary wave of flame. The Mysore jungles may be divided into three classes. First, virgin forests of heavy timber, usually found in the hill-ranges along the borders of the province. They are naturally finest in such places as are inaccessible for the removal of timber ; for from the more accessible parts the timber-supply of the country is drawn. The virgin forests are only inhabited by a few wild jungle-people. Secondly, the lighter belt of forest, usually about ten miles in width, intervening between the virgin forests and civilisation. From this tract the villagers procure the small timber and bamboos they require for household purposes. They also graze their cattle in it, seldom entering the heavier forest except during the hot weather, when pasturage elsewhere is very scarce. A few villages occur in this tract, but they are rather sta- tions for cattle-grazing than for cultivation, nor are they often of a permanent nature. Thirdly, scrub-jungle of low and thorny bushes, which occurs at intervals throughout the open cultivated country in the sterile tracts, on the deserted sites of villages, &c. From this small firewood and bushes for fencing are obtained, and in it the cattle and flocks of the villagers in the interior are grazed. In the heavy forests, elephants, bison, and sambur are the chief game. These animals come at certain seasons into the lighter belt. But the legiti- mate occupants of the latter are the tiger, panther, bear, spotted-deer, and wild hog. The wild dog ranges through both heavy and light forests, and is terribly destructive to the deer tribe ; he is never found in open coun- try. In the scrub-jungle, particularly in those tracts near detached hills and low ranges, panthers, leopards, bears, ravine deer, wolves, and sometimes antelope, are found. Antelope and wolves, however, chiefly confine them- selves to large tracts of open uncultivated country, on the borders of which the ryots' crops furnish the former with superior grazing, and his flocks are often pounced upon by the latter. The following game-List comprises aU the animals found in Mysore, GAME FOUND IN MYSORE. 13 except monkeys, squirrels, mungooses, ant-eaters, lemurs, flying-foxes, rats, and otlier small animals not objects of sport : — LIST OF MYSORE GAME. EngUsh. Of NaturaUsts.* In Canarese. Remarks. Elephant .... Elephas indicus Anay Very numerous in border forests. Bison or Gaur . . Gavaeus gaurus . . Karti, Kdrd-yem- Abundant through- may, Kard-kor- out the ranges frequented by ele- na, Doddoo. phants. Tiger Felis tigria . . . HooU Plentiful in suitable localities. Panther .... FeUs pdrdna . . . Dod-ibba .... Less common than the leopard. A black variety is sparingly found in Mysore. Leopard .... Felis leopdrdus . . Kirba Very common. Cheetah or Hunt- Felis iubdta . Chircha, Sivungi . Exceedingly rare in ing Leopard. Mysore — almost unknown. Beaj Ursus labiatus . . Karadi Plentiful in certain localities. WoH Canis paUipes . . Hyaena straita . . Torla Not numerous. Striped Hyaena . . WUdDog. . . . Kat-kirba . . . Common. Cuon rutilans . . Ken-naie, Kdrdnaie Do. Sdmbur .... Rusa Aristotelis Kadavay .... Common in the for est tracts. ! Spotted-Deer . . Axis maculatus . . Sdrga, Jati, Mikka Very common. j Barking or Rib- Cervulus aureus . Kard or Kondkurri, Common. ,• faced Deer, Munt- Chdli. jaCjKdkur, Jungle- Sheep. Indian Antelope . AntUope bezoartica Hoolay-kara, Jinki Not numerous. Indian Gazelle or Gazella Bennettii . Sunk-hoolay . . . Not common. Ravine Deer. Wild Hog . , . Su3 indicus . . . Kdrd-hundi, Curry- jdti. Mosalay .... Very numerous. Crocodile .... Crocodilus indicus . Not numerous, and seldom over ten feet long. Jackal Canis aureus . . . Nurrie Very numerous. Fox Vulpes bengalensis Kemp-nurrie . . Not very numerous. Common Jungle- Cat. Leopard-Cat . . . Felis chaus . . . Kdrd-bekkoo . . Very common. Felis bengalensis . Bottina-bekkoo . . Less common. Otter Lutra nair . . . Neer-naie .... Plentiful Porcupine . . . Hystrix leucura I\Iool-hundi . . . Do. Mouse-Deer . . . Memimna indica . Koor-pundi . . . Do. Hare Lepus nigricoUis . Molla Do. * Jerdon'a Mammals of India. 14 BIRDS AND FISH. The following animals of Indian sport are not found in Mysore :- English. Of Naturalists.* In Canarese. Remarks. Eliinoceros . . . Wild Bufiulo . . . Neelgai . . . Ibex, or tlie Neil- cherry Wnd Goat Rhinoceros indicus Bubulus arm . . Portax pictus . . Hemitragus hylo- crius. None. Do. Mayroo, Kdrd-kud- Kdrd-ardoo . . . ) Not found in South - \ eru India. / Foundin the Madras i > Presidency on the 1 \ borders of Mysore. Birds. — Jungle-fowl, pea-fowl, and spur-fowl are common in the woods ; bustard, floriken, red-legged partridge, quail, and rock-grouse in the open country ; and wild duck, teal, snipe, wild geese, flamingoes, pelicans, and cranes in the lakes and rice-fields. Doves of several varieties are common both in the woods and open country. Fish. — The rivers and artificial lakes in Mysore abound with excellent fish, but I have never succeeded in getting much sport with the fly. They may be taken by spinning or ground fishing — the latter chiefly at night. There is now in the museum at Bangalore the head and skin of a fish — a species of carp or mahseer, and called hilli, or silver-fish, in Canarese — caught by me in 1871 in the Lutchmenteert, which measured 60 inches in length and 38 in girth. The circumference inside the mouth when caught was 24 inches. I was unfortunately unable to weigh this fish, but I esti- mated it by rough tests at not less than 100 lb. I have seen much larger fish, without doubt upwards of 1 5 0 lb., caught by natives, chiefly by netting during the months when the rivers are low. At such times two or three villages of professional fishermen will combine to net a single large fish known to be a prisoner in a pool during the hot weather. The pool may be a hundred yards long and broad, and the water fifteen feet deep, with cavernous rocks capable of sheltering fish ; but by joining their nets, and diving and working for two or three days, they seldom fail to secure the prize. The few crocodiles that are found in the Mysore rivers very rarely attack people ; and fishermen — who pay no heed to them — have told me that if they come upon a crocodile whilst following their employment, it will skulk at the bottom and not move though handled, apparently believing it escapes observation. Crocodiles are, like all wild creatures, very tiinid where not encouraged, as is sometimes done by superstitious natives. In- Jerdon's Mammals of India. REMAINS OF ANTIQUITY, 15 credible though it may seem to readers with no knowledge of the saurians but that derived from stories of their boldness elsewhere, I may instance having seen several hestas (the professional boatmen, divers, and fishermen of Mysore) dive time after time into water twelve feet deep, and bring to the surface by the tail a crocodile seven feet long which I had wounded. The creature was not in any way crippled, but seemed overcome with fear. It offered no resistance till dragged near a rock where I stood with a rope, when it would turn and snap at the man pulling it, always sinking, how- ever, the moment this demonstration made him let go its tail. Different divers went down successively, one at a time, and brought it to the surface ; I at last killed it with a charge of shot. Whilst in pursuit of game in the Mysore forests I have often been struck with wonder at the remains of the dwellings and works of a bygone popu- lation which are to be found, now engulfed in jungle. The whole country bears traces of having once been better populated than at present, and many of the remains are of a character that speak of the industry and culture of its inhabitants. Some of the temples, monuments, and sculptures are as grand in conception as they are admirable in execution. The old irrigation works of the country, consisting of stone dams across the rivers, often many hundred yards in length, and composed of blocks far beyond any of the native appliances of the present day to deal with ; canals ; and reservoirs, or lakes ; mark the material prosperity of the country ages ago. Granite of excellent quality is found throughout the country, and the extensive use of this imperishable material in the old structures has preserved them intact to the present time. Wherever a village of importance existed remains of interest are to be seen. The sportsman wandering in the forest is often tempted to rest on his rifle, and muse sadly over the scenes of former life and industry, where the voices are now hushed, and wild Nature, deprived of her dominion for a few short years, again reigns supreme. The elephant rests at mid-day under the sacred peepul-tree, once in the centre of the village, where old and young met at evening, — the former to discuss village matters and rest after the fatigues of the day ; the latter to amuse them- selves, thoughtless of the future. Where are they new ? Broken images and disused querns lie around ; the wells are choked and dry ; bears and panthers find shelter in the very temples where offerings were presented to the village gods, and where festivals were held. But the people have passed away without other record than the jungle-overgrown ruins, which have defied time. And may not similar changes follow again ? Where the sportsman now tracks the elephant and tiger, cultivation may smile and happy voices be heard long after his own insignificant existence is more 16 A DESOLATED VALLEY. eifectually forgotten than that of the people over whose traces he now muses. Amongst scenes whither ray duty or pleasure led me, I always felt par- ticular interest in a portion of the Hoonsoor jungles wliich lies within the watershed of the Cubbany river. A chain of ancient channels here forms a wonderful system of irrigation, but they have caused the ruin of the land they once fertilised. Often as I sat and overlooked the unbroken stretch of jungle which had swallowed up the country did I speculate on its former condition, and the causes that had led to the change. These seem evident. The whole tract must have been comparatively healthy at one time, as the remains of large towns testify to its former population ; it must then have been open country, as cities do not spring up in jungle - encumbered tracts in India. The people, however, sighed for water to increase the fertility of their land, dependent upon rainfall alone, and a remarkable physical feature placed an unlimited supply of the fertilising element at their command. The valley which contains the channels runs nearly due west to east, and is about twenty miles long by five broad. From its upper or west end to its ter- mination on the Cubbany river to the east, there is a fall of probably 500 feet. At the upper end, just over the watershed ridge and not more than 50 feet below it, flows the Lutchmenteert river, a considerable stream in the rainy season, and never quite dry ; its course here is approximately from south to north, and it is within half a nule of the ridge. The former inhab- itants of the valley to the east had cut a channel through the ridge, and introduced Lutchmenteert water into the Cubbany vale. Witli water thus available on the top of the watershed, irrigation was practically unlimited, and channels were led contouring along each side of the vaUey at a high level for many miles. The drainage water of these was caught up again and again by tanks or artificial lakes thrown across the vaUey. These mighty works, though in ruins, stiQ bear testimony to the former ability and industry of the inhabitants. But the fertilising element which now surrounded them became the means of their extinction. Land not cul- tivated must soon have been overgrown with rank jungle, nurtured by the moisture. The culturable area, too, must have been gradually reduced by about four-fifths, as irrigated land produces so much more valuable crops, and its cultivation is so much more arduous, that a small portion of what each man cultivated before as dry land would now suffice for his wants and engage all his labour. Thus, each community in the valley found itself gradually shut in by jungle and rank herbage instead of the former open land. The whole valley THE CITY OF RUBIES. 17 became permeated with moisture, and the exhalations from the ground caused malarial fevers which eventually depopulated it, and which at this day pre- vent its reoccupation. The sites of the chief towns are now only marked by overgrown and weather-beaten earth-work fortifications, or by stone temples of a solidity that has defied the ravages of time ; and all traces of many smaller villages have been lost. The largest of the towns in the valley was Eutnapoori-kort^ (the City of Rubies), and it is probably at least 150 years since the last inhabitants left it. There are some granite slabs engraved in old Canarese characters near a fine old temple which covers a large area, and these probably contain some account of the founding or history of the temple. The temple is composed of massive pillars and beams of soM granite, many of which have fallen and lie strewn around. I learnt from the legends of the surrounding country that seven sisters formerly lived in Rutnapoori. These were the concubines of the rajah of the place, and each chose a site for the construction of a lake in the valley. These seven tanks, three of them now breached, are named after the sisters. The lowest of the seven was built by the youngest, and has the advantage of catching the surplus water from the others. It is still a splendid sheet of water, called Kurrigul, near the road from Mysore to Manantoddy in the Wynaad country. This road passes through the lower portion of the valley, running parallel with the Cubbany river ; and, as the country is more open and accessible here, several large villages and patches of cultivation which had never quite died out have been resuscitated, and are extending. For the upper portion of the valley, overgrown with dense unwholesome forest, nothing can be done at present. Population has long since moved ■elsewhere, and the tract is not yet required for producing food. A few hamlets spring up occasionally, as some small capitalist is tempted by the richness of the land, and the easy terms on which it is obtainable from Gov- ernment, to cultivate a portion. But the wretched ryots who undertake the work live in a miserable condition. They are soon affected with enlarged spleens, the invariable accompaniment of fevers induced by a bad climate and bad water, and either give up, or decamp with the advances of money they have received. These spasmodic attempts at reclamation seldom last long. The capitalist finds the advantages of the soil are counter- balanced by the difficulty of the position. As long as it is sought to establish villages in the valley far below the level of the upper channels and their cultivation, so long must failure follow, as the unhealthiness of the locality is insurmountable. The only thing possible would be to restore the chain of tanks in the valley, and to abandon the cultivation on the B 18 A HOPELESS TRACT. heights. The tanks could be filled once or twice a-year from the Lntch- menteert, and, the upper cultivation being abandoned, the sides of the valley would not be pervaded with moisture. The breezes would be more healthy, and the villages cultivating the land below the tanks would be above the level of the dampness, and some portion of the former salubrity of the place would be restored. As long as water is kept running at a high level and drenching the soil, the bottom of the jungle-encumbered valley must be inimical to human life. The land below the high-level channels has, however, been largely reclaimed during the past ten years. The cultivators live in Hoonsoor and adjacent villages, not in the tract itself, only visiting it for the purpose of cultivation. The low grounds in the vaUey are given up to the gi-azing of the Commissariat cattle at Hoonsoor, and this is the best use, perhaps, they can now be put to. These grazing grounds are essential in different places over the country, and there is usually enough cultivable land available- without invading them. CHAPTER IV. A MYSORE VILLAGE. THJC VILLAGE OP MORLAY — ADVANTAGES OF NEIGHBOURHOOD FOR ELEPHANT-CATCHING — ATTRACTIONS TO THE SPORTSMAN — THE VILLAGERS — THEIR TENURE OF LANDS — EXPERIENCE IN HUNTING — NETTING GAME — CRUELTY OF THE MORLAYITES TO AN ELEPHANT — THEIR HOUSES — FOOD — CLOTHING — TEMPERANCE — WOMEN — INFIDELITY AMONGST — CASTE RULES ON THE SUBJECT — MATRIMONY IN MORLAY — THE VILLAGE HEADMAN — TRAINING THE MORLAYITES — MY TRACKERS — REMARKS ON NATIVE SHIKARIES. TXTHEN I commenced the work of elephant -catching I left Mysore for W the neighbourhood of a vUlage called Morlay, in the Chamraj -Nuggar talook, in the south-eastern corner of Mysore, where I was forty-one miles from the city of Mysore, and within eight of the foot of the Billiga-rungun lulls, where wild elephants abound. Morlay was an excellent place for my object, as the elephants had been in the immemorial habit of visiting the cultivation around it and adjacent villages at certain seasons, and of remain- ing at such times in the jungles close at hand for weeks together. Thus there was no necessity for following them into their hill fastnesses, where much hardship would have had to be undergone by all engaged in their pursuit. I lived in a civilised and accessible country, dotted about in which were plenty of villages from which labourers could be obtained when required. This relieved Government of the cost of keeping up a large permanent establishment. Morlay is a charming place."'^ The views of the Billiga-rungun hills and the more distant Neilgherries, the splendid sheets of water close at hand and the stretches of green rice-fields which they nourish, the groves of date-trees and cocoanut-gardens fringing the borders of artificial lakes for * My home and headquarters in India are stUl there. During my absence in England a reduced establishment is maintained for the up-keep of the kheddahs. 20 ADVANTAGES FOR ELEPHANT-CATCHING. irrigation, are very beautiful. The jungle is so close at hand to the east that pea-fowl, jungle-fowl, and partridges can be heard sounding their cheery- cries, the sportsman's pleasant reveille, before daybreak. Such a place as Morlay for sport surely never existed, at least for diversity of game. Within a radius of half a nule of my bungalow, elephants, tigers, panthers, bears, pig, and spotted-deer ; and a little beyond, bison, sambur, two kinds of ante- lope, and bustard, are to be found ; whilst good duck, pea-fowl, jungle-fowl, and snipe shooting are at my very doors. Any one acquainted with Indian shooting-grounds will know that such a variety of game is rarely found in one place. Morlay is not, however, a very healthy place, and my people and myself have all suffered severely from fever at various times. The least healthy months are from November to February, when the nights are cold, with occasional fogs, and the days hot ; and if the rains (from June to November) are excessive and continuous the dampness caused gives rise to fever and dysentery. I had with me until lately at Morlay an overseer named Jones. Born and bred in the country, he understood natives well, and talked Canarese, Hindoostani, Tamil, and Teloogoo fluently. He was, moreover, skilful and patient in managing the large bodies of ignorant villagers we employed on occasions, and his services were invaluable. He had a wife and two children, but one child soon succumbed to fever, as did also an old European pensioner and his wife whom I employed to preserve my sporting trophies. During our second year at Llorlay we lost at the rate of two hundred per mille per annum amongst servants, &c., which is, I believe, about five timea the death-rate of the most unhealthy towns in England. We did better afterwards, however, and Morlay is such an advantageous and delightful place for my work, that I have stuck to it through all vicissi- tudes; but Jones has lately had to leave it on account of his health, so I am now the last, as I was the first, European there. I knew Morlay for three years prior to the time of taking up my residence near it in September 1873. I had shot one or two pro- scribed solitary elephants in the neighbourhood, and had then noticed the advantages it presented for elephant-catching — at least I remembered them afterwards, when I was casting about for a suitable locality for a commencement. Morlay itself is a village, or rather two villages in one, those of Dod (large), and Chick (little), Morlay. The two are within a quarter of a mile of each other, and the families are all inter-allied. The people are Oopligas, or salt-makers, and the manufacture of earth-salt is the legitimate calling of OOPLIGAS. 21 their caste. The tribe is not numerous in Mysore, and is necessarily con- fined to those places where the earth from which salt is obtained is found. In former times they foUowed this pursuit almost exclusively; but more recently the impulse given to cultivation and other pursuits by the increased safety of property under good government, and the more equal distribution of products which has followed the opening up of the Mysore country by roads, have tended to break down the hard and fast Line of hereditary employments of the different castes. Thus Oopligas, stone-cutters, and weavers, &c., have in many cases turned cultivators ; whilst the Brinjarries or gipsies, whose occupation in former times was the carrying of grain and salt upon pack-bullocks into localities inaccessible by other means (combined with pillage and cattle-lifting), have taken to grazing the herds of the villagers during the hot weather in jungle localities, bringing firewood for sale into towns, and cultivation. The lands the Morlay villagers till are generally held by Brahmins, and the Oopligas are either their jeetagArs (agricultural serfs) or wdragdrs (cultivators under agreement). The Brahmin proprietors live in villages in the more open country, and only visit their lands occasionally. The arrange- ment between proprietors and jeetagars, is one of the greatest antiquity, and is as follows : — A labourer may be in want of a loan — say a pound or two, a large sum to many millions in India — for his wedding expenses or other exigency. A land-holder accommodates him on his giving a bond and entering his ser- vice. It is generally understood that the principal will not be repaid, but the creditor obtains a legal right over the services of the debtor until it is. The debtor's position is analogous to that of an articled servant, except that no limit, but the payment of his debt, is placed on the connection. The debtor is required to do his master's bidding in all things, his services counting instead of interest on the debt; whilst the master is bound to feed him, and interest himseK in all matters affecting his jeetagar. The established subsistence allowance to the jeetagar is forty seers (80 lb.) of rdgi (the staple grain of the country) per mensem, and four annas (sixpence) in cash. The grain is ample for his food, and the money for tobacco and betel. From time to time the jeetagar probably obtains small sums — or more commonly grain — from his master, which are added to his debt. If the jeetagar dies one of his sons must take his father's place until he can clear off his liabilities, even under the inheritor from the original creditor. This obligation is, I believe, strictly binding in the Mysore law courts. Jeeta-service is universal throughout Mysore, and is well suited to the conditions of the agricultural classes, both proprietors and servants. A home 22 MODE OF HUNTING. and sufficiency of food is assured to thousands who have no desire beyond; whilst land-holders, who from their caste or position may be unable to work themselves, obtain a hold upon what would otherwise be a very unreliable class of servants. Jeetagars who have been many years in families are frequently treated more as sons than servants. On the occasion of mar- riages or other rejoicings they are not forgotten. Good masters not infre- quently free the jeetagars, should the latter desire it, after some years of approved service, without payment of the original debt. It is not uncommon for jeetagars to continue for generations in the same family. It is a remark- able fact that their remuneration is exactly what it used to be as far back as can be traced, though the ordinary rates of labour in the country have advanced considerably of late years. May not this be regarded as an indica- tion of the favour with which this vassalage is regarded by the agricultural labourer ? The arrangement for wdra, or half-share cultivating, is as foUows : — The owner of the land pays the Government assessment (the average rate in Mysore is about two shillings per acre for unirrigated fields nd twelve shillings for irrigated land), gives half the manure required, furnisl es the seed grain, and contributes half the expenses of reaping and threshing. The cultivator (waragar) uses his own plough and buUocks, gives his labour and half the manure, pays for the weedings of the crop (necessary in India), the mid-day meals of the reapers, and half the threshing expenses. The produce is then equally divided between owner and waragar. Should the owner not give half the manure, all the straw goes to the waragar. Living on the borders of the jungle amongst the game, the Morlayites have for generations applied themselves to hunting. They have no guns, only spears and nets. They have strict caste rules on the subject, and maintain excellent discipline in their hunts. Each house has to supply a man with a net and spear when big game is followed, and a net and cudgel in hare -hunting. Their nets are of two kinds, — the first for tigers, bears, deer, &c. ; and the second for small game. They are both made of home- grown hemp (jute, Crotolarea juncea), and are manufactured by themselves. The large nets are made of rope as thick as a finger, and are forty feet long and twelve deep, with a mesh large enough to admit a man's head. The small-game nets are of twine, and are one hundred and eighty feet long and four deep, with a mesh to admit a smaU fist. With fifty to a hundred of these nets, large or small, a considerable extent of country can be enclosed. Whether deer or pig with large nets, or hares, mouse-deer, or porcupines with the small nets, are hunted, the plan pursued is to support the nets on upright light props across the line of NETTING DANGEROUS ANIMALS. 23 country which the game, when driven, is expected to take ; a man is posted in ambush here and there behind the line of nets, and the remainder drive the jungle. The animals generally gallop into the nets, their heads become entangled in the meshes, the net falls and envelopes them, and they are speared while struggling. Powerful animals, as sambur deer, large boars, &c., often tear through the nets, and tigers and bears occasionally bite the rope. When much hunted, beasts grow cunning, and frequently break back ; or when one knocks the net down the others make for the gap and escape at that point. With tigers, panthers, and bears, a different plan is pursued to that adopted for deer and pig. The Oopligas of Morlay had seldom molested dangerous animals before I hunted with them, but I showed them how the Torrea caste in Heggad^van-kort^ surround and kill tigers, &c., and we soon disposed of a good many. An animal is tracked to his lair ; a circle of nets is then formed round him at some distance, in perfect silence, during the heat of the day : and he is either shot when roused, or speared as he precipitates himself against the nets. I shall speak further of tliis sport in treating of the tiger. From their constant experience with game, the Oopligas soon became excellent assistants in elephant-catching. They had been accustomed from childhood to guard their fields against elephants at night, so did not fear them much, and if well led always behaved boldly. When the elephants were especially troublesome before I came to Morlay the men used to drive them with horns and tomtoms to the hills. As an instance of the pertina- city of elephants on occasions, they once drove an unusually troublesome herd (which we subsequently caught in June 1874) into the hills, and as it rained heavily that night, and there seemed to be no immediate fear of elephants, the field-watchers were withdrawn. In the morning they found some of the joiodree {Sorghum vulgare, the Indian maize) fields had been destroyed by the same elephants, which were in their original position again in the jungle close at hand ! About thirty years ago there was one particular male elephant which caused the Morlayites much loss by constantly feeding in their rice-fields. One morning he was seen close to the village about daybreak, when such a hue and cry was raised that in his fright the elephant attempted to cross a strip of morass which bordered the rice-fields and lay in the most direct route to the jungle. The surface of the bog gave way when he was half-way over, and he sank through to his middle. His pursuers pelted him with stones and cudgels, till, it becoming evident he could not extricate himself, some of the boldest approached and threw bundles of straw upon him, and then fired 24 CRUELTY OF THE MILD HINDOO. them. The wretched beast was terribly burnt on the back and hind-quarters, but not disabled ; and whilst the villagers were casting about for some means of doing him mortal injury, he worked himself through the bog to firmer ground further on, and finally, after having been several hours in his un- pleasant position, made his escape, and lived for many years, branded like a felon, to follow his old courses. Though the Morlayites' conduct on this occasion was very cruel, it must be said for them that they were incessantly troubled by this and other elephants, and as they possessed no guns they could do nothing effectual towards killing this freebooter. Natives' ideas of cruelty are peculiar. They differ widely from ours. They think nothing of letting a domestic animal, with broken limbs or sores swarming with maggots, linger to death rather than raise a finger to put it out of its misery. They would consider taking its life under any circum- stances cruel. Humanity as understood by us is a feeling of which they have no conception. When orders are issued at certain seasons by Govern- ment for the destruction of starving and half-rabid pariah dogs, by which Indian towns are infested — a mercifiJ. course to the animals themselves, and one necessary for the protection of the public — even educated Hindoos are seldom wanting to raise an outcry against the step. The same men would pass, without notice or pity, a donkey or cow by the roadside suffering from raw wounds at which crows were pecking (no uncommon sight in India), whilst the maddened animal made vain attempts to defend itself I have never heard any native when with me shooting suggest such a thing as putting a wounded animal out of its pain. They have frequently said, " Why waste another bullet on it ? it will die." A Shdlaga (hill- man) in my employ recently found a bison in an elephant pitfaU; he had a gun, but rather than expend a shot on an animal that was useless to him, he left it there to starve to death : it did not die till the thirteenth day. When my men caught pea-fowl in snares they would puU out a feather, poke the stem through both eyelids, and fasten up the birds' eyes, to prevent them fluttering and spoiling their plumage, which " master would want." None of my men ever thought of sparing the youngest animal we might find in the jungle. If permitted to do so, they would consign fawn or leveret, whose helplessness might have been expected to excite even their compassion, to the game-bag without a regret, except at its size. The Oopligas' houses are mere huts with earthen walls and thatched roofs, devoid of any aperture but the door. Before kheddah operations were begun they lived from hand to mouth a good deal, and during times of scarcity they ate, as they still do, many jungle-products, as the heart of the frond of date-palms, succulent roots whicli grow in immense quantities in SUBTERRANEAN GRANARIES. 25^ the beds of some lakes after the water has receded, and several kinds of leaves. Their staple food, and that of all the lower classes in Mysore, is ragi {Cynosurus corocanus), a small grain about the size of No. 7 shot, and hardly distinguishable, except in being a little larger, from common turnip- seed. The price of this varies in good and bad seasons from 100 lb. down to 20 lb. per rupee. During the recent famine it has been 11. Two- pounds are required by a man per diem. The grain is prepared for food by grinding it in the common double-stone- hand-mill. One woman will grind five or six pounds per hour. The flour is boiled into a stiff pudding in an earthen pot, being stirred the while with a stick, and is then made into balls. This is the chief food of all the labouring classes in Mysore and many parts of Southern India. The poor cannot afford to eat rice, which is ordinarily three times the price of ragi ; but even if procurable, rice is not regarded with favour by those who have hard work to do. Some condiment is commonly used with it, generally a mixture of chillies, coriander, tamarind, garlic, onions, and salt. Meat, pulse, or greens are boiled with the condiments if procurable. Kagi is stored in subterranean granaries. They are usually situated on somewhat high ground, and in gravelly soil or decomposed rock. Their construction is simple. A circular hole about two feet in diameter is dug to three feet in depth, when a domed chamber of an oval shape is excavated, capable of containing from ten to twenty cart-loads of grain. Neither ma- sonry nor props are used. A little straw is laid on the floor, and against the walls of the chamber to a third of their height, when the grain is filled in. A slab is placed over the pit at the bottom of the short shaft that enters it, and the shaft is then filled in with earth. Eagi thus stored will keep for an indefinite number of years. It is safe from insects and rats, and is not easily accessible to thieves, as the pits are generally situated near the vil- lage— sometimes in the streets — and it takes some little time to dig to the grain. ^Moreover it is highly dangerous to enter a ragi-pit tiU twelve hours or more after it has been opened. The carbonic acid gas generated therein is instantaneously fatal, and though natives are well aware of this, accidents frequently happen through their descending the pits before they are well aired. Three brothers died in this way near Morlay in one pit in attempt- ing to rescue each other when overcome by the fumes of the gas. In former days, when villages were subject to pillage by Brinjarries and gang-robbers, grain-pits were often dug in the fields and ploughed over for concealment. It occasionally happened that through the death of tlie owner or other eventuality, the existence of certain pits was forgotten, and these are not unfrequently found at the present day, many probably two or 26 FOOD OF OOPLIGAS. three hundred years old. The grain in them is generally perfectly sound. It would be thought that moisture would penetrate the pits ; but from the nature of the soil, and the site chosen, this seldom appears to occur. Money and jewels are often hidden at the bottom of ragi-pits for safe keeping. A corps of men is said to have been attached to invading armies in Mysore in former days to search for ragi on the sites of villages temporarily left by their inhabitants. The searchers were provided witli steel testing-rods, and from constant practice knew pretty well where to look for the hidden stores. They are said to have been guided chiefly by the smell of the tip of the rod on withdrawing it as to whether they had " struck ragi." Few of the Oopligas when I began work at Morlay had more than a piece of cloth to wrap round their loins, and a coarse blanket, or cmnhly, as a protection against wet or cold. Wlien hunting or working they wear absolutely nothing but the langoty, which is a string round the loins and a piece of cloth about a hand's-breadth fastened to it in front ; this is carried between the legs, and is tucked under the string again behind. It is an extremely practical attire, light and airy in appearance, as far as it can be seen, and one that does not hamper their activity. There are few large or well-conditioned men amongst the Oopligas. Their endurance, however, in hunting or work is remarkable. They take two meals a-day — one about ten o'clock in the morning, the other at eight in the evening. Meat is a great treat to them, and I frequently shoot deer or pigs for them. They do not €at cow's flesh, nor even that of the bison, which they consider to be of the same holy caste, though they eat jackals, wild cats, field-rats, iguana lizards, &c. They never drink any intoxicating liquor. Though they live in a date- grove, from the trees in which " toddy " is daily drawn in large quantities for sale elsewhere, and although from the pots tied to the trees they might drink on the sly at any time, not a single OopHga ever, to my certain know- ledge, does so. It is not an hereditary usage, and they no more long for liquor than an Englishman does for blubber or train-oil. Their women are mostly very ugly. They only possess the charms attaching to budding youth for a few years, after which they sink at once into hideous frights. At about twenty-five their youth is gone, and they seem to betake themselves to fifty forthwith without any intermediaie stage. They are of course married early, like all Hindoos, and often have children before they are fourteen years of age. They were at first so poor that they barely had enough rags to satisfy even their very moderate ideas of decency's requirements ; and I have often felt amused whilst commiserating some of the girls who, with a short cloth wound lightly round their loins, and reach- ing but to their knees, endeavoured to pass muster as I rode through the A SUGGESTION FOR DIVORCE COURTS. 27 village, or when they were collected at camp for grinding ragi, by holding their hands up to their chins and covering their bosoms with their elbows ! They were anxious for cloths, and I latterly insisted on the money they earned by grinding flour for our men being applied to their own gratifica- tion in this respect, and not to their husbands'. There is never any violent crime amongst these simple people. They live in family harmony, and any little differences are settled by village regu- lations. Infidelity amongst their women is common enough, but their rules and ideas on this subject are very moderate, and a husband who feels him- self aggrieved, instead of flying into a temper, addresses liimself to the head- man, a punchayet or council is convened, and the defendant is probably fined a few rupees. At the same time, a check is placed on husbands having recourse to too much litigation by fining them occasionally for having adul- terous wives ! If a woman does not Kke her husband, and any other man, married or otherwise, fancies her, she may go with him if he pays the husband Es. 45, which is the fixed capitalised value of the marriage expenses. These trans- actions always have to be carried out through the headman, who has his regular fees. This purchasing of wives cannot be indulged in, however, to any great extent, as the devoted lovers can seldom raise enough money except by selling themselves into bondage, which has probably already been done to their full value. This looseness in the matrimonial rules maj'" seem sufficiently shocking to EngKsh notions, but it must be considered that marriage in Morlay is purely an arrangement of convenience ; and though it is literally so with ourselves, a halo of religious feeling has come to surround this civil con- tract, and moral turpitude is connected with any breach of its provisions, of which natives of the lower classes understand nothing. Their rules suit themselves very well. If a woman's husband cannot support her, she may find some one else who can ; or if a man has a useless or termagant wife, he may get some one else who will manage better for him, though he is bound to continue the support of his first wife as long as she remains with him. The hereditary headman of the Morlay OopHgas is a young fellow caUed lingah. He was one of the first to take employment under me, and has always since been a most faithful adlierent. It is a great pity and a dis- advantage that the hereditary authority of headmen of villages and castes has been gradually imdermiaed. The Mysore Government has, however, done much lately towards restoring their power, which is undoubtedly a wise measure and one in accordance with the feehngs of the people. 28 TRAINING THE OOPLIGAS. Paternal despotism seems to be the best method of government for the Hindoo. I shall never forget what an untutored lot my Morlayites were when I first knew them, and they often laugh and joke at it now themselves. They needed an immense amount of training before they became efficient for work in which considerable discipline was necessary. One of their chief duties was to direct large numbers of men when we were driving elephants, and it was therefore necessary that they themselves should be smart, and learn to carry out orders promptly and exactly. Of such matters, or of tlie importance of time, they had not naturally the remotest idea. They considered to-morrow as good as to-day in all matters, and hours of no con- sequence at all. The apathy and unreliableness of Hindoos are sufficiently trying to the naturally energetic Englishman. It can easily be imagined, then, that for some time my poor ignorant Morlayites truly exercised my soul. However, by degrees Jones, who drilled them, introduced quite mili- tary precision amongst them. When once their natural apathy was shaken we found them very teachable. They were made to stand in a line for mus- ter, instead of the mcb they naturally affected ; to make their salaams morning and evening on coming from and returning to the village; and to run on all occasions when sent on any short errand. The most difficult thing was to get them to carry a verbal message correctly, but by constantly calling them back and making them repeat what they were bid to say this was at last managed fairly. They soon began to pride themselves on belonging to the kheddah service, and it is now amusing to hear them abusing and order- ing their fellow- villagers at work or in sport ; they regard their untrained brethren as a very degenerate lot. Five of the best men were appointed as elephant-trackers, their duty being to go to the jungles within a certain circuit of Morlay every morning to examine tracks of elephants or tigers, to find out their whereabouts, and generally to keep me informed of all jungle occurrences. In elephant or other hunting these scouts are my right-hand men. They have the most dangerous duties to perform, and I shall have occasion often to mention them further on. More plucky and reliable men I never had, and their knowledge of the habits of all animals is only equalled by their skill in following them, or anticipating what their line of conduct or of country will be. After our first capture of elephants I had a small silver elephant stamped for each to wear on a green cap, and they are very proud of this badge of office. Their names are : Dodda Sidda, Koon Sidda, Mada, Murga, Mastee. A.nd liere let me say a few words upon trackers. The skill of certain SKILL OF NATIVE TRACKERS. 29 tribes of American Indians in following a trail is proverbial, but I engage to say it cannot excel that of jungle-people in India. Human eyesight is pretty much the same aU the world over. It would be incorrect to repre- sent any class of people, as some ^vriters have done, as able to follow a track over ground where there is no mark discernible to the untrained eye. It is not to be supposed that a print which is visible to an Indian would not be equally so to a European if pointed out to him. The skill of tracking lies in first observing, and reading, what an untrained eye would pass over, or be unable to interpret. I know nothing more interesting than to see really good trackers at work. There is a dash about men accustomed to hunt together, and who thoroughly understand the game they are after, which makes sport of what is often the rather tedious part of a chase. Jungle -people in India are under constant necessity to avoid formidable animals, as they have neither the means nor the stomach to oppose them. They thus become preternaturally quick in noting sights and sounds which do not attract the attention of ordinary persons. The slight ruffling of the surface which alone marks, in hard ground, where the tiger's paw has pressed ; the horns of a deer lying in the grass, matching so closely with twigs and undergrowth as to be undistinguishable from them by the inexperienced eye ; the bee, scarcely larger than a house-fly, entering a hole high in a tree overhead — a point of interest to men who spend much of their time in searching for its stores, — alike attract the quiet glance of the Kurraba and Shdlaga. In cases where actual footprints fail, trackers are guided in following an animal by broken twigs, displaced blades of grass, dew shaken from the leaves whilst others are covered by it, and other signs. They can also judge with wonderful correctness of the date of different trails. When an animal has been moving about in the same locality for hours, and many different impressions have been left, much skill is required to determine the latest. Some may have been exposed to the burning rays of the sun, others sheltered from it. In such case the latter, though possibly hours older than the former, looks fresher, and would mislead the inexpert. A tiger's track of late the night before and early next morning may easily be con- founded. The necessity of knowing which is which is evident. To follow the one would be to go through the many wanderings of his night's prowl in search of food ; the other leads to where he may be found concealed for the day. Other points than its actual appearance aid in forming a correct diagnosis of a track's date. I remember one morning several of my Morlay men and I started early to look up a particular tiger we were anxious to fall in with. We intended to cast about in the most likely places for his 30 A WISEACRE REPROVED. morning's tracks ; could we find these we should be able to discover his lair. It was cold, and the two trackers, Dodda Sidda and Murga, strode along in front of my riding elephant, their mouths muffled in their cloths after the sensible habit of all natives during the raw early hours. The path was dusty, and footprints were clearly visible. Presently the large square " pug " of the tiger we were in search of appeared, traversing the path before us. Some of the beaters who were following ran up in great excitement, and one asked the trackers if they had no eyes. Dodda Sidda removed his muffler for a moment as he still held on, to say, " Yelah, Korna, navu pattay-gararo ? Koombarar6 ? eely yesht' hottinelli tiroogardootavo ? " " Buffalo " — native synonym for stupid — " are we trackers or potters ? When do the rats run about ? " The questioner fell back abashed. The Indian field-rat (the jerboa-rat, Gerhillus indicus) issues from its burrows in great numbers during the night, but is always home again before daylight. The trackers had observed these creatures' tiny footprints overlying those of the tiger, and knew the latter had passed in the early part of the night. On another occasion a panther's footprint in soft soil was under dis- cussion. Some of the men contended it was of the evening before, others that it had been made about dawn. The minute threads of mould thrown up by a small earth-worm in the print made by the larger pad of the foot decided the date. That kind of worm only worked near the surface during the night. The print had been made the evening before. Native shikaries are often very plucky fellows, and even those who are not so, and who know anything about their work, will do many things from their acquaintance with wild animals that they know they may do without risk, but which to the uninitiated sportsman appear venturesome. Even timid jungle-men who would not approach a horse, it being an un- familiar quadruped, will lead the way after a vicious elephant or a wounded bison. They understand the habits of the latter, but from never seeing the former they do not know what to expect of it. Men who serve a judicious master and who know they will not be unnecessarily exposed gain great confidence, and behave with a courage which the sportsman cannot but feel compHmentary to himself, as reflecting their reliance on his coolness and skiU. It is only right that a sports- man should remember not to allow any of his men to do that at which he would himself hesitate. I laid down this golden rule for myseK early in my sporting days, and it is a great pleasure to me to think that I have never had a man killed in encounters with wild animals. I have often restrained beaters when they would willingly have ventured on some too dangerous service, and if natives see such consideration exercised on their LIKE MASTER, LIKE MAN. 31 behalf they are never wanting when required to share danger with their master, I have sometimes heard sportsmen (elect) speak of their attendants getting " pale with fright," " blue with funk," " bolting up trees like lamp- Kghters," &c. One cannot but comment mentally in many cases on the probable grounds their followers had for changes of complexion and feats of agility. Natives who have never seen a sportsman before are often called upon to show game. It is natural that they should be doubtful of the qualifications of a stranger, and they show their good sense in taking steps for their safety until they see they can place confidence in their employer. Natives often have good reason to be cautious. Cases of beaters being killed by dangerous animals are unhappily not of infrequent occurrence. Some men in the excitement of sport will urge natives to do things which they would be sorry upon reflection to do themselves. A man safely posted in a tree is liable to forget, in his chagrin at want of determination on the part of the beaters, what his own feelings would be if, with only a rag round his loins and a stick in his hand, he were required to turn a tiger out of a thicket. If only for the sake of sport care is necessary, as the story of an accident will precede a sportsman with telegraphic rapidity, and he will find beaters very chary of risking their persons at his next camp. CHAPTER V THE BILLIGA-RUNGUN HILLS. GARTHEN WALLS — MORLAT HALL — HONHOLLAY RIVER- VIEW — IRRIGATION — INC0R3IONS OF WILD ANIMALS INTO CULTIVATION — THE RAMASAMOODRUM LAKE — METHOD OF TAKING FISH— SLUICES — A NATIVE DROWNED — MEANS USED TO RECOVER HIS BODY — THE BILLIGA-RUNGUN HILLS— FOREST AND VEGETATION — A DESERTED VILLAGE — PROBABLE REASONS OF ABANDONMENT OF JUNGLE- VILLAGES — A NOTED BULL BISON — SHOOT HIM — LAKE ON THE HILLS — HAMLETS OF YELSAKIGA AND POONJOOR — BOMMAY GOUDA — THE KOOMBAPPAN GOODY TEMPLE — CHARACTER OF THE GOD — FATE OP THE LAST PRIEST — RITUAL OBSERVED — YOUNG MARRIED WOMEN'S PRATERS — RELIGION OF NATIVES — PROPITIATING KOOMBAPPAH — THE HOLEY DOINGS OF A HOLY MAN. I WAS SO busy for the first few months at Morlay that I had no time to build a house, so I lived in tents ; but during the hot weather of 1874 I ran up a comfortable bungalow and outhouses for servants and Government stores. My bungalow consists of two rooms, each twenty by fourteen, and a bathing-room. The walls are of clay, smoothened and white- washed. The red gravelly soil common in many parts of Mysore is good material for wall-making. Many remains of earth- work forts which have been exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather for probably two or three hundred years, are to be seen throughout the country, built of this material only, without even a facing of stone, and though the walls are deeply indented and guttered by rain they waste but slowly. Earth for wall -making is first dug up and water is poured on it in the pit, after wliich it is tempered by men trampling it for some time. It is then built in layers half a yard high, and the required length of the wall ; one day must be allowed for each layer to dry. Ordinary house-walls are one and a half foot thick at bottom, decreasing upwards. Wall-building is generally contracted for by the coolies at work, who take about eightpence for each MORLAY HALL. 33 six feet in length, the standard height being six feet. When dry, earthen walls are usually smoothened with a plaster of red earth mixed with sand. House -walls thus built are cheap, strong, and quickly run up; the only disadvantage connected with them is that white-ants are apt to work up through them into the roof of the house. This can, however, be easily prevented by a single course of brick-in-moriar upon the top of the wall. The roof of my bungalow consists of a single areca-nut tree, fifty feet long, as a ridge-pole, and bamboo rafters which rest upon the walls. Over these are bamboo mats to prevent the ends of the grass with wliich it is thatched hanging down inside, and a layer of one foot of rice-straw makes it quite water-tight. The floor is of concrete to keep out white-ants, and is covered with bamboo mats. " Morlay Hall," as I named this edifice, is situated about a quarter of a mile to the east of Morlay, on the site of a deserted village called Byadamooll, which is now only marked by irregular mounds and lines where the houses were, and by an old stone temple and some fine banian and peepul {Ficus religiosa) trees. The village ceased to exist fifty years ago. There are many such, thus deserted, of various degrees of antiquity, further in the jungles. I shall have occasion to speak of them further on, and to consider the probable causes which led to their abandonment. My bungalow faces eastwards, towards the Billiga-rungun hills, which are eight miles distant and extend for twenty miles in front of me. They attain an elevation of about 6000 feet, or 3500 feet above the general level of the country around Morlay. Between my house and the hills the jungle consists chiefly of bamboo clumps and moderate-sized trees, with thick covers (the favourite resort of tigers, wild hog, &c.) on the river-banks and in the damp hollows. A few low detached hills lie near the foot of the range, and afford cover to bears and panthers. Parallel with the hills runs the Honhollay, a river about thirty yards broad, which, though rarely dry, is only a considerable stream at intervals during the rainy season. It then sometimes rises twenty feet above its bed, but is seldom impassable for more than a day together. During the first freshes of the rainy season it brings down large quantities of wood and bamboos, and the water is discoloured by the charcoal and black ashes washed from the hills after the hot- weather conflagrations. The water is considered bad within the jungles at this time, and also in December and January ; but at all other times it is good. The reason of its being unwholesome in January and February is, that the hill streams have then shrunk almost to their lowest limits, and the leaves of the forest-trees which fall at the end of the year rot in large quantities in the water, and thus contaminate it by decaying vegetabK c 34 THE HONHOLLAY RIVER. matter ; and though perfectly clear, it is bitter to the taste, and if constantly drunk is injurious to health. Several large villages in the open country are dependent for drinking-water on the river after it leaves the jungle. The water here seems good at all seasons, probably from undergoing a filtering process over beds of sand, where it is not shaded by trees. The Honhollay rises in the Bilhga-runguns, the parent branch being joined soon after its exit from the hills by two tributaries ; one from Poonjoor, near the southern end of the range — the other, a large stream called the Chickhollay, from the open country towards the Neilgherries. After emerg- ing from the Billiga-runguns through a gap about tlie centre of their western face, the river turns sharp north, and flows parallel with the range, and about four miles distant from it, through the Chamraj -Nuggar and Yellan- door taloolzs^' and joins the Cauvery fifteen miles above the celebrated falls of Seevasamudrum. During its course its waters are drawn off by several small channels for purposes of irrigation. The first of these, the Hongle- waddy, is fed from an anient or stone dam, about twelve feet in height, made of large, rough blocks of granite, faced with a brick wall to prevent leakage : it is built across the stream from bank to bank. This raises the level of the water to a height sufficient to admit of its being drawn off by the channel, which runs for nine miles and feeds the Eamasamoodrum lake close to Morlay. The anient, channel, and lake or tank, are works of some antiquity. The anicut and channel are now overgrown with dense jungle. The channels further down the river are smaller, and the dams used for turning the water into them are mere temporary structures of stakes, bushes, &c., thrown up after the floods subside. There was formerly a good deal of cultivation under the Honglewaddy channel at several points between its source and the lake, but almost the whole of this has been gradually abandoned, owing to the depredations of elephants and tigers. Up to the time of my settling at Morlay it was no uncommon occurrence for a tiger to rush out and kill one or both the bul- locks in a plough, if the driver left them for a moment. With the destruc- tion of the tigers and reduction in the number of elephants, land is being gradually taken up again, and the cultivators can now follow their avoca- tions in peace. There is no necessity to watch the fields at night, except occasionally to drive away deer and wild hogs, which is lighter work than the keeping out of elephants used to be. The Eamasamoodrum tank at the end of the Honglewaddy channel is a beautiful sheet of water, nearly two miles in length and five hundred yards broad. It has, however, been silted up to a considerable extent by the • Divisions of the country corresponding roughly to counties in England. FISHING A LAKE. 35 deposit brought into it for many years, and is not now capable of storing as much water as formerly. The two villages of Morlay are built near the edge of the water-spread, and my bungalow a quarter of a mile from it, on high and dry ground. The embankment of the lake has been raised at various periods to keep pace with the silting, and the bed is now several feet higher than the land irrigated on the lower side of the embankment. Through the €mbankment at different points run four sluices for drawing off the water to the rice -land below, which aggregates 903 acres, and yields an annual revenue to Government of Rs. 4688. These sluices have of late years fallen into partial disrepair ; and from this cause, and the silting up of the bed, the tank now usually runs dry during the hot weather. There are no fish of large size in it, but a great quantity of moderate-sized ones and small fry are caught every year. In January 1874, when the tank had not been •dry for five years, and the fish had had time to grow, a large haul was made by the Morlayites. As the water contracted to a very narrow space I caused the tank to be guarded day and night to prevent any villagers, except those who assisted in elephant-catching, from taking fish in it ; and when the water was but two feet deep, and only a few acres in extent, a day was appointed for fishing it. Hundreds of men, women, and children were •engaged with all sorts of devices, among which the chief was a basket of the shape of a flower-pot, but without the bottom, about three feet in height, two in diameter at the lower end, and one at the top. These open cylin- ders were merely plumped down upon the bottom, the wider mouth down- wards, on chance, and if a fish were covered it flopped about inside, and was taken out through the top. As the pool was crowded the sport was €xciting, and in a few hours many hundredweights were caught. The women and children removed baskets upon baskets of small fry which, suf- focated by the disturbed mud, came to the top floating on their backs, when they were scooped up with sieves. Speaking of sluices for drawing off water from lakes, it is remarkable that no contrivance has been introduced in supersession of the somewhat rude plan of old days, which is still in use. This is as follows : A covered masonry culvert runs through the embankment ; at its inner end (that is, the end within the lake) two upright granite slabs are erected, so as to stand above the highest level of the water; they are often twenty-five feet in height. At every six; feet or so cross - slabs are placed between them. Through each of the cross - slabs a hole is drilled for guiding a vertical pole which passes through them, and attached to the lower enrl of which is a wooden plug. This plug fits into a vent in the horizon- tal coverimi-slab over the mouth of the culvert, and when raised or lowered 36 A MAN DROWNED. opens or closes the culvert. To move the pole and attached plug a man stands on the cross - slabs. This method answers well enough for small tanks, but in many of large size there is an additional vent in the vertical slab which closes the mouth of the culvert vertically, and in this a hori- zontal vent is drilled, to close which a flat stone is usually employed. This stone has to be placed against the hole by hand ; and to all large tanks there are attached one or more men, called Toobmullegies or sluice-divers, to whom free lands are granted as remuneration for attending to the distribution of the water. It would be very easy to have a vertical shutter, in the shape of a spade, with a long handle reaching to above the surface of the water, to close this dangerous horizontal vent. It is remark- able how seldom accidents happen to the divers, as they keep to the guiding granite piUars at either side, and place the stone in front of the vent with- out getting before it themselves ; but mishaps sometimes occur, and six years ago a diver was drowned by being sucked into the vent of one of the sluices of the Eamasamoodrum tank. There was a depth of nineteen feet of water above the sluice at the time. The danger of apj^roaching a vent of one foot in diameter, through which the water was issuing under this pres- sure, may be imagined. In some way the unfortunate man was caught ; both his legs were drawn into the vent up to the thighs, and he sat, when drowned, with his body resting against the vertical slab. I was in charge of the tank at the time, but it was some days before I could attend to get- ting him out, as I thought the natives would manage it ; as they could not, I went to the spot myself. Standing on the top of the sluice slabs, the corpse was twenty feet below ; only three or four men could get footing to pull at it together, and it defied all attempts at withdrawal. We tried for two days without effect. I at last had two hide-ropes secured by a diver round the corpse, and ordered a raft of plantain-stems to be made capable of floating ten people : this was stationed above the corpse, and sufiicient people stood on it to sink it a foot, whilst the hide-ropes were secured to it. On the people getting off, the raft's floating power pulled up the body, not at all decomposed, though it had been eleven days under water : the man's never having been exposed to the air after death was probably the cause of this. His dark sldn was bleached quite white. One of the legs was torn off at the hip-joint and carried through the sluice. The Billiga-rungun hills consist of three main parallel ranges running due north and south, with various offshoots. The Cauvery river flows round their northern end, whilst they are separated from the Neilgherry hill& at their southern extremity by a gap of about twenty miles of level country. They are about thirty miles in length from north to south, and ten in width; THE BILLIGA-RUNGUN HILLS. 37 but only about ten miles of the central portion is densely covered with for- est, as towards the end the hills become lower and the jungle lighter. The Mysore territory includes the most western parallel ; the rest of the hills He in the Coimbatore district of the Madras Presidency. A good road passes through a gorge towards their southern end, and descends by the Hassanoor Ghat into the Coimbatore district, which is about 1000 feet below the general level of the Mysore plateau. The hills are practically unknown to Europeans. A few Survey and Forest officers have been to some of the most prominent points, and in former days some officers of the Mysore Com- mission who were fond of sport occasionally visited them, but of late years hardly any one but myself has set foot in them. The only inhabitants are a few Sholagas — a wild, uncivilised, but inoffensive race. They occupy iso- lated hamlets of five or six huts. The Mysore range is lower than the ranges further east. It is covered with comparatively small timber and bamboos, as there is no great depth of soil, and crags and rocks frown here and there amongst the jungle. Towards the northern end, in the Yellandoor talook, is a precipitous mass of granite, facing westwards, named the " BiUikul " or " Billigiri " (white rock) ; and from this the whole range is geograpliically designated, though, as is common in India, the natives of the vicinity have names for each portion of the hills, and do not know the whole by any collective appella- tion. The range is, however, usually known to people at a distance as the Billigiri-runguns ; but this, I think, is not a correct term, and that Billiga- runga, the local name amongst the common people, is the right one. Billi means white in Canarese, and kul, a rock or stone ; in Canarese BilK-kul- runga becomes Billiga-runga by euphony. Giri is Sanskrit for mountain, and the union of a Canarese and Sanskrit word is unnatural. The hills are generally termed " Shw^tadri " by Brahmins, which is admissible as pure Sanskrit, and means " white - mountain." Eunga is the name of a god. The interior ranges, as seen from Morlay, present a splendid panorama of woods and open grass downs. The hills are rounded and are all of about the same elevation. The woods are confined chiefly to the hoUows where moisture favours their growth ; the open downs between them are covered with dense lemon -grass, which attains a height of eighteen feet. Be- tween the Mysore range and the next range to the east lies a deep valley, along which the Honhollay stream flows southwards before its exit westwards into open country. This deep, forest -encumbered valley is a tract of great interest ; and there are many places which I have pene- trated where, I believe, other European foot never trod. Wild swamps 38 THE RAIN FOREST. there are where the strangest forms of vegetation are seen, some found nowhere else in the hills. The whole neighbourhood has a weird char- acter. Aged trees of huge dimensions, whose ponderous arms are clad with grey moss and ferns far out to their points ; tough, gnarled, leafless creepers, as thick as a child's body, growing from one root, whither they mount the tall trees around, and thence spread like the arms of a cuttle- fish in every direction, curling round some trunks, clearing long spans in places, and often extending for three hundred yards without varying much in thickness, — make some of the chief features of the woods in these deep valleys. Few flowers are found ; the whole is a damp, gloomy, hoary forest, sacred as it were to the first mysteries of nature. Game — even elephants and bison — are seldom seen here ; the dense foliage overhead pre- vents grass growing beneath, so there is nothing for them to eat ; but they form safe retreats for animals in their neighbourhood when the jungles are burning during the hot weather. When any animals escaped us in the first range, or the lower jungles of the open country, and reached this haven, which is known as " Mullay Kardoo," or the Eain Forest, we gen- erally had to abandon the chase, as it required a well-organised expedition to penetrate the tract. Close to the mouth of the gorge by which the Honhollay river emerges into the lower jungles through the most westerly or Mysore range, is the site of an old and long-deserted village called Dodda Goudan Parliah, and from this I have named the gorge. The last inhabitants of this place apparently left about 1820, but it must have been practically deserted at least twenty years before that time. The divisions of the fields, broken ragi-grinding stones, and stone terraces built round the foot of the trunks of old tamarind and peepul trees, are still to be seen. It was once a popidous village, in which iron-smelting was carried on. The site of the village and the fields are still comparatively free of jungle ; but by August the grass grows very high about them, and the place is then a favourite resort of game, especially bison, whilst in the low country. In addition to Dodda Goudan Parliah, there are the remains of other villages, apparently contemporary with it, in different parts of the lower jungles, but I have tried in vain to obtain any very authentic explana- tion of the causes of their abandonment. From the tales which some of the oldest Sh51agas remember their fathers relating of the ransacking to which villages were frequently subjected in these parts during Hyder and Tippoo's days, and the early days of the British (between 1780 and 1800), at the hands of Brinjarries (gipsy gi'ain-carriers), who, when conveying grain to tlie troops between Mysore and Coimbatore, passed through this country. THE DODDA GOUDAN PARLIAH GORGE. [To fate page . A NOTED BULL BISON. 3» I believe the hardships and robberies to which the people were subjected to have been the chief cause of their leaving their homes. Their granaries were sacked, their herds driven off, and their women abducted by these freebooters. Consecutive years of scarcity or sickness may also, in some cases, have tended to this result; but as all Indian villages have small begin- nings, if the site chosen proves unhealthy it is soon given up ; and conse- quently, when the remains of any village formerly of importance are found, it is more reasonable to look to other causes for its abandonment than unhealthiness, which should rather decrease (except epidemics) with the growth of the village, and the greater area from which the surrounding jungle is removed, than increase. Some villages have evidently been ruined through the action of their inliabitants, as those mentioned in Chap. III. ; but there are no such causes visible in the deserted villages at the foot of the BiUiga-runguns, and doubtless the ancestors of the Brinjarries, who now quietly graze cattle over their ruins, had a main share in bringing about their downfall. There used to be a famous old solitary buU bison, well known to the Shdlagas as having frequented the vicinity of Dodda Goudan Parliah for twenty years. I had learned that he was generally to be seen in the cool hours of the morning and evening grazing in the short grass on the out- skirts of the jungle, preparatory to retiring into it for the day. One morn- ing I was going from a place called Koombar-goondy to fish in the deep pools of the Honhollay, within the gorge, and was riding my small pad elephant Soondargowry, which did not bring my head to the level of the grass, then ten feet liigh, when, as I passed along, I saw through a gap in the grass the head of a bison lying under a bamboo clump some sixty yards to my right. I pulled up to make sure. Yes ! there he was, a splendid old bull, chewing the cud peacefully, and not looking in our direction ! I knew instantly he must be the bull I had heard so much of, and which I had been singularly unsuccessful in falling in with before. My heavy rifles were at hand, so I jumped off the elephant, and with a tracker crept through the grass towards the bull. As we came to the clear ground under the bamboo clumps, he suddenly upreared his gigantic black form to our right ; he had caught a slant of our wind. He stood stern on ; and as I feared he might dash away, I took the best shot I could, and broke his right hip-joint. I was using an 8 -bore rifle and ten drams. At the shot the bull rushed amongst the bamboo clumps, his disabled leg swinging like a flail. Another tracker joined us, and we followed him without loss of time ; but he got into a narrow belt of grass and young bamboo a hundred yards away, and here we heard him breathing heavily. We kept to the shelter 40 YERLSARIGA. of trees whilst making a near advance, when the bull, hearing us, showed himseK, and I stepped out and faced him at thirty yards. He did not charfelephant was shot, after a short but bloody career, by two officers. I have only known one instance of two full-grown male elephants, un- connected with herds, constantly associating together. These were a tusker and muckna (or tuskless male), in the Kakankot^ forests. They were insep- arable companions in their night wanderings, but always remained a mile or two apart during the day. I knew the pair well in 1870-72; in the latter year I shot the tusker, as he had become dangerous, and had been proscribed by Government for killing people. Natives who live in localities frequented by elephants become very bold in driving them away from their fields at night. I once saw a stirring scene at the Honganoor tank or lake at the foot of the Billiga-rungun hills. It was in November 1870, and the rice-crop was nearly ripe, when I encamped at BeUatta, on the border of the wide expanse (some 600 acres) of level rice-fields. The stream from the Billiga-runguns which feeds the Hon- ganoor lake emerges from a deep gorge ; a mile farther on is the lake ; be- tween the gorge and the lake the water is diverted by many smaU runnels over the rice-land. This lake is artificial, of very great antiquity and beauty, and when full is dotted with floating islands of white and rose-coloured lotus, and a sort of water-convolvulus. Teal, duck, pelicans, flamingoes, ■wild geese, and cranes and storks of several kinds, are to be seen there at certain seasons in numbers ; pheasant-tailed jacanas walk on the lotus- leaves, uttering their musical cry ; and snipe are plentiful from November to February in the short grass round the water-spread. Many birds build their nests in the fringe of green rushes round the small bays ; amongst these the beautiful blue coot with red wattles is numerous. At evening as I rode into camp the scene across the waving sea of ripening paddy was very beautiful. To the west the lake shone like silver in the level rays of the sun, just dipping behind the old tamarind-trees on its embankment. To the east the glorious hiUs, their dark woods and frown- ing cliffs seeming close at hand, were bathed in purple. In the glistening * Near Jubbulpore, Central Provinces. 5i NIGHT SCENE. rice-fields, unbroken by fences, trees stood here and there, in which nestled the watchers' platforms. The smoke of fires near each showed that the men were cooking their evening meal ; and when darkness came on, the lights dotted over the plain both at the foot of, and on the platforms up in, the trees, with the voices of the watchers, made the scene a cheerful one. I had just finished dinner, and was enjoying a smoke before the blazing camp-fire, which lit to their topmost branches a pair of magnificent tamarind- trees under wliich my tent was pitched, when I heard a distant shout of " anay " (elephants). At once lights began to flit over the plain, moving towards one point ; tom-toms were beaten, and rattles, made from spKt bam- boos, sounded. An elephant trumpeted shrilly, the men yelled in defiance, till the intruders retreated to the jungle. The cover bordering the cultivation was so dense as to afford secure shelter to elephants close at hand even during the day. After some little time, when the tom-toming and noise had ceased, a similar commotion took place at another point ; again the Will-o'- the-wisp lights moved forward with a repetition of the shouting and trum- peting. The villagers who were keeping up my camp-fire told me it was only on occasional nights that the elephants visited the cultivation. The watchers were evidently in for it now, and they became thoroughly alert at all points. Once the elephants came within 200 yards of my camp, and long after I went to bed I heard the shouting and rattling of the watchers. These men were Sholagas from the hills ; they were hired annually for a month or two at a fixed payment in grain for watching their crops by the low-country cultivators, who are themselves less able to stand the exposure in a rice-flat, and less bold in interfering with the elephants. The watchers provide themselves with torches of light split bamboos in bundles about eight feet long and eight inches in diameter. These are lighted at one end when required, and make a famous blaze. Armed with them the men sally forth to the spot where the elephants are feeding. Some carry the torches, the others precede them, so as to have the light behind them. The elephants can be seen in open ground at 100 yards, should they wait to let the lights get so close. Sometimes troublesome rogues get beyond caring for this, though the men are very bold and approach to within 40 or 50 yards. Natives have frequently told me of particular elephants letting them get to within a few yards, and then putting their trunks into their mouths, and, withdrawing water, squirting it at the lights ! I need hardly say the latter part of the statement is entirely imaginary ; the idea, doubtless, arises from the attitude elephants often assume when in uncertainty or perplexity, put- ting the trunk into the mouth, and holding the tip gently between the lips. 1 HEIGHT OF ELEPHANTS. 55 The large area of rice-fields within the bed of the Honganoor lake was assessed long ago at one-third the usual rates on account of the depredations of elephants. The actual damage caused to crops by wild elephants is much less than is popularly supposed. The chief evil of their presence is the bar they oppose to any advance in certain localities. Agricultural progress in India is always on a very small scale. One cultivator secures an acre or two of land, and opens it up in rough style, but as he possesses little capital to withstand a bad season, he generally abandons his land if his first crop be eaten up by elephants or other animals. Eeclamation in jungle -localities only succeeds where several ryots open land together. In Mysore every facility is given by Government in granting jungle-land free of rent for some years, and on a reduced rental for a further term ; but the country bordering jungle -tracts is seldom sufficiently populous to necessitate any extensive incursions upon the surrounding jungles. When the necessity arises elephants can be easily driven back. The usually received notions of the height which elephants attain are much in excess of fact. Out of some hundreds of tame and newly-caught elephants which I have seen in the South of India and in Bengal, also from Burmah and different parts of India, and of which I have carefully measured all the largest individuals, I have not seen one 10 feet in vertical height at the shoulder. The largest was an elephant in the Madras Commissariat stud at Hoonsoor, which measured 9 feet 10 inches. The next largest are two tuskers belonging to his Highness the Maharajah of Mysore, each 9 feet 8 inches, captured in Mysore some forty years ago, and still aHve. Of females, the largest I have measured — two leggy animals in the stud at Dacca — were respectively 8 feet 5 inches and 8 feet 3 inches. As illus- trating how exceptional this height is in females, I may say that, out of 140 elephants captured by me in kheddahs in Mysore and Bengal, in 1874 and 1876, the tallest females were just 8 feet. The above are vertical measure- ments at the shoulder. In India elephants are often measured by throwing a tape over the shoulders, or even back, the ends being brought to the ground on each side, and haK the length taken as the animal's height.*^" Even the same elephant varies with its condition when measured in this way. An 8 -feet elephant, in fair condition, gives a height of 8 feet 9 inches by this method. There is little doubt that there is not an elephant 1 0 feet at the shoulder in India. As bearing on this subject, I may quote the following from the English Cydopcedia. The Mr Corse referred to therein was a gentleman evidently thoroughly conversant with elephants, probably in charge of the * This accounts for the 11 or 12 feet elephants we sometimes hear of. 56 EXAGGERATIONS IN MEASURING EIEPHANTS. Government animals in Bengal. His paper on the elephant was read before the Eoyal Society in 1799. " During the war with Tippoo Sultan, of the 150 elephants under the management of Captain Sandys, not one was 10 feet high, and only a few males 9 \ feet high. Mr Corse was very particular in ascertaining the height of the elephants used at Madras, and with the army under Marquis Corn- waUis, where there were both Bengal and Ceylon elephants, and he was assured that those of Ceylon were neither higher nor superior to those of Bengal." " The Madras elephants have been said to be from 17 to 20 feet high. Now let us see how dimensions shrink before the severity of measurement. Mr Corse heard from several gentlemen who had been at Dacca that the Nabob there had an elephant about 14 feet high. Mr Corse was desirous to measure him, especially as he had seen the elephant often at a former period, and then supposed him to be 12 feet high. He accordingly went to Dacca. At first he sent for the mahout or driver, who without hesita- tion assured him that the elephant was from 10 to 12 cubits — that is, from 15 to 18 feet high. Mr Corse measured the elephant exactly, and was rather surprised to find that the animal did not exceed 10 feet in height." Twice round an elephant's foot is his height, within one or two inches ; more frequently it is exactly so. Persons unacquainted with elephants not unfrequently guess from ten to fifteen times round the foot as the height. As the diameter of a large male elephant's foot is 18 inches, ten circum- ferences would make his height 47 feet. The height of African elephants is greater than that of Asiatic elephants, both in the males and females. Sir Samuel Baker, in his Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, says both sexes average about one foot taller than the Asiatic elephant. The age to which the elephant lives is, as must ever be the case with denizens of the jungle, uncertain. The general opinion of experienced natives is that it attains 120 years in exceptional cases, but more generally to about 80 years. This view, however, is based on observations of elephants in captivity ; under the more favourable conditions of a natural life the elephant must attain a greater age than when confined. My own Dpinion is that the elephant attains at least to 1 5 0 years. One of the best instances I have seen from which to form conclusions is the case of a female elephant, Bheemruttee, belonging to his Highness the Maharajah of Mysore. This elephant was captured in Coorg in 1805, WHERE DO ELEPHANTS DIE 1 57 and was then a calf of three years of age. She is still, at 76, in good working condition, and does not present the appearance of a particu- larly aged elephant, which is always shown in the lean and rugged head, prominent bones, deeply-sunk temples, and general appearance of decay. Bheemruttee is, however, past her prime. In captivity she has lived under much less favourable conditions than a wild elephant, in being exposed to heat, often underfed, and subjected to irregularities of all kinds. Amongst newly-caught elephants I have seen many females evidently older than Bheemruttee with young calves at heel. Mahouts believe that female elephants breed up to about 80 years of age. One of the most remarkable facts in connection with elephants is the extreme rarity of any remains of dead ones being found in the jungles. Tliis circumstance is so marked as to have given rise to the notion amongst the Sholagas of the Billiga-rungun hills that elephants never die ; whilst the Kurrabas of Kakankot^ believe that there is a place, unseen by human eye, to which they retire to end their days. In my own wanderings for some years through elephant-jungles I have only seen the remains of one female (that we knew had died in calving), and one drowned elephant brought down by a mountain torrent. ISTot only have I never myself seen the remains of any elephant that had died a natural death, but I have never met any one amongst the jungle -tribes, or professional elephant-hunters, who had seen a carcass, except at a time when murrain visited the Chitta- gong and Kakankote forests. Bones would not decay for some years, and teeth and tusks would survive for some time, yet not a single pair of ivories has ever, as far as I know, been found in the Mysore jungles during the time I have known them. In Chittagong, in January 1876, I found a portion of a large tusk in a morass, much eaten by exposure ; it weighed 33 lb. Another was found in Tipperah, almost fossUised, weighing 36 lb. ; there were no other remains in either case. The fact of remains of bison, deer, and other wild animals seldom being found is equally singular. Their bones would be sooner disposed of than those of elephants ; still it is strange that, except in cases of epidemics amongst these animals, they are hardly ever seen. Certain classes of wild animals may possibly retreat to quiet localities when they find their powers failing them, as places where alarms and necessity for flight are unlikely to' overtake them. But this is not the case with such gregarious animals as elephants. It may be supposed that in tliick forests vultures •do not attract attention to their carcasses, and monsoon rains and jungle- ^res soon dispose of them. Still one would think that some carcasses at ^east would be found, whereas they uever are ; and though it is certain 58 NATIVE BELIEFS. the animals do die, I know of no reasonable explanation of what becomes of them. The following interesting reference to the subject of dead elephants never being seen is made by Sir Emerson Tennent in his Wild, Elephant. I venture to quote it as showing the similarity of opinion of the natives of Ceylon and the wild tribes of Mysore :— " The natives generally assert that the body of a dead elephant is seldom or never to be discovered in the woods. And certain it is that frequenters of the forest with whom I have conversed, whether European or Singhalese, are consistent in their assurances that they have never found the remains of an elephant that had died a natural death. One chief, the Wanyyah of the Trincoraalie district, told a friend of mine, that once after a severe murrain which had swept the province, he found the carcasses of elephants that had died of the disease. On the other hand, a European gentleman, who for thirty-six years, without intermission, had been Kving in the jungle, ascending to the summits of mountains in the prosecution of the trigon- ometrical survey, and penetrating valleys in tracing roads and opening means of communication — one, too, who has made the habits of the wild elephant a subject of constant observation and study — has often expressed to me his astonishment that, after seeing many thousands of living elephants in all possible situations, he had never yet found a single skeleton of a dead one, except of those which had fallen by the rifle. " The Singhalese have a superstition in relation to the close of life in the elephant : they believe that, on feeling the approach of dissolution, he repairs to a solitary valley, and there resigns himself to death. A native who accompanied Mr Cripps when hunting in the forests of Anarajapoora, intimated to him that he was then in the immediate vicinity of the spot ' to which the elephants come to die,' but that it was so mysteriously con- cealed that, although every one believed in its existence, no one had ever succeeded in penetrating to it. At the corral, which I have described at Komegalle, in 1847, Dekigame, one of the Kandyan chiefs, assured me it was the universal belief of his countrymen that the elephants, when about to die, resorted to a valley in Saflragam, among the mountains to the east of Adam's Peak, which was reached by a narrow pass with walls of rock on either side, and that here, by the side of a lake of clear water, they took their last repose." This belief of a universal sepulchre is, however, quite untenable as regards Mysore, as there is no spot in its jungles that is not penetrated at times by the Shdlagas or Kurrabas. Nor is the idea defensible on other grounds. EPIDEMICS. 59 There is an epidemic disease, corresponding to murrain in cattle, from which wild and tame elephants suffer at long intervals. It attacked the elephants in the Government stud at Dacca, in Bengal, about thirty years ago, and carried off nearly fifty per cent of a total of upwards of three hundred. It lasted, with varying virulence, for more than ten years. The animals in best condition suffered most ; only two, both in poor condition, are recorded as having recovered after seizure. The symptoms were, break- ings-out and gatherings on the throat and legs, spots on the tongue, and running from the eyes. With the cessation of the flow from the eyes the animals died, usually on the second day after attack. In 1862 a similar epidemic carried off large numbers of elephants in the Chittagong forests. A few years later the herds in the Kakankote jungles in Mysore were attacked ; but the mortality was not great, and the disease soon left. On this occasion the fact of the elephants dying was weU known to the Kurrabas. The period of gestation in the elephant is said by experienced natives to vary as the calf is male or female, being twenty-two months in the case of the former, and eighteen in the latter. I cannot of my own observation afford conclusive proof that such is the case, though I believe there is some truth in the statement. I have known elephants to calve twenty months after capture, the young always being males when eighteen months were exceeded, and it was not known how long the mothers had been in calf before capture. The female elephant receives the male again about eight or ten months after calving. Male elephants of mature age are subject to periodical paroxysms, supposed to be of a sexual nature. They are said to be must, or mad, when under their influence. Fits of mAist differ in duration in different animals ; in some they last for a few weeks, in others for even four or five months. Elephants are not always violent or untractable under their influence, being frequently only drowsy and lethargic. The approach of the period of rniid is indicated by the commencement of a flow of oily matter from the small hole in the temple on each side of the head, which orifice is found in all elephants, male and female. The temples also swell. The elephant fre- quently acts somewhat strangely, and is dull and not so obedient as usual. In the advanced stages the oily exudation trickles freely down from the temples, which are then much swollen. On the first indications the elephant is strongly secured. If he becomes dangerous his food is thrown to him, and water supplied in a trough pushed within his reach. Fatal accidents are of common occurrence in cases of mxcsi elephants getting loose. They usually attack man or any of their own €0 ''MUST" ELEPHANTS. species near, and the society of a female does not appear always to appease them. I once saw one of our tuskers, which was then only under suspicion of an approaching fit, break away from the control of his mahout as he was being ridden to water, and, despite severe punishment, attack and knock down a female at her picket near ; and, had his tusks not been cut, he would without doubt have killed her on the spot. He was at last driven oiT by spears thrown at his trunk and head, when he stalked across the open plain with his mahout on his neck, fury in his eye, master of all he surveyed, and evidently courting battle with any created being. The men had a difficult and dangerous task to secure him. His hind-legs were at last tied from behind the trunk of a tree near which he stood, and the mahout having drawn up a chain by a cord, and secured it round his neck, he was moored fore and aft. I shall never forget the mahout's fervent ejaculation of " Allah ! Allah ! " as he slipped over the elephant's tail when he was made fast. The flow of must occasionally, but very seldom, occurs in female elephants. I have seen it twice in newly-caught females in the prime of life, and in very full condition. It never occurs, I believe, in tame female elephants. Mahouts can usually tell the age of elephants tolerably correctly. A young animal, though of full size, or a very old one, cannot be mistaken, but it requires much experience to estimate those of middle age. I have known even experienced men differ about the same animal to the extent of fifteen years. The general appearance of the animal suffices in some cases. A very old elephant is usually in poor condition, and the skin looks shiny and shrivelled. The head is lean and rugged, the skull appearing to have little but skin upon it ; the temples and eyes are sunken ; and the fore-legs, in- stead of bulging out above the knee with muscle, are almost of the same oirth throughout. Instead of walldng firmly and planting the feet flat, an aoed elephant brings the feet to the ground somewhat in the manner of a plantigrade animal, touching with the heels first. But aU the above symptoms may be present in a greater or less degree in debilitated, middle- aged animals, and are consequently not conclusive ; but the appearance of the elephant's ear will probably settle the question. The ear is relied upon in ao'eing elephants as the teeth are in a horse. In very young elephants up to six or seven years — the top of the ear is not turned over (as in man) ; but with advancing years it laps over, in old elephants very much so, and the ear is ragged and torn along the lower edge. The elephant is full grown, but not fully mature, at about twenty-five years of age. At this period it may be compared to a human being at AGEING ELEPHANTS. 61 eighteen ; and it is not in full vigour and strength till about thirty-five. Female elephants usually give birth to their first calf at sixteen years of age, sometimes at thirteen or fourteen, but are then palpably immature themselves. I have heard of what appears to be a well-authenticated case of a female elephant having two calves at a birth. Many wild female elephants are accompanied by two, sometimes three, calves of different ages. Elephants breed about once in two and a half years. Two calves are usually sucking at the same time; and I have even seen the eldest of three, a young elephant five and a half feet high, and about five years old, that had to stoop to reach its mother, suck occasionally. I need hardly say that the young elephant sucks with its mouth, not its trunk. Calves usually stand exactly three feet high at the shoulder when born ; the trunk is then only ten inches long, and possesses little flexibility. The average weight of several calves I have weighed on the second day after birth has been 200 lb. They live entirely upon milk till six months old, when they eat a little tender grass ; their chief support, however, is still milk for some months. The elephant very rarely breeds in confinement, but this is owing to the segregation of the sexes, and also to the physical causes of insufficient food or hard work. It would not answer from an economic point of view to breed elephants in India, as, before they were of a useful age — fifteen years — they would have cost more than would suffice to captm-e a number of mature wild ones, ready for work. It is said that they are bred in a semi-wild state, and with little expense, in parts of Burmah and Siam. The females there are shaclded and left at large in the forests during the non- working months, where wild males have access to them. But in Burmah fodder is plentiful, and the young stock cost nothing till taken up for sale. The female elephant evinces no peculiar attachment to her offspring. The statement of Knox, quoted by Sir Emerson Tennent, that " the sheea are alike tender of any one's young ones as of their own" is incorrect. Aluch exclusiveness is shown by elephants in the detailed arrangements amongst tliemselves in a herd, and if the mothers and young ones be closely watched, it will be seen that the latter are very rarely allowed familiarities by other females, nor, indeed, do they seek them. I have seen many cases in the kheddahs where young elephants, after losing their mothers by death or other causes, have been refused assistance by the other females, and have been buffeted about as outcasts. I have only known one instance of a very gentle, motherly elephant in captivity allowing a motherless calf to suck along with her own young one. Sir Emerson Tennent mentions the belief that if a wUd female elephant ^2 GENTLENESS OF ELEPHANTS. happen to be separated from her young for only two days, though giving suck, she never after recognises or acknowledges it. I apprehend that this idea arose from the fact that amongst newly-captured elephants, through the anxiety and exhaustion attending the mother's efforts to escape, her milk is invariably dried up for the time being. I have then seen elephants repel their calves, whose importunities annoyed them. But with the return of milk after a few days' rest and cooling food they have suckled them as before. In captivity the female is by no means jealous of her young being handled, and strangers may approach and fondle her calf immediately after its birth without incurring her resentment. It is exceedingly entertaining to note the gravity of young calves, and the way in which they keep close to their bulky mothers. The extreme gentle- ness of elephants, the care they take never to push against, or step upon, their attendants, doubtless arises from an instinctive feeling designed for the protection of their young, which a rough, though unintentional, push or blow with the legs of such huge animals would at once kill. Amongst all created creatures the elephant stands unrivalled in gentleness. The most intelligent horse cannot be depended upon not to tread on his master's toes, and if ter- rified makes no hesitation in dashing away, even should he upset any one in so doing. But elephants, even huge tuskers whose heads are high in the air, and whose keepers are mere pigmies beside them, are so cautious that accidents very seldom occur through carelessness on their part. In the kheddahs, though elephants are excited by struggling, they never overlook the men on foot engaged in securing the captives ; and though there would seem to be great danger in being amidst the forest of huge legs and bulky bodies of the tame elephants, they evince such wonderful instinct in avoiding injuring the men that I have never seen an accident occur through them. - When an alarm occurs in a herd the young ones immediately vanish under their mothers, and are then seldom seen again. A herd containing a large number of calves would be supposed under these circumstances by the uninitiated to consist entirely of full-grown elephants. I have only known two young elephants disabled in many rushes and crushes of large herds that I have witnessed. The mothers help their offspring up steep places with a push behind, and manage to get them through or over every difficulty with great ingenuity. The tusks of the Asiatic elephant are much smaller than those of the African. The largest tusks of any elephant that I have myself shot measured respectively 4 feet 1 1 inches and 5 feet in length, outside curve ; 16^ inches in circumference at the gum ; and weighed 74^ lb. the pair. An elephant with one enormous tusk, and one diseased and broken, was shot in the TUSKS OF ASIATIC ELEPHANTS. 63 Billiga-rungun hills in 1863 by Sir Victor Brooke and Colonel Douglas Hamilton. An account from the pen of the former gentleman of their adventures with this elephant appears in Chap. XVII. ; and the following dimensions and weight of both tusks, from the same source, may be relied upon : — Right Tusk. Total length, outside curve, .... Length of part outside socket or nasal hones, outside curve, Length of part inside socket, outside curve. Greatest circumference, ..... Weight, Left Tusk.* Total length, outside curve, Outside socket, do., Inside do. do., Greatest circumference, Weight, Feet. Tnchoa. 8 0 5 9 2 3 1 4.9 901b, Feet. Inches. 3 3 1 2 2 1 1 8 49 lb. Tusks are firmly embedded in sockets or cylinders of bone which run up to the forehead and end at a line drawn from eye to eye. Tusks, except those of very aged elephants, are only solid for a portion of their length ; the hollow is filled with a firm, bloody pulp. In young animals the tusks are only solid for a portion of their length even outside the gum, and are hollow throughout the embedded portion. With age the pulp cavity decreases in depth, tiH, in very old animals, it becomes almost obliterated. In the large tusk referred to above, the pulp hoUow extends from the base through half the embedded portion (about 13 1 inches). In a pair of tusks belong- ing to Colonel Douglas Hamilton it is 10^ inches in an embedded length of 25. As a rule, tusks show barely one half of their total length outside the jaw of the living animal. The length within and without the nasal bones is generally exact, but the lip or gum hides a few inches of the projecting Jialf. As the sockets or nasal bones of a large elephant are from 1 foot 6 inches to 1 foot 9 inches in length, this admits of an elephant's having a tusk 3 1 feet long, of which only 1 \ foot (the gum hides about 4 inches) is * Sir Victor Brooke says : " The diseased (left) tusk is a very remarkable example from a patho- logical point of view. The pulp cavity is entirely obliterated, a mass of excessively dense nodular dentine being formed in its place. As far as I can judge, the tusk has been broken off short after attaining large dimensions, and in tlie rupture a deep longitudinal rent extended backwards into the pulp cavity, giving rise to diseased condition of the pulp. The stench from the tusk when ex- tracted was horrible." 64 CUTTING TUSKS. v-isible. This rule holds pretty closely for all elephants until they become aged, when, if the tusks grow abnormally long, which is not always the case, the exposed portion becomes longer tlian the embedded, as the latter is limited to the length which the nasal bones attain — viz., about If foot in the largest skulls. The points are usually cut from the tusks of tame elephants, and the ex- tremity is encircled with a brass or iron ring to prevent the tusk splitting, and for show. In cases where too much has been cut from the tusk and the hollow portion entered, dreadful mischief ensues. I have seen a tusker, one of whose tusks had rotted away from this cause, with the socket far into the head filled with mtggots. Tusks if once lost are never renewed. Sir Emerson Tennent considers at some length the use for which the tusks of male elephants can be designed. He says : — " But here there arises a further and very curious inquiry as to the specific objects in the economy of the elephant to which its tusks are con- ducive. Placed as it is in Ceylon, in the midst of the most luxuriant pro- fusion of its favourite food, and with no natural enemies against whom to protect itself, it is difficult to conjecture any probable utiKty which it can derive from such appendages. Their absence is unaccompanied by any inconvenience to the individuals in whom they are wanting ; and as regards the few who possess them, the only operations in which I am aware of their tusks being employed is to assist in ripping open the stems of the joggery palms and young palmirahs to extract the farinaceous core ; and in splitting up the juicy shaft of the plantain. " If the tusks were designed to be employed offensively, some alertness would naturally be exhibited in using them. So peaceable and harmless is the life of the elephant, that nature appears to have left it unprovided with any special weapon of offence ; and although in an emergency it may push or gore with its tusks, their almost vertical position, added to the difficulty of raising its head above the level of the shoulder, is inconsistent with the idea of their being designed for attack, since it is impossible for the animal to deliver an effectual blow, or to wield its tusks as the deer and the buffalo can wield their horns. " Among elephants, jealousy and other causes of irritation frequently occasion contentions between individuals of the same herd ; but on such occasions their general habit is to strike with their trunks, and to bear down their opponents with their heads. It is doubtless correct that an elephant, when prostrated by the force or fury of an antagonist of its own species, is often woimded by the downward pressure of the tusks, which in any other position it would be almost impossible to use offensively." SIR EMERSON TENNENTS THEORY ABOUT TUSKS. 65 Before treating on this question I must refer to Sir Emerson Tennent's work, The, Wild Elephant, published originally in 1859, and again in 1866. This is, I believe, the most recent work on the elephant, and has been ser- viceable in removing some of the grossest misapprehensions regarding it ; but it is fuU of the errors which are unavoidable when a man writes on a subject with which he has no practical acquaintance, and musters information with- out having sufficient knowledge to enable him to choose the good and reject the evil. The book is written in such a fascinating and earnest style that it is difficult to believe that the author is mostly romancing, and before I knew anything of elephants I revelled in his descriptions. But when on even short personal acquaintance with the noble animal I found that, amongst his numerous accomplishments, the power to take all four feet off the ground at the same moment was not one, I was obliged to conclude that the elephant in the case quoted by Sir Emerson as having cleared a barricade 15 feet high, only carrying away the top bar, could not have accomplished the feat , and though Sir Emerson subsequently wrote to the person from whom he had the information, who wrote to the Cutchery Modliar of Kornegalle who had told him, who sent a native to measure the place again, who said he found the elephant had only made a clear jump of 9 feet, because he had climbed on to a white-ant's hill from which he sprang, I found myself unable to place further belief in the author. More extended acquaintance with elephants entirely dissipated my faith in the wild elephant of Sir Emerson Tennent's imagination and of my inexperienced days. Sir Emerson Ten- nent has, in many places in his work, substituted theory and fancy for fact. In the above matter of tusks he has indulged in pure theory. In his account of the two or three captures of elephants he witnessed (the largest number caught at one time being apparently nine), he does not mention any tuskers having been taken, though the artist in the illustrations to his work (which are excellent and lifelike pictures) has thrown in a tusker amongst the captives. Sir Emerson Tennent being confessedly no sportsman prob- ably never saw a wild tusker. In Ceylon tuskers are few and far between, and no one but a sportsman who constantly followed elephants would be likely to fall in with them. Far from tusks being useless appendages to elephants, and of Uttk service for offence, they are amongst the most formidable of any weapons with which Nature has furnished her creatures, and none are used with more address. They are not placed almost vertically, as stated by Sir Emerson Tennent,"^'' and they can be used at almost any angle. In a herd of elephants the tuskers maintain the height of discipline. Every individual * This will be seen in the illustrations of elephants. £ 6b' " MUCKNASr gives way before them, and in serious fights amongst themselves one or other is frequently killed outright. So great is the dread entertained by all elephants of a tusker, that our stanchest tame females shrank if any of the tame tuskers turned suddenly in their direction. Superiority in a herd appears to attach to the different tuskers in proportion to the size of their tusks ; no tusker thinks of serious rivalry with one of heavier calibre than himself. In the kheddahs in Mysore we found the services of tuskers invaluable ; we had two, amongst others, that were taller and with longer tusks than any wild ones we captured, and their presence was always suffi- cient to awe the most obstreperous wild male whilst the men were securing it. Our tame elephants' tusks were cut and blunt, but we had steel glaives to slip on if necessary, with which they could have killed any elephant in a very short time. Tusks are not used to assist the elephant in procuring food. Small trees are overturned by pushing with the curled trunk, or feet if necessary ; and to get at the core of a palm-tree, or break up the plantain, the pressure of his feet alone is used. On the continent of India mucknas, or male elephants horn without tusks, are decidedly rare. The word muchna is derived from mookh, the mouth or face, Mucknas can hardly be distinguished from females at the first glance, but if they are full-grown animals their superior size shows their sex. Their tushes or prongs are generally a little longer and thicker than those of female elephants. It is a common belief that mucknas are larger as a rule than tuskers. This is not the case, but they are generally stouter and more vigorous animals. Their good development is sought to be accounted for by their being said to be allowed by their mothers to suck after young tuskers have been driven off, when their sharp little tusks hurt their mothers ; but this, though an ingenious explanation, is not a correct one, as the young tusker can suck without its tusks touching its mother, and I have always seen them suckled as long as the female calves are. A common belief that mucknas are usually vicious animals is also groundless. They are generally much iU-treated by the tuskers of the herd, upon whom they are powerless to retaliate, and I have seen one or two decidedly timid in consequence. A timid elephant is always less safe than one of better courage, but I have not found mucknas to be naturally ill-tempered. The absence of tusks appears to be a merely accidental cir- cumstance, as the want of beard or whiskers in a man. Mucknas breed in the herds, and the peculiarity is not hereditary nor transmitted. This is a known fact, and is demonstrated by the occasional occurrence of tuskers, doubtless from tuskless sires, in Ceylon herds, - TUSKS ARE NEVER SHED OR RENEWED. 67 In Ceylon a male elephant with tusks is a rara avis : Sir Samuel Baker aays that not more than one in 300 is provided with them. Out of 140 elephants, of which 5 1 were males, which I captured in Mysore and Bengal in 1874-76, only 5 were mucknas. It is difficult to imagine what can cause the vital difference of tusks and no tusks between the male elephant of continental India and Ceyloa The climate may be said to be the same, as also their food ; and I have not seen any theory advanced that seems at aU well founded to account for their absence in the Ceylon elephant. There is a somewhat similar case in the common antelope {Antilope hezoartica) of Southern India's having inferior horns to those of Central India, an 18 -inch black buck being a decided rarity in Mysore, and 14 inches being the average, whilst in other parts of India they attain to 26 or 27 inches. Sambur (Bma Aristotelis) in the Chittagong and other forests to the east of the Bay of Bengal have inferior horns to those of the Neilgherries and other parts of India. Elephants occasionally lose one tusk, sometimes both, in accidents in the jungle, and some have only one tusk from birth. The latter are known as " Gun^sh " (the name of the Hindoo god of wisdom) by Hindoos, and are reverenced by them if the tusk retained be the right-hand one. The tusks of the male elephant-calf show almost from birth. I believe that they are never renewed, and that the first tusks are permanent. In many works on the elephant it is stated that the first tusks are shed before the second year, but I believe this to be an error — one that has gained groimd through so many writers deriving their information from a common source. I have made this a point of particular inquiry amongst experienced elephant -attendants, and have found them unanimous in dissenting from the idea of any such process of renewal. It is impossible that such an im- portant matter could have escaped their notice (natives are keen observers), and I apprehend that the error — as it undoubtedly is — has arisen through some savant's diagnosis of the elephant's dentition, based on analogy, or the confounding the teeth and the tusks, as the same word is used to denote either in several native languages. Jerdon has given his support to the statement as far as adopting it goes, but this is a case in which a deserv- edly trusted writer could hardly have had the information from his owe. observation. I have had many young elephants in my charge, and never noticed anything of the change alluded to. The Indian female elephant is always born with tushes or short down- ward prongs in the upper jaw, rarely more than four inches in length out of the gum : these, whilst present, are used for stripping bark off trees, &c.; but they are seldom retained long, being generally broken off early in life, and 68 ELEPHANTS NOT DECREASING IN INDIA. they do not appear to be at all necessary to the elephant. Female elephants use them amongst themselves in striking each other, raising their trunks in doing so, and bearing downwards with their tushes. These tushes are never renewed. A young female which I had, in trying to overturn a tree, broke both her tushes one after the other. The only pace of the elephant is the walk, capable of being increased to a fast shuffle of about fifteen miles an hour for a very short distance. It can neither trot, canter, nor gallop. It does not move with the legs on the same side together, but nearly so. A very good runner might keep out of an elephant's way on a smooth piece of turf ; but in the ground in which they are generally met, any attempt to escape by flight, unless supplemented by concealment, would be unavailing. As before stated, an elephant cannot jump, and, though very clever in surmounting obstacles, can never have all four feet off the ground together. Whether it is the peculiar formation of the hind-legs, with knees instead of hocks, or the weight and bulk of the animal that incapacitates him, I cannot say, but he is physically incapable of making the smallest spring, either in vertical height or horizontal distance. Thus a trench seven feet wide i& impassable to an elephant, though the step of a large one in full stride is about six and a half feet. The idea that wild elephants have decreased of late years is not uncom- mon in India. It appears to have arisen from the fact of orders having, been issued of late years by the Supreme and Local Governments for their protection ; also from their undoubted decrease in Ceylon. But the case of that island is hardly analogous to that of the continent. In Ceylon elephants have always been made a peculiar object of pursuit by large numbers of sportsmen and paid native hunters, whilst their range is not without its limits. In continental India the actual numbers shot by Euro- pean sportsmen has always been very small, and it was only for a few years that natives were induced to turn their attention to killing them by a reward given for their destruction in the Madras Presidency. This was soon withdrawn, when the natives' interest in their pursuit ceased ; and the representations of humane officials having further led to the curtailment of the wasteful methods of trapping them practised by native hunters, the wild elephant now enjoys perfect immunity tliroughout the Western Ghats, and those boundless jungles extending for hundreds of miles along the foot of the Himalayas into Burmah and Siam. The number annually caught by the Government establishments is comparatively very small ; and there is no doubt that all the forest ground that can be legitimately allowed to the wild elephant is as fuUy occupied at present as is desirable. I have ex- NECESSITY FOR SYSTEMATIC CHECK BY CAPTURE. 69 amined the elephant-catching records of the past forty-five years in Bengal, and the present rate of capture attests the fact that there is no diminution in tlie numbers now obtainable ; whilst in Southern India elephants have become so numerous of late years that the rifle will have to be again called into requisition to protect the ryots from their depredations, unless more systematic measures for their capture and utilisation than are at present in vogue be maintained. It cannot but be a matter of hearty congratulation to all interested in so fine and harmless an animal that there is no chance of the sad fate that is pursuing his African congener, and leading to his rapid extinction, affecting the Asiatic elephant. CHAPTER VII. THE CAPTURING OF WILD ELEPHANTS. METHOD ADOPTED FOR TAKING HERDS — CONSTITUTION OF A KHEDDAH PARTY — SKETCH OF OPERATIONS — THE CATCHING OF SINGLE ELEPHANTS — FOLLOWING THEM DURING THK NIGHT— PITFALLS — BARBARITY OF THIS METHOD— NOOSING — JUDGMENT REGARDING RECAPTURED ELEPHANTS IN A CASE BEFORE THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURES, CALCUTTA. THE following are the chief methods adopted for the capture of wild elephants : — Driving into kheddahs or enclosures. Hunting with trained females. Pitfalls. Noosing from trained elephants' backs. The kheddah plan is the only one adapted for the capture of whole herds, the others being for single elephants. It is the method in vogue by the Government hunting establishments in Bengal, and is conducted as follows: A hunting party is collected which consists of 370 men, all accustomed and trained to the work. Their duties and scales of pay are shown in the following roll. They are under the immediate control of the jemadar, or native sergeant, who is responsible, under the European officer, for the collecting of the men and the whole operations of the party. In addition to their pay each man is allowed free rations at the rate of 2 lb. of rice per diem, and 2 lb. of salt fish, chillies, and salt, per mensem. These provisions ordinarily cost about Rs. 3 per head per mensem; and the total cost of a party is Rs. 3800 (£380) per mensem. Attached to each elephant-hunting party there must be a number of tame elephants, or koonkies, to deal with the wild elephants when captured ; the number of which latter must depend upon the strength of the koonkie HUNTING PARTIES. 71 establishment, as it is useless to catch more than the tame ones can deal with efficiently. Not only have the wild ones to be led out of the jungles, and loosed from picket and taken to drink and bathe daily, but each requires an elephant's load of fodder, which the tame ones have to bring. Consequently two wild ones to each tame one is the maximum that can be managed. Rate of Detail. pay per mensem. Ka. Jemadar, 25 Interpreter, 10 Writer, 9 Head-tracker, 9 Mate-trackers, 7* Trackers, Head-coolies, 9 Mate-coolies, 7i Coolies, 7 Havildar, 9 Naik, 7^ Sepoys, 7 Head-nooser, 9 Noosers, 7 Head-pulwdn, 9 Pulwdns, 7 Remarks. To collect establisliinent and conduct operations. To Hillmen. To furnish reports, accounts, &c. To go in advance and ascertain the position and num- ber of herds, and to lead the party in surrounding a herd. To surround and guard the herd, construct enclosure, or kheddah, and drive the elephants in. To keep a check on the circle of coolies by going round at short intervals ; also to mount guard at the superintendent's camp. These men are furnished with guns. To bind the wild elephants when impounded in the enclosure. j These men are furnished with guns and take post at any point where the elephants show a determination to j force the cordon of coolies. I The hunting party proceeds to the forest at the commencement of the dry weather — usually in December — equipped for two or three months, and the scouts having found a herd (a large one is always sought, as there is no more trouble in catcliing it than a small one), the hunters are halted within a mile, when half of them file off to the right and half to the left. Along these diverging lines, which are to meet beyond the herd and enclose it, two men are left at every fifty yards or so as a guard. The surround when completed is often six or eight miles in circumference, as if the ground is favourable the men are posted more widely apart than two at fifty yards. It is a rule in elephant-catching that, this circle being once completed, the herd can only escape through great carelessness on the part of the guard. In a couple of hours the hunters run up a thin fence of split bamboos all round the ring, and make rough shelters of boughs for themselves. Their only duty then is to see that the elephants do not break out of the circle. The animals are seldom seen during the day : at night large fires are kept up, and if they approach, shouts and shots are used to drive them back. The 72 SURROUNDING ELEPHANTS. bamboo fencing serves to show the jemadar and his assistants where the elephants have broken out should they escape, so that the particular men who are to blame can be detected. The surround is always made as extensive as possible, as with plenty of cover, fodder, and water inside, the elephants give less trouble than if confined in a small space. The investment may have to be maintained for a week or so, sometimes much longer. The elephants give some little trouble for the first two nights, but after that time they seldom try to force the guards unless fodder becomes scarce inside. The guards are supplied with provisions, and cook their meals at their posts. The construction of the kheddah, inside the large circle, is commenced as soon as the elephants are surrounded. For this work one of the two coolies is taken from each post from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m., as the elephants give little trouble during the day, and a single sentry suffices. The Hindoostanee word kheddah means the enclosure or pound intended for imprisoning the herd. This is formed of stout uprights about twelve feet in height, arranged in a circle of from twenty to fifty yards in diameter, and strongly backed by sloping supports and binders behind. An entrance of four yards in width is left for the ingress of the herd. The enclosure is built on one of the elephants' chief runs, and in a spot where the thickness of the cover screens it from view. Elephants keep strictly to beaten tracks in traversing the jungles — a circumstance of great service in arranging plans for their capture. To guide the elephants to the gate, two lines of strong palisades are run out from it on each side of the path by which they will approach. These guiding wings diverge to perhaps fifty yards across at their commencement, which may be a hundred yards or so from the gate. When the herd is once within this funnel-shaped approach, it is easily driven forward by the beaters closing in from behind. The gate is made very strong, and is studded with iron spikes on the inside. It is slung by rope-hinges to a cross-beam, and is dropped by the rope being cut as soon as the elephants have entered. Inside, roimd the foot of the palisade, a ditch is generally dug about four feet wide and deep, to deter the elephants from trying the stockade, or should they do so, to prevent their standing in a position to use their strength to advantage. Elephants rarely attempt to force the palisades ; they never do so in a body. Occasionally an enterprising animal wiU try his strength on them ; and strong though the stockade is, I have known a determined tusker go through as if it had been made of corn-stalks. The men closed up at once on this occasion, and none of the others attempted to foUow their leader — an instance of the elephants' lack of intelligence in certain matters. As soon as the kheddah is completed, probably in four or five days from the time of the surround, arrangements are made for driving the herd. For MODE OF SECURING ELEPHANTS. 73 this purpose one mau is taken from each picket of the original circle on the morning of the day when the drive is to take place, and a smaller interior circle is formed by commencing at the ends of the guiding wings of the kheddah and posting the men until the elephants are again surrounded. They are then driven forward towards the kheddah, and when near it the men close in from all sides with shouts and shots, and the elephants gen- erally enter the trap without hesitation. Should they suspect danger, how- ■ever, and refuse to proceed, or break back through the beaters, fatal accidents are not uncommon. After the elephants have been impounded in the kheddah, the tame elephants are admitted with their mahouts upon the neck of each, and a rope-tier seated behind. It is a remarkable circumstance that the wild ones very seldom attempt to dislodge the riders, though they might do so with ease. I never knew of a case (except one which happened to myself) of a rider being attacked by any of them. The duty of the tame elephants is to secure the vnld ones by separating them one by one from their com- panions, when their hind-legs are tied together by the men, who slip to the gi'ound for the purpose. A rope is then secured round each captive's neck and another to one hind-leg, and they are led out and picketed in the forest near, until they have been sufficiently subjugated to be removed. Further details will be found in the account of capturing elephants in Mysore. HUNTING WITH TRAINED FEMALES. The largest male elephants are seldom caught with the herd by the kheddah plan, from their habit of frequently absenting themselves from their companions, or making their escape out of the circle of men by their greater boldness. They are the most valuable animals, and are usually caught in the following manner, or some modification of it : — Four or five steady females, ridden by their mahouts, who partly oonceal themselves with a dark -coloured blanket as they lie on their elephants' necks,* are taken to the jungle where the single male is known to be, and are allowed to graze as though they were wild ones, and to gradually approach the male if he does not himseK take the initiative. Some wild males make off at once, probably scenting the men on the ■elephants' necks, but many do not appear to notice them. When the male * The term ' ' decoy " is entirely misapplied to trained elephants used for catching vrild ones, as they act at the command of their riders, and use no arts to divert the male's attention, as lias t)een asserted. 74 HUNTING SINGLE MALE ELEPHANTS. can be got to abandon himself without reserve to the society of the females, they keep in close attendance upon him ; and as it is sometimes two days and nights before he can be secured, a party of spare mahouts follows on foot to relieve the riders every twelve hours. For this purpose the tame females are withdrawn one at a time, and the mahout is changed out of view of the wild one. The relieving party also generally has a spare elephant carrying the ropes and chains required when the elephant is secured. At night the wild male probably leaves the forest to visit the fields of the adjacent villages, whither he is closely escorted by his treacherous friends. If he enters a field to graze one female is posted at each comer, and by a signal gives notice to the others when he leaves it. This is to avoid the damage which the whole party's entering the corn would cause. Towards morning the elephant retires to the forest, and when he shows signs of going to sleep the tame ones close round him. Should he not appear to be very somnolently inclined, devices are used to keep him awake, such as moving off all the tame elephants, when he generally follows, so as to keep him without rest, and tire him until he shall resign himself to slumber without reserve. (Some elephants can be got to eat opium in sugar-cane, when, the mahouts say, they are soon reduced to help- lessness, but I have never had an opportunity of using it myself) The tame Delilahs, under the direction of their riders, close round their victim when he is really asleep, and two mahouts slip off with coils of rope and tie the slumbering Samson's hind-legs together very securely. HaK an hour is frequently spent in doing this. The tame elephants then withdraw, and the men on foot perhaps slap the wild one behind and tell him to be of good cheer. His terror on perceiving men so close to him may be imagined, and his rage and dismay at finding his legs bound together pass description. If he has been secured to a tree he uses every effort of which he is capable to snap his bonds. If his hind-legs have merely been fastened together he makes off as best he can, dragging them after him. The other elephants follow at a distance, and when he is completely exhausted they again approach, keeping out of reach of his tusks, as he will now use them, and the men fasten him to a convenient tree, and camp close at hand. In a day or two a cable is fixed on his neck, and with one still on one hind- leg, he is led away to an appointed station to be trained. A large propor- tion of the fine elephants captured in this way die from the injuries they receive from the severe restraints necessary to control them during the first few days. CRUELTY OF THE PITFALL PLAN. 75^ PITFALLS. A most barbarous method of catching wild elephants is by pitfalls dug in their paths, and into which they fall with a readiness which is remark- able in animals which are usually so cautious in all sorts of ground. The pits are generally arranged in some confined pass, at seasons when elephants are not in the neighbourhood, or under particular trees which they are in the habit of visiting for their fruit or leaves. The standard native measure- ment for pits in Mysore is ten and a half feet long by seven and a half broad, and fifteen feet deep. This is a tight fit as to area for a large elephant, but is purposely made so to prevent male elephants using their tusks to dig down the sides. This they, however, generally manage to effect in a day or two if they are left to themselves. The depth of the pits being so great, it may be imagined that an immense majority of the elephants that make the descent have their limbs dislocated or broken, or receive permanent internal injury, even if they are not killed on the spot, as some- times happens. To prevent such mishaps as far as possible, a strong bar is fixed across the mouth of the pit in the centre, upon which the elephant's neck usually falls ; and though it bends or breaks with his weight, it tends to make him go down more level than he would otherwise do. It is seldom the hunters trouble themselves to put boughs in the bottom of the pit to break the force of the elephant's descent. In Mysore a perfect network oi pitfaUs used to be maintained by the Maharajah, the Forest Department, and a few by lessees, as also in Madras ; in these a large number of animals were taken annually. An immense proportion died from the effects of this violent mode of capture, and those that Hved were only small ones, whose weight did not lead to such serious effects as in full-grown elephants. The Sholagas and Kurrabas used, when pits were in vogue in Mysore, to be intrusted with their supervision. If an elephant fell into one they were supposed to take the news to the station where the tame elephants were kept, near the jungles, and these would then be taken by their drivers to secure the animal. Between the delay made by the jungle-people and the laziness of the elephant-men, many elephants were starved to death in the pits, or so reduced as never to be got out of the jungle alive. Many other wild animals fell into the pits besides elephants. I have myself known of several bison, a pair of bears, and two pairs of tiger cubs falling into them. Deer constantly did so ; and it was for the sake of their flesh, as much as for the trifle that they were paid, that the jungle-people used to attend to the pits. In the hot weather when cattle were taken to graze in, 76 DANGER OF PITFALLS, tlie forests they frequently fell in, and were of course left to theix fate, as their legs or ribs were more often broken than not. The Commissariat and Forest Departments soon gave up the pit plan; but the Maharajah required a few elephants annually, and even though ten or twenty were killed for every one that lived, it was his only method of procuring them. As the forests were full of herds, it did not matter from an economic point how many were kdled. I have heard of four elephants falling into one pit together, and, strange to say, three survived on this occasion, probably from having the fourth as a cushion at the bottom : this one was trampled to death, and almost out of all shape. The pits were often arranged with great art by the hunters, an opeu one being perhaps left in view, in avoiding which an elephant would fall into a <50vered one alongside ; or several were dug in close proximity, into which others might fall when fleeing in terror at the bellow of fright which the first gave on finding the earth sinking under him. On one occasion I was riding through a strange part of the Billiga-rungun hUls, when, coming to a felled tree, I turned my pony aside to go round it. One of the Sholagas with me fortunately stopped me, just in time, by screaming " Koppoo ! kop- poo ! " (pit, pit) — and almost under my pony's nose I saw a hole through the covering caused by the falling of a deer into the pit. The tree had been felled with the object of making the elephants go round it, as I had done. Since the Maharajah's death the pit system in Mysore has happily been given up. The atrocious cruelties to which elephants were subjected by it are too horrible to think of. NOOSING FROM TRAINED ELEPHANTS BACKS. This is the most spirited and exciting, though by no means advanta- geous, manner of hunting the wild elephant. It is practised in parts of Bengal and Nepaul, but is unknown in Southern India. It is far from an economic method, as the wear and tear of the tame elephants engaged is very great, nor can full-sized wild ones be captured by it. I have never myself seen a hunt by this method, but I have had men in my employ who were adepts at it. It is conducted as foUowe-: Three or four fast tame elephants are equipped with a rope each ; at one end is a noose, the other is girthed securely round their bodies ; on some the noose is to the near side, on the others to the off. Each elephant has three riders — the mahout on its neck to guide it ; the nooser kneeling on a small pad on its back, holding the open noose in his hands ; and a driver seated near the root of its tail, whose duty it is to hammer it unmercifully in the region of the os coccygis LA W REGARDING RECAPTURED RUN A WA V ELEPHANTS. 7T with a spiked mallet. This impels an elephant to much greater exertionfi than any use of the driver's goad will, though that inducement is by no means omitted. Tims equipped the elephants approach the wild ones. These at once make off, and the chase commences through or over everything, the men sav- ing themselves from being swept off, if the jungle is thick, as best they can. AVhere the ground is favourable two tame elephants endeavour to range up on opposite sides of a fleeing wild one, encouraged thereto by the unlimited use of the a posteriori argument of the mallet man. When the elephants are well up with the wild one the nooses are cast, and generally encircle its neck. If this is effected the tame elephants are checked, and other nooses are soon secured, but the choking of the wild one, or fatal accidents to the tame ones or their riders, by being pulled over or dragged into ravines, are not unusual accompaniments of this rough work. Hand-noosing is practised only in Ceylon, where a couple of hunters on foot manage with wonderful skill and activity to noose the hind-legs of an elephant when running away, and to secure the trailing ends of the rope to a tree as it passes. It has not unfrequently happened in Bengal, where numbers of ele- phants are kept by native land- owners, that animals have escaped and joined wild herds, and have been recaptured along with them in the Govern- ment kheddahs. The question of ownership of such elephants has often been raised. The following is a case on appeal, decided in the High Court of Judicature, Calcutta, in favour of the Government establishment that recaptured an escaped elephant : — Plaintiff, a zemindar, alleged that he had the female elephant in ques- tion in possession for six years, when she fled to the jungles. He made dili- gent search for her, and reported her loss at the nearest district police station. He heard a year later that she had been recaptured in the SyLhet District,, in the Government kheddahs. His claim to the animal being rejected by the Superintendent of Kheddahs, he instituted a suit for her recovery in the Court of the Collector of Sylhet. The Collector gave judgment in favour of the Superintendent of Kheddahs on behalf of Government. Plaintiff thereupon appealed to the High Court of Judicature, Calcutta, but his appeal was dismissed on the grounds that such animals being originally ferce naturce, are no longer the property of man than while they continue in his keeping. If at any time they regain their natural Liberty his property ceases, unless they have animus revertandi, which is only to be known by their usual custom of returning — or unless instantly pursued by their owner, for during such pursuit his property remains. In this case pursuit had ceased, and the animal had returned to its natural and independent state. CHAPTER VIII. THE ELEPHANT IN CAPTIVITY. "CXDNSIDERATION OP THE ELEPHANT'S INTELLIGENCE — THE DOMESTIC ELEPHANT'S TEMPERA- MENT— FALLACIES REGARDING THE POWER OF THE TRUNK — ORIENTALS' IDEAS OF PERFECTION IN ELEPHANTS — THEIR BREEDS OR CASTES — KOOMERIAHS — DWXSALAS — MEERGAS — DISTINGUISHING POINTS — WHITE ELEPHANTS — SPECIAL VALUE OF TUSKERS — RULE AND REASON FOR CUTTING TUSKS — ECONOMIC USES IN DRAUGHT — AS BEASTS OF BURDEN — OP DISPLAY — RIDING-ELEPHANTS — SHIKAR ELEPHANTS — ELEPHANT- MARTS — EXPORT FROM CEYLON — PRICES OF ELEPHANTS — PAST — PRESENT — PROBABLE FUTURE OF THE MARKET — REQUIREMENTS IN ELEPHANTS AND MEANS OP SUPPLY TO THE BENGAL GOVERNMENT — THE DACCA KHEDDAH ESTABLISHMENT — BENGAL LICENCE SYSTEM OF CAPTURING ELEPHANTS — MEANS OF SUPPLY OP ELEPHANTS TO THE MADRAS GOVERNMENT — KHEDDAHS IX THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY — THE BURMAH MARKET — APPENDIX ON BREEDING OP ELEPHANTS. THE opinion is generally held by those who have had the best oppor- tunities of observing the elephant, that the popular estimate of its intelligence is a greatly exaggerated one ; that, instead of being the excep- tionally wise animal it is believed to be, its sagacity is of a very mediocre description. Of the truth of this opinion no one who has lived amongst elephants can entertain any doubt. It is a significant fact that the natives of India never speak of the elephant as a peculiarly intelligent animal ; and it does not figure in their ancient literature for its wisdom, as do the fox, the crow, and the monkey. The elephant's size and staid appearance, its gentleness, and the ease with which it performs various services with its trunk, have probably given rise to the exalted idea of its intellect amongst those not intimately acquainted with it. And its being but little known in Europe, whilst what is known of it justly makes it a general favourite, leads to tales of its intelligence being not only accepted without investigation, but welcomed THE ELEPHANTS INTELLIGENCE EXAGGERATED. 79 with pleasure. Many of the stories about it are intended for the edification of little folks, and as such are well enough ; but in a sober inquiry into the mental capacity of the animal they must be duly examined. One of the strongest features in the domesticated elephant's character is its obedience. It may also be readily taught, as it has a large share of the ordinary cultivable intelligence common in a greater or less degree to all animals. But its reasoning faculties are undoubtedly far below those of the dog, and possibly of other animals ; and in matters beyond the range of its daUy experience it evinces no special discernment. Whilst quick at comprehending anything sought to be taught to it, the elephant is decidedly wanting in originality. Wliat an improbable story is that of the elephant and the tailor, wherein the animal, on being pricked with a needle instead of being fed with sweet- meats as usual, is represented as having deliberately gone to a pond, filled its trunk with dirty water, and returned and squirted it over the tailor and his work ! This story accredits the elephant with appreciating the fact that dirty water thrown over his work would be the peculiar manner in which to annoy a tailor. Is such a feat of reason possible in any beast ? How- has he acquired the knowledge of the incongruity of the two things — dirty water and clean linen ? He delights in water himself, and would therefore be unlikely to imagine it objectionable to another. An incident which I saw narrated in a book as having been observed by an ofi&cer in India is palpably disentitled to beUef. It was to the effect that a gunner, whilst seated on one of the heavy guns in a column of artillery on the march, fell off, and would have been crushed under the wheel in another moment, when an elephant, in attendance on the guns, perceiving the man's danger, seized the wheel, lifted it over his prostrate body, and put it down on the other side of him ! How did the elephant know that a wheel going over the man would not be agreeable to him ? We comprehend it as it is a matter within the range of our experience ; but could the elephant imagine himself in the man's place, and therefore understand what his sufferings would be if crushed under the wheel ? Would a Newfoundland dog — certainly a more intelligent creature than an elephant — rescue a child from drowning if it had never been taught to bring objects to the bank ? And if totally untrained, and not even accom- panied by its master — in fact, quite iminfluenced, as the elephant in the story is represented to have been — is it possible to believe it capable of such an effort of intellect as to understand the danger of a person drowning, and the necessity for prompt assistance ? If the elephant were possessed of the amount of discernment with which he is commonly credited. 80 SUPERFICIAL OBSERVERS. is it reaaonable to suppose that he would continue to labour for man, instead of waving his keepers adieu and turning into the nearest jungle ? Let us consider whether the elephant displays more intelligence in its wild state than other animals. Though possessed of a proboscis which is capable of guarding it against such dangers, it readily falls into pits dug for catching it, and only covered with a few sticks and leaves. Its fellows make no effort to assist the fallen one, as they might easily do by kicking in the earth around the pit, but flee in terror. It commonly happens that a young elephant falls into a pit, near which the mother will remain until the hunters come, without doing anything to assist it, not even feeding it by throwing in a few branches. This, I have no doubt, is more difficult of belief to most people than if they were told that the mother supplied it with grass, brought water in her trunk, or filled up the pit with fagots, and effected her young one's release. Whole herds of elephants are driven into ill-concealed enclosures which no other wild animals could be got to enter, and single ones are caught by their legs being tied together by men under cover of a couple of tame elephants. Elephants which happen to effect their escape are caught again without trouble ; even experience does not bring them wisdom. These facts are certainly against the conclusion that the elephant is an extraordinarily shrewd animal, much less one possessed of the power of abstract thought to the extent with which he is commonly credited. I do not think I traduce the elephant when I say it is, in many things, a stupid animal ; and I can assert with confidence that all the stories I have heard of it, except those relating to feats of strength or docility performed under its keeper's direction, are beyond its intellectual power, and are mere pleasant fictions. It often happens that persons who do not understand elephants give them credit for performing actions which are suggested to them, and in which they are directed, by the mahout on their necks. There is no secret so close as that between a horse and his rider, or between an elephant and his mahout. One of the chief characteristics in the domestic elephant's temperament is, as before stated, its obedience, and it does many things at the slightest hint from its mahout, whose directions are not perceived by an onlooker unacquainted with the craft of elephant-guidance. This has led to such mistakes as Sir Emerson Tennent makes "'^ in describing the conduct of tame elephants while engaged in capturing wild ones in Ceylon, when he says : " The tame ones displayed the most perfect conception of every move- ment, both of the object to be attained and the means to accomplish it. They saw intuitively a difficulty or a danger, and addressed themselves un- * Tlie Wild Elephant, by Sir J. Emerson Tenuent. TEMPERAMENT OF ELEPHANTS. 81 bidden to remove it." Another writer on a capture of elephants in Travan- core says : " It may be interesting to mention a trait of one of the trained elephants, which shows such a degree of intelligence and forethought that it deserves to he placed on record. While the animals were being driven towards the enclosure, one of the trained elephants, a large tusker, was ob- served to pick up stones from the ground with his trunk, and hand them up to his keeper on his neck. He did it in such a deliberate and matter-of- fact manner, that it was plain he comprehended perfectly the reason for which stones were required." Such are the notions with which those with superficial acquaintance with elephants fly away. I have seen the cream of trained elephants at work in the catching-estabUshments in Mysore and Bengal ; I have managed them myseK, under all circumstances ; and I can say that I have never seen one show any aptitude in dealing, undirected, with an unforeseen emergency. I have a young riding-elephant at present, Soondargowry, often my only shooting companion, which kneels, trumpets, hands up anything from the ground, raises her trunk to break a branch, or passes under one in silence, stops, backs, and does other things at understood hints as I sit on her pad ; but no uninitiated looker-on would perceive that any intimation of what is required passes between us. The driver's knees are placed behind an elephant's ears as he sits on it, and it is by means of a push, pressure, and other motions, that his wishes are communicated, as with the pressure of the leg witli trained horses in a circus. As well might performing dogs which spell out replies to questions be credited with knowing what they are saying, as elephants with appreciating the objects to be gained by much which they do under the direction of the rider. Sc much for the intelligence of the elephant. Let us now consider its temperament in captivity. I think all who have had to deal with elephants will agree in saying that their good qualities cannot be exaggerated, and that tLeir vices are few, and only occur in exceptional animals. The not uncommcu idea that elephants are treacherous and retentive of an injury is a g-'ornrrets one. Male elephants are subject to periodical fits of must,^^ of the approach of which, however, due warning is given, and during the con- tinuance of which care is necessary in dealing with them, as they are quite irresponsible for their actions. But at all other times the male elephant is generally perfectly safe, rarely suddenly changeable in temper. Female elephants are at all times the most perfect-tempered creatures in the world. Amongst some hundreds which I have known, only two have had any tricks. Of these, one would not allow herself to be ridden by a strange * This is treated of in Chapter VI. F 82 FALLACIES REGARDING THE TRUNK. mahout ; the other had a great aversion to any natives but her own two attendants approaching her. She was, however, perfectly friendly with Europeans, as I used to feed and pet her ; and when engaged at the khed- dahs in Mysore, she was frequently fed by the ladies present. The elephant's chief good qualities are obedience, gentleness, and patience. In none of these is he excelled by any domestic animal, and under circum- stances of the greatest discomfort, such as exposure to the sun, painful sur- gical operations, &c., he seldom evinces any irritation. He never refuses to do what he is required, if he understands the nature of the demand, unless it be something of which he is afraid. The elephant is excessively timid, both in its wild and domestic state, and its fears are easily excited by any- thing strange. But many have a good stock of courage, which only requires developing ; the conduct of some elephants used in tiger-hunting demon- strates this. Much misapprehension prevails regarding the uses and power of the elephant's trunk. This organ is chiefly used by the animal to procure its food, and to convey it, and water, to its mouth ; also to warn it of danger by the senses of smell and touch. It is a delicate and sensitive organ, and never used for rough work. In any dangerous situation the elephant at once secures it by curling it up. The idea that he can use it for any pur- pose, from picking up a needle to dragging a piece of ordnance from a bog, is, like many others, founded entirely on imagination. An elephant might manage the former feat, though I doubt it ; the latter he would not attempt. Elephants engaged in such work as dragging timber invariably take the rope between their teeth ; they never attempt to pull a heavy weight with the trunk. In carrying a light log they hold it in the mouth as a dog does a stick, receiving some little assistance in balancing it from the trunk. Tusk- ers generally use their tusks for this and similar purposes, and are more valuable than females for work. An elephant is powerful enough to extri- cate a cannon from a difficult situation, but he does it by pushing with his head or feet, or in harness — never by lifting or drawing with his trunk. The story adverted to above, of the elephant lifting the wheel over the prostrate gunner, is a physically impossible one. Elephants do not push with their foreheads, or the region above the eyes, but with the base of the trunk, or snout, about one foot below the eyes. An elephant rarely uses its trunk for striking other elephants or man. Newly-caught ones seldom attempt even to seize any one coming within their reach with their trunks ; they curl them up and rush at the intruder. Should any accident happen to an elephant's trunk to prevent it conveying water to its mouth, it drinks by wading into deep water and immersing the POINTS OF ELEPHANTS. 83 mouth in the manner common to most quadrupeds. In drinking, only ahout, fifteen inches of the end of the trunk are filled with water at a time ; the trunk is then curled backwards so as to reach the mouth, and the water is blown into it. Wild elephants' trunks are occasionally cut by the sharp edges of split bamboos whilst feeding. One which I saw had more than a foot of the outer cuticle stripped off the trunk ; another, a healed gash penetrating to one of the nostrils of the trunk from the outside. The elephant is essentially a native's animal. Natives alone have fully studied his peculiarities and classified him into castes ; his capture, training, and keeping, are in native hands, as well as the trade ; and the native standard of merit regulates the market. Commercially elephants come under only two classes — the one of page- antry, the other of utility. Every native prince or nobleman of distinction in India keeps elephants to swell his retinue : Government and private per- sons, as timber contractors, &c., require them for work. The native requirements in an elephant differ essentially from ours. They prize the animal chiefly as an adjunct to court display and temple pro- cessions. Consequently perfection of form and carriage are paramount from their point of view. As we require it for economic purposes, strength, do- cility, and courage are first considerations with us. The most perfect shoot- ing elephant may be of small value to a native, whilst gaudy animals, with perhaps nothing but their looks to recommend them, are highly valued. The native standard of a good elephant does, however, comprise all essentials to excellence for any purpose ; and putting aside minor and whimsical requirements, consisting in certain lucky or unlucky marks, correctly distinguishes the most desirable animals. In fancy beasts, a too short or too long tail, a black mark on the tongue, or a less number of nails than eighteen (some elephants have but sixteen ; the usual number is five on each fore foot, and four on each hind), are defects sufficient to disqualify the best animals. l^lephants are divided by natives into three castes or breeds, distin- guished by their physical conformation ; these are termed in Bengal Koomeriah, Dwdsala, and Meerga, which terms may be considered to signify thorough-bred, half-bred, and third-rates. The term Koomeriah signifies royal or princely. Meerga is probably a corruption of the Sanscrit viriga, a deer ; the Hght bmld and length of leg of this class of elephants suggest the comparison. Dwdsala in Persian means two things or originals, and in reference to the elephant, signifies the blending of the first and third castes into the intermediate one. Only animals possessing extreme divergence rank as Koomeriahs or 84 BAD POINTS. Meergas ; and the points of these breeds (if they may be so called) do not amount to permanent, or even hereditary, variation. Whole herds frequently consist of Dwasalas, but never of Koomeriahs or Meergas alone ; these I have- found occur respectively in the proportion of from ten to fifteen per cent amongst ordinary elephants. The Koomeriah, or thorough-bred, takes the first place ; he alone can reach extreme excellence, but all the points required for perfection are very rarely found in one individual. He is amongst elephants what the thorough- bred is amongst horses, saving that his is natural, not cultivated, superiority. The points of the Koomeriah are : Barrel deep, and of great girth ; legs- short (especially the hind ones) and colossal, the front pair convex on the front side from the development of muscle ; back straight and flat, but slop- ing from shoulder to tail, as an upstanding elephant must be high in front ; head and chest massive ; neck thick and short ; trunk broad at the base and proportionately heavy throughout ; bump between the eyes prominent ; cheeks full ; the eye full, bright, and kindly ; hind-quarters square and plump ; the skin rumpled, thick, inclining to folds at the root of the tail, and soft. If the face, base of trunk, and ears, be blotched with cream-col- oured markings, the animal's value is enhanced thereby. The tail must be long, but not touch the ground, and be well feathered. The illustration represents a first-class Koomeriah, and is from a photo- graph of an animal captured in the kheddahs in Cliittagong whilst I was in charge. This elephant was probably sixty years of age when captured. His height was 9 feet 2 inches (vertical) at the shoulder. He exhibited the magnanimous and urbane temperament common to these first-class animals, and was easily managed a few days after capture. He was designed for the Viceregal State howdah, being the finest elephant cap- tured in Bengal for many years ; but he died after I left Dacca — from what cause I have not learnt. The Dwasala class comprises all animals below this standard, but which do not present such marked imperfection as to cause them to rank as Meergas, or third-rates ; all ordinary elephants (about seventy per cent) are Dwasalas. A pronounced Meerga is the opposite to the Koomeriah. He is leggy, lank, and weedy, with an arched, sharp-ridged back, difficult to load, and liable to galling ; his trunk is thin, flabby, and pendulous ; his neck long and lean ; he falls off behind ; and his hide is thin. His head is small, which is a bad point in any elephant ; his eye is piggish and restless. His whole appearance is unthrifty, and no feeding or care makes him look fat. The Meerga, however, has his uses ; from his length of leg and lightness he ALBINOS. 85 as generally speedy : the heavier Koomeriah is usually slow and stately in liis paces. The illustration of a Meerga is from a photograph of one captured in the same herd with the above-mentioned Koomeriah, and presents all the characteristic points of its class. The temper of Koomeriahs, both male and female, is generally as superior to that of the Meerga as their physical conformation. Though gentleness and submissiveness are characteristics of all elephants, the Koomeriah pos- sesses these qualities, and equanimity, urbanity, and courage in a high degree. The Meerga's ill-favoured look frequently bespeaks the nervousness and meanness of his temperament. His want of courage, and, consequently, apprehensive nature, often lead to his being dangerous through his fears. He may strike at a stranger, or injure his own attendants when overcome with fear, whilst the Koomeriah, through his superior courage, is unmoved. As a nervous horse or cowardly dog is ever the first to kick or bite, so poor-couraged elephants are the animals which are least trustworthy. The elephant is said to be subject to albinism. I have never myself seen a really white one, nor have any of the experienced native hunters whom I have met. There is at present in his Highness the Maharajah of Mysore's stables a young tusker, captured twelve years ago, which is of a somewhat light colour, both as to his skin and hair, and his eyes are light blue. Amongst those I captured in Mysore, in 1 8 74, was a calf of a very light shade, somewhat of a dirty cream colour ; ordinary calves are quite black, Eegarding the white elephants of which we read as forming the most cher- ished possessions of the King of Ava, I am unable to give any information. I have never heard of any trustworthy European writer's having seen them. Keal vice in any elephant is a thing almost unknown. Natives attach less importance than we do to the temper of elephants ; all can be managed by some means, and the possession of an unruly animal, if of good figure, is sometimes regarded as rather desirable than otherwise. No male elephant can reach high merit without good tusks ; the longer and heavier they are the more is their possessor valued ; but they must be of good shape, curving upwards like the runners of a cradle, and diverging gracefully from each other. Tuskers are far more valuable for work than females, not only from their greater strength, but from the good use they make of their tusks in turning and carrying logs, &c. A tusker, if given the end of a rope to pull, puts it over one tusk, and folding the end between his teeth, can move a weight with this purchase which a female with only the hold with her teeth would be unable to man- age. Tusks usually require cutting once a-year : the elephant is made to 86 USES OF ELEPHANTS. lie down in water, and tlie portion to be removed is then sawn off. This gives him no pain, and is necessary to prevent elephants injuring each other, not as a precaution for the safety of their attendants. The rule for cutting an elephant's tusk is as follows : Measure from the eye to the insertion of the tusk in the lip ; this length measured from the latter point along the tusk will give the spot where it should be cut. In young animals a little more should be allowed, as the above measurement may approach too nearly the medullary pulp of the tusk. Elephants are used by Government for the transport of troops, for pro- visioning outpost stations which are not connected by roads, &c. The pro- gressing development of roads and railways in India may be expected to do away with the necessity for the services of some in the most accessible localities, but it will always be necessary to keep a certain number in case of movements in rough and uncivilised countries. Elephants were indis- pensable in the Abyssinian, Looshai, and other petty wars and expeditions, in recent years, and similar services may be required at any moment. The merely useful elephant, whose employment is to assist the move- ment of troops, to transport timber from the forests to river - banks, for shooting purposes, &c., is usually of the Dwasala or Meerga class. Amongst these the tuskers cost much more than the females. For work males are more powerful ; their tusks enable them to perform a variety of services which the female renders less efficiently ; and for shooting their superior courage is indisputable. A male elephant bears about the same relation in appearance and power to the female as a domestic buU does to a cow. From females being more generally employed in shooting, being more readily procurable, males seldom have the opportunity of showing their natural superiority in courage and strength ; but where they are employed they are immeasurably superior. For drauglit, elephants are very valuable, as logs can be brought by their aid from localities where they would otherwise be inaccessible. The elephant's power is most advantageously employed where a great exertion is required for a short distance, through a limited space of time. When elephants are harnessed, the dragging-rope is either attached to a collar round the neck or to a girth behind the shoulders. The latter plan is the better of the two, as it gives more bearing surface, and there is less liability to gall. To pull from the girth, the elephant's pad is first put on, to prevent the girth-rope from galling the back. The girth, a strong rope ninety feet in length, is then passed tightly several times round the elephant behind the shoulders, and a small breast-rope is attached to prevent it slipping backwards. The pulling rope or chain is then fastened to the girth, half-way up the elephant's side. LOADING ELEPHANTS. 87 Native attendants are very careless, and pulling-ropes are constantly break- ing, whicli makes elephants that have once been frightened in this way cautious about throwing themselves into the collar. But an elephant with confidence in his gear will make the most extraordinary exertions, leaning forward far beyond his centre of gravity, or kneeling and almost resting on his forehead, in his attempts to move the load. In dragging light timber a rope about three feet long is generally fastened round one end of a log. The elephant takes the rope in its teeth, and thus raising one end clear of the ground, haK drags, half carries it away. An elephant can be harnessed to a cart in the same way as a horse. In Dacca two elephant-waggons were employed for carrying away the litter from the elephant-lines. As a beast of burden the elephant can scarcely be considered satis- factory in all respects, chiefly from his UabiKty to gall under such heavy weights as he is otherwise able to carry. This difl&cidty can be avoided with great care, but it requires constant attention from more heedful and humane masters than ordinary elephant-attendants. Some of these do not attempt to prevent a sore back — rather the reverse — when elephants are on long and arduous service. A sore back once established, the elephant cannot be used for weeks, often months, and its attendants escape work, even the bringing itis fodder. The best preventive has been found to be putting every one connected with the elephant on half-pay till the animal has recovered. An elephant well packed will carry an immense bulk and weight ; and in difficult coimtry, especially hilly or swampy districts, their place cannot be taken by any other means of carriage. For transporting light guns in mountain warfare they are invaluable. An elephant's gear consists of a thick, soft-padded cloth, covering the whole of the back from the nape of the neck to the croup, and hanging half way down the animal's sides. Over this comes a saddle, which consists of two pads or flat bags of stout sacking, each six feet long, and two and a half broad. These are stuffed to one foot in thickness with dried grass or cocoanut fibre, and are attached by cross-pieces, so that one lies on each side of the elephant's backbone, which is thus protected from pressure. Upon the first pair of pads is another large single pad. On this the load is placed. Thus all the weight should rest on the upper part of the animal's ribs, without touching the spine, as in a horse with a well-fitted saddle. Half a ton is a good load for an elephant for continuous marching. In hilly country seven hundredweights is as much as he should carry. I have known a large female carry a pile of thirty bags of rice, weighing 8 2 lb. each, or one ton and two hundredweights, from one storeroom to another, three 88 RIDING-ELEPHANTS. hundred yards distant, several times in a morning. By the Bengal Com- missariat code elephants are expected to carry 1640 lb., exclusive of attendants and chains, for which 300 lb. extra may be added ; but this is too great a weight for continued marching. The weight of one of his Excellency the Viceroy's silver State howdahs and trappings is a little over half a ton, as below : — Cwts. qrs. lb. Howdah, . . . . . 6 1 22 Goldcloth, . . . . 1 0 14 Punkahs, &c., . . , . 0 2 25 Ropea and gear, . . , . 1 5 ; 15 10 2 20 Elephants are kept by natives of rank in India solely for the purposes of display, and in this sphere the animal is more at home than in any other. The pompous pace of a procession suits his naturally sedate disposition, and the attentions lavished upon him please his vanity. Only male elephants are valued for this purpose, and tuskers are preferred to mucknas. Every inch of height adds immensely to an elephant's value after nine feet at the shoulder has been passed. 1 have already said in the last chapter that ten feet at the shoulder is probably the extreme height of the Asiatic elephant. One or more elephants are attached to most temples of note in India, and take part in the rehgious processions connected with them. Government elephants are often used for riding by the European officers who have charge of the departments in which they are employed, and they are of much use in country where horses cannot be taken. Though Ian elephant is but a poor means of progression on a highroad, in jungly or hilly country he is most useful, as guides and gun-bearers are always in attendance in such places, and the elephant can move as quickly as the party would be able to proceed without him. A light elephant, trained for sowdri, or riding, if active and free, is a very pleasant mount. Half-grown ones are the best. As a rule, long-legged, lanky animals of the Meerga caste are the most active walkers. Calves are always quick movers. I have used them as small as thirteen hands at the shouldti', with a soft pad and stirrups, bestrid- ing them as a pony. They are wondej.fal little creatures for getting up or down any difficult place ; they give no trouble ; and will keep up with a man running at any pace before them. Elephants very rarely stumble ; should they even do so they never fall from that cause, as they can go down on one or both knees — an easy position for an elephant. I have sometimes, but rarely, known them fall flat on their sides in slippery soil during wet weather. CURING A BOLTER. 89 Elephants can always be guided, except when frightened, by the slightest tap with a small stick on either side of the head, the pressure of the knee, or even by a word ; but if alarmed, they have to be controlled or urged for- ward by the driving-goad. An elephant is as much afraid of this implement as a horse is of the curb, and can be restrained by it as well. When under the influence of fear, of course the elephant may run away, as a horse does, regardless of punishment. It is a terrible thing to be bolted with in jungle by an elephant ; the rider is fortunate if he escapes with whole bones. I have felt on the one or two occasions on which it has happened to me as a man might if bestriding a runaway locomotive, and hooking the funnel with the crook of his walking-stick to hold it in ! It is very difficult to cure a confirmed bolter, as the habit has its origin in fear, and the animal is always Hable to be startled by unexpected sounds or sights, chiefly the former. It is a rare trick, however, and I have only known two elephants subject to it. One was a fine baggage animal, but almost useless for jungle-work from this trick. I, however, cured her in the following way : I had a stout hoop of iron made, with sharp spikes on the inside to encircle one of her hind-legs. This was kept in its place round the leg by being suspended from the pad by a rope, and it fitted the leg loosely, so as not to inconvenience the elephant except when required to do so. To the ring w£s &,i.tached a chain fifteen feet long, at the other end of which was a pickaxe's head. This grappling apparatus was slung to the pad by a small cord in a slip-knot, handy to the mahout. If the elephant began to run, one pull freed it, and before the anchor had been dragged many yards it caught in roots or bushes, and brought the elephant up with such a twinge that she soon began to think twice before making ofi". Howdahs are not pleasant things to ride in, nor are they necessary except for State purposes and tiger-shooting. For ordinary riding a soft pad is much more pleasant ; upon it there is none of the swaying motion felt in a lofty howdah. A chdrjdma is frequently used ; this is merely a broad board with cushions upon it, and foot-boards attached on each side. It is made for four persons, two on each side, seated back to back, and has a rail at •each end. Four miles an hour is a good pace for an elephant, but long-legged ones will swing along at five or upwards for a moderate distance, say ten miles. I have known thirty-nine miles done at a stretch at a moderate pace. Single wild elephants that have been wounded or much frightened will often travel as far as this in a few hours without a halt. The elephant's use in tiger-shooting is well known, and speaks volumes for the tractability of an animal naturally so timid and disinclined for such 90 A NARROW ESCAPE. work. Female elephants are more cominouly used than males for tiger- shooting, being more easily procurable. But a well-trained male elephant is infinitely superior to any female, from his greater courage and strength. Unless they are well disciplined, however, there is danger of some male elephants attacking the tiger when they see him, which is a dangerous habit, as the occupants of the howdah may be shaken out during the animal's endeavours to crush the tiger. A case of this kind occurred at Dacca, in May 1876, whilst I was there. A lady and her husband, Mr and Mrs I , were at a tiger-hunt in a howdah on a female elephant, when a tigress charged across the open ground where they were stationed, not so much at the elephant as to get into a piece of cover behind it. The elephant rushed to meet the tigress, in this case more from excitement and terror than real courage. I fired and rolled the tigress over in front of the elephant, which kicked at her. The tigress grasped one of the elephant's hind - legs with teeth and claws, and the elephant was pulled, or fell, down on to her. I was thrown out, his rifle going off in the shock of his fall, but fortunately without doing any harm. He helped Mrs I from the howdah, and they ran to the pro- tection of another elephant at some distance. The tigress was killed on the spot by the fall of the elephant upon her. In this case, had the elephant stood her ground, I would probably have killed the tigress before she got to close quarters. As elephants are not bred in captivity, the demand for them from the forest is unwavering. Kabul merchants are the chief agents for the supply of high-class animals. These energetic traders frequently attach themselves to Courts where liberal prices are given, and in their service penetrate the remote tracts of Burmah and Siam. Here they purchase tuskers for figures seldom exceeding £100 on the spot, and march them, perhaps occupying more than a year on the road, to India. Their outlay is considerable in feeding them highly and in marching them slowly. I have heard of a case where a tusker, which had cost the merchant much money and labour, died almost at the gate of the city of the rajah for whom he was designed \ who, when the merchant appeared with the elephant's trappings and tusks, bewailing his misfortune, ordered, with true Eastern munificence, that he should be paid the fuU value of the animal ! The chief marts for the supply of elephants to India hitherto have been Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, and a few of the forests of continental India ; but from several causes the number brought into the market is now smaller than formerly, and prices are rising accordingly. The following statistics have been obligingly furnished me by the Secretary to the Government of ELEPHANT-MARTS. Ceylon, of elephants exported from the island during the years 1863-76. The sudden decrease in 1870 is due to the imposition in that year of an export duty of £20 per head, and lately the export has been entirely closed as a temporary measure, as it was feared that under the then existing rules for their capture and destruction, the practical extinction of elephants in the island might be expected at no distant date. Year. 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869, Elephants Exported prom Ceylon from 1863 to 1876. Number. Year. 173 1870, 188 1871, 270 1872, 202 1873, 148 1874, 163 1875, 199 1876, Namber. 30 63 51 83 77 7 3 The great annual fair held at Sdnepoor, on the Ganges, is the chief mart in India for the sale of elephants. It is held on the occasion of the gathering of some hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to worship at a noted shrine of Shiva, and bathe in the Ganges, at the full moon of the month of October — November. Thousands of horses and hundreds of elephants are collected there, and for this point all dealers in elephants make. Such elephants as they do not then dispose of are taken about amongst rajahs and native princes. Traders in elephants are, as to character, pretty much on a par with dealers in horses aU the world over. I once met a humorous old Kabul merchant at Dacca. He and some feUow-dealers came to the pedhhdna (elephant-stables) day after day, and importuned me to sell some of the newly-caught elephants from Chittagong. It is not uncommon to dispose of such as, from some cause, may be unfit for Government service ; but on this occasion all were required for filling up vacancies in the Com- missariat Department. There was one very old female, however, that I knew would never be fit for work, whilst being handsome, and in good con- dition, she might smt a native for show. I therefore offered her to the dealers for 400 rupees (£40), a very low figure. We proceeded to her picket, where the head dealer, a patriarchal-looking old fellow, examined her with attention for some time, and then turned away with a sigh. I asked him if the price was too high. " No," he said, " it is not that. The sight of the elephant makes me think of my poor old grandmother. She died when I was a lad. What an elephant that would have been for her ! " The price of elephants throughout India has increased enormously of late years. A considerable number were formerly purchased at Sonepoor •92 THE BENGAL KHEDDAH SYSTEM. «nd elsewhere by the Bengal Government, but of late years prices have become almost prohibitory. In 1835 the price of elephants was £45 per head; in 1855 about £75 ; in 1874, twenty were purchased at Sonepoor for the Bengal Government at £132, 15s. each; in 1875, seventy were required at Sonepoor, for which £140 per head was sanctioned, but not one was procurable at that figure. £150 is now the lowest rate for which young animals, chiefly females, and not fully grown, can be obtained. The price of good females of the working class is at present from £200 to £300. The value of tuskers is very capricious ; it depends mainly upon the near- ness of approach of their points to those of the Koomeriah. The best are only found in the possession of those who can pay fancy prices, but all male elephants are in high demand for the retinues of rajahs and temple purposes. Scarcely any limit can be placed on the price of a really perfect Koomeriah; £2000 is not an unknown figure. Tuskers of any preten- sions at all command from £800 to £1500. Two newly-caught tuskers of no particular merit were sold out of the Dacca stud, in 1875, for £1600 the pair. The elephants required for the service of Government in Bengal are mostly captured by the Government Kheddah (or elephant-catching) Estab- lishment, the headquarters of which are at Dacca, in Eastern Bengal. This establishment is under a European officer, and contains a large number of trained elephants and native hunters, and yearly in December penetrates some of the forests of Assam, Chittagong, or other tracts, and captures elephants, which are marched to Dacca before the rains commence in May. Here they are trained for service, and about November are despatched to Barrackpoor, near Calcutta, whence they are allotted to different Commis- sariat stations. The average annual number of elephants captured by the Dacca Establishment during the seven years prior to 1875-76 was fifty-nine. The Superintendent of Kheddahs at Dacca is also empowered to grant licences to natives of capital to capture elephants upon certain terms, by which Government secures a further annual supply. These lessees work in forests where the Government kheddahs are not working, and the terms usually are that half of the elephants measuring over six feet, and below eifrht and a half feet, at the shoulder, are to be handed over as Government rent ; whilst all below six feet, and over eight and a half feet in height, are the exclusive property of the lessee. Government is further at Liberty to purchase any or all of the lessee's share of the elephants between six and eight and a half feet at £5 per foot of height at shoulder (for instance, £40 for an eight-feet elephant), which is very much below the usual price of newly-caught elephants. THE SUPPLY TO THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 9* This system is advantageous both to the Government and the lessee. Should the hunt be unsuccessful the former is not saddled with a money payment, whilst any really valuable tuskers, over eight and a half feet high„ fall to his share. On the Government's part, the entire expenses of the- kheddah are borne by the lessee, so no loss can be sustained. Should Gov- ernment give any assistance in tame elephants for securing the captives- when impounded, ten per cent of the latter are taken as remuneration. The supply of elephants to Government must always be kept up by kheddahs and the Kcence system. The figure for which they are now cap- tured need probably never be exceeded. The outer market is not likely to become easier, as, though the demand will decrease to some extent as the less wealthy native notables, and a few Europeans who keep elephants for sport, must curtail their studs to the ability of their pockets, the supply has decreased in a disproportionate degree owing to restrictions in hunting. An elephant which costs Government £40 to capture would cost at least £150 in the market. The Madras Government is entirely dependent for its supply of ele- phants on Burmah, as there is no Government catching-estabHshment in the Presidency, as in Bengal, and the immense number of elephants roaming the Madras forests is turned to no account. The elephants are shipped from Moulmein to Coconada in vessels specially chartered for the purpose. A batch of about 60, imported eight years ago, cost £176 each when landed. Prices have risen since. The Collector of Coimbatore, a district of Madras, commenced elephant-catching in 1874, upon the plan adopted in Mysore, and between 1874 and 1877 captured 76 elephants, but the cost has been so great (about £13,000), and so many have died, that the scheme has been a financial failure. The idea, however, is a move in the right direction. The experiment has necessarily cost proportionately more than further operations need cost. It is evidently inexpedient that a distant market should be trusted to, in which prices are rising fast, and must continue to rise, whilst the jungles of the Madras Presidency abound with elephants. A catching-establishment cannot be got into order in a day, nor by the isolated efforts of one officer. The Dacca establishment has been working in one form or other since the beginning of the century. If the Madras Government is convinced of the necessity of keeping up its present stud of elephants — a matter admitting of much consideration, now that good roads, railways, and the settled state of the country have modified the former military requirements — it would seem to be a matter deserving of con- sideration whether the Commissariat requirements in elephants cannot be met from local sources. A fallacious idea that the Madras elephants are- ■94 THE BREEDING OF ELEPHANTS. !>eis hardy than those of Burmah has sprung out of the fact that many die before they are fit for service. But this is the case everywhere. Those imported from Burmah have been already seasoned, and consequently the mortality amongst them is lighter. THE BKEEDING OF ELEPHANTS. The question has sometimes been raised whether it is the male or female elephant which comes into season. I have heard the opinion advanced that it is the former ; but it is an erroneous one, probably founded on the fact of most male elephants in captivity having periodical paroxysms of mu&t. Some male elephants never, or only at long intervals, have these fits ; in -others they are of tolerably regular occurrence. They occur also in wild individuals, chiefly in the cold weather from November to February. The temples swell, and an oily matter exudes from them, as in tame elephants, but the wild elephant, I believe, shows no violence whilst under their influ- ence. The occurrence of must in tame elephants is connected with their condition, and rarely appears in animals much below par. It does not appear in animals under about thirty years of age, though tuskers breed from the age of twenty. There is ample proof that it is not the male elephant that comes into season. In following single males with a view to capturing them with •trained females, they may always be relied upon to make advances to the females, usually to some particular one, and the efforts of the mahouts are frequently necessary to keep her out of the male's reach. The period of heat is not marked by any particular signs in the female, which has probably helped to strengthen the erroneous opinion spoken of. In approaching a male elephant, a female desirous of his attentions utters certain sounds, and courts his society ; but only those conversant with elephants would notice this. It has frequently happened that the tame females of the kheddah parties have been found in calf after work in the jungles, where wild males have had access to them, though no indications of their being prepared to receive the male were observed even by their keepers. It has been a disputed point as to the manner in which the connection between the two sexes takes place. Some have supposed that the female kneels or lies down to receive the male, but this is not the case. I have myself, on four different occasions, witnessed the act — once, by two animals belonging to a wild herd in the jungles ; on the others, by animals which THE BREEDING OF ELEPHANTS. 95 had just been caught, and which were at large within the kheddah en- closures. On each, the female elephant stood to receive the male in the manner common to all quadrupeds. The opposite opinion may have arisen from the fact that it is possible for a heavy male to bear down to her knees a female much smaller than himself. On none of these occasions did the male elephant exhibit signs of must, which shows that it is not only when under its influence that male elephants court the society of the fernalf h. CHAPTER IX. THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF ELEPHANTS. ELEPHANTS ATTENDANTS — MISMANAGEMENT OP THEIR CHARGES — CHIEF AILMENTS OF ELEPHANTS — KINDS OF FODDER — GRASS — BRANCHES— UNDER-FED ELEPHANTS — THE ELEPHANT FEEDS CONSTANTLY IN ITS WILD STATE — ALLOWANCE OF FODDER TO GOVERNMENT ELEPHANTS IN BENGAL AND MADRAS — REMARKS ON THE ABOVE SCALES — THE AMOUNT AN ELEPHANT WILL EAT. THE proper management of the elephants attached to the military and other departments in India is a subject of much importance, both financially and from a humane point of view. It is, however, unfortunately a matter but little understood by the European officers of the various departments, who are almost entirely dependent upon their elephants' native attendants for information on the subject. These men are rascals more often than not, and all are invariably grossly superstitious and igno- rant. Captain Eorsyth, in his Highlands of Central India, notes their mak- ing their elephants swaUow pieces of tigers' liver to give them courage in himting ; and the eyes of the owl, torn from the living bird, to enable them to see well in the dark ! It would be out of place in this book to offer any detailed suggestions for improving the management of elephants ; but a few general remarks on the subject may be of use to some who have the charge of them, but have not had opportunities of familiarising themselves with the requirements of the animals. Such should bear in mind that almost all elephants' attend- ants are guided in their conduct by two great principles — namely, to spare themselves as much work as possible, and to make as much as they can out of their elephants' allowance of rice or other grain. They also invariably make their charges' comfort and convenience subservient to their own, and though they are rarely wantonly cruel, they subject their animals to much passive inhumanity, which a little supervision from those over them might MISMANAGEMENT BY ATTENDANTS. 97 prevent. Thus, on days when the elephant is not required for work, the mahout and grass-cutter will, if left to themselves, cook their morning meal, smoke, and pass the time until nearly mid-day, without even loosing their elephants, except to take them to water. They should be required to hobble them early, and turn the poor beasts out to graze and stretch their limbs till wanted ; but as this would give them the trouble of going in search of them if they strayed, they will not do it unless seen after. When there are fields near, one attendant can accompany the elephant to prevent it doing damage. Then, instead of cutting its fodder early, and taking the elephant out to bring in its load in the cool hours of morning or evening, the grass-cutter, who does not mind the hot sun himself, often takes it at mid-day, as that arrangement suits his hours of breakfasting, &c. Even the best mahouts, extraordinary though it may seem, seldom take the trouble of putting their elephants under a tree at mid-day ; and if the unfortunate animal throws dust and litter upon its back, to shield itself in some measure from the sun, it is heartily abused for giving the attendants the trouble of cleaning it afterwards. Those in charge of the elephants and their attendants cannot do better than bear in mind what the natural requirements of the former are, and make the attendants' hours and habits conform to the elephants', instead of the reverse, as is too frequently the case. The most common ailment amongst elephants is yaarha'hd. It is of two kinds: one called dropsical yaarha'hd, in which the neck, chest, abdo- men, and sometimes the legs, swell with accumulations of water beneath the skin; the other is wasting yaarha'hd, in which the animal falls grad- ually away to mere skin and bone. Both kinds are exceedingly fatal if they become established. They are most common amongst newly-caught elephants — in fact, hardly any such escape the affection to some extent. I have never seen a wild elephant suffering from it. The disease is induced by the radical change of food and habits undergone by newly -caught elephants. Freedom from unnecessary restraint, liberty to graze at will, protection from all debilitating causes, such as exposure to the sun or inclement weather, are the best preventives and restoratives. Medicine is of little avail ; and, if the disease is once allowed to become serious, there is every probability of a fatal termination. Sore backs, from the chafing of gear, are exceedingly tedious to cure. The mistake usually made by mahouts is to allow the wounds to heal on the surface whilst mischief may be going on inside. A free use of the knife, great care in cleansing the wound, and the application of plenty of turpentine, strongly impregnated with camphor, are the best methods for 98 FODDER. insuring a speedy cure. The deep, burrowing holes usually present in sore backs should be well packed with tow steeped in the camphorated turpen- tine. This stuffing prevents the wounds closing up too quickly ; the growth of new flesh shovJd be encouraged from the bottom, not at the surface of the sore. A cloth steeped in margosa^'' oil should be tied over the wound, to prevent flies approaching it and irritating the elephant. Elephants occasionally become foot - sore from working in gravelly or stony soil. An elephant does not limp, but goes more slowly and tenderly when its feet become painful. Eest is the best cure. When elephants require purgative medicine they eat a considerable quantity of earth, kicking it up with their toes, and conveying it to their mouths with their trunks. They usually eat from three to five pounds. This is resorted to when they are troubled by worms in the aKmentary canal, and sometimes as much as 2 5 lb. weight of these parasites are passed by them. Certain soils, usually black and impregnated with a kind of natron, are preferred. Purging ensues in from twelve to twenty-four hours. The chief fodder of tame elephants should consist of various kinds of grasses, which in India grow to a considerable length and thickness. But where these cannot be procured — or too often owing to the laziness of the grass-cutters, who find lopping branches easier work than cutting grass — elephants are almost entirely restricted to leaves and branches of trees. This is not a natural diet : wild elephants eat but sparingly of tree fodder. However, tame elephants become accustomed to it, and in many parts of the Madras Presidency hardly anything else is procurable. There is, perhaps, no animal less liable to sickness than the elephant if well fed. This point is of paramount importance, and without it good management in other matters is of no avail. It is common enough to see elephants in poor condition, suffering from nothing but partial starva- tion, being treated with medicines and nostrums for debility, whilst their appetites are good, and they only require a sufficiency of fodder to effect a cure. It may truly be said that all ailments to which elephants are subject are directly or indirectly caused by insufficient feeding. Under-fed elephants become weak and unable to stand exposure ; they cannot perform their work, and are laid open to attack by even such remote maladies as sunstroke and sore back through poor condition. The elephant, in common with all wild animals, goes to no excess in any of its habits, and there is no reason, except bad feeding, why the rate of mortality should be so high as it unhappily is amongst Government elephants in India. The actual work they have to perform is seldom arduous enough to affect elephants in health. * Prepared from the seed of the Tieem, tree, Mdia azadiracta. AMOUNT ELEPHANTS WILL EAT 99 The amount of fodder required by an elephant is much greater than is usually supposed. The Government allowance in Bengal and Madras for an elephant of full size is as follows : — Bengal. Lb. Green fodder — viz., grasses, branches of trees, sugar-cane, &c., . . 400 Or in lieu of the above, dry fodder — \'iz., stalks of cut grain, &c., . 240 Madras. Green fodder, ......... 250 Or dry fodder, ........ 125 But the amount of suitable green fodder which a full-grown elephant will consume in eighteen hours I have found, by numerous experiments, to be much greater than this — viz., between 600 and 700 lb. This is what a beast of average appetite will actually eat, excluding what it throws aside ; and I have seen a large tusker eat 800 lb., or 57 stone, in eighteen hours. I lately experimented with eight females with dhall grass (a grass with stalks from five to ten feet in length that grows in water, and of which elephants are fond) for eight consecutive days upon cleared masonry stands, where the waste was collected and weighed. Commencing at 6 p.m., they ate an average weight of 650 lb. by 12 a.m. next day out of 800 lb., given as foUows : — Lb. At 6 P.M., ...... 560 At 6 A.M., ...... 240 800 lb. of the same grass stocked on an open grating lost by dryage — In the first 24 hours, ..... 40 In the second 24 hours, . . . .120 So the total dryage in two days was 160 lb. This shows that the grass was not unduly wet. From 12 a.m. till 6 p.m. the above elephants were out bringing in fodder, and had pickings in the jungle. They also had 1 8 lb. of grain per diem. 8 0 0 lb. may be looked upon as the minimum weight of good fodder that should be placed before fuU-sized elephants per diem. This amount only allows a margin of 150 lb. for waste, so the fodder must be good, or 800 lb. wiU not be sufficient. A good elephant-load of fodder weighs 800 lb. ; so as much as an elephant can bring in may be looked upon as necessary for his requirements. Smaller elephants will bring in quantities propor- tionately sufficient for their wants. I have never tried elephants exclusively 100 COST OF KEEP OF ELEPHANTS. with dry fodder, but it is evident that the amount allowed in the Com- missariat scales is quite insufficient. The elephants in Madras and Bengal differ in no respect. They are frequently imported to both Presidencies from Burmah, and whilst those allotted to Bengal are allowed 400 lb. of fodder, similar animals in Madras are allowed 250 lb. But were either of these scales adhered to, the elephants would die in a few weeks. It is difficult to conjecture how they were fixed originally, but it is probable that these were the amounts intended to be purchased over and above what the grass-cutter could collect when free fodder was not obtainable in sufficient quantities. I found that in Bengal the present scale was in force prior to 1822. Since representing the inadequacy of the above allowances to Govern- ment in official correspondence on the subject, I have been informed that experiments have been made in the Bengal Commissariat Department, in continuation of my own, which have proved that an elephant will eat 750 lb. of dry sugar-cane, which is more feeding fodder than grass, per diem, and that steps are being taken to remodel the fodder scale. The following scale of cost of keep is for a female of full size in the Bengal and Madras Commissariat Departments respectively, per mensem : — BeNGAIi. 1 mahout, ..... 1 grass-cutter, .... 18 lb. unhusked rice per diem, at 64 lb. per rupee, Allowance for medicines, salt, &c., . Fodder allowance, at 2 annas per diem, Total Rs.,* . Rs. As. 6 0 5 0 8 7 0 la 3 12 24 Madras. 1 mahout, 1 grass-cutter, 25 lb. rice per diem, at 30 lb. per rupee, Salt, oil, and medicines, Fodder, average purchase per mensem, Total Rs. * Rs. As 9 0 6 0 25 0 2 0 6 0 48 The rupee is usually calculated at two shilliugs. CHAPTER X. ELEPHANT-CATCHING IN MYSORE. COMMENCE ELEPHANT-CATCHING IN MYSORE — PLANS AT MORLAT IN 1873 — FAILURE OF FIRST ATTEMPTS — CHANGE OF PLANS — COMMENCEMENT OP THE RAINS — VISIT OF A HERD — ITS MOVEMENTS — SURROUND THE HERD OP FIFTY-FOUR ELEPHANTS — EXCIT- ING NIGHT -SCENES — THE SMALL ENCLOSURE — VISITORS TO CAMP — DRIVE THE HERD INTO THE ENCLOSURE — SHOOT A TROUBLESOME FEMALE — A WHITE CALF — CONDUCT OP HERD IN SMALL ENCLOSURE — OUR TAME ELEPHANTS— AMUSING MISHAP — A TROUBLE- SOME TUSKER— "JAIRAM" VANQUISHES HIM — CAPTURE OF A WILD TUSKER IN THE ELEPHANT LINES — ALLOTMENT OF NINE OP THE NEW ELEPHANTS TO HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJAH, AND TEN TO THE MADRAS COMMISSARIAT DEPARTMENT— SALE OP TWENTY-FIVE ELEPHANTS — PROFIT OF THE OPERATIONS TO GOVERNMENT — RESULTS TO MYSELF. IT was in September 1873 that I arrived at Chamraj-Nuggar — a large village ten miles from the foot of the Billiga-rungun hills — commis- sioned to try and capture some of the herds of elephants which frequently- left the hills and trespassed into the cultivated lands adjoining. I knew nothing of elephant-catching at the time, nor had I any men at command who did ; but I knew where there were plenty of elephants, and I was well acquainted with their habits. Some of the IMaharajah's mahouts who were amongst my following had been accustomed to catch single elephants with trained females, and in pitfalls, but they had never heard of any one at- tempting the capture of a whole herd. It was said that Hyder had made a trial, a century before, in the Kakankot(^ jungles, but had failed, and had recorded his opinion that no one would ever succeed, and his curse upon any one that attempted to do so, on a stone still standing near the scene of his endeavours. Consequently all the true Mussulmans who were with me regarded the enterprise as hopeless — though they judiciously kept that opinion to themselves. It was owing to this general inexperience that the Chief Commissioner i02 OLD SPORTING FRIENDS. of Mysore bad been reluctant to sanction the expenditure required for the attempt. The proposals originated entirely with me. I had been soliciting permission to make a trial for the past eight months, and it was only granted when the season for finding elephants in ground where it would be practicable to catch them — June to December — was far advanced. How- ever, when I did get permission, I commenced the work with the hearty support of an officer of high influence in the province, a keen and experi- enced sportsman, and who warmly assisted my scheme. The Amildar, or head native official of the district, woo an able and energetic person, and obtained for me the willing co-operation of the people required for carrying out the works I decided upon. My first step at Chamraj -Nuggar was to send for my old sporting friends, the Morlayites, whom I questioned about the number of elephants in the jungles, their principal haunts and routes, and other particulars. I had not met these men for more than two years, when we used to hunt together ; and though they were not very clean, I could almost have hugged them with pleasure at getting back to them and my old hunting-grounds ; whilst, as I had always behaved well to them, they were delighted, and prostrated themselves in a body, declaring I was their father and mother, and that they had been as children bereft since I left them ! I put them in good spirits by asking about such little grievances as Indian villagers generally imagine they have, regarding their lands, taxes, and so forth, and promised them that the Amildar would pay particular attention to anything that they had to represent if they rendered effective assistance in elephant- catching. Xext day I moved camp to Morlay, and occupied the hours between sunrise and sunset in tramping the jungles and examining places that seemed likely to afford facilities for circumventing elephants. I knew the whole neighbourhood well, so was able to decide upon a certain ford, marked A on plan, on the Honhollay river, at which to make an attempt. The river was here about twenty yards wide, but ordinarily with only a narrow and shallow stream flowing over its clean gravelly bed. In the rainy mouths heavy but short-Kved floods sometimes rose twenty feet in a few hours. Wild elephants crossing from ite east to its west bank used this and two other fords (the banks were not practicable except at these places), marked X, X on plan. They also retreated by the same routes. When on the west side of the river it was their custom to seek shelter in covers D or E, and we calculated that by stopping the two fords (X, X) we could drive a lierd out of D or E across by ford A, which was indeed their favourite route. Upon these considerations I marked out a kheddah at A, on the east W^I^BS cii''/rA /m m Jfc il(«"' Picket of elephants /^ removexL from Idicddah ■^ ■^ r^^ -1^ ''^^^^ -^fe ^ ^'^^A^ rwer towards HUls, inler ~ -^4t=_-#i=^ , -^ — i/^'''''^"^ 'W\ '^'" drwon/i fronv covers 'brd uv drwcn/i fronv oover-s ~ ' " 30Yards J^rigteM'addy Ch •arau-i •*--- (a^ -"^ ^-^ ..lie li ' "Wt. ^^^^ ^ ^^ -^^ ^ - \irJ^'' REFERENCES Jlinglc paths . ' approximately I inch/ to '^M nulcs Scale AN ANXIOUS TIME. 103 bank of the river, consisting of a horse-shoe-shaped piece of ground sur- rounded by a trench. The trench was about five hundred yards round, and the entrance to the enclosed space was by the ford. The elephants would enter by the heel of the shoe, as it were, and would have to go some two hundred yards before they came to the farthest point, the boundary trench. The trench was eight feet wide at top, six at bottom, and eight feet deep (this I subsequently found was a greater section than is necessary to confine wild elephants), and in a few days it was finished, except where rock was met and had to be blasted. There were eight hundred men at work, whose wages were about threepence each per diem. They removed about one cubic yard per man per diem. It was nearly a month before all was in readiness, as the removal of the rock was laborious work. The personal labour I spent on that enclosure, severe though it was, was not greater than the anxiety I had to endure. Some Job's comforters suggested that if one elephant fell into the trench the others would make a bridge of him and hie them back to the hills ; others, that the gate which I had devised for closing the entrance, and which was hauled up on a single rope, to be cut away in the joyful moment when the stern of the last elephant cleared it, would be carried away like chaff before the wind by their backward rush ! whilst a few did not hesitate to say that no elephants would approach a place bearing traces of new earth-work and the recent presence of so many work-people. I lived under canvas at Morlay, three miles distant, as the jungle was too unhealthy to admit of my camping at the work, and I frequently got drenched by the heavy Septem- ber rains, which was not conducive to either comfort or health. I remained at the kheddah daily tUl late in the evening, and then rode to camp as fast as my pony could carry me, unattended, though there was the notorious man-eating tigress of lyenpoor afoot, and many others of her race which I stood a chance of falling in with. They would not in all probability have interfered with me, but still it was exciting to my pony, who quite under- stood jungle-life, if not to myself. I was determined to make the scheme succeed if possible, not only from my love of adventure, and the necessity for executing what I had suggested to Government and undertaken to carry out, but from the desire to prove to several officials who considered the scheme to be the vision of a lunatic, that their croakings were rather the utterances of Bedlamites. Pleasantries appeared in the Bangalore papers regarding the probable effect the kheddah operations would have on the price of salt, which it was represented was being laid in by me in large quantities for application to the caudal appendages of any elephants I hap- pened to meet with ! 104 FIRST ATTEMPTS. At last all my plans were completed. Fortunately the elephants had been absent from the neighbourhood up to this time — there were three herds which commonly frequented it — but on the 5 th of November the trackers came in early to say there were about thirty elephants in cover D ! Im- mediately messengers started to all the villages near, where orders had been given to the people to hold themselves in readiness to help in the great Government elephant-catching scheme. Still it was twelve o'clock before they collected. I fumed and chafed at the delay, and I am afraid some of the last to arrive did not find me in the best of humours. However, shortly after twelve I started with about five hundred of them — far too many, as I afterwards found — and when we approached the temple I ordered one body to the left, to station themselves along the north-east bank of the river ; a second to the right, to cut the elephants off from communication with cover E ; and a third, composed of the best men, chiefly Morlayites, to drive the elephants out of cover D. They were to begin to beat at the temple, and we hoped that the elephants would be kept straight for ford A by the guiding- lines of stops. I took my own station near the ford on the west side of the river, with the object of giving the elephants a final impetus forward as they approached it, and to guard the gate with my rifles when they had entered. After the usual delay, inseparable from anything natives have to do, I heard the beat begin, half a mile distant, and presently five elephants approached the crossing of the river, but kept themselves concealed in the thick jungle between it and the Honglewaddy channel. I observed that they were looking back wistfully as if for their fellows, nor did the beaters follow them up as quickly as they should have done. After some time the five went back, whilst the shouts and shots of the beaters continued near the spot from which the elephants had been originally started. I did not like to leave my post at the ford ; but at last, as no news came, nor was there any sign of more elephants approaching, I stationed a man, in whom I thought I might repose confidence, at the gate, and went with my rifles to see what was the matter. I found that the main body of the elephants had not left cover D, chiefly on account of numbers of the men forming the guiding-line on the south having left their places, and so con- fused the elephants by joining the beaters, and shouting in all directions, that they did not know which way to flee. They had therefore ensconced them- selves in an extensive and almost impenetrable thicket of thorns, whilst the fiends in human sliape who had spoilt all my plans were mobbing them in every direction, at a respectful distance, yelling at the top of their voices, and apparently quite oblivious of what the object to be attained was. I WANT OF DISCIPLINE. 105 gesticulated to them to clear the side towards which we wished to make the elephants break, shaking my fist at them in a fury. The villains redoubled their cries, beating their sticks with heavy thuds on the ground ; they thought I was angry at their not exerting themselves sufficiently ! Talking was useless ; a trombone could hardly have been heard in that din ; so arm- ing my gun-bearers with rattans, I sent them amongst the rascals, whom they quickly dispersed, and most of them bolted, and, happily, did not appear again. I now made the best re-disposition I could of the Morlaptes, and we managed at last to start a number of the elephants on the right road. Some of the best men and I pursued them, determined to catch even a small number rather than fail altogether, and they were going fast and straight for the crossing, when, just as they reached it, we at their tails, a sudden shot in front saluted them. A momentary halt and crush ensued ; the leading elephants turned, the others followed, and back they came, heads down, tails twisted, going their best, and evidently oblivious of us and everything in their path. The river-bank was close at hand on our left, the channel on our right, whilst the herd almost filled the intervening space. I was maddened by the ill-luck and failure of our measures, and I determined if the elephants got back now it should be over my body ; so, shouting to the men not to give way, I fired at and floored one elephant in the front rank. The beaters with me behaved very pluckily, some even throwing the blankets which they carried rolled up on their backs into the elephants' faces before making off. The fall of the leading elephant acted as a momentary check on the others, but they were resolved to be back to the thick cover they had left ; so, swerving to their left, they bustled across the channel in mad haste, and with a prodigious amount of splashing)^ struggling, and roaring, gained the far side, and continued their flight, the wounded elephant amongst them. The fatal shot that had turned the elephants, in the moment when success was all but grasped, had been fired by my trusty friend at the gate, who must have become frightened at their rapid advance. But the exact circumstances of the case are involved in mystery, as, when I went to have a little conversation with him, I found he had left his gun against a tree and had bolted, and I have never seen his face from that day to this ! The Morlayites now lost their heads, as every one else appeared to do on that memorable occasion. They pursued the retreating elephants with shouts and brandishing of clubs, and as the huge beasts again shufiied across the Honglewaddy channel to regain the cover, some of the boldest actually struck at them from the bank with their long bamboos, the blows sounding loudly on their broad croups. The elephants might have turned and rent 106 REFLECTIONS. them many times during the hunt, but they seemed to have been deserted by the intelligence and sagacity with which they are popularly accredited in as great a degree as the men were by common-sense, and to have no ideas beyond using their legs. It was now evening, I was drenched with perspiration, bruised, scratched, and hardly able to speak for hoarseness. I threw myself down on an elephant-pad under a tree, lighted a cheroot, and applied myself to a review of the day's proceedings, as it was worse than useless to continue the hunt. This, then, was the result of my plans and pains. Things could not have looked more promising at the commencement of the action, yet in four hours the elephants had been terrified beyond hope of their returning to our side of the river for months, and my men demoralised by our failure. How- ever, in the midst of discouragement there was something to be thankful for. No one had been killed, as might well have happened, and the attempt had clearly demonstrated the impossibility of succeeding with such untrained, though willing material. This was something gained ; and as I conceived that greater eventual success might be evolved from our present failure, I did not feel greatly discouraged on a consideration of all the circumstances. I had had too many reverses in my sporting experience to be surprised at this one. The Morlajdtes had shown great pluck, and I believed if they were disciplined they would act more judiciously on another occasion. They also had seen how frightened the elephants were at them, and their confidence would rise in proportion. I had made the mistake of having too many men engaged. Elephants must, as the butcher says of beef-steaks in Martin Chuzzlewit, when Tom Pinch is trying to cram his purchases into his pocket, " be humoured, not drove." The collapse of my immediate hopes was certainly rather depressing, but reflecting that I probably felt it more at that moment than I should in a few hours, I mounted my elephant and rode home, followed by my chop-fallen heroes. I had a long and earnest consultation with my right-hand men over the day's events round the camp-fire, when dinner and the soothing pipe com- bined to enable us to review them with some calmness ; and long after I turned in I heard the trackers considering what we should do on the next occasion. Some of the Morlayites were again quite confident, and were agreed that if such and such things had happened that did not, and others had not that did, they would have been keeping a joyful watch over im- pounded elephants at that moment, instead of looking wistfully towards the dark and distant hills in which they had doubtless already found safe shelter. " Yes," said Marah, a cautious old hunter, " and if your aunts had had mustachios they would have been your uncles ! " I CHANGE OF PLANS. 107 During the next few days I hit upon a plan for the future which had the great advantage that few men would be required to execute it, and even undisciplined ones could hardly spoil it. This was to fortify cover D, so as to prevent the egress of elephants after they had once entered it, and to catch them in it, instead of trusting to a drive in open country. The elephant season in the low country — June to December — was now over, and the herds had betaken themselves to the hills, but I commenced in January 1874 to put the cover in readiness, during the dry weather, for the coming rainy season, I employed a European overseer, Jones, to help me, and it was fortunate I had such assistance, as I was frequently pros- trated during the hot weather by attacks of ague and fever, the result of the exposure I had unavoidably been subjected to for the past few months. I found leisure to superintend the building of a rough bungalow instead of living in a tent, and I also amused myseK by shooting a few of the tigers in the neighbourhood. Amongst these was the lyenpoor man-eater. It will be seen by reference to the sketch-plan that the Honglewaddy channel approaches the river to within 3 0 yards at B. It then runs inland, owing to the levelness of the country, but again approaches to within 90 yards of the river at C, near the temple. The space (cover D) bounded by the channel between B and C, and the river, is about 5 0 acres in extent, and consists of a jungle of large trees, forest creeping-plants, and several strong thickets. In this retreat it had been the immemorial habit of herds of elephants to take shelter at certain seasons, and to issue forth at nights into the adjacent cultivated country. The north bank of the river was so steep that they could not cross at any point between fords X, X ; whilst there were only five places where they could cross the channel on the west, as it was deep and had perpendicular banks. I, however, had the banks cut to a uniform vertical height of 10 feet, except at the crossings, to make sure of the elephants not getting out of the cover when once in. To banicade the channel crossings, each about 10 yards in width, cocoa- nut trees, which are exceedingly strong and light when dry, were kept in readiness ; and to prevent the elephants escaping by passing up or down the river (past B and C), the bed was spanned at those points by barriers composed of five rows of heavy chains. As soon as elephants entered the cover (of their own accord), it would only be necessary to connect the channel and river at B and C by cross trenches to make the surround complete. All was in readiness by May. After a few showers the early rains set in in good earnest, and on May 5 th a large herd of elephants came down the Mils into the low- country jungles. On the 19th five of them visited 108 ARRIVAL OF A HERD. enclosure D during the nig]it, and after feeding about returned to the herd, which was three miles distant. From this time till the 9 th of June small parties visited the cover occasionally, but always returned to the head- quarters of the herd. This was very tantalising. We were kept constantly on the stretch ; and each morning, until the trackers returned to camp, the villagers of Morlay who were to help were detained at home so as to be mustered at a moment's notice if required, whilst a man was stationed on the wall of the Hurdenhully fort to fire a small cannon I had mounted there, as a signal to other villagers to collect at Morlay in case we wanted more men. Tools for digging the trenches at B and C, baskets for carrying earth, ropes for securing the barricades, and provisions and cooking-pots for the multi- tude, were stored in the temple buildings. Special services were held daily by the Poojaree and trackers at that celebrated shrine, and the promises of gifts held out to Koombappah for success were sufficient to have moved the heart of even as stony a deity as himself. On the 9 th of June I was at a hill some six miles west of Morlay look- ing after a bear. The trackers had brought in their usual morning report tiefore I left my bungalow, to the effect that the elephants were still at the foot of the hills, five miles from cover D ; so, not expecting them to make a move during the day, I had sent the trackers back to their duty of surveil- lance, and with a number of men from Oomchwaddy was busy in the pursuit of the said bear, a female with a cub. It was afternoon, and I was seated on the top of the rocky hill, wliich rose some five hundred feet from the plain, amused by the chase of the bear by my men along the hillside below. The bear had broken wide of me when she was roused from a thicket, and I had oot had a shot ; but being encumbered by her cub, which was riding on its mother's shoulders after the manner of young bears, the old female could not get along so fast as to keep much ahead of my men, who terrified mother and cub so much by their hot pursuit that the cub fell off; and before it could follow its mother — being very young — a blanket was thrown over it and it was secured, whilst its mother held on for a cave close at hand, into ivhich she fled. This scene was enacting when I heard the distant boom of my old can- ion on the fort-wall of Hurdenhully. I waited to hear it repeated. Yes, another shot ! No mistake this time. There goes the third ! Hurrah ! Thsit is the signal that the elephants are on our side of the river ! The smoke of a fire lighted on the highest ground near Morlay — the sign that I was required at camp — now attracted my attention and that of the men with me, so down the hill we went pell-mell, thinking no more of the bear ; and .tnakinf^ the men fall in, I mounted my elephant and we started for Morlay. S/GJVAZS FROM CAMP. 10> We passed through Oomchwaddy and Hurdenhully, where the people were hastily collecting, and soon reached camp. Here the lately despondent but now rejoicing trackers met us with the gratifying intelligence that the whole herd had made an unexpected move after mid- day, and had marched straight to the river, wliich they had crossed after bathing and drinking, and were now revelling in the succulent rushea and gTass growing along the channel. Anxious though we were to begin, we agreed that it was too late to do anything that day, as the herd must b& already scattered for the night's grazing, whilst the proper time to deal with them was when they were collected during the day, I accordingly gave orders that no one should leave camp, but that aU should be entertained " by Government," whose guests they were to consider themselves as having the inexpressible honour of being. Most of them were Oopligas and Torreas, both meat-eating castes (except as to beef) ; so I ordered my flock of sheep to be driven up immediately, and as I named the headmen who were to choose for their people, they made a dash amongst them and dragged out the sheep they preferred, amidst great amusement and comments upon their respective notions of mutton. These were speedily carried off and slaughtered, whilst another man of each group received cook- ing-pots, ragi-flour, curry-stuffs, and tobacco, at the stores, where Jones presided. What a night of pleasant anticipations and merriment it was ! Every- body was happy, and we occasionally heard the trumpet of the elephants, fully three miles distant, as they fed and disported themselves about the river. I visited the various knots gathered round the fires dotted about the cleared plain before my bungalow, and said a few words to them about their conduct on the morrow. Agreeable fellows the rustics of Mysore are to entertain. They do not drink, and where the greatest dissipation is smoking or snuf&ng, there is no likeKhood of quarrels or too noisy mirth. In this respect my Oopligas were a great contrast to the tame-elephant attendants, chiefly Mussulmans, with a sprinkling of Pariahs, or low-caste Hindoos. When it was necessary to treat these for any special services, the only thing was to give them a few sheep and bottles of spirits — without which it would have been no treat — and to order them not to approach the camp till next morning. Their revels seldom concluded without a fight, though when the effects of the Iha-ng they smoked, and their potations, passed away, they resumed the natural quiet demeanour of Asiatics. Every one was astir betimes on the eventful 10 th of June. I have caught a good many elephants since, and have witnessed many exciting Boene.H in the work, but I shall never forget the pleasurable anticipations no THE TENTH OF JUNE. I experienced on this occasion. Every contingency that could be foreseen had been carefully considered ; nothing had been left to chance. The men had had their respective posts allotted to them weeks beforehand, and we had even had a rehearsal, or review day, on which my tame elephants, under the dnection of their mahouts, led by a Morlayite experienced in the ways of the wild ones, had represented a herd, whilst we took steps to meet their various moves. I had also practised the men in deer-hunts, &c., when I gave prizes in the shape of coloured handkerchiefs for turbans, as weU as rupees, to those who distinguished themselves. I certainly felt that I now had a very different following to the undisciplined band that frus- trated the first attempt. I had imbued them with some notions of obedience in executing instructions, whatever they might be ; of working together ; and of silence. The difficulty of getting natives to do anything without noise can only be fully understood by those who have had to deal with them. I considered it a triumph that I could march three hundred of them on an exciting expedition, without a whisper being heard. Despite all this I experienced a good deal of anxiety, now that the time for testing our arrange- ments had come ; but I daresay this added to the pleasure of the occasion, as had the result been beyond doubt, where would the excitement have been ? At 9 A.M. we started for the temple. Early in the morning I had been joined by Major G., Deputy Inspector-General of Police for Mysore, and a keen sportsman, who happened to be encamped at Chamraj -Nuggar, and to whom I had sent word overnight. As Gaindcully, the elephant we were riding, swung along, followed by the long serpentine line of beaters in sinf^le file (the jungle-path being narrow), I felt proud of the comments my friend bestowed on my men, as he was ia a position to appreciate the state to which they had been brought, having to drill and reduce natives to order for the ranks of the police. When we reached the temple, the trackers, who had preceded us, in- formed us that all the elephants were not in cover D ; some were scattered feedino- on the upper side of the channel, and would have to be driven to join the main body. This was quietly effected by a handful of men, though a female with a young calf, an albino, gave us some trouble, threatening to charge. Had the men acted as of yore there would doubtless have been a scene, but by giving her time to retire safely with her charge we got her pounded into D with the others. Having ascertained that all the elephants were now in, all hands were engaged in barricading the cross- ings and cutting the trenches between the channel and river at B and C. To render this latter work easy I had previously had the trenches dug and fiUed in again, a small drain covered with flat stones being left at the CAPTURE THE HERD. Ill bottom of each. "Water was now admitted to these from the channel, whilst the end near the river was kept closed, and as the water had a head of some ten feet, it speedily blew up the superincumbent earth and scoured out the trenches to the depth and width required. It was past mid-day before we got all the elephants into the cover, and not a moment's rest did any of us get till 11 P.M. Captain C, of the Eevenue Survey, came over from his camp at Surgoor, and Major G. and he helped to superintend the people. At one point the supply of tools was insufficient, and Captain C. was superin- tending and encouraging a body of men who were digging with sharpened sticks, and even their bare fingers ! The elephants were very noisy in the cover, but did not show themselves. At every twenty yards three or four men were stationed to keep up large fires. These were reflected in the water of the channel and river, which increased their effect. We all had a most exaggerated idea of what the elephants might attempt, and the strength of our defences was in proportion, and greater than they need have been. I was kept on the move almost all night by alarms at different points, fortunately groundless ones. One tusker showed himself on the bank of the channel, but met with such a reception from firebrands and stones that he retreated in haste. The river was an advantage, as the elephants had easy access to water. The lurid glare of the fires, the gaunt figures of the lightly- clad watchers, their wild gesticulations on the bank with waving torches, the background of dense jungle resonant with the trumpeting of the giants of the forest, — formed a scene which words are feeble to depict, and that cannot fade from the memories of those who witnessed it. By 11 P.M. the defences were thoroughly secured, and I had leisure as I stood by a log -fire with nothing but my trousers on (my flannel shirt and coat were drenched with perspiration, and were being dried before the blaze), a piece of bread in one hand, and a bottle of claret and water in the other, to reflect on our complete success so far. That the elephants could not now escape was certain, unless indeed they carried some of our barri- cades, which were, however, so strong as to be almost beyond their power. The men differed as to their number. I had seen about twenty ; some de- clared there were fifty, but I could not beHeve this at the time. The num- ber, however, was fifty-four, as we subsequently found. I tried in vain to rest. The excitement of the scene was irresistible, so I betook myself to walking round the enclosure at intervals throughout the night, followed by a man carrying a basket of cheroots, which I distributed to the people. The rest of the time I lay upon my cot, which my servant had been thoughtful enough to bring from Morlay with his cooking paraphernalia, enjoying the wildness of the sounds and scenes around, and soothed by cheroots and 112 EXCITING NIGHT-SCENE. coffee. When the elephants approached the place where I was the guards thrust long bamboos into the fires, which sent showers of sparks up to the tops of the trees overhead, and they also threw joints of a bamboo-like reed into the flames, where they exploded with a sound as loud as pistol-shots. The first crow of the jungle-cock was the most grateful sound I think I ever heard, as it showed our anxious vigil was drawing to a close. We knew that during the day the elephants would give us less trouble. My headmen now joined me from the points where they had been stationed during the night, and we set about considering the next step to be taken — viz., making a small enclosure or pound off cover D, into which to get the elephants confined. Of course this would take some time to carry out. If driven from the east we knew the animals would pass between the temple and channel, at the west end of the cover, with a view to crossing the river below the temple, and regaining their native hills, which, however, they were fated never to see again. I therefore laid out a pound (F) of 1 0 0 yards in diameter, surrounded by a ditch 9 feet wide at top, 3 at bottom, and 9 feet deep. This was connected with the large cover by two guiding- trenches which converged to the gate. It was completed in four days by the personal exertions of the Amildar with a body of labourers, who worked with a will, as their crops had frequently suffered from the incursions of elephants, and they appreciated the idea of reducing their numbers. The last thing completed was the entrance- gate, which consisted of three transverse trunks of trees slung by chains between two trees that formed gate-posts. This barrier was hauled up and suspended on a single rope, so as to be cut away after the elephants had passed. The news of the intended drive attracted several visitors from Mysore. Tents were pitched in an open glade close to the river, and we soon had a pleasant party of several ladies, the cheery Deputy Commissioner of the district and his Assistant, two officers (Captains P. and B.) of her Majesty's 48th Eegiment, M. of the Forests, and Captain C. and Major G-., who had remained from the first day. The evening before the drive all assembled within view of the point where the elephants were in the habit of drinking at sunset, and were gratified with an admirable view of thirty-five of the huge creatures disporting themselves timidly in the water. On the morning of the l7th, everything being in readiness for the drive. Captains P., B., and I proceeded with some picked hands to drive the herd from its stronghold towards the pound. We succeeded in moving them through the thick parts of the cover with rockets, and soon got them near to its entrance. A screened platform had been erected for the ladies at a SHOOT A TROUBLESOME FEMALE. 113 point near the gate, where they could see the final drive into the enclosure from a place of safety. The elephants, however, when near the entrance, made a stand, and re- fused to proceed ; and finally, headed by a determined female, turned upon the beaters and threatened to break back down an open glade. P. and I intercepted them, and most of them hesitated ; but the leading female, the mother of the albino calf, which had been evilly disposed from the begin- ning, rushed down upon me, as I happened to be directly in her path, with shrill screams, followed by four or five others, which, however, advanced less boldly. When within five yards I floored her with my 8 -bore Greener and 1 0 drams ; but though the heavy ball hit the right spot between the eyes, the shot was not fatal, as the head was carried in a peculiar position, and the bullet passed under the brain. The elephant fell to the shot, almost upon me, when P. fired, and I gave her my second barrel, which in the smoke missed her head, but took eftect in her chest, and must have pene- trated to the region of the heart, as a heavy jet of blood spouted forth when she rose. Probably one of the large arteries was cut by this shot. The poor beast moved off a few paces and halted, a stream of blood issuing in a parabolic curve from her chest, and making a loud gushing sound as a pool was formed in front of her. For some moments she swayed from side to side, and then fell over with a deep groan, to rise no more. This was a painful scene ; the elephant had only acted in defence of her young ; but shooting her was unavoidable, as our Uves, as well as those of the beaters, were in jeopardy. The next scene partook of the ridiculous. The herd had dispersed and regained its original position. The little albino calf, seeing P., screamed wildly, and with ears extended and tail aloft chased him. He, wishing to save it, darted round the trees, but was near coming to grief, as he tripped and fell. The result might have been disastrous had I not given the pertinacious youngster a telling butt in the head with my 8 -bore. His attention was next turned to a native, who took to his heels wlien he found that three smart blows with a club on the head had little efiect. After some severe struggles, in which a few natives were floored, the caK was at last secured to a tree by a native's waistcloth and a jungle-creeper. While all this took place the beat became thoroughly disorganised. When the elephant had charged P, and me, our men had given way, and the herd regained its originial position at the extreme east end of the cover. After a short delay we beat it up again to the spot near the gate from which it had broken back. The elephants here formed a dense mob and began moving round and round in a circle, hesitating to cross the newly- H \U IMPOUND THE ELEPHANTS. fiUed-in trench wliich had reached from the channel to the river, but which was now refilled to allow them to pass on into the kheddah. At length they were forced to proceed by the shots fired, and by firebrands carried tlirough the paths in the thicket. The bright eyes of the fair watchers near the gate were at length gi-atified by seeing one great elephant after another pass the Rubicon. After a short pause, owing to a stand being made by some of the most refractory, the last of the herd passed in with a rush, closely followed into the inner enclosure by a frantic beater waving a firebrand. P. and I came up third, in time to save any accident from the fall of the barrier. C, who was perched on a high branch of the gate-tree, cut the rope, and amidst the cheers of all, the valuable prize of fifty-three elephants was secured to the Mysore Government. I often think of tlie rapture of that moment ! How warmly we " Sahibs " shook hands ! How my trackers hugged my legs, and prostrated themselves to P. and B. An hour of such varied and high excitement as «lephant-catching is surely worth a lifetime of uneventful routine in towns ! Sore disappointment had been undergone by myself and men. Many tedious days and nights had we laboured against discouraging incidents and hardships. But all was forgotten in the success of that moment. We lost no time, however, amidst our self-gratulations, in thoroughly secur- ing our prize. Guards were immediately posted round the kheddah, and my own tent pitched outside the gate ; but the elephants gave no further trouble. The jungle inside was dense, and they kept so quiet that, large number though there was, we could scarcely see anything of them from the outside for some hours, until they began to move, when they soon trampled down much of the jungle. They never attempted to cross the trench. The most noisy animal of the herd was the little albino calf, which had broken its bonds during the second drive and made its way with the others into the kheddah, and which continued to roar lustily for its mother, and in pain at the kicks which were freely administered to it by the other elephants when it endeavoured to push its way amongst them. If the writers who have stated that female elephants suckle and tend each other's calves indis- criminately were but subjected to half the pummelling the unfortunate orphan underwent the first day and night in the enclosure, they would have but a poor opinion of indiscriminate suckling, I imagine. On the day after the drive we commenced the work of securing the wild ones. Out of seventeen tame elephants belonging to the Maharajah and Commissariat Department which I had in camp, ten of the most steady and courageous males and females were told off for work in the enclosure, and the rest to bring fodder for the captives. Water was supplied to them MY JEMADAR'S VIEWS. 115 through bamboos across the trench, emptying into an improvised trough. As none of the mahouts had seen elephants caught before, except single ones, they were rather nervous about entering with but ten among so many wild ones. P. rode one pad-elephant in advance, and I another, to encourage the men. The wild ones all mobbed together when we entered, and showed great interest in our elephants. After some little time we separated a few from the herd, and a mahout slipped off under cover of our tame elephants and secured a noose round a young tusker's hind -leg. The tame elephants then dragged and pushed him backwards nearly to the gate of the klieddah, where we secured him between two trees. We afterwards found, however, that it was much easier to hobble each elephant's hind-legs, and then to let it fatigue itself by dragging them after it for some time before we finally secured it, than to proceed as we did at first. In ten days, -during which time the visitors remained, and we had a merry camp, we secured all the elephants. Calves were allowed to go loose with their mothers. The captives were led out of the enclosure by our elephants as fast as they were secured, across the river, and were picketed in the forest. Water-troughs were made for them of hollowed lengths of date-trees. These were pushed within their reach by a bamboo, and withdrawn with a rope to be again filled. Two men were appointed to each large elephant, and one to each small one. They made themselves shelters of boughs and mats just beyond the reach of their charges, and by constantly moving about them, singing to, and feeding them, many could handle their elephants in a few days. The elephants at first kicked or rushed at their captors (they very seldom struck with their trunks) ; but as soon as they found nothing was done to hurt them they gained confidence, and their natural timidity then made them submit without further resist- ance. There was a great variety of temperament observable amongst them. The small elephants, about a third grown (particularly females), gave the most trouble. The head jemaddr ascribed it to their sex and time of life. " Wasn't it so with human beings ? " he said. " How troublesome women were compared to men, who were always quiet ! " He was a Mussulman, and had several ladies in his establishment, so, as I was an inexperienced bachelor, I did not presume to question his dictum. One young elephant lost the sole of one foot with three toes attached after it had become loos- ened from her violence in continually kicking up the ground, and died soon afterwards. A mahout and I mounted a full-grown female on the sixth day after she was removed from the enclosure, without the presence of a tame elephant, which shows how soon elephants may be subjugated by kind treatment. 116 INCIDENTS WHILST SECURING THE CAPTIVES. The ropes were changed from one leg to another every day, otherwise the wounds made by them would have been very serious. Whilst this was being done it was necessary for a tame elephant to stand near the wild one, as it became alarmed on seeing men on foot near. We were much troubled by maggots in the wounds of the new elephants. In a few hours after they were dressed they would swarm again. The animals kicked up sand and blew it upon their sores to keep off the flies ; this sopped up the oil and dressings we applied, and the chafing of the ropes was much more sever© when sand got under them. The mahouts used various substances, as lime, tobacco, the juice of certain plants, &c., to kill the maggots ; but they were unfortunately all agents of an irritating nature, and though fatal to the maggots, were far from conducive to the healing of the wounds. I have since found camphorated turpentine a valuable remedy. On the present occasion, with a bucket of margosa oil (called also ncem oil, most offensive in smell, and deterrent to flies) at hand, and a mop for applying it, the men managed in about a month to heal their elephants' wounds. During the tying-up process in the kheddah several amusing incidents occurred. Active fellows would constantly cross it on foot with ropes or other things that were required, and at first they were pertinaciously chased by the wild ones. The men made for the protection of the tame elephants, and it was considered creditable to do this with as little hurry as circum- stances would admit. The arena formed a centre of attraction to the on- lookers, as the theatre of a Spanish bull-fight may do, and the men who showed the greatest coolness were loudly applauded. The elephants, however, soon gave up pursuing when they became accustomed to seeing people. The wild ones did not attempt to interfere with the men when they gained the shelter of the tame elephants. On one occasion a friend in the Forest Department, who was riding one of our elephants, was swept off, as well as- the mahout, by an overhanging creeper, when their elephant was dragging a captive across the kheddah. Having but a confused idea of the points of the compass when they gained their legs, they rushed toward the nearest elephant for protection. It was a very fine animal, but unfortunately a wild one, which they mistook for a friend ! The elephant was rather star- tled and did not take so prompt an advantage of their mistake as it might have done. They meanwhile made some remarkably good time towards the gate of the enclosure, which they reached in safety. The largest tusker amongst the captives began to be troublesome a day or two after the herd was impounded. He would approach our elephants as if to measure his strength with theirs. A prod with a long spear in the head kept him off at first, but the novelty of that treatment wore away, so A TROUBLESOME TUSKER. 117 I told the riders of our tuskers to set their elephants at him if he gave more trouble. Amongst them was one called Jairam, not taller than the wild elephant, and with the disadvantage of having blunt tusks ; but he was of a most warlike temperament amongst his own kind, though remark- ably gentle and good-tempered to his keepers and strangers. It had been necessary to restrain him hitherto from attacking the wild tusker, but I now gave his rider permission to gratify Jairam if the wild elephant required chastisement. Whilst we were at work that day in the kheddah I heard the clash of meeting tusks, and a tremendous scuffling behind me. I turned and beheld the valorous Jairam with the wild tusker's head jammed between his tusks, whilst he ran him rapidly backwards towards the trench, urged on by his delighted rider. The scuffling of even a pair of bullocks makes a considerable noise ; that created by struggling elephants may be imagined. The tusker having got his head into chancery could do nothing but run back to clear himself. He fortunately managed to do this when just on the brink of the trench, and made his escape, pursued round the enclosure for some minutes by the gallant Jairam, who, amidst the plaudits of all, added to the tusker's discomfiture by administering some nasty prods behind whenever he could catch him. I sent for some money and rewarded the mahout before the spectators, as his position had been a highly dangerous one during the tilting - match. Mahouts are always pleased when their elephants deserve commendation, and Jairam had a double allowance of grain and a large bundle of sugar-cane that evening as a mark of his master's approbation. The wild tusker was thoroughly cowed by this encounter ; and it was amusing to see the riders of the elephants told oft to guard whilst the others were engaged in tying the captives, jockeying the late combatant round the enclosure when he did anything which afforded them an excuse for administering correction. One great piece of excitement was the capture of a single male elephant in the elephant-lines. Unfortunately I was the only spectator amongst our party. I was just getting up at dawn one morning when a mahout rushed into my tent saying, " Wild elephant, wild elephant !" and away he went again. The word he used for elephant might mean one or any niunber, and imagining a herd must have come, and was threatening interference with our captives, I ran down to the elephant - lines just as I was, in my flannel sleeping-suit. I found the men unshackling three of our best females, and seizing spare ropes, and they now told me that a single male elephant was amongst the new ones picketed across the river. I jumped on to Dowlutpeary behind the mahout. We only had girth-ropes on her, no pads, and not even dark-coloured blankets to cover ourselves. 118 A CHASE. Crossing the river we saw some mahouts in a tree, who pointed to the jungle on the left, where we found the elephant, a fine tusker, but with the right-hand tusk missing. He was a young elephant, and would be a prize indeed. AVe all lay flat on our elephants' necks. Presently the tusker approached us, and my elephant's mahout turned Dowlutpeary round with her stern towards him, that he might be less likely to see us. He put his trunk along her back, almost to where I sat. I took the goad from the mahout, so as to job his trunk if he came too near me, but he seemed satisfied. Bheemruttee and Pounpeary, the other two elephants, now made advances to him under the direction of their mahouts, and he soon resigned himself unsuspiciously to our company. He now led us through the lines, interviewing several of the captured elephants, whose position he did not seem to be able to understand, and then retired to a shady tree, as the sun had risen. I signed to the hiding mahouts to get the other tame elephants quietly across the river, but to keep them out of sight ; and as sooi as the elephant stood perfectly still, my mahout and Bheemruttee's slipped off, whilst Pounpeary 's rider and I kept the three elephants close against the wild one to prevent his seeing the men. They had been at work tying his hind-legs for a considerable time, when he attempted to move and found himself hobbled ! The critical knot had just been tied when he shifted his position ! He was on the alert in an instant. Our elephants sheered off with great celerity, as he might have prodded them with his sharp tusk. The mahouts each threw a handful of dust into his face in derision before they retired, and now the fun began. Men came running from all directions with ropes, to the dismay of the tusker, who trumpeted shrilly and made off at an astonishing pace, scuffling along with liis hind-legs, which were not very closely tied to each other, and which he could use to some extent. He rushed away through the low jungle, the whole of our elephants and men in hot pursuit. He was red with a peculiar eartli with which he had been dusting himself, and formed a great contrast to the black tame elephants. Our tuskers were aU slow (their pace might have been improved by an appKcation of the Assam elephant-hunter's spiked maUet), and we did not gain on the elephant for nearly half a mile. The men on foot were running in a crowd alongside him to his intense terror. At last he turned into a thicket and halted, and we quickly surrounded him. Dowlutpeary and Bheemruttee again went in, and he was secured and marched back between four elephants in triumph. I sold him subsequently (for Government) for £175 ; had he had both tusks he would have brought double that sum. I gave the three mahouts who secured him £5 each — a small fortune to them — the moment the PROFITS OF THE CAPTURE. 119 elephant "was made fast, and said a few complimentary words upon their •ctivity. I have always found that, in rewarding natives for any service, ,he value of a present is greatly enhanced by its being given on the spot in presence of their fellows : and the Canarese proverb, " Though the hand be full of money, there should be sweet words in the mouth," should not be forgotten ; a few pleasant words go well with rupees. The captured herd consisted of sixteen male elephants of different sizes, of which three were large tuskers — the highest was 8 feet 5 inches at the shoulder — and three mucknas, or tuskless males ; thirty females,* full or half grown ; and nine calves. Of the largest elephants nine were allotted, after careful selection, for the Maharajah's stud, ten to the Madras Commissariat Department, nine died, chiefly young ones, and twenty-five of the least valuable were sold by public auction at Chamraj -Nuggar three months after capture, when most of them were tame enough to be ridden away. These latter brought an average price of £83, 8s. each, or an aggregate of £2085 ; and the total realised for the fifty-four (deducting deaths) was £3754, which, after deducting £1556, the total expenditure from the commencement of operations in 1873, left a surplus to Govern- ment of £2199. The elephants drafted into the Maharajah's and Com- missariat establishments were the most valuable animals, but were only credited to the Kheddah Department (by the orders of the Chief Com- missioner) at the same price as the second and third rate animals sold for at auction — viz., £83, 8s. each. At least £100 per head more might have been added, when the surplus receipts would have been £4099. The Chief Commissioner complimented me on the performance of my task in an order on the subject as foUows : " The success that has attended Mr Sanderson's skilful and energetic arrangements in this matter is in the highest degree creditable to that gentleman, and the Chief Commissioner cordially congratulates him thereon, and will have much pleasure in bringing his excellent services in organising and carrying the same out to the favour- able notice of the Government of India." The experiment having succeeded so well, the scheme was sanctioned for a further extended term, and the officiating Under-Secretary to the Government of India addressed the Chief Commissioner of Mysore as foUows : " I am directed to state that his Ex- cellency the Viceroy and Governor-General in Council is pleased to sanction the grant to Mr Sanderson of a bonus of £200, in acknowledgment of the skill and personal daring displayed by him." Not long after this, I was deputed to Bengal on temporary duty for ele- phant-catching, leaving the work in Mysore in abeyance for some time, though * This includes the female shot in the enclosure on the dav of the drive. 120 REMARKS ON TRAINING ELEPHANTS. my trackers and best men were allowed haK-pay until my return. An account of the expedition which I undertook after elephants into the wilds of the Chittagong hill-tracts will be given in the next chapter. I have not caught elephants in Mysore since my return from Bengal in 1876, owing to the disastrous famine prevalent in Southern India, the cause of which, lack of rain, affected the fodder upon which we are dependent for maintaining newly-caught elephants. But everything is kept in readiness at Morlay for the continuation of operations as soon as affairs improve, and it will be strange if, with our extended experience, my Morlayites and I are not able to do even better than in 1874. The herds in ]\Iysore are large and numerous. I calculate that there are at least 800 elephants in the jungles where catching operations can be carried on. A few remarks on the breaking of newly-caught elephants may not inaptly close this chapter. As soon as a wild elephant is secured, two keep- ers are appointed to it, who commence, one on each side, to fan it with long branches, keeping out of its reach. At first the elephant is furious from fear, and attempts to strike or kick them. They keep up a wild chant, addressing their charge by any extravagant title they can think of, such as " King of a thousand elephants," " Lord of the jungles on the summit of mighty liills," &c. The elephant is well fed from the beginning, and it is a remarkable circumstance that they eat from the first. They do not seem to be able to break through their habit of constantly feeding — a wild elephant grazes or browses almost incessantly — and if an elephant refuses its food it is generally something more serious than alarm that ails it. A not uncommon idea that elephants are starved into submission is quite unfounded. In a day or two the elephant pays little attention to the men — being engaged on the choice fodder with which it is supplied when they are at work at it. They gradually approach till they can clap its sides, its legs being secured for fear of a kick, which might kill them on the spot. The elephant soon learns to take sugar-cane, fruit, &c., from the hand, and allows them to be put into its mouth, which all elephants prefer to taking food in their trunks. I found a small allowance of rice for each elephant useful, as a pinch can be wrapped up in grass, with a little sugar, and the constant feeding with such morsels forms a bond between the animal and its attendants. Girth-ropes are soon tied round its body, and under the tail as a crupper, and the men climb on to it by these. When an elephant once gives up striking at its attendants (which it generally does in a few days), it is very seldom that it subsequently does anything intended to injure them, unless terrified by haste or excitement in their movements. Nor are there any elephants which can- not be easily subjugated, whatever their size or age. The largest elephants TEACHING TO '' SPEAK." 121 are frequently the most easily tamed, as they are less apprehensive than yoimger ones. The elephant should not be taught to kneel, nor be subjected to other unnecessary restraints, until well over the immediate effects of capture, say in four or five months. It may then be taken into the water, and the down- ward pressure of a pointed stick behind the shoulder near the spine will soon make it kneel to avoid the pain. Elephants are taught to trumpet by the extremity of their truuks being tightly grasped between the hands, when they are obliged to breathe through the mouth, in doing which they make a loud sonorous sound. They are rewarded and made much of for this, and so learn to " speak," as it is termed, on an indication of what is required. In Dacca the Government elephants are particularly weU trained, much more so than in the south of India. They are taught to collect their own fodder where it is plentiful, and to hand it up to the coolie on their backs, who packs it. — and manv other useful services. CHAPTER XL THE BENGAL ELEPHANT-CATCHING ESTABLISHMENT. JODRNEY TO DACCA — THE GANGES— A TIGER ON BOARD A RIVER-STEAMER — APPEARANCS: OF DACCA— MANUFACTURES OF MUSLIN, SILVER JEWELLERY, AND SHELL BANGLES— THE ELEPHANT DEPOT OR PEELKHANA— SYSTEM OF ELEPHANT-HUNTING — A TRIP^UP A TRIBUTARY OP THE BRAHMAPOOTRA — CAMP — PECULIAR ABSENCE OP ROCK IN THE GANGETIC DELTA — UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR WILD BUFFALOES — CHANGE MY GROUND A LONG HUNT AND AN UNSUCCESSFUL FINISH — BETTER LUCK — BAG FOUR BUFFA- LOES RETURN TO DACCA — DESPATCH ELEPHANTS TO CHITTAGONG — KHEDDAH PARTIES — ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUPPLIES WHILST ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN THE FORESTS— DIFFI- CULTIES OP THE COUNTRY — PROVISION DEPOT AT RUNGAMUTTEA — LEAVE CHITTAGONO FOR THE JUNGLES — CHOLERA IN CAMP — DESERTERS — THEIR PUNISHMENT. I LEFT Mysore on September 1, 1875, for Bengal, and proceeded to Cal- cutta. Here I reported myself to the Commissary-General, and then left for Dacca, vid Goalundo. Goalundo, the terminal station of the East- ern Bengal railway, is on the Ganges, 158 miles north-east of Calcutta. From Goalundo river-steamers leave for Dacca, and stations in Assam, aboufe, twice a- week. The expectations I had formed of the beauty of the Ganges were woe- fully sta<7gered. Instead of a clear rolling flood, I beheld an extremely muddy tidal river. Though Goalundo is, I believe, 140 miles from the sea,, the tides reach far above it, and keep the river brackish, and in a constant state of muddy agitation. The Ganges at Goalundo appeared to be about two miles wide, and as the day was stormy there was quite a high sea run- ning on its exposed surface. The trip to Dacca from Goalundo occupies two days ; the boats anchor at sunset, as the navigation of the river is difficult. In addition to carry- in" passengers, and a large number of coolies to the tea-estates in Assam and elsewhere, each steamer tows two huge goods-flats. Hides, jute, and THE GANGES. 123 tea are the chief cargoes from the interior to Goalundo. The flats are lashed on each side of the steamer, and the trio bears a ridiculous resem- blance to a small hen with two large chickens under her wings. This arrangement of the flats is necessary, as in rounding corners, and steer- ing between sandbanks, they would get aground if towed astern, and when going with the tide they would overrun the steamer wlien she slackened speed. The steamers are paddle-boats — I believe of 180 horse-power each. The current of the Ganges frequently runs at eight miles an hour, and none but powerful boats could make head against it. The machinery of the steamers is exposed, and seemed to be a never-ending source of wonder to the coolie emigrants on board. Continuous rain had flooded the country contiguous to the river, and boats were to be seen moving under full sail in what appeared to be verdant meadows — in reality rice-fields, where the crop showed above water. Large numbers of the Gangetic porpoise {Platanista gangetica), a fish between six and seven feet long, disported themselves not far from the steamer. I tried several shots at them with my express, but though they appeared to roU in a deliberate manner, it was difficult to fire with accuracy, and quickly enough, to kill them. I hit one or two crocodiles when we came within reach of them. The captain of the boat, who had spent many years afloat on the Ganges, told me of an instance of a tiger boarding his steamer when at anchor during the night. She was lying half a mile from shore, and towards morning some natives were engaged with a boat in laying out an anchor astern to prevent her swinging round with the tide. When they pulled back, a rope was thrown to them by a man on deck, and they brought their boat in close to the steamer's rudder. The deck of the river-steamers is only three feet above the water, and the rudder projects several feet from the sternpost for power in steering. A tiger, about two-thirds grown, that must, whilst swimming the river, have mistaken the anchored boat for an island whereon to rest, had taken up its position on the rudder. It was too dark for the men to see it, and in its fright at their coming so near, the creature sprang at the man in the bow of the boat, and from him at the lascar on board the steamer. It did them little injury, and took refuge somewhere on deck. The lascars awoke Captain H. ; but as there were a great many coolies on board, and it was impossible to shoot without risk of killing somebody, he decided to wait tiQ daylight. As soon as it was sufficiently light a search was instituted, and the tiger was found in the coal-bunker. He knocked over two or three inquisitive natives, ran along the deck, and jumped over- board in front of the paddle-wheel. As he did so Captain H. broke one of 124 DACCA. his hind-legs with a hall. The wounded heast then clamhered into the wheel, but just as Captain H. was about to finish him he fell into the water, and was seen no more ; the rapid current carried him under, and out of reach in a few moments. Somewhat similar instances have been known of tigers getting into native boats. I imagine such must have happened much as ia this case, through the tigers seeking a rest during a long swim. The approach to Dacca by water is striking. Some of the buildings of Mohammedan type which line the river in the native part of the town appear to be of considerable antiquity. At the ends of the streets which debouch on to the river clusters of boats are anchored, and an active trade goes on in fish, vegetables, grass for cattle, &c., all brought from the villages up or down the river. In the stream are anchored two or three Govern- ment steamers, belonging to the European officials for use on their tours of duty. At the southern end of the town are the Europeans' residences. They stand in green compounds, well back from the river, which is here bordered by a wide esplanade, the usual lounge of the evening. Here is situated the palatial residence of the Nawab Abdool Gunni, C.S.I., whose liberality and benevolence are widely known around Dacca. The Europeans in Dacca are beholden to him for warm support in all their amusements — hunting, racing, balls, music, croquet-parties, &c. Though Dacca is about a hundred miles from the sea, the country is so low-lying that the tides run up the river far above it. Its height above sea-level is only about ten feet."^^ Eor this reason the Europeans' houses are generally two-storeyed, which is unusual in India, and the upper one is mostly used, as the lower is frequently damp. StiU Dacca is one of the most healthy stations in Bengal. This is somewhat strange, as the exhalations from the river about October and November cannot but be injurious to health. The stagnant water which has up to this time inundated the country adjacent to the river for a great distance above Dacca, finds its way into the main stream when it shrinks, and brings with it enormous quan- tities of decayed vegetable matter, floating islands of grass, drift-wood, &c. One day I saw a dead panther, floating so high out of the water that it was evident its decease had taken place some days before, pass my bungalow. I sent a boat after it, but the skin was useless, the hair coming off when handled. The animal had perhaps been drowned, as it bore no marks of having been shot. The stench from the river was sometimes so great as to awaken me during the night, and as the weather was too hot to admit of * It was in the country lying between Dacca and the sea that the great cyclone wave occasioned euch terrible loss of life on November 1, 1876. It is only its distance from the sea that rendera Dacca safe from being similarly overtal^en. A DEAD DOG'S DOINGS. 125 windows being closed it was rather distressing. "When the river had run itself down to summer level it became almost stagnant, except for the flow of the tides. I well remember this from a dead pariah-dog making trips up and down with the flow and ebb for a day or two. Each time it passed there was a visible change for the worse. It looked larger than when last seen, and floated more jauntily high out of the water ; nor was its colour improved by the loss of patches of hair. At last, after one or two unsuc- cessful attempts, I sent a bullet through it at a liundred and fifty yards, and put a stop to its ghastly trips. Dacca is a populous native city (70,000 inhabitants) and a large and favourite civil station. A wing of a native regiment is quartered here. It was a place of great importance under the Moguls, but its former glory has in a great measure departed. Dacca used to be famous for its ship- building, and its fleet of eight hundred armed vessels, employed in guarding the southern coast against the ravages of Arracanese pirates. It was widely celebrated for its manufactures, amongst which muslin of incomparable fine- ness was one of the most noted. This is now difficult to procure. The best is only made to order, and costs about £1 per yard. A piece I had of twenty yards, and average width, weighed, if I remember rightly, six rupees (twelve shillings in silver). The native silver filigree work, in European designs, is superior to anything of its kind of English or Continental manufacture. A large trade is carried on in armlets for native women, cut from shells, brought by the native trading-boats to Dacca from the coast of Ceylon and other places. The cutting is effected with a huge semi-cii'cular knife like a cheese-cutter, worked with both hands. A small circular-saw would do as much in an hour as twenty men in a day. Dacca is the headquarters of the Bengal Kheddah, or Elephant-Catching Establishment. Its situation on a branch of the Ganges from which large supplies of water-grasses, suitable for fodder, are obtainable, and within two hundred miles of the forests of Chittagong, Sylhet, and Cachar, which abound with wild elephants, is perhaps the best for the purpose in Bengal. The Peelkhana, or elephant depot, is situated just outside the town, and covers an area approaching one quarter-nule square. It consists of an intrenched quadrangular piece of ground in which the elephants' pickets are arranged in long rows. At each picket is a masonry flooring, with a post at the head and foot, to which the animals are secured. The flooring is necessary to prevent them kicking up the earth. Along one side of the quadrangle is a shed several hundred feet long, in which the elephants can be kept during the heat of the day. There is also a hospital for sick ele- phants ; houses for gear and stores ; a native doctor's room for treating the 126 THE DACCA KHEDDAH ESTABLISHMENT. attendants ; a slielter for howdabs and ropes, &c. The depot is situated close to the river for convenience of bathing and watering the elephants, and also that fodder may be brought by boats. Most of the elephants required for the service of the Bengal Government are furnished by the Dacca establishment. It is under a European officer, and a yearly exodus of all hands is made to hunt in the forest-tracts of Chittagong and Assam. The establishment contains fifty trained elephants or koonhies, — derived fiom the Hindoostan vt^ord kiiviuk, aid. These are all females. In addition to the permanent stud of koonkies, there is always a large number of new elephants undergoing training. When fit for service these are allotted to military stations as required. The hunting-party •usually leaves Dacca about the beginning of December, and after worldng for three or four months (this season is selected as little rain falls), returns with the captured elephants about May. The training of these occupies the •establishment till November, when the animals are despatched to Commis- sariat stations, leaving the establishment free to hunt again. The annual captures in Dacca for seven years prior to 1875-76 averaged fifty-nine elephants. I found from old records that from 1836 to 1839 inclusive, sixty-nine elephants were the annual average. In the chapter upon the method of capturing elephants, I have men- tioned the composition of a Bengal hunting-party. The expense of main- taining the full number of men of which it consists the whole year round would be so great that only the jemadars and chief men are permanently employed, the coolies required being enlisted for two or three months annu- ally, as required. This system of hunting has been pursued by the Bengal Government, and probably by former native governments, so long, that the people required for klieddahs are easily collected at Chittagong and other centres. Though many die at times from the effects of these jungle-trips, and some are killed almost every year by elephants, there are always plenty of volunteers for the work, The permanent Superintendent of the Dacca Kheddahs having obtained furlough to England, I accepted the acting appointment for eighteen months, but I only held it for nine, as I was permitted to return to Mysore at the end of that period to continue kheddah operations there. And though I was under orders to return to Dacca for the last three months of my officiating term, to ma^e another expedition into Chittagong in January 1877, the return of the permanent Superintendent before the expiration of his leave rendered my doing so unnecessary. I took charge of the depot from Major C. in September, 1875. As ^e sat at a table under a shady tree in the quadrangle, with a roU of the TRIP UP THE RIVER. 127 elephants before us, they filed past, and all made their salutations. Those that had been caught but a few months were not all quite an fait at isalaaming. Several baby elephants accompanied their mammas ; others, a little older, were ridden by little boys, the mahouts' sons, who joined in the march past and seemed proud of their duty. There were 159 in all. As there was little to do before the hunting season — December — beyond my daily inspection of the Peelkhana, and the continued training of the elephants, I decided to make an expedition up one of the tributaries of the Ganges to a place called Berramtollie, about forty miles above Dacca, where I heard there were a few wild buffaloes. These animals are not found in Southern India, so I was anxious to add them to my game list, and also to see the localities from which fodder was drawn for the elephants, the amount of which arriving at the Peelkhana astonished me, after the difficulty experi- enced in the matter of fodder in Southern India. I therefore despatched twenty-five elephants by land, to give them a little outing as well as myself, as it always does elephants good, and I followed by boat next day. There was a large choice of boats at the Dacca landing. My servant chose one about fifty feet long, having a comfortable cabin and a small room for boxes on deck. It only drew a foot and a half of water, and was propelled by eight rowers, with a steersman. The forward half of the deck was occu- pied by the rowers, the latter half by the cabin. Upon the roof of this the steersman sat, guiding the boat with a large oar lashed to the sternpost. In the forward-deck was a small square pit, which answered the purpose of a galley. I left Dacca at six o'clock in the morning. The boat was narrow and sailed weU, but only before the wind, as it had no keel. We soon turned into a tributary that led to a place called Kasimpoor, and here we had to take down the large sail as the breeze was against us. The main stream was about seventy yards wide, with a considerable current. The flood-banks of the river were not less than a mile apart, and were lined with groves of trees, palms, and jungle, with villages and fishermen's huts appearing here and there. Between these banks was one unbroken sea of the richest green imaginable, composed of rice-fields and extensive patches of broad-leaved rushes, the elephants' fodder. But little open water was to be seen except the main stream. When the river should run down in a couple of months, and confine itself within the main channel, the rice-crops now standing in three feet of water would be reaped. Throughout the day the boat was kept in dead water over the flooded land, and as it was not deep the men found poling more effective than rowing. I saw a number of boats loading with grass for the Peelkhana, and could now understand where the fodder 128 ABSENCE OF ROCK IN THE G A NOETIC DELTA. came from. This supply only lasts, however, from May till November, or durincT the time of the inundations. When the water retires there is an end of the luxuriant growth. In the afternoon we turned into a smaller tributary, and after following it for some miles we reached camp under a splendid banian-tree, so wide- spreading that the twenty-five elephants and their attendants found plenty of room under it without encroaching upon my camp. As a rule, trees of the order Ficus are not so fine in Eastern Bengal as in the south of India. This may be occasioned by the presence of water within a few feet of the surface, which prevents their roots striking sufficiently deep. This tree, however, was an exception amongst its fellows. In addition to the in- feriority in the size of the trees, the massive granite temples and other buildings common in Mysore and other parts of Southern India are wanting in Eastern Bengal. There is an extraordinaiy absence of stone throughout the delta of the Ganges. There is not a single rock, not a pebble, not even a nodule of gravel, for a distance of four hundred miles from the sea. The most permanent building material is but indifferent brick ; hence, nothing can lay claim to the antiquity which makes many remains in Mysore and other provinces so deeply interesting. For anything there is to be seen to the contrary, this part of the country might have been brought under cultivation within the last ten years. After breakfast next day I took all the elephants, and went through a variety of grass and bush-jungle, occasional swamps, &c., in the hopes of finding buffaloes, but I felt very helpless through not having had any experi- ence in the sport. I saw a few hog-deer {Axis porcinus) an animal not found in Southern India, but no buffalo. At last we found some marks, and I tried to track a solitary bull, but lost the trail in a mile. Oh for some of my Mysore Oopliga or Kurraba trackers ! The country was wet, and trackincT comparatively easy, and I saw no jungle that buffaloes could not be followed into — even on foot ; but none of my men were adepts. At last we met some charcoal-burners who seemed likely fellows, and who told us the buffaloes grazed in the rice-fields at night, but retreated to jungles near a place called Eampoor during the day. To Eampoor we started aocord- ino'ly, and on the way picked up a native (the villagers here were not unlike the Mysore Kurrabas and Shdlagas), and under his guidance the elephants tramped some miles of likely jungle, but without our seeing anything. Our f'uide, however, promised better tilings on the morrow, so we returned to camp. This kind of work is most beneficial to elephants, as they graze the whole of the time, finding a variety of fodder, and the exercise and change please them. A FRIEND IN NEED. 129 The return path to Berramtollie led through a sea of green rice-fields ; occasionally skirted oases in the shape of mounds and rounded hOls, all closely studded with beautifully straight, tall trees, with large leaves much like the cinchona ; whilst several large sails moving steadily along up the nullahs intersecting the rice -fields had the appearance in the distance of immense white birds. When I got to camp I found an observant peon had marked a pea-fowl to roost in a tree not far away. It was a difficult light to shoot in, but I managed to bring it down with my rifle at sixty yards ; and as I had fowls enough for my own consumption, I made the peon a present of it, with an exhortation to continued vigilance in such matters. Next day all the elephants started for Kampoor, and after breakfast I followed in my boat up a nullah, or natural canal, which was about twenty yards wide, four deep, and very prettily shaded with trees. The water was almost dead. We reached Eampoor in the afternoon, and I went out with my friend of yesterday to examine the country. We saw new tracks of buffalo, but nothing else. JSText day we again went through plenty of promising jungle, but though my conductor was eager to show sport, he was not an adept at the only method to attain his object with certainty — steady tracking. I therefore returned to breakfast, cogitating upon what to do next, when, just as I had finished, a man came in with news of some buffaloes having grazed in his rice-fields during the night. I scarcely felt inclined to go out again on such information, as the day was hot, and the ^allagers apparently incapable of finding the animals, but when the man was brought forward I saw at once that he was the right person at last. There was no mistaking him. The experienced sportsman can tell the genuine hunter at a glance. Whatever their race or colour there is a free- masonry amongst sportsmen, and though I could not speak a word of my new friend's language, I could have shaken hands with him at once. His appearance might not have been prepossessing to some. He had a very rough matted head of hair, and a string and a rag round his loins. But he was quiet and composed in his manner, though he threw the timid glances of his class, so familiar to me, around him ; and his replies, through an interpreter, confirmed the confidence I felt in him. I at once ordered out five elephants, and gave my guide some tobacco, which delighted him. I regarded him as a brother come in the moment of my sore need. Sending the elephants to a point two miles down the nullah, I was rowed to the same place in my floating house. I had no tent, but lived in the cabin of my boat. Mounting Tara Eanee, I followed the new tracker and another man to their fields, where several buffaloes hiid grazed. There I ISO FIND BUFFALOES. was a scarecrow in one corner, whioh presented a rather ridiculoua appear- ance, as the buffaloes had grazed the crop quite short, except under its outstretched arm and about its feet. It was thus left guarding, with an appearance of great solicitude, about fifty stalks ! The men carried the tracks from here in good style through jungle composed of bushes much like hazel, interspersed with fine trees ; beds of a peculiar broad-leaved plant ; and occasional swamps and long grass. The buffaloes — apparently eight or ten — had wallowed in a pool, and for some distance beyond the grass and bushes were whitewashed with mud from their brushing against them. When we had gone about three miles we found a pool only recently disturbed, and I dismounted, as from sundry signs similar to those I well knew in bison-shooting — such as the animals loitering and wandering, and more particularly (as the compass attached to my watch-chain informed me) from their having turned back towards the fields they had grazed, doubtless with the intention of visiting them again that night — I imagined they were not far ahead. We were entering some thick cover when up they jumped, close on our right, and crashed away. I did not catch sight of them, but ran along the path they made through the grass and bushes. One — the bull no doubt — kept lagging behind, and breaking away again and again just before me ; but the undergrowth was very rank, and though I ran nearly a mile I never saw him. I waited for my followers, and we resorted to tracking again. The men kept the trail very well for two miles, when we came to a serious check, caused by the buffaloes having met some charcoal-burners, at sight of whom they had scattered in all directions ; and as the ground was not sufficiently soft to render the old bull's tracks very discernible from the others, whilst the locality had been recently much trampled, the finding the newest tracks, and picking out the bull's amongst them, occupied time. The men made many gestures signifying that the buffaloes must be far ahead, that we should not catch them up before sundown, and pointing to the position of the sun about seven in the morning, with much nodding and grunting in an assuring manner, by which I understood them to say we should make certain work of them in the morning. But I have so constantly found that when matters look least promising success is often close at hand, that T would not hear of giving in, and encouraged them to persevere by the well-understood pantomime of tapping the palm of the upturned left hand with the fingers of the right held in a suggestive manner together, as if passing coin into the said upturned hand. They grinned in an appreciative manner at this, and girt up their loins afresh, and by making B long cast we hit off the trail again. I saw my only chance was to ride WOUND A BULL. 131 the elephant close behind the trackers, as I could not see to shoot on foot in the grass. We expected a long hunt before we came up with our game this time, if we did so at all that day. I was looking round, admiring the jungle, when crash, crash, went the jungle close ahead, as the bull started suddenly and lumbered off ! He had got our wind ! Another few yards and I should have viewed him ! I told the mahout to push on the elephant with all speed, the trackers leading at a run through the still bending bushes, when the wide-spreading, massive horns, and huge head of the bull appeared suddenly before me, staring at the elephant, and only thirty-five yards away ! He looked as cool as if he had just risen from his lair. I clutched the driver wildly by Ms shaven crown to stop the elephant, and got a fair shot at the bull's chest with my 8-bore and twelve drams, but I could not see to put in the left for the smoke, and away the bull went. Well, he can't go far with that ! and I heartily congratulated myself on getting so fine a specimen of a buffalo. I now dismounted, and we followed him. There was not much blood, but that often happens with thick-skinned animals. The internal bleeding would be the more severe, and I pressed on, with the trackers behind me now, as I thought our game might prove vicious if still on his legs when we came up with him. The blood, however, ceased shortly, and the trackers had to lead again. This was strange. The brute had also jumped a deep and somewhat wide grip — a last effort, no doubt. But no; he has gone on at a gallop on the other side! The end of the hunt was that we never saw the bull again, though we tracked him till dark. Had he been fairly hit with such a weapon as the 8-bore he could not have gone far. The ball must have made a flesh-wound of little importance, hitting him to one side in the shoulder instead of in the chest ; and I daresay the old fellow is aUve and well to this day, as I hope, seeing that I cannot have him ! We had a long tramp back to the boat through the dark and thick jungle. Apart from the loss of the bull, I felt it unfortunate that I should have made such a dihut amongst my new people. I feared the trackers' confidence in my shooting would be shaken ; whilst the fifty hungry mahouts and grEiss- cutters in camp would hear of our ill -success with real grief, as they had been calculating upon steaks for supper. My gun -bearer, Jaffer, who had accompanied me from Mysore, had, I knew, recounted with his own additions his master's deeds in the shooting Une there, and I felt that greater things had been expected of me. Well, it often happens that the sportsman gets animals to which he is but ill entitled, as far as hav- ing worked for them is concerned, and he must therefore set off these pieces of good luck against his unfortunate days. 132 SHOOT FOUR BUFFALOES. Early in the morning we started, with three elephants following, to examine the rice-fields along the nullah. We found the track of two buffaloes quite close to the elephants' pickets, and after carrying them for two miles through undulating, grass-covered hills, and swampy bottoms, I saw a buffalo standing broadside on in a pool amongst long grass at the foot of a slope we were descending. I was riding a very fine elephant,. Tara Kanee — Queen of the Stars — at the time. The buffalo had not seen us, so, telling the mahout to keep the elephant steady, I sent a ball through its shoulders from the 8-bore, which dropped it on the spot. Immediately there was a great rushing about in the grass, and the herd — of which the two we had followed were members — consisting of about a dozen individuals, came trotting towards us, all covered with wet mud that glistened in the early sun, with their noses poked stupidly in front of them, not seeing where the shot came from, and undecided whither to flee. They nearly ran over the trackers who had not seen the buffalo when I did for the long grass, and who had gone several yards in front of my elephant before I fired. On seeing the elephants the buffaloes broke into a wild gallop, passing us to right and left, and within a few yards' distance. I bowled over one wdth my second barrel before they got level with us, and seizing my double 4-bore, I killed a third, and wounded a fourth behind us. I knew this one could not go far ; and when we had examined the fallen ones, the trackers and I followed and came upon it, a large cow, lying dead. It was unfortu- nate that only one of these — the first one fired at — was a buU, and he was but an insignificant one ; but the last-recovered cow had a splendid pair of horns, which, though less massive, are longer, and have a finer sweep and greater symmetry, than any bull's I have seen. They measure 9 feet 1 inch from tip to tip, outside curve, and across forehead. The day was getting hot by this time and I returned to camp. On hearing of our success a number of men immediately started to cut up two of the buffaloes which had had their throats cut before they were dead, with- out which Mussulmans will not eat any animal's flesh. On their return, with elephants carrying the meat of the two huge creatures, the camp was shortly festooned with meat cut into long thin strips for drying in the sun. The surplus was to be taken to Dacca for the men's wives and little- ones. I told off two men to preserve a quantity of meat for the mahouts who had been left at Dacca, and though it would only give them a taste each, Indian sporting dependants all like to have a share in the products of their master's hunt. I spent two or three days in this neighbourhood, not so much for shooting as to see the country. I took the whole of the elephants out for a few hours CHITTAGONG. 133 every day, marching in an extended line as if beating, but moving slowly so that they might feed. They were a very fine lot, and their men seemed willing and active fellows, and though I could not talk to them as they spoke Bengalee, we got along capitally by signs, and the aid of an inter- preter when necessary. The latter was a rather complicated way of con- versing, as I had to speak to Jaffer in Canarese (not his language more than my own), who translated into Hindoostanee to a Bengalee who understood Hindoostanee. This was similar to an Englishman's telling a German in French what he would communicate to an Italian who understood German ! After my return to Dacca I made an interesting trip into the Garrow hills in Assam, of which I shall give a short account further on. In November I despatched 79 elephants of previous years' capture to Bar- rackpoor, they being sufficiently trained for service ; and I then started 80 elephants to Chittagong, 154 miles by land, to proceed by slow stages, with a view to commencing the catching-operations of the season. I fol- lowed by sea from Calcutta on December 13th, but I had previously to recall 30 of my 80 elephants to assist in driving the covers near Goal- undo, where his Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales and party intended to make their d&nit in pig-sticking. Arrived at Chittagong, I found that the two jemadars whom I had sent a month beforehand to collect two khed- dah parties had made all preliminary arrangements, and it only remained for me to advance the men two months' pay, and to make arrangements for the provisions we should require when beyond the reach of civilisation. Chittagong is a district situated in the north-east corner of the Bay of Bengal. It is divided into two tracts, of widely differing character, — \dz., the coast district (2700 square miles), weU cultivated and populated, and producing a large surplus stock of rice for exportation ; and the hill-tracts (6800 square miles), inhabited by but a few rude tribes, and clothed with dense jungle. From the latter tract immense supplies of wood for boat- building and household purposes are drawn by the inhabitants of the coast district, by way of the Kurnafoolie river, which forms a highroad into the hills, as it is navigable almost to its source, as are also its tributaries. In these hiUs wild elephants abound, and the locality has been one of the chief hunting-grounds for the supply of these animals to Government for about a hundred years, and probably long before that to former native Governments. The professional elephant-catchers are all Chittagong men, and their skill in their profession is unrivaUed. The hillmen never engage in the work. I had decided, upon the advice of the most experienced men, to work near the head-waters of the Chengree {vide map) and Myanee rivers, but I fouP'^ it most difficult to obtain any exact account of the distances and 134 COMMISSARIAT ARRANGEMENTS. various obstacles to be encountered in so wild a country. The head-meo had all been there before, but no European, as the former Kheddah Superin- tendents seldom went beyond Rungamuttea, the most advanced civilised outpost in that direction. As to the maps available, the chief points and general lie of the country only had been settled by triangulation. Regard- ing details it was stated, " Nearly all the hills in this district are covered with impenetrable jungle ; the subordinate streams and hill-features have therefore been sketched." I was determined to explore the country in person, as the chance of being first into a new field is one seldom to be had nowadays, and is cer- tainly not to be neglected ; and the inability to obtain any exact account of what was before us added considerably to the pleasure of the expedition from my point of view. All accounts agreed as to the Chengree and Myanee being accessible to small dug-out boats nearly to their sources, some two hundred miles from Chittagong following their courses ; and on this means of transit I arranged our provisioning. The boats, or canoes, used for conveying the rice, salt fish, &c., required for the people, were pro- cured in Chittagong, and carried about seven hundredweights each. They drew eight inches of water when loaded, and could be dragged over shal- lows and fallen trees conveniently. I engaged sixty, with three men to each, at 24 rupees each boat and crew per mensem, and free rations to the men. This flotilla proceeded up the Kurnafoolie to Rungamuttea, the frontier police station. I visited this place, making a pleasant trip in a small paddle-steamer obligingly placed at my disposal by the Commissioner of Chittagong, and arranged a depot there, and had it stocked with two months' provisions. I placed this under a European named Wilson, a clerk in my office. He remained at the Rungamuttea depot during our trip into the wilds beyond, and carried out the very arduous duty of keeping us duly provisioned, and maintaining communications, most satisfactorily. The amount of provisions required for the two kheddah parties and tame elephants' attendants was a little over seventeen hundredweights per diem, so that the commissariat arrangements required no little attention and forethought. The two jemadars did not recommend that the hunting parties should proceed to their ground by the same course as the stores — the rivers — but proposed that we should march across the hills from Chittagong until we struck the Chengree, where one party might await the arrival of boats from Rungamuttea, and work in the valley of the Chengree, whilst the other crossed the watershed into the Myanee valley, to be similarly supplied by boats up the Myanee. Having ascertained that a place called Rajamaka- 23''ZO° REFERENCE. Jioiite uf ElepharW cutcfiina pariA Oiitta (fcmff IS uv I^ortJi Xatihidc' Z2' . . J^nst Zcriqifjicie 01 , SCALE itp/iro.ruiuitfly ,'f Afdis-I Inch/ CHOLERA IN CAMP. 135 Bheeta — camp No. 2 on map — would be a convenient point from which to make a start, it being the last civilised place in the coast district, I ordered the kheddah parties to be assembled there by the 27 th December. I left Chittagong, a pleasant station notwithstanding all that is said of its unhealthiness, and its sociable little community of Government officials and tea-planters, on 26th December 1875, and reached Baboo Ghat by evening, doing the chief part of the journey in the small steamer before- mentioned, which took me up a tributary of the Kurnafoolie, not marked on map. Elephants met me at the furthest point the steamer, which only drew two feet, could reach, and took me, my servants, and effects, to camp. I found that cholera had unfortunately appeared amongst the attendants of our elephants. Sergeant Carter — the only European who accompanied me on this expedition, and who had marched with the elephants from Dacca, whilst I went by sea — reported that one man out of three attacked had died, and that one of the others was in a critical condition. This intelligence marred in no small degree the pleasure of our start, as I fore- saw that if cholera — which was showing itself here and there in the villages in the coast district — broke out in our party, the whole undertaking might end in failure. I spoke to the native doctor attached to the establishment regarding due care in treating and segregating the suffering men, and ordered Sergeant Carter to march at three in the morning, so as to reach the next camp before the sun was hot, which was advisable for both men and elephants. I followed with my own camp at 6 a.m., and after marching through the level, highly -cultivated country that constitutes the coast district, we reached camp No. 2, seventeen miles, about 11 a.m. Eajamaka-Bheeta is a small village on the border of the immense jungle which extends without a break from Chittagong for hundreds of miles north and east through Tipperah and the Looshai country, and south through Arracan and Burmah. I found the two kheddah parties mustered here as agreed upon, each 370 strong. The rest of the day of arrival, and next day, I was occupied in superintending the taking of the names and places of residence of the coolies, for identification in case they deserted, which the jemadars informed me they frequently did. It was necessary to give them two months' pay in hand to leave with their families, and I learned it had become a practice with many, as no one but the jemadars had accompanied them into the jungles hitherto, to remain only until one capture of elephants had been effected, and then to desert. This was an easy method of making from fifteen to twenty rupees, as they were fed the while, and with luck some elephants might be caught almost at the outset. I had the men arranged in lines, and whilst inspecting them a oner pre- 136 A COURT-MARTIAL. ceded me, proclaiming at the top of his voice, and occasionally beating a tom-tom to insure attention, the awful pains and penalties to which deserters would render themselves liable. This kept the men in check to a great extent, though when we had been out about fifteen days, ten bold spirits ran away. I determined my words should not be unfulfilled, and immediately promised ten active mahouts five rupees each if they succeeded in catching any of them. The runaways had a start of twelve hours, and were not likely to loiter by the way, but the pursuers followed without rest for a day and night, traversing the dense jungles with torches, and succeeded in catching eight of them just at the outskirts of the jungle. These they brought back pinioned, and with leading-ropes round their necks. I held an imposing torch-light court-martial upon them when they arrived. The jemadar strongly urged the advisability of hanging them there and then, and cast his eye about for a likely overhanging bough to which to suspend them "in a row" as he said. I believe they really thought I should act upon his recommendation; but after much consideration I allowed mercy to prevail, and gave them a severe punishment instead of the capital one ! This much reduced the inclination to make off, and the few others who did decamp before the end of the expedition were brought from their distant homes by the police to Rungamuttea, where the political ofi&cer gave them two months' imprisonment with hard labour for stealing the Government provisions which they had taken with them, and which formed the only ground upon which they could be criminally convicted. Almost aU the kheddah men were rascals of various degrees, as it was only this class who cared to take such dangerous and irregular employment ; and though I thought none the worse of them for their antecedents, as they did their duty manfully, strict discipline was necessary to prevent their evil pro- clivities from interfering with the success of our work CHAPTER XII. AJC ELEPHANT-CATCHING EXPEDITION INTO THE HILL-TRA0T8 OP CHITTAGONG. «KTER THE HILL-TRACTS — ENDURANCE OF THE MEN — MY CAMP ARRANGEMENTS — ORDER OF MARCH — FIRST NIGHT'S ENCAMPMENT — PRECAUTIONS AGAINST MALARIA — SECOND day's march — HILLMEN — ENCAMPMENT — ELEPHANTS COLLECTING FODDER — COOKERY IN THE JUNGLES — THIRD DAY'S MARCH — A DIFFICULT CLIMB — QUICKSAND — AN ELEPHANT ROLLS DOWN A HILLSIDE — CHARMED DUCKS — A FALSE ALARM — REACH THE CHENQREE RIVER — NEW YEAR's EVE — JUNGLES — CANES — REMARKABLE CREEPERS — NOVEL FISHING — SUDDAR ALI SURROUNDS A HERD OF ELEPHANTS — KOOKIES — THEIR CRUELTIES — MARCH TO JADOOQAPARA — THE STOCKADE — THE DRIVE — CAPTURE THIRTY-SBVEN ELEPHANTS— A FEMALE ALMOST TAKES ME IN REAR. ON" the 29th December I stood at the edge of the jungle at Rdjamdka- Bheeta, whilst the men entered in single file, each salaaming and crjing Allah ! Allah ! by way of invoking luck. The matchlock-men led the van, firing feux-de-joie with a few rounds I had given them from the magazine to celebrate the commencement of our enterprise. Each coolie carried a springy bamboo lath across his shoulder, with a basket at each end, through which the bamboo passed. These baskets contained fifteen days' pro\a- sions, as it was uncertain when we might meet the pro^dsion-boat3 com- ing up the Chengree ; and should we fall in with elephants on our way a halt would be necessary. Each man's rations weighed 33 lb., and as the head-men and matchlock-men made their gangs carry their rations as well as their own, and each had a few cooking-pots, the weights were over 40 lb. per man. With this they marched for several days from morning till night, in hilly country, often in the beds of streams, and through bamboo-cover and long grass, under a broiling sun. The men were gen- -erally of miserable physique according to our notions, but they had the patience and endurance of mules. On the third day of marching I saw 138 PRIVATE COMMISSARIAT ARRANGEMENTS Bevera] of them with raws on their shoulders, caused by the pressure of the bamboo ; still they kept on with wonderful pertinacity, partly induced by the promise of extra tobacco and the prospect of a speedy return to their homes if elephants were captured soon, but chiefly by the tsprit de corps of the two parties, whose head jemadars, Gool Budden and Suddar All, each strove to outmarch the other, and to get to the hunting-grounds first. In this Suddar Ali, who was a younger man than Gool Budden, succeeded, as he left his party under a lieutenant, and with a few of his men out- stripped the main body by doing nearly forty miles a-day. He was rewarded by finding a herd of elephants in the valley of the Chengree before we arrived ; and when the men came up on 2d January, after five days' marching, he at once surrounded it ; whilst Gool Budden had to march over the Kalamoin range — a terrible job — into the Myanee valley, and did not find elephants till the 7th. When I started for these unexplored wilds I never expected to escape fever, and possibly a necessity for a speedy return to open country ; con- sequently I cannot speak too thankfully of the health our whole party enjoyed. We fortunately left cholera behind us ; and though towards the end of the two months a few of the men were down with dysentery, we only lost four during the trip, including one killed by an elephant. I had provided myseK with every comfort and convenience, and amongst other things I had reason to congratulate myself on possessing before the trip was over was a tin of 100 lb. of ship's biscuits and a keg of salt Bengal humps and tongues. I had an ample supply of tin provisions, plenty of books, and comfortable camp-fittings. I also had tents and everything as comfortable as possible for my servants — Madrassees — who had accompanied me from Mysore, and who comprised a head -servant, a cook, a table- servant, and four Bengalee peons. My trusty henchman Jaffer — my fac- totum for many years — of course accompanied me, in charge of my shooting and fishing gear. I had a most energetic lieutenant in Sergeant Carter, who was blessed with the constitution of an elephant. He was the only European besides myself in the hunting party, Wilson remaining at the EunCTamuttea depot after making one trip up the Chengree with the first instalment of provisions. No amount of work ever distressed Sergeant Carter ; and after the longest days he used to sit up with a very modest allowance of Commissariat rum and an ample supply of tobacco, far into the night. In fact as far as I can say from personal observation, he may never have turned in at all, as I always left him sitting by the fire before his tent, and found him there early in the morning when I got up for coffee ! Having seen the last man into the jungle on the morning of the 29tn, FIRST DAY'S MARCH. 139 my tent was struck, the elephants loaded, and we marched at 7 a.m;. I halted the column for a moment as we left the camping-ground to shoot some jungle-fowl {Galhis ferriigineus) which were pecking in the recently- reaped rice-fields. I determined that I must have hlood on starting on such an expedition, so I hunted them into a thick bush from which an elephant dislodged them, and down came the two cocks in a cloud of feathers. This species does not occur in the south of India ; it is almost identical with the common red domestic fowl of Bengal villages, though somewhat smaller. Our order of march throughout was for me to lead the column of elephants on my riding -elephant — the coolies being always well ahead of us, as they usually started some hours before — and for the sergeant to be the last man of the column. Several elephants carried tents and supplies ; my servants and dogs were disposed upon others ; the native doctor surmounted his pills and instruments on the back of a third ; and three carried coops of fowls and ducks, which cackled loudly when they were bumped against trees and thickets. The first day we marched till 5.30 p.m., ten and a half hours, about twenty-five miles. In some places we followed the beds of shallow, gravelly streams, very shady and pleasant. The jungle was occasionally open forest, and the marks of sambur {Rusa Aristotelis) were exceedingly numerous ; but from 1 1 A.M. till we halted, our route was through one unbroken stretch of grass, the path leading over small round hills, the grass being everywliere upwards of ten feet in height. This was country which had been cleared and cultivated at intervals from time immemorial, relaps- ing for a few years into waste. In the distance, a long and regular Hue of blue hills, the Bhangamoora range, bounded the horizon before us. Our goal was beyond this, as no elephants were to be found in the grass- country which extended to the hiUs. The Chengree lay between the Bhan- gamoora range and the next, the Kalamoin. Our course all day was N.E. I was glad, on ascending a saddle about five o'clock, to see the advanced- guard encamped in a green vaUey where the grass was short, embosomed in hiUs, and just before me. The smoke of the fires already started was fiUing the valley with a soft blue haze, whilst a busy hum rose from tlie throng. I descended the hill, and found a good camping-place some two hundred yards from the men ; and as the baggage- elephants came up one by one with tents, &c., and deposited their loads, they were shackled and turned loose on the sides of the hills for half an hour's grazing before being secured for the night. They had fed throughout the day's march, and only required a little fodder to make them comfortable. 140 H/LLMEN. My first care on reaching the ground was to start half-a-dozen men for firewood, whilst I took others with me carrying kettle, water - pots, wash-hand basin, saucepan, and all available vessels, to secure a supply of clear water for cooking and drinking for myself and servants before the small stream which ran through the valley should be disturbed by the thirsty elephants. This done, I sounded the assembly on my cornet for Sergeant Carter, who was not yet in sight, to let him know that the day's march was over, and he soon came up with the last elephants. The valley was very damp, and after dinner I had a fire kept up for half an hour in the tent ; and though I turned in amidst the smoke, it was better than a cold raw atmosphere. I belierve that, with a small tire kept up in or near the tent all night, and of course mosquito-curtains, and a cot at least three feet from the ground, a person may sleep in the most malari- ous swamps or jungles with safety. As the miasma is carried up, or anni- hilated, in the warm atmosphere, I have frequently done so without ill effects. In unhealthy jungles I make it a rule to keep within the influence of the camp-fires after sunset, and in the mornings until the jungles are warmed by the sun, when possible. Decemler 30, 1875. — To-day we marched from 7.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. The coolies got off at 4 a.m. The country was more difficult than yesterday, and we only did about sixteen miles. Here we caught up the coolies, and found such a good camping-ground that I ordered a halt. "With so many men and elephants, for whom space, water, and fodder were necessary, it was not every place that offered facilities for camping. The country to-day was all grass and a little bamboo, but closer and steeper than yesterday. The few villagers we saw were Hill Arracanese and Chuckmas, and had strongly- marked Indo-Burmese features. I noticed a breed of fine white fowls and several geese in the two or three villages we passed. All the houses were raised upon bamboo platforms about ten feet from the ground, a good pro- tection against malaria and dampness. Our encampment this evening was better situated than yesterday. My teuts and the sergeant's occupied a small hillock covered with short grass, rising in the centre of a narrow valley. The coolies were comfortably squatted on the level ground along the stream, where they erected grass huts as a protection against the soaking night dew. The view up to the closing of the valley, a vista of about half a mile, was unique. Several small rounded hillocks, like the one my tent occupied, rose from the level ground ; spurs ran out from the sides of the hills enclosing the valley, here only about three hundred yards wide ; and the stream wound a tortuous course around these and the hillocks. The spurs at their lowest points JUNGLE - COOKER V. 141 were covered with a rich green grass, whose silken tassels, two and a half feet in length, of a silvery or ashy grey, raised themselves on graceful stalks over the broad level of green leaves, themselves ten to twelve feet in height. Higher up the sides of the valley the tassel-grass was replaced by the grace- ful wild plantain, whose broad, emerald-green fronds, some drooping, some shooting up to a height of twenty feet, contrasted effectively with the dark- green feathery leaves of the bamboos. The elephants were scattered in all directions, gathering their night's fodder, pulling down branches, bearing over with a fore-foot and uprooting the succulent plantain, or reaping the long grass with their trunks with a swishing sound. The attendant of each stood upon its broad back, laying the fodder evenly across as the patient and sagacious animal collected and handed it up. This was work which suited the elephants, who grazed at leisure, and only handed up of their abundance when adjured with more than usual earnestness to tidl (in elephant language, to " hand up "). Towards, nightfall they came in, moving mounds of green, the mahout or grass-cuttei perched upon the evenly-balanced load, singing blithely. My dogs were l)dng upon the tent -sacks, whilst I sat by the fire amusing myself by watching the preparations for dinner. The cook is busy near a small trench over the fire, in which two or three pots and saucepans are simmering in a row. A duck is roasting on a bamboo spit over a pan of charcoal, a sauce- pan-lid being ingeniously propped sideways underneath it to catch the gravy, whilst avoiding the fire, and basting goes on merrily. My interest in the operation is of a complacent nature, as I know the bird will shortly appear, as nicely browned, as correctly stuffed, and as neatly served, as it could be in headquarters. One or two chickens which have got out of the rough jungle-coop are going about " wee- weeing " mournfully as night closes in and thoughts of jackals affright them. They are not to be overlooked ! they are objects of tender solicitude, and will be wanted before' many days, either for curry or " ishtew " (stew !). E'en now the cook's minions make insidious advances towards them, seize them, shrieking, and thrust them into the basket amongst their fellows, where they shortly settle down and are at peace. And now for dinner. What a blessiQg it is to have a good Madras cook in Bengal ! The roast duck forms one of the few cases in life where reality does not faU short of anticipation ; the curry could not be mistaken, even by an idiot, for the less spicy productions of the artistes of the leading Presidency ; and I am not required by my chef to contemplate any of the culinary audacities which Bengalee bohhachees (as cooks are there called. Heaven help them !) designate as puddings. 142 A DIFFICULT CLIMB. The evening is chilly, and the mist gathers heavily, so a seat clase to the fire and a thick overcoat are both pleasant and necessary adjuncts to the post-prandial cheroot. The light from the hundreds of small cooking-fire3 in the valley produces a strange effect. Some of the elephants are picketed between me and the nearest blaze, and are thrown into strong, weird relief in the fog. The hum amongst the tired men is gradually decreasing, and before I turn in, the whole encampment, except that where stand the elephants, is comparatively quiet. December 31. — This day's march, though only thirteen miles, was a very trying one ; it, however, landed us at our goal, the Chengree stream. We started at 7.30 a.m. with a tremendous ascent of a spur of the blue hills I had noticed ahead at the commencement of our march, and found that the enchantment of the distant view vanished on closer acquaintance. The hill- side was covered with long grass, which, when trodden down by the leading elephants, made a slippery foothold for the rest. As the huge beasts toiled up the almost vertical acclivity in a long straight line, zigzagging being im- possible, I thought what the effect would be should one slip and roll down ; recovery would have been impossible, and the whole line behind would have gone like nine-pins. The view from the top of this hill was uninteresting. Before us were higher hills, covered with nothing but long grass, with a few bamboos in the hollows ; behind us all the fine trees had been joomccl ""' off the country. We now descended nearly as deep a valley on the far side as the one we had left, and then kept along the bed of a shallow stream. As we rounded a corner I saw the ground shake under the elephants before mine. This was a peculiar kind of quagmire occasionally met with, over which, though the surface bends, animals may often pass in safety ; but when it once gives way it is rapidly broken up in all directions. It is, fortunately, seldom deep enough to be dangerous. My mahout pushed my elephant on in the hope of getting over safely, as we were light, shouting to the men behind to take another line ; but the surface had been too much tried already, and when we were almost over, through the elephant went, sinking to her girths. An elephant never gets flurried in situations where a horse would struggle and make matters worse ; and by resting a portion of her weight on her curled trunk upon the firmer surface in front, she managed, after much surging and roUing about, to get through it. In a mile more we caught up the coolies who had preceded us some * Jooming is the method of cultivation common to all jungle-tribes, and consists in cutting down and burning the timber, the ground being relinquished after the one or two crops have been obtained from it, the fertilising effect of the ash having worn out by that time. AN ELEPHANTS ROLL. 143 hours. About five hundred were resting at the foot of a steep ascent, in which was a pass where they could only go in single file, and which took much time to get over. I saw we should be kept for hours if this were the only way up, but I felt assured that the opposite side of the spur, round which the nullah wound, must be at least as easy as this ; so leaving Sergeant Carter and half the following to get up by the first route, I took all the elephants and the rest of the men along the nullah and round the spur, where we put the elephants at the steep ascent, the unloaded ones taking the lead and breaking down the bamboos and long grass. After a tedious climb under a hot sun, we reached a level saddle on the top at twelve o'clock ; at the same time Sergeant Carter brought up the last of his detachment. The men now preceded us along the narrow saddle, whilst the elephants rested to cool and feed after their climb, and we followed in an hour. The saddle was exceedingly narrow, and obstructed with bamboos and the ever- lasting grass, and a mishap occurred in the worst part, which, fortunately, was not as serious as it might have been. One elephant, Chumpa, was leading, mine being second at the time, when a large portion of earth over which she was passing suddenly gave way, and with a bellow of fright poor Chumpa slid down some yards, and then rolled over and over five distinct times down the steep grass hill, and just stopped short of a deep ravine at the bottom. It was a terrible sight to see an elephant, toes up, making such roUs. The mahout saved himself by jumping ofi" when the earth slipped, and clinging to the grass. I sprang from my elephant instantly. As Chumpa made no sound when she got to the bottom I feared she must be killed. There was a great smashing of pots and pans during her roll, for she carried the native doctor's effects, amongst which were his live-stock, consisting of eight ducks. Looking down the long lane in the grass I was reKeved to see Chumpa getting on to her feet ; her gear was left half-way, the girth-ropes having brokeiL Her mahout. Like many natives when suddenly confronted by danger or difficulty, had quite lost his senses, and now commenced to beat his mouth, and cry that his elephant was dead. I gave him a box on the ear (Lord Lytton's Minute on the Fuller case' had not been written then) that sent him flying down the slippery lane after his elephant, which he nearly reached before he pulled up. I followed, holding on by the grass, and we tried to soothe the poor beast after her fright. She did not seem hurt, and we got her on the path again with some trouble. I had often passed precipitous places on elephants with my legs dangling over vacuity. I made a mental note of this occurrence, and decided in future to turn the 144 MYSTERIOUS FATE OF THE DUCKS. other way, so as to Le able to jump on to terra firma, not into space with an elephant after me, in case of a roll. Poor Chumpa was not seriously hurt, and in a month was quite well again. Astonishing to relate, four out of the doctor's eight ducks were found scathless ; a few dabs of blood and feathers amongst the fragments of pots and pans along the line of descent led to the conclusion that the others had been crushed, but no piece of them was ever found large enough to enable any one to swear to their exact fate. A certain amount of obscurity also shrouded the last moments of the survivoi-s of this mishap. Some days subsequently I heard Jaffer and certain mahouts confidentially advising the doctor to have nothing to do with such evidently uncanny ducks, saying that they would not eat them if they were theirs -not for any consideration. They suggested their being allowed to swim away down the Cheugree, on the banks of which we were then en- camped, that not only might the danger that would assuredly attend eating them be avoided, but also such harm as would in all probability result from their continued presence in camp. Their representations seemed to have some effect on the doctor, and though he did not agree to release the ducks, he evidently had superstitious qualms about eating them. These would probably have given way when provisions became scarce, but before that time the ducks vanished in a mysterious manner. The doctor, who was exceedingly tall and lanky, beguiled a few hours of each morning by letting them out for a swim, he watching their aquatic gambols from the bank with tender solicitude. One morning whilst he was thus engaged a mahout came in haste to say his services were required in the elephant-hnes at some dis- tance. The doctor accompanied him, as the case was represented to be urc'ent, leaving his ducks disporting themselves near a bend of the stream below camp. When he returned from attending the case, which turned out to be much less serious than was represented, he proceeded to collect his ducks. He shortly, however, returned, looldng very blank. They had vanished. He had sought them far and near, on the water and in the jungle, but no trace of them was to be seen. No one could tell him any- thin» of them. Jaffer even asked him what he could expect of ducks that had survived a roll down a precipice on an elephant. They were evidently not subject to the ordinary conditions of their kind, and he advised the doctor to be thankful that they had taken themselves off instead of any- thin» untoward happening to anybody. Suspicions were afterwards sought to be cast upon Jaffer and my special riding-elephant's attendants by the store- wei^hman, a friend of the doctor's, who declared that he saw them dinino particularly well the night after the ducks were lost, and who stated AN ALARM. 146 his belief tliat duck formed part of their menu. Jaffer retorted that as he (the weighman) was a Brahmin he could not possibly know what cooked duck looked like, unless, indeed, he had had some hand in their disappear- ance, and had been thus unjustifiably varying his vegetarian diet ! At any rate, as to the circumstantial evidence against himself and messmates, the witness must have mistaken some curried pumpkin they were having for duck. Jaffer could scarcely, however, hear the subject mentioned without smirking, as if some savoury recollections stole over him ! At 2 p.Ji. we reached a place where the coolies were encamped ; but as it was said the elephants could, before dark, reach the Chengree river, towards which we were now descending, I ordered them to push on. After making some terrible descents, which no beast of burden but an elephant could have managed, and from the paths down which we were obliged care- fully to remove the pieces of wild-plantain stems strewn about by the leading elephants, lest we should have an accident to which the slipping of an alder- man on a piece of orange-peel would have been a trifle, we got into a stream forming an easy roadway till we came to a fallen trunk of a tree about six feet from the ground, and which barred further passage. Its removal required the united strength of as many elephants as could get at it to- gether. In striding over it as it lay, my elephant made such a lurch that I was thrown off the cMrjama (riding-pad) into the stream. After reaching the level ground at the bottom of the valley the jungle was much better, being fine heavy timber, clear of undergrowth and the abominable grass. Here a great uproar occurred in the rear of the column : elephants trumpeted, mahouts shouted, and the jungle crashed. Some one raised an alarm that a solitary tusker had attacked the females, but running back with my heavy rifle I learnt that it was only a new elephant, captured two yeai-s before — and which we had brought with us, with two or three others, to learn kheddah work — which had taken fright at something she saw or heard, and, after communicating her excitement to the other ele- phants near, had bolted and thrown her mahout. A couple of elephants gave chase and she was soon brought back. We shortly reached the river, ai which 1 was very glad, as this meant that our chief hardships of march- ing were at an end. It would be impossible to exaggerate the difficulties of the past three days' marches, or to overestimate the great usefulness of our elephants. Poor, good beasts ! their patience and docility under the annoying conditions of having to climb steep lulls, and force their way through thickets under a hot sun, were admirable. The river Chengree at the point where we struck it, probably about 100 miles above Kungamuttea, and perhaps 60 from its source, was only fifteen liG JUNGLE IN THE VALLEY OJ THE CHENG REE. vards wide, and two feet deep. It was very muddy for a hill-stream. This ■was not the effect of rain, of which there had been none for some weeks, but seemed an inseparable condition of all the streams here, as they flowed through alluvial soil void of rock. The Myanee, sister river to the Chengree, is a somewhat larger stream, and flows between the Kalamoin and Dalamoin ranges. We eventually worked east to the Myanee, and floated all our baggage down it to Eunga- muttea on our return march. New Year's Eve ! — There were no means of celebrating the occasion. I was too hungry and tired to wait even for a special dinner to be prepared ; so, consoling myself with morosely thinking that in sleeping tlie mystic hours away I should probably be more sensibly employed than many of my friends, I turned in and slept soundly till morning. January 1, 1876. — It was excessively cold this morning, and foggy tiU some time after sunrise. Gool Budden and Suddar All's parties passed our camp about 8 a.m., — Gool Budden's men to cross the Kalamoin range into the Myanee valley, Suddar Ah's to surround the elephants spoken of before, which were now about 28 miles further up the Chengree. I decided to remain where I was (camp No. 5 on map), and await Wilson's arrival with the provision-boats up the Chengree, and then to act as circumstances might require. The jungle was very fine along the Chengree, being open forest of huge timber and giant creepers, with here and there patches of canes, the beauti- fully glossy, dark-green, serrated leaves of which, like giant ferns, shone in the morning sunlight. Nothing can be imagined more graceful or beau- tiful than a cane-bush (the ordinary cane of commerce). It often grows in extensive plots, but frequently in single plants, as a creeper running up trees, and crowning them with graceful plumes. The cane requires a moist, rich son. There are several varieties : one makes the best walking-canes, another is used for basket-work, a third for the rattan of cliair-bottoms, &c. Several of the men of our party were adepts at canework, and they made me many nice and useful articles of camp furniture. Of all prickly things in creation the cane is perhaps the foremost, very different in its natural state to the smooth, but stiQ pungent, implement of our school-days' recollection. It grows of all lengths, often above 200 feet ; and both stem, leaves, and tendrils are covered with horrible thorns. The leaves are several feet long, serrated, and very graceful. Its fruit hangs in clusters of about fifty berries, each being the size of a cherry, and of a bright cream colour, with a singular appearance of being carved from wood. They are edible. Inside the skin is a sweet pulp surrounding the stone. The CURIOUS CREEPER. 147 cane itself contains a large quantity of water throughout its length. 1 cut twenty-two feet off one of about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and by simply blowing through it obtained half a tumblerful. The roots, and eprouts when just above ground, make a good vegetable. To prepare the €ane for commerce, the rough peel, studded with thorns, is merely stripped off, and the cane is ready for use. One remarkable product of these jungles is a parasite creeper generally about as thick as a man's arm, and looldng like a dried stick. It hangs from trees, its leaves and young shoots being up amongst the foliage. If slashed through in one place only there is no result ; but if another slash be given above, thus admitting air, a cupful or so of water gushes from the lower cut ; the water seems quite drinkable. All along the river were a great many tracks of sambur ; fruits of different kinds attracted the deer. I found the morning's track of a solitary elephant whilst rambling in the neighbourhood of camp. Jungle-fowl {Gallus ferrugincus) were plentiful, as weU as the black khalege pheasant ; also the beautiful peacock pheasant {Polyplectron chinquis). January 2. — Yesterday some of the mahouts, when out collecting fodder, discovered an old course of the river, in which was a pool of water full of fish. The pool was about 150 yards in length, 50 wide, and 6 feet deep. It evidently only had communication with the river during floods, and was isolated at other times ; shady trees overhung it, and it was a most perfect preserve. I saw large fish of the carp tribe sailing about in it, and some monsters like pike. I decided forthwith to have fish for dinner. A rod could not be used for the trees, nor could a fish have been played for the weeds, so I decided on another plan, which would furnish fun to the whole camp and fish for everybody. It may not be generally known that fishing is one of the many useful acquirements of the elephant. Such, however, is the case ; and without the aid of ours on this occasion, many a fine fish, which was shortly to be made as salt as was Lot's wife, might still be gliding about in that retired jungle- pool. I had twenty-five elephants mustered without their gear, and all the spare men, who in great glee provided themselves with hastily-improvised bamboo spears, baskets, knives. &c., and we put the elephants in line at one end of the pool, two or three delighted attendants on the back of each. The elephants advanced down the pool in close order, enjo}TLag the bath, and making the water surge as if a paddle-steamer was on it. Their feet stirred up the thick mud at the bottom, and I knew this would soon make the ''"'■ -show themselves. 148 NOVEL FISHING. Wlien the elephants had traversed the pool twice, some large heada appeared for an instant on the surface, then vanished. " Give them another turn " I shouted to the men, and I shortly joined the line on my pad-elephant. Large fish now came to the surface in sad strait, unable to stand the stifling mud, and glided gloomily about with their nostrils above water. Now the fun began in earnest. The elephants separated as their mahouts gave chase to particular fish, and generally very soon transferred them to their baskets after chopping their heads off with their daos. Having a spear with a sharp blade nine inches long I bagged more than any one else^ as I could strike the fish further off : they sometimes sank just as the men got witliin reach with their shorter blades. Their heads could be taken off with one slice with the spear, when they invariably floated at once ; but if struck in the middle they sank, owing to the air-bladder being cut. A sort of cod-looking fish (one of the genus Silurus, I beHeve, scaleless, thin, deep,. and silvery, with long feelers) which I cut in two behind the shoulders, closed its jaws upon the mahout's finger when he put it into its mouth to pick up the head portion, and hung on lilce a bull-dog for some seconds. In following fish that, though in distress, were sufficiently conscious of danger not to let us get very near, the elephants exhibited much sagacity, abstaining (of course at a hint from their mahouts) from blowing under water or making any splashing. They enjoyed themselves immensely. My men were very noisy over their share of the sport, and it was highly amusing to watch the chases by several elephants at once of any particularly fine fish that was in a bad way. The men stood up on their elephants, and often several darts were made at once at an unfortunate fish, which one would triumph- antly hold aloft, impaled through and through. Several men feU off and were half-choked in the mud, which, when dried, coated them over like whitewash. I believe, at least I hope, that had the shade of old Izaak watched us he would have forgiven us under the circumstances. In getting into the pool at a new place where the water was deep and the bank straight my elephant entered carelessly. One elephant had just gone in before, but by kneeling and sKding in, whilst " Neelmony " stepped boldly over. In putting down her fore-feet she nearly turned a summer- sault ; her head went right to the bottom I think ; the mahout was under- water, and I was up to my knees, with the elephant's hind-quarters some- where about the back of my head ! The best fish I bagged was 7 lb. in weight ; the generality were under 2 lb. ; my total bag was 7 2 lb. I found that not one of the large pike- like fish that we had seen basking near the surface, and which the men. called gajdl, had been bagged. They evidently escaped by burying them- t '.^' \* .-...jiiif.A v^ ■m. A HERD OF ELEPH^I^TS SURROUNDED 149 selves in the mud, and were not affected like the carp species. The dis- covery of this peculiarity caused my men much grief, and some who told me that those fish had " only one hone in them," and that " all the rest was meat," were quite depressed. I think they almost felt inclined to punch a small elephant coolie's head who provokingly showed, with both his outstretched arms, how long some were that he had seen. On the 4th January news came from Suddar All of his having sur- rounded the elephants he had gone after on the 1st. The provision-boats had not come up yet, so, as I was getting anxious, I despatched two men on a raft down the Chengree to meet them ; and leaving Sergeant Carter with the bulk of the elephants to bring on the supplies when they arrived, I started on the 5th at 7 o'clock to join Suddar Ali, and marched with six elephants till 4 p.m., about twenty-one miles, when we camped. The jungle for the most part of the way — our path skirted the Chengree — was fine open forest that had never been cut, except near a large Jooma settlement called Gasban, which we passed about 12 o'clock. The trees were so tall, and the shade so high and close, that nothing more than a skull-cap was necessary, the sun being unable to penetrate the dark forest. Soon after starting we heard a solitary elephant in the cover by the path-side ; he squeaked and trumpeted on winding our elephants, but did not show himself, having winded us also. In this part of the hills there were very few inhabitants ; Gasban was the only settlement for many miles round. The people of the hills are all called Joomas by the dwellers in the plains ; but this is a term which merely signifies people who cultivate by jooming, or clearing forest-land for a year or two, and then abandoning it in favour of fresh land. The people were of several tribes — viz., settlers from Arracan, Chuckmas, Mugs, Tipperahs, and to the east the dreaded Kookies, or Looshais. Of these castes the Chuckmas appear to have more claims to be called aboriginal to the Cliittagong hiUs than the others, though the Kookies (Looshais) are abo- riginal in the eastern portion. I write under correction however, as I knew nothing of the languages and could not learn much from the people, of whom, moreover, we saw very few except at Gasban. The one thing about which there seemed no doubt at all was, that the Kookies terrified the rest out of their seven senses, or had done so till recently, by occasional raids to the westward, when they are represented to have put to the sword everybody but such women as they carried off into captivity. It resulted from this that large tracts had been abandoned from time to time by the Joomas, when the Kookies, who seem to be a fine, war- like race, were hard upon them. Within the last few years, however, the 160 ROOKIES. establishment of Eungamuttea and Demagiri as frontier police posts, consti- tuting a guard between the troublesome Kookies and the tribes to the west, has given confidence to the latter, and the hill - tracts will probably be better populated soon. A European political officer and a police officer live at Eungamuttea, and another police officer at Demagiri, and these maintain amicable relations with the Kookies. It is the Kookies' annual custom, I was informed, to have extensive raids of two, three, or four thousand men forming a single party. This raiding is done in the cold weather, from December till the early rains ; and their "outing " may be regarded as some- thing equivalent to them to the run to the lakes or seaside in summer amongst us. As they are an independent tribe they are merely requested to confine their pastimes within their own limits, and not to trespass on British territory as formerly. Infraction of this rule caused the Looshai campaign of 1870-71. It is said that the Kookies occasionally eat enemies slain in battle ; but the Joomas are so terrified at the very mention of a Kookie that they perhaps exaggerate. The Kookies do not appear to be troubled with more feelings of humanity than savages generally, as Gool Budden told me that when elephant-catching some years back, further north, a party of his scouts met several Kookies at a ford, carrying off girls from a Tipperah village which they had attacked To prevent their running away, five or six girls were strung together by a strip of cane passed through a hole pierced in their left hands. By this simple method one man could take care of a good many of them. The scouts had no guns, and the Kookies made off with their unhappy captives. Gas- ban, the village I had passed on the Chengree, had been cut up by Kookies about 1852, but, being well within protected limits, was now flourishing again. The houses were all of bamboo, and raised high from the ground. January 6. — Marched from 7 a.m. tiU 10 a.m., seven miles to Jadoog- apara, where, it is said, once on a time stood a large Jooma settlement, till one fine morning a sudden yell on all sides at daybreak announced the Kookies, and no one escaped to teU the tale ! I could not see a trace of the village ; but the structures of the hill - people are not of a very permanent order. I left my tent to be pitched on the river-bank and started on foot to the place, two miles distant, where the elephants were surrounded. I was very much pleased and surprised at the amount of work Suddar Ali's men had done, and its business-like look. The kheddah, or stockade, into which the elephants were to be driven, was constructed of a circle of stout uprights 12 feet high, placed so close together that the hand could scarcely be introduced between them, and well backed with forked uprights and cross-beams, the whole being lashed together with strips of cane. THE STOCKADE. 151 The guiding-wings, of similar construction, had also been completed, and the finishing touches were just being put to the work ; the whole was concealed in thick jungle on an elephant-run, and the new wood-work was screened with cane-leaves. Everything was in readiness, and Suddar Ali said he would, if allowed, try and drive the elephants in at once. I left it entirely to him, as I had not seen elephants caught before by this plan, and knew nothing of it practically. Suddar Ali requested that I woidd take up a position near the entrance to the approach to the gate, and give the herd the final rush in, whilst he led the beaters. I stood behind a large tree at the end of the left guiding palisade, with a couple of heavy rifles, one loaded with blank cartridge, one with ball. In a couple of hours the elephants were driven, without much noise, to within a quarter of a mile of the trap, the stops on each side keeping them straight for the stockade when they bore too much in any direction. The beaters being now well together and the flanking lines closing in, the final driving commenced with a great shouting and popping of guns, and the terrified herd came on through the jungle, their rapid passage making a quickly- increasing rushing sound, like the approach of a storm. I had reconnoitred the ground beforehand, and found that there was a stream flowing through clayey soil across the line of approach, 100 yards in advance of my post. The ground was level for several yards on each side of the stream, and the clay deep and holding. The sound of the elephants coming through the jungle beyond the stream was suddenly changed to a loud swishing noise as they rushed through some high reeds bordering it, and immediately after a loud squelching and splash- ing ensued, with sounds as of the drawing of gigantic corks, as the terrified monsters struggled in mad haste to extract their legs from the deep mud. Gaining my side, they came on at a slapping pace through the thinner jungle, some carrying creepers which had been torn down from the trees on their heads, and all doing their best, with their ears thrown forward, and their tails straight out behind. One huge beast halted suddenly for a brief instant, almost touching the tree behind which I was standing, to listen. Ah ! those terrible sounds ! The kink which signifies demoralisa- tion pervaded liis tail, and he " wildly urged on his mad career." I ran from behind the palisade, and with a " yoick to 'em " and a couple of blank charges under the last elephant's tails, I pursued them down the run. It was only fifty yards ; their panic was complete ; after a momentary crush at the gateway the last huge stern passed in with a rush, and down came the gate ! Several active fellows drew heavy bars across, which effectually secured it against being driven outwards f52 INSIDE THE STOCKADE. I bethought myseK just at this moment of the cries of an elephant which I had heard behind the others, and, thinking some might have been left behind, I faced round. It was lucky I did so, as I found myself con- fronting a large female with two calves of different ages, which were coming down the drive not forty yards from us ! They were advancing hesitatingly, as a perfect Bedlam had been let loose about the stockade when the gate fell, everybody closing in to repel any attempt on the palisades. The big elephant- was evidently doubting whether to keep to the line her companions had taken, or to make off back into the jungle. The men at the gate escaped through the palisades without delay, but as it was a squeeze through I preferred taking my chance where I stood to being taken in rear when in the embarrassing position of getting under a low rail on all fours. I had my 8 -bore ritie with twelve drams aud hard bullets in each barrel, so thought myseK capable of meeting her. The elephant now stopped and hesitated, though threatening an attack. She kicked up the dust with her fore-feet, and trumpeted shrilly, but at this moment some one poked her in the face with a long bamboo through the side palisades. She turned and went slowly and dejectedly away, and wo saw no more of her. Inside the stockade the poor terrified beasts, thirty-seven in number, were crowding each other into the smallest possible circle, each trying to keep as far as possible from the lighted torches that had been thrust through the palisades at short distances all round. Every stick of smaU jungle was quickly demolished in their struggles. As one w.is forced out of a good place in the circle by some stronger animal it rushed madly round the writhing mass, tail and ears cocked, trumpeting shriUy with fear, and again plunged headlong in. Each dibutant was loudly cheered by the delighted coolies perched on the high stockade all round. One or two of the elephants soon began to get over their first panic, and some of them advanced to an examination of the trench and palisades. This was nuts for the men, whose delight was now crowned in the oppor- tunity of letting off blank charges literally against the heads of the huge beasts, from which the boldest recoiled as if shot, CHAPTER XIII. i^H HLEPHANT-CATCHING EXPEDITION INTO THE HILL-TRACTS OF CHiTTAGONG — {continued.) h. GHOSTLY NIGHT VISITOR — SECURING THE WILD ELEPHANTS — rIDHAPEART — A VICIOOfc FEMALE ATTACKS ME — DANGEROUS POSITION — NARROW ESCAPE — RETURN TO GASB ^ — MEET A FELLOW-COUNTRYMAN— JOOMA ETIQUETTE — LIQUOR — WE DINE AT A JOOMA chief's — NEWS OF GOOL BUDDEN'S SUCCESS — MARCH INTO THE MYANEE VALLEY — A HILL VILLAGE — TREAT SOME PATIENTS — A GRAND CHASM — REACH BHOWALKALI — THIRTY -TWO ELEPHANTS CAPTURED — A MAN KILLED — A PORTION OF THE HERD GIVES TROUBLE — WE ARE OBLIGED TO LET THEM GO — AN ELEPHANT PAYS MB A MIDNIGHT VISIT — ATTACKS MY TENT — THE GUARD PUNISHED — SHOOT THE ELE- PHANT— COMPLETE A KHEDDAH IN TWO DAYS AND CAPTURE THIRTEEN ELEPHANTS — JUGGLE-PRODUCTS— COMMENCE RETURN-MARCH TO RUNGAMUTTEA — YOUNG ELEPHANT KILLED BY A TIGER — I SHOOT THE SPOILER — WEIGHT OF A TIGER — SHOOT A TROU- BLESOME TUSKER — LOST IN THE FOREST — CHORUS OF ELEPHANTS — A HILL-DOG HIS SAGACITY AND ATTACHMENT — REACH RUNGAMUTTEA — SAD MISHAP — THREE ELEPHANTS DROWNED — JOOMAS EATING ELEPHANTS — MARCH TO DACCA — STATEMENT OF CASUALTIES. HAVING seen all made safe, and j&res Hgiited round the stockade, I returned to camp. It was intensely cold during the night, and towards morning the falling dew pattered so heavUy from the broad-leaved trees around that I thought it was raining. I got up to look out, when I saw the grey form of an elephant of large size, but with poor tusks, standing silently in the foggy moonlight not more than thirty yards distant. He looked like a spectre waving its ghostly arm, as he pointed his tru.uk in the direction of the tame elephants and the tents by turns. I watched him for some time as he stood listening intently, tiQ he moved noiselessly away in the direction of the tame elephants. He doubtless belonged to the captured herd, and was attracted to camp by the presence of the elephants with us. During the whole of the time we were out we were constantly 154 WE ENTER THE STOCKADE. visited by these roaming tuskers, of which more anon; and it was wonderful that they never meddled with the men who were sleeping under small huts- of boughs, or even on the open ground, near their elephants. Some ot the tame elephants were foimd to be in calf almost every year after their jungle- trips and the clandestine visits of these stray males. Next day I went to the stockade, and in the afternoon Sergeant Carter arrived with six elephants carrying ropes and provisions, the boats having come up the Chengree under Wilson to camp No. 5 the day I left. As there were still some hours of daylight the mahouts proposed to secure some of the captured elephants within the stockade, especially two or three that had given a good deal of trouble during the night. We there- fore opened a gap in the stockade and took in the six elephants barebacked, with a rope-tier holding the binding-ropes seated behind each mahout. I rode the first elephant, a very tine and powerful female named Eadhapeary. All catching-elephants of good courage evince the greatest relish for th& sport of securing their wild companions, and Eadhapeary quite trembled with eagerness as she stepped inside and faced the wild ones. She was an old hand at it, as well as at mAU shikdr, or noosing, in Assam. Our six elephants formed abreast before the gap unto, it was securely closed again, when we advanced towards the wild ones. They formed up and showed much excitement at the sight of our elephants. A few cam© forward to interview us, and touched ours with their trunks. I was driving Eadhapeary myself, sitting as mahout on her neck, with a rope-tier behind me. Some of the men had spears, but I had only the iron driving-goad in my hand. We pushed our elephants on with the intention of cutting off a few wild ones from the main body, and whilst doing this I got in advance of the others, and became separated from them. Some of the wild elephants were lather impertinent, and each tame one was engaged in driving any back that opposed it, when I heard a shout of " Sahib ! Sahib ! " from the- men perched on the stockade, and on turning saw a large wild female, aa old, tall, and raw-boned beast, coming straight at me from behind with her trunk curled and her head up. She was on my near side, and in another instant was upon me, but not before I had slipped round on the off side of my elephant's neck, and had driven the goad into her open month as she came down on my left thigh with her jaws. She fortunately ] ad only one tush, which was broken and blunt. She did not attempt tc seize me with her trunk, but to pummel me. This is the females' invariable plan, of punishing each other ; they put their chins on to the backs of their opponent, and bore and strike with their tushes. Cases have occurred in A DANGEROUS POSITION. 155 the kheddahs of mahouts being killed through timid tame elephants giving way under the pain and sinking down, when, if the driver has been thrown off, the wild ones have trampled him to death. This is, however, very uncommon, and few wild female elephants offer any resistance to the tame ones. Such a case as the attack upon me has never, as far as I can learn from mahouts who have seen hundreds of elephants caught, been known. It is an astonishing fact that the rider is hardly ever attacked. The mahouts use no concealment, going mounted into the stockade in their ordinary dress, and though their elephants may be surrounded by wild ones, any of which could by simply raising its trunk drag the men off, they are never molested. If it were otherwise, entering the stockade would be more dangerous work than it is. However, in my case the solitary exception I have known to the rule occurred. After boring for a second or two on my thigh, and upon Eadhapeary's head, the elephant drew back, and I sat upright, thankful at escaping with a mere pummelling, when, almost before I became aware of her intention, the fiend came straight at me again. Over I went, only leaving my leg across the elephant's neck, and again I was severely bruised ; the driving-hook was jerked out of my hand, and had it not been fastened by a cord to the ele- phant's neck-rope I should have lost it. Again I recovered myself, when the elephant came at me once more, pummelled my leg soundly, and drew blood from Eadhapeary's head. When I sat up my breeches and flannel shirt had been torn almost to rags, and I believed my left thigh was broken, as it might well have been by the weight of the elephant's jaws. I had hardly a moment's time for thought, however ; there was the determined beast but a few feet off, and I saw she was going to renew the attack. Her pertinacity was wonderful. I felt that I was doomed. I could not expect to escape many more such assaults. I should be unseated, when certain death awaited me as I was in the midst of the crowd of wild elephants. I felt perfectly cool, however, as long as I faced the danger and was engaged in defending myself I calculated the chances against myself without a shudder. Most persons who have been in similar dangerous positions doubtless have felt this calmness, and I believe that men are often spared the bitterness which we are wont to associate with violent deaths when they are overtaken whilst facing a danger which their minds are engaged in resisting. Dr Livingstone mentions the same feeling when he was in the jaws of a lion. Who can doubt the difference between death to a man in action, and to a helpless prisoner ? I clutched the goad again. Forward went the elephant's ears and she was already in her stride, when a spear passed my head and stabbed her 156 A NARROW ESCAPE. deeply in the temple, and in another instant Issamuttee, one of our ele- phants, struck her with her head like a battering-ram, fnU on the shoulder, and almost knocked her over. I was saved just in time. All our elephants had been engaged with some of the wild ones, and had not been able to help me, but Issamuttee's rider, a mere boy, called Choonoo, had got his elephant free and had arrived just at the critical moment. I should say that Eadhapeary had been occupied whilst all this went on in facing a young tusker who seemed inclined to try his tusks upon her, and had she not kept head on to him he doubtless would have done so ; so she had been unable to pay attention to the attacking female, whom she could have overpowered in a moment had she been free to do so. Wild elephants are soon overawed by the pugilistic attainments of tame ones. The females in the herds have few contentions amongst themselves : when they do quarrel they chiefly pun- ish each other by biting off the ends of one another's tails. Consequently when they are set upon and pummelled scientifically they soon give in. Radha- peary was a long, heavy, and powerful elephant, of the highest caste of Icoomerialis. Her courage was equal to her strength, and her science to both. She and another female actually killed outright a large viuchna, or tuskless male, on one occasion, by the squeexing and heavy battering they gave him. The great point of science in a tain«« elephant in contending with others is to overreach them by holding the head high. This is equivalent to the P.R. movement of getting an opponent's head into chancery. If the wild ele- phant were allowed to have its head above the tame one's the mahout might be knocked off. I was obliged to leave the inside of the stockade after this misadventure, as I felt sick and feared I might faint from the pain in my thigh. I was not seriously hurt, but had a long cut and abrasion from the elephant's tush from the hip nearly to the knee. The surface became rapidly extravasated, and I was stiff and lame immediately. Eadhapeary's mahout now took my place, and the troublesome elephant having been driven into a corner by the tame ones was soon secured. She never gave any more trouble, and when tamed was as quiet as the rest. When she was tied up the mahouts begged leave to be allowed to thrash her well ! This was quite a native's idea. I respected the poor beast for her courageous defence, and forbade her being molested. I had a bad night, as I could only lie on my right side, and in the morning was unable to walk. However, I had a mattress put on Eadha- peary's pad on to which I was hoisted, and was soon inside the kheddah again, though unable to take part in the catching. All our elephants had arrived by thie time — fifty in number — -and they made short work of the MEET A FELLOW-COUNTRYMAN. 167 wild ones. Their hind-legs were hobbled and thick ropes put on their necks, when each was marched off by two tame elephants, one before and one behind, to our camp at Jadoogapara. It would take up too much space to relate our operations at Jadooga- para in detail, so I will pass on. On January 15th we marched back to Gasban with the captured ele- phants, and here I met a countryman. P., the political officer stationed at Eungamuttea. The meeting of Livingstone and Stanley in Central Africa was a trifle — to us — to this " forgathring " in one of the uttermost corners of the earth ! I found P., who was a model frontier officer, squatted in a hut with the noble savages around him, trying to impress upon them some notions of Government dues, and taking a friendly pull at their liquor now and again. The Joomas hospitably invited me, through P., who had some knowledge of their language, to a drink of the beverage which had been provided for the assembled council. There was a pot of it holding several gallons and occupying an honourable position in the centre; across the mouth of the vessel was a thin slip of bamboo level with the liquor. Prom the slip of bamboo a small piece of stick depended about a quarter of an inch, and P. told me that Jooma etiquette required that the imbiber should lower the liquor by suction through a hollow reed till the dependent slip cleared the surface, when he was considered to have duly shown his appre- ciation of the brew. The liquor was prepared from fermented rice and fruits, and was very good, being something like cider. P. and I smoked and chatted till evening, when we looked at the new elephants, and then dined in P.'s up-stair hut. A clay hearth on the floor admitted of our having a fire. I slept in my tent, where the thermometer stood at 32° next morn- ing, though the elevation was probably under 100 feet above sea-level. Next day I accepted an invitation with P. to breakfast at the house of one of the Jooma chiefs. He gave us some good pork curry (we had seen the animal which furnished the wherewithal being pursued by Joomas with gleaming knives the evening before, who, as soon as they caught him, cut off his head almost before he had time to squeal), and a sort of pudding. We ate with our fingers ofif leaf-platters. I daresay any one at all fastid- ious might have had some qualms regarding the cleanliness of the cook& who prepared the repast, and I was amused at P.'s frequent apologies for his friends. However, I was not less of a jungle- wallah, accustomed to chumming with the noble savage, than himself, and felt quite at home. After breakfast I played some tunes on my cornet, and P. struck up on a tin whistle, which greatly pleased the Joomas. P. departed with his dug-out boats next day down the Chengree towaras 158 CJiOSS THE KAlAMOIN RANGE. Kungamuttea, and I started on the 20th to cross the Kjilamoin range to join Gool Bndden. He had captured thirty-two elephants unassisted, but the rest of the herd had not been enclosed in the stockade, and were still at large within the circle of coolies. In eight hours' marching from Gasban with ten elephants, about sixteen miles, through bamboo and tree jungle, pretty clear and fairly level, we reached the top of the Kalamoin range. Here there was a small village, where I had a granary cleared out, and slept very comfortably. It was 1 0° warmer on the mountain-range than in the valleys, and the fog in the morning was aU below us. The view of the valleys filled with the motionless white vapour, the hill-tops showing through it like islands in a sea of milk, was very beautiful. I did a little doctoring before starting in the morning. A child of a few months old had been terribly burnt on the back, from the nape of the neck to the hips, through getting its Httle shirt on fire when left alone in a hut some days before. I melted Holloway's ointment and applied it, and gave the father a piece in a leaf to use again, as occasion required. I am afraid to say much in praise of the above useful compound, lest I should appear in advertisements in connection with the world-famed salve, and lay myself open to the suspicion amongst my readers of being in coUusiou with the great piUer of the medical world. I may, however, say that iu wild countries nothing is more convenient or effective for wounds of all kinds, from a cut finger to sore-back in an elephant. For a man suffering from phthisis I could only recommend a change to the warm plains out of the jungle, which of course he would not take, so I might have kept the advice to myself ; and I was obliged to decline altogether to treat a blind girl. Her father was anxious I should try, as he said she was " such a fine girl, other- wise he would not have troubled me ! " I walked down the opposite side of the range rifle in hand in advance of the elephants. I saw no signs of game except the prints of a tiger. The jungle was open bamboo and large timber. At the bottom of the slope flowed a shallow stream with a firm gravelly bottom, and we kept along this for some distance tlQ it joined a larger stream, when I mounted my pad-elephant and led the way. The bed of the large stream formed the most easy road for passing through a high range which we had to cross before reaching the Myanee vale. Owing to the remarkable absence of rock in the Chittagong hills, in common with almost the whole of Eastern Bengal, whether hill or plain, the river had a very gentle flow, having cut its way down to so easy a gradient in the soft soil that further erosion had practically ceased. On each side the banks rose to about five hundred feet in height, and as near'y A GRAND CHASM. 159 perpendicular as tlie nature of the earth admitted. Scarcely a beam of sunlight, except at mid-day, could penetrate the abyss, and the cold at this early hour was intense. Both sides of the gigantic cleft were clothed with wild plantains, the beautiful broad leaves of which, ten feet in length and two wide, were of an almost transparent emerald green. Orchids of various kinds, especially a gorgeous yellow one like laburnum, but fuller; tree-ferns ; and across the ravine just above our heads, the overlacing of creepers — a peculiar feature in Eastern forests, — were wonderful to see. There were few birds, and the only signs of game were the tracks of the tiger I had seen the print of further back, and which had come by the gorge, and those of wild elephants that had used it some days previously. Gool Budden's party had cut some of the trunks of the trees lying across the stream which had impeded the elephants that carried their provisions. We marched for three hours along this stream. The men were ordered not to talk or sing to their elephants ; such sounds seemed impious intru- sions on the grand silence that prevailed. The murmur oi the stream and the plashing of the line of elephants were the only sounds which broke it. I felt cold even with ^^ thick overcoat and rug, and the unfortunate mahouts, who were lightly clad and not particularly appreciative of the beauties of nature, were doubtless glad when we left the grand cleft for the more open jungles warmed by the sun. By evening we reached Gool Budden's camp on the Myanee, at a place called Bhowalkali, after one of the most varied and pleasant marches I remember. The portion of the herd which he had caught, numbering thirty-two animals, was a very good lot, containing few old or small ones. About twenty-five elephants (the remainder of the herd) wliich refused to enter the stockade with their fellows were still at large in the forest within the original surround. Gool Budden had been engaged in making another stockade at a fresh point ; this was now ready, and in it we hoped to impound them. The men had mismanaged the tying of the elephants already captured, and had caused the dislocation of one fine beast's hind- legs at the hock — or, more properly speaking, knee-joint, as an elephant has no hocks — and a similar accident to one hind-leg of another. This was through their being left in the enclosure with their legs tied to trees during the night instead of being removed from the stockade. Elephants are very mischievous, and sometimes display the trait observable in many other animals of ill-treating such of their fellows as are in distress, particu- larly if suffering from wounds or accidents. These two poor elephants had been butted by the others and knocked over, their hind-legs, which were braced close up to the trees, being wrenched out of joint by their fall. The 160 CRUELTY OF NATIVES. sutfeiings of one which could not rise were too horrible to witness. The hunters, like all natives of India, had never thought of terminating its sufferings. Many natives would not hurt the meanest insect, as to do no lolling is a portion of the creed of some castes of Hindoos ; but that it might be merciful to put an end to suffering in many cases they cannot, apart from their disinclination to take life, understand. The poor beast had given birth to a stiU-born calf, and had been in this terrible position for two days before I arrived. I immediately ended her sufferings with my rifle ; but the other one, which did not seem very bad, and of the exact nature of whose injuries, whether sprain or dislocation, I was not then certain, was kept tied up in an easy manner. She was a magnificent ani- mal— one of the finest we caught during our trip — and she marched about fifty miles on our return down the Myanee valley. The swelling at the hip abated a good deal, when I was able to see that it was reaUy dislocated. The elephant had marched so pluckily, though dragging the leg, that the jemadar and I had had doubts of this hitherto. I ordered her release (though the jemadar offered £30 for her as a speculation of his own), together with a very old female which it was useless to take out of the jungles. I believe that though the injured elephant will be permanently lame she may live for many years in her native haunts. Her liberty was a poor, but the only, return we could make for the injury to which she had so unfor- tunately been subjected. We tried for some days to drive the elephants still remaining at large into the kheddah but were thoroughly beaten. One man was trampled to death by an enraged female, from which I also had two narrow escapes, flooring her in each attack with my rifle ; and as tlie attempts became highly dangerous to the men, I ordered them to relinquish the surround and take a few days' rest to recover from the fatigues of night-watching. Dur- ing the time we were here a most extraordinary adventure happened to me, in having my tent pulled about my ears during the night by a wild elephant. I fear some of my readers may think it almost past belief, and I have felt doubtful about relating it ; however, I will narrate what occurred. A large space had been cleared in the forest on the bank of the Myanee for securing our new elephants, and for the convenience of our large camp. With the elephants from Gasban, which, had been marched to our present camp, and our tame ones, we had over a hundred altogether. At the encampment (No. 1 0 on map) the Myanee flowed from north to south ; our camp was on the west bank. The Myanee was joined at this place by a smaller stream from the north-west ; my own and servants' tents, as well . A NIGHT ALARM. 161 as the sergeant's and native doctor's, were pitched in the angle of junction, on the north side, and separated from the main camp by the smaller stream. Its banks, and those of the Myanee, were both very steep, except at the point of junction, where wild elephants had made a path across. This was now obstructed by our tents. Two or three single wild elephants had been wandering about the neighbouring jungles since we came, attracted by the large gathering of their fellows. One or two occasionally found their way into the elephant-lines : we had, with our tame elephants, caught two large females and a young male that came amongst our captives in broad daylight. On the night of the 27th of January, I was awakened by the sud- den crash of an elephant just inside the cane-jungle on the river-bank, within twenty yards of my tent. I jumped up, turned up the kero- sine lantern that was burning on the table, and held up the tent-door. The light frightened the elephant and it made off; it had evidently come with the intention of crossing the stream by the accustomed path, and had been startled by the tents. Next night I was again awakened by an ele- phant— perhaps the same one — close at hand. I shouted at it as I lay in bed, but instead of making off I heard it step forward and seize my small bathing-tent, which was about twenty yards from mine, and a tearing and flapping sound followed as the brute tore it up. This was more than I could stand, so jumping out of bed, I seized my rifle and threw up the tent-door. I saw the white canvas being tossed up and down, but before I could make out the elephant against the dark jungle it dropped the tent and retired. It was just one o'clock. I thought the beast might return, so ordered two tame elephants to mount guard between my tent and the jungle till morning. Next day I found the small tent had been torn in two ; one haK had tusk-holes through it, and the other bore the impression of a large muddy foot. As I thought it just possible that the elephant might take it into his head to visit my tent next night, I had the jungle cleared away for sixty yards beyond my tent, and told the men to picket two newly- caught elephants at the edge of the jungle : these we expected would give some notice of the approach of any other elephants. I also had Eadhapeary stationed close to my tent, and six men told off as a night-guard. My tent was nearer to the jungle than any of the others. I usually sat by a fire, between my tent and the servants', after dinner, and to-night I heard an elephant, probably my visitor of the night before, squeaking in the jungle about a quarter of a mile away. The guard remarked it, so thinking nothing more about it I turned in. I made the grand mistake of having L 162 ATTACK UPON MY TENT. the guard and lire between my tent and the next, instead of between me and the jungle. I seemed to have slept for a long time when I was awakened by the cor- ner of the tent nearest the jungle, and just above my head, being gently shaken. The tent was single-poled, twelve feet square, and secured by numerous ropes all round. I thought of the rogue instantly, and was out of bed in a twinlding, not even waiting to untuck the mosquito-netting which I always use as a precaution against malaria as much as against troublesome insects ; I made a considerable rent in it in my haste. The faculty of becoming thorouglily awake, physically and mentally, at a moment's notice, is one acquired by persons accustomed, as dwellers in tents in Indian jungles frequently are, to occasions requiring its exercise ; and as I sleep lightly, the motion of the tent, though very slight, instantly aroused me. Now that I was on my feet, rifle in hand, my first impulse was to shout ; but imagining it might be some of the men outside who had touched the ropes, and that a hullabaloo inside would be rather ridiculous if that were the case, I hesitated. At this moment the tent shook again, very gently. I peeped through the door on the opposite side, where the guard was. The old story ! All still ; the fire reduced to a few smoulder- ing embers — the men lying in a row near it, like corpses in their winding- sheets, stark and still ! Eadhapeary was round the tent to my right, but I could not hear her moving. Just then the same gentle twang of the tent-rope in the corner over my bed shook the canvas, and I heard an elephant breathe. I now thought it must be Radhapeary who had got loose, and in moving about was touching the ropes. I could hardly imagine that a wild elephant could be so near me, but I still hesitated to shout, believing that if it were a wild visitor I might only provoke an attack. However, as I heard nothing more for a minute or two, I called Radhapeary gently by name, and was just going to open the door and look out cautiously, when there was one ponderous step forward, a tremendous smash, cracking of ropes, and tearing of canvas, and the whole end of the tent was driven in upon my bed. I knew who it was now, and shouted at the brute at the top of my voice. I would have given him both barrels through the tent could I have seen how he was standing, but his tusks had only come through the upper fly, the inner one being pulled down by his foot placed upon the side-wall of the tent to which it was attached, so I could see nothing of him. I expected to see his tusks or head through the tent in another instant, and reserved my fire. I was under no apprehension for my own safety. The other door was at my back, and the steep river-bank just beyond, down which I could have jumped if necessary, and no elephant PUNISH THE GUARD. 163 could have followed ; and with so many ropes I knew the tent could not be upset bodily. I only thought of maldng sure of the intruder by waiting till I saw the outline of his head, when I would have given him both barrels of my heavy rifle, and left him to enjoy the further demolition of the tent with what zest he might. What a novelty it would have been to bag an elephant inside one's tent at 1 a.m. ! After the first crash the elephant drew back. The small ropes in the eyelet-holes which laced the side-walls of the tent to the inner fly had all given way, and the side-walls on the sides nearest the elephant fell out- wards. The unexpected flood of light must have startled him, as whilst I looked for the reappearance of his head he was already making off, a fact of which I only became aware when I caught sight of his hind-legs vanish- ing from the circle of light. I determined he should not depart without a souvenir of his visit, and, stooping, I fired through the open side of the tent after him, but, as I afterwards found, without hitting liim. By this time every one in the camp was up and piling wood on the fires, alarmed at the disturbance. The jemadar and some matchlock-men came from the elephant-lines with torches to see what had happened. We found that Eadhapeary had been lying down fast asleep, or she would have given some signal of the tusker's approach. His attack on the tent was not prompted by viciousness, but by the spirit of curiosity and mischievous- ness which are such strongly-marked characteristics of wild elephants, and which leads them to upset telegraph-posts, trample new road-embankments, pull up survey tracing-pegs, and to similar acts. I once heard a detachment of elephants playing with a long chain which we had left over night in the jungles, evidently pleased with the clinking noise it made. The presence of so many elephants encouraged this one's daring approach, and seeing my tent he had ventured upon an examination of it My speaking inside led to his attack upon it. I now took into consideration the case of the rascally guard, which ended in their getting a dozen as sound cuts each with a rattan as one of Gool Budden's lieutenants could administer. They belonged to his party of klieddah men, and he reviled them in Chittagong Billingsgate as the lascar whacked away, saying they were pigs and sons of pigs, and guilty, like their fathers, mothers, and every one of their relatives, of every species of immorality, in addition to the immediate neglect of duty for which they were being chastised. We had some great scoundrels amongst our two kheddah parties, but the jemadars were stern disciplinarians and main- tained fair order. It was rather too bad that when every one had been working hard all day except these lazy scoundrels, who had nothing to 164 SHOOT THE INTRUDER. do but prepare for night-work, they should sleep while we were being pulled out of bed by wild elephants. One rascal had the audacity to tell me that he was watching most assiduously, but that " the elephant made such a rapid advance from the jungle, with one trumpet and three strides, that he had not even time to shout before the mischief was done ! " As I turned in again and rolled myself in the blankets (the thermometer stood at 42°), I felt a pleasing conviction that he and his brother rogues would not, at any rate, lie on their backs again that night, should they relinquish themselves any more to the seductions of repose. I hardly expected to see the elephant again ; but just as I was getting up at daylight one of the men ran in to say the brute was making his way towards us through the jungle close by. I ran out and could hear the crackling of branches near the two elephants which were picketed on the edge of the jungle, and in a few minutes the tusker stepped out near them, and looked towards us. Now was there a hurrying to and fro in camp ,* the cook forsook the coffee he was preparing for me, and the Bengalee lascars their hookahs. The movement had a decided tendency towards the other side of the small river between us and the main encampment, and the native doctor's long and lank form was conspicuous in the van. The tusker was a fine elephant, nearly nine feet high, but with poor tusks for so tall an animal. He stood looking quietly towards us, and evinced no intention of meddling with us again. He was a dangerous brute to have about, however, so I walked towards him, rifle in hand. I expected him to come on, when, if I failed to stop him (I was using my double 8 -bore rifle, with twelve drams of the new No. 8 pebble-powder in each barrel), I had the river-bank on my right, to jump down which would have placed me in safety. When I was within forty yards the elephant turned suddenly to his right into the jungle. I had not time for a clear head-shot, so I gave him one barrel behind the shoulder, whilst the left took him too far back. The trackers followed him for about thirty miles, when they found him dead on the bank of the Myanee, and extracted his tusks. They did not return to camp for three days, owing to the difficulties of the country. On January 28th our provision-boats arrived from Eungamuttea, and the men said a herd of elephants had crossed the river the night before in view of the boats, and about fifteen miles below our camp. All hands were quite rested now, and in an hour's time Gool Budden's party had started, the men marching along the river -bank by the elephant -paths, whilst their provisions and tools were floated down on bamboo rafts. I followed next day, and the trackers having found the herd on a tributary stream to the Myanee, the surround was commenced and completed without A DETERMINED FEMALE. 165 trov.ble. The stockade was then begun without delay, the coolies working all night in cutting the requisite poles and young trees for building it, and by afternoon of the 31st all was in readiness. The surround was not large, and the situation of the kheddah between two hills was a good one, so we managed to drive the elephants in at the first attempt. There were only thirteen, but seven of them were tuskers, three of these being very large. The two that form the subjects of illustrations of the koomeriah and meerga castes of elephants were among them, and were photographed for me by a friend when I reached Chittagong. The kheddah had been made small to save time and we were now afraid that so many tuskers might force the stockade, so all hands were set to work to construct a second barrier in support of the first. This consisted, like the inner one, of uprights twelve feet high, about six inches in diameter, and supported by sloping props, the whole laced together with strips of cane. However, we might have saved ourselves this trouble, as the tuskers made no attempts upon the stockade. One female became troublesome after dark, and large fires were lighted all round, whilst men stood ready with lighted bamboo torches to repel her charges. She was certainly a most determined beast, and would have formed a fine subject for a Landseer or a Weir as she stalked round, occasionally standing with one foot poised in irresolution, as the points where she was seen to meditate an attack bristled with torches and sharp bamboos. Two or three times she strode across the narrow trench along the foot of the barricade, and thrust at it in a way that made it bend and shake for some distance on each side of the point of attack, but from the toughness and pliability of the structure it was never in danger. It was not until she had been severely burnt, and had also in turn injured one of the men by striking the torch he was holding into his face, that she desisted. I lodged three ounces of No. 4 shot in her cranium, fired at about a yard's distance, during her charges at the barrier. I sat on the stockade under shelter of an overhanging bough, watching the elephants until far into the night. The scene was a very wild one. The huge beasts impounded in so small an enclosure, the crackling and blazing fires all round, lighting up the trees to their topmost branches, and the ready shouts and challenges with which any of their movements were met by the watchful hunters, formed so exciting a scene that sleep was out of the question. The largest tusker kept the other males in a state of great disquiet. When he made the round of the kheddah at a slow, majestic pace, the commotion amongst his juniors was tremendous ; and though keep- ing out of his way, they made vicious prods at the ones smaller than them- selves. He, however, behaved most magnanimously, only punishing the 16^ THE JUNGLES. next largest to himself if he fell in his way, but never going after him in a malicious manner. Had he done so he could certainly have killed him in such a confined enclosure. One of the tuskers was hurled against the barri- cade by a larger animal ; the guards applied their lighted bamboos to the un- fortunate beast while down in the trench as a hint to him not to do it again ! We secured these elephants without mishap, though some of our females showed great reluctance to working amongst so many tuskers. The men took care to cause no uproar in the enclosure, as, had the large tusker moved about rapidly, the others might have overwhelmed men and elephants in their endeavours to keep out of his way. When he was tied up he made tremendous though silent struggles to free himself, using every muscle of his giant frame in the endeavour to break his bonds. He continued to do so for several hours without intermission, when he desisted, and never after- wards renewed the struggle. This is invariably the case with the best- couraged elephants. If their first attempts fail they submit with dignity, whilst small animals hardly worth the catching will frequently fight for days, and injure themselves by useless struggling against the inevitable. Having now captured eighty-five elephants, the marching of which out of the jungles would be a sufficiently arduous task, I ordered every one to collect on the Myanee where the stream near which we had caught the last elephants joined it, and here we formed a large camp (No. 12). The wild elephants were arranged in rows amongst the trees, two men being appointed to each to supply them with fodder and water, and to doctor their wounds. The spare men were employed in cutting fodder, which the tame elephants, as also the boats and rafts, brought to the encampment. The weather was delightfully bracing, mth intense cold at nights. I now had leisure to shoot, fish, and roam about the jungles. The forest along the river was particularly fine, and free from grass and troublesome undergrowth. It was evident from the marks on the trees that the river overflowed its banks to a considerable depth during the monsoon rains. The reason of this is that the dry-weather channel is very tortuous, so the floods take a straight course, cutting off tlie angles round which the stream now meandered. The spits of land subject to these inundations were over- laid with rich alluvial soil, in which one of the plants (tdra), on which we fed the elephants, grew in great abundance. It is, I believe, a species of wild arrowroot. It has a succulent, triangular stalk, as thick as three fingers; the leaves are broad, and upwards of a foot in length. Many plants were ten feet in height. This fodder was easy to cut and convenient to stow on the elephants' backs, and was greatly relished by them. I have not seen it out of Bensal. MARCHING IN THE BED OF THE MYANEE. 167 A remarkable product of the jungles was a sort of monster apple. It grew in great abundance on a handsome tree, like the horse-chestnut, but larger. Each tree had several hundred fruit on it, and at least one out of every hundred trees in the forest was of this kind, in full bearing. The fruit was green, with red and yellow tints on the ripest side, juicy, but very fibrous and sour. I observed that all wild animals ate it, so I ordered the cook to make a tart, though the minion expressed his fears that it might not be " good for master's body ! " It required plenty of stewing, and a large amount of sugar, but was excellent from its fine acid flavour, and I had it almost daily. It was astonishing that no one was ever injured by the falling of these large apples. They were tolerably securely attached, but still many did faU, and as the average weight was a pound and a half, they might have killed any one on whose head they had alighted. On one occasion an elephant shook a creeper that ran to the top of one of these trees, and brought a shower of fruit down, which made aU who were near run for their lives, whilst a few came with heavy thuds upon the back of the author of the disturbance. I found nothing to shoot but sambur-deer and jungle-fowl {Gcdlus fer- rugineus), squirrels of two idnds, and the black tailless hoolook monkey of the gibbon family {Hoolook hyldbates). On the 8th February I started Ser- geant Carter in advance on our return-march to civilisation, with sixty- two of the new elephants in charge of twenty-two tame ones, whilst I remained until the 13th, keeping the more troublesome and powerful animals to form my batch. The route to Eungamuttea was down the Myanee valley, as the river was low and formed an easy means of egress from the hills, whilst the country was too steep and jungly for a direct Kne. In some places we marched in the forest along the bank ; but owing to cane-thickets and deep ravines which joined the Myanee, we usually found it more advantageous to keep to the river-bed. We were about a hundred and thirty miles from Rungamuttea, following the course of the river. It was not more than eighteen inches deep for the first few days' marches, with a firm gravelly bottom, and as the day grew warm when the sun was high it was a pleasure to the elephants, tame and wild, to be tramping in it."^^ We must have presented a wild and picturesque scene as we filed down the stream. The largest elephants were secured between two or three tame ones. Some tame elephants had several half-grown wild ones fastened to tliem, wliich they kept under strict discipline, pummelling and kicking them • The camps marked on the map are those I occupied in common with the elenhants. They also made several additional halts. 168 YOUNG ELEPHANT KILLED BY TIGER. if they attempted to walk in advance. On each tame elephant's pad it3 attendants had stowed their cooking utensils, spare ropes, and such small articles of cane-work (footstools, baskets, &c.) as they had made in their spare hours, and were taking to Chittagong to sell. Each had a long spear in his hand with which to keep the wild ones in order, if necessary. The small calves marched loose alongside their mothers. Behind the elephants came a fleet of our provision - boats carrying the rations. We usually marched from about 7 a.m. till 12, perhaps ten miles daily, when a halt was made ; the elephants were secured in the forest on the bank of the river ; and the people cooked their breakfasts. I always sent a boat with my tent and servants in advance of the elephants ; they could reach the intended camping - ground by 10 a.m., so everything was ready for me when we arrived. But I am anticipating, as two incidents occurred at camp No. 12 after Sergeant Carter left which may be worth mentioning. One was a tiger killing a young elephant, and my shooting the spoiler ; the other, the shoot- ing of a wild elephant in our elephant-lines. The day after Sergeant Carter marched, two men returned with a note from him to say that a tiger had killed and partly eaten one of the young elephants of his batch close to his tent during the night ; that he had ordered the carcass to be left undisturbed, and had proceeded on his march. Never having seen such a case before, I mounted an elephant and proceeded to the place. The young elephant, a calf about four and a half feet high at the shoulder, and weighing probably sis hundred pounds, had been standing just within the jungle off the encampment when seized, and was within twenty yards of the other elephants and of the sergeant's tent. Its hind- legs only were hobbled, as, being very quiet, it had been allowed almost since its capture, a fortnight before, to roam about the camp thus secured. The tiger had seized it by the throat as a bullock is seized ; there were no other marks on any part of the body, and it had only been dragged a few yards. A large quantity of flesh had been eaten off both hind-quarters. As I did not know at what hour the tiger might return to his kill, and as sitting up all night in the jungles — the thermometer had been at 38° that morning — was not to be thought of, I returned to camp (it was now 4 p.m.), intendiag to try and find the tiger in the morning. Next day I went to the carcass with a single pad-elephant and some men, whom I left at a distance whilst I took the elephant to the kill to reconnoitre. The jungle was continuous open forest, except on the river- bank, where there was a dense patch of thorny cane-tliicket. T had calcu- SHOOT AN ELEPHANT. 169 lated ttat I should probably find the tiger in this place after his meal. The carcass had been dragged about ten yards, and more of it had been eaten. I had scarcely remarked this when the mahout pointed quietly to the tiger lying down about fifteen yards to our left near the carcass. He was blinking at us in a good-humoured way, evidently happy after his meal, and tliinking our elephant but one of the numbers he constantly saw in these uninliabited forests. He had a prominent ridge of hair on liis neck, and a fine ruff round his face. I lost no time in putting an express bullet into his brain. He was a powerful, big, and old brute, measuring exactly nine feet in length, and weighing 349^ lb. As there were no inhabitants in that part of the hills, I suppose lying down close to his prey, even in the open forest, was this tiger's custom. As to his killing the elephant, there were no cattle anywhere in the hills, and all the tigers there were purely game-killers ; and as by lurking on the outskirts of herds of elephants a stray calf doubtless occasionally fell in their way, I daresay this was not the first time this tiger had supped off young elephant. I have heard of what appears to be a well-authenticated case in Assam, of a tame elephant of full size, when hobbled and turned loose in a river-bed to graze, being attacked by a tiger, and severely bitten and mauled before its cries attracted the keepers, who were at a distance. In this case large pieces of flesh were torn from the elephant's thighs, and the tiger's object was evidently to make a meal of it, as it perceived it was in difficulties, being hobbled. The shooting of the tusker in the elephant-lines occurred as follows : Whilst the elephants were at Gasban the mahouts had attempted to tie a tusker one night, as he visited the new elephants frequently, only disappear- ing with the dawn. He had followed us from Jadoogapara, and was in all probability the elephant I saw on looking out of the tent during the night of the 6 th January. The mahouts had failed to secure him, and had thoroughly alarmed him, and though they subsequently tried various plans, he had grown too wary to be caught. When the elephants marched to Bhowalkali he followed, and remained with us there, accompanying us to camp No. 12. He had become so accustomed to the sight of men by this time that he rarely left the elephant-lines, and did not molest the people who moved about. We might have caught him had we tried hard, but three of our females would have been required to march with him, whereas they could take charge of six wild females, which were better adapted for our purpose than one tusker ; consequently he was not interfered with. But he now began to be troublesome, chasing the tame elephants when they went for fodder, and on more than one occasion nearly causing accidents amongst the men. One afternoon I was casting some rifle-shells when a mahout 170 LOST IN THE FOREST came to say the elephant was in the lines, and was interrupting work ; so I loaded one of the shells — a copper-bottle — with detonating powder, and went after him. I found him stalking about amongst the new elephants, and the men hiding ; so, getting within four yards of his tail, I whistled. As he turned I fired the shell into his temple and dropped him dead. On the 13 th of February my detachment of elephants marched from camp No. 12. On the l7th we found two dead elephants, both young ones, of Sergeant Carter's detachment, in the river-bed. The Myanee was deeper at this part than it had been higher up, and the exposure and fatigue of marching through water almost covering them had been too much for the youngsters. They were lying on a spit of sand, loathsome masses of mag- gots. They had died on the 10th; and as the wash caused by the elephants passing sent wavelets over the spit, the maggots floated off in tens of thou- sands, and the still water all along the banks was soon filled with them. Aa we camped two hundred yards below, on the same side of the river as the carcasses, the men could scarcely get water for some time without maggots in it. On the 19th the morning was overcast and it thundered, whilst a fresh came down the river, showing it had been raining in the parts we had recently left. The river was too deep for marching, so I ordered a halt for that day, and in the afternoon, after a heavy shower, took my rifles and went in search of game. There were marks of bison {Gavceus gaurus) and sambur, but I was unfortunate enough to see nothing larger than jungle-fowl and monkeys, until coming home we heard a single elephant feeding in thick cover. However, we could not get a sight of him. On ascending a piece of rising ground, from which we could see over a portion of the forest, and whence we expected to be able to make out the direction of the camp, we found ourselves altogether at a loss. There was no prominent landmark — nothing but level forest. The sun had been heavily obscured the whole day. I had no compass with me, and my three gun-bearers held diametri- cally opposed opinions as to the direction of the cardinal points. Here was a pretty fix. The gloomy and dripping forest was fast becoming dark ; there were no paths ; wild elephants were numerous ; and we could not even agree upon the direction we ought to take ! I remembered at this time a piece of advice Sir Samuel Baker gives in his Rijle and Hound in Ceylon — namely, to make one's self as comfortable as possible when thus lost, and to wait till some one comes in search, instead of strapng further and increasing the difliculties ; so we set to work to make a fire. But this was not an easy matter. Everything was dripping wet, except a letter I had in my pocket — a letter from a lady, which was only MV HILL-DOG JOOMA. 171 sacrif ced under the exigency of our rigorous circumstances — and we had great difficulty in getting any more substantial materials in the dark. At last the men collected a sufficiency of the dry inner bark of a tree, and the chewed fibres of wood from elephants' dung, and by shooting a piece of rag out of my rifle into my pocket-handkerchief hung on a branch, we got a light A cheerful blaze soon sprang up, and I fired a couple of shots. In a few seconds a perfect chorus of elephants' cries, about two miles dis- tant, broke the stillness, as the mahouts in camp made their animals "speak" (as they term it) in answer to our signal. There was every description of note from the stentorian lungs of the huge animals, from the shrill trum- pet to the sustained tremulous growl. We could even distinguish the voices of several individuals — Tara Eanee, jMohungowry, Issamuttee, &c. Whilst waiting for the relieving party, sitting round the cheerful blaze, and congratulating ourselves in having succeeded in starting it, a sudden puff of gunpowder in its midst made us all jump up. On examining into the cause, I found that an 8 -bore cartridge loaded with ten drams had fallen from my pocket in the darkness before we kindled the fire, and had now gone off on the ground, but the bullet remained on the spot, whilst the cartridge - case was only moved a few inches. I judge from this that a cartridge going off in a sportsman's pocket would do him no harm beyond setting his coat on fire. An elephant and men with torches soon arrived, and we reached home safely. A faithful dog that I had picked up at Jadoogapara accompanied the party, and showed great delight at finding me. He was a hill-dog belong- ing to the Joomas, and had strayed from a party of them who came to see the elephants. He was of a bright rufous colour, with a bushy tail curling over his back, and had a sharp, intelligent face. He was about a year old. The first time I saw him was one day playing with two fox-terrier puppies and my bull-bitch Lady, which accompanied me on my trip, and I could not but admire the amiability he displayed when I threw tent-pegs at him to drive him away; so I finally made friends with him. Though he had been brought up entirely amongst natives he would have nothing to do with any of my men thenceforth, and always remained close to my tent. At the same time he never came in unless specially invited, nor pushed himself forward in any way. He never fought with the others for food, but would sit patiently by and take without greediness whatever was left or given to him. His sagacity and attachment to me were extraordinary. On one occasion, intending to shoot by the way, I had started in a boat in advance of the elephants down the Myanee, having sent " Jooma," as I called the dog, to be tied up where he could not see me start. He was let loose when 172 THREE ELEPHANTS DROWNED. the other boats and elephants started half an hour later, and not finding me, he plunged into the river instead of going in a boat as usual, evaded all attempts to stop him, and swam down stream, running along the banks where they admitted of it. We were floating quietly down with the stream, looking for game, when a distant yapping attracted our attention, and I saw a small object, from which the voice proceeded, coming down the river. Tliis was Jooma's head as he swam. We waited for him, to his great delight ; he had followed us for eight miles. I subsequently took him round by Chittagong and Calcutta to Dacca, and thence to Mysore, where he is now happy with my other dogs, a thousand miles from the land of his birth. I reached Rungamuttea on the 24th February. The elephants had been marched by land latterly, as the river was deep. The only incident that occurred worthy of note was the drowning of one of our new elephants, and two of our best tame females, near Rungamuttea. We had left the Myanee above its junction with the Kurnafoolie, and were marching by land, but owing to the lie of the country we had to cross the Kurnafoolie occasionally. It was very deep, and the elephants had to swim. One morning whilst crossing where it was about eighty yards wide and thirty feet deep, in a gorge through a saddle in the hills, a tusker, which was secured between two tame ones — one in advance of, and one behind him — sank like a stone, probably from being seized with cramp from the coldness of the water, and dragged the two females with him. Their mahouts tried in vain to slash the ropes through : they had barely time to save themselves by swimming. Anything more sudden or unexpected I never witnessed. One elephant appeared again for a brief moment — at least about two feet of her trunk did : she waved us a last farewell, when all was still, save the air-bubbles which continued to rise for some time from the calm, deep pool. Every one who witnessed it was shocked. The drivers of the ele- phants yet to cross hesitated ; we could not but believe the unfortunate beasts would come up again. Their mahouts sat down and cried like children over the loss of the faithful beasts they had tended for years. Elephants are such excellent swimmers that I cannot understand how it was that the two tame ones were unable to gain the shore, which was only thirty yards distant, by towing the drowning wild one. When they floated we found that they were in no way entangled ; and it was not owing to snags catching the ropes, nor to any under-current, that they were drawn down. One of the tame ones — Geraldiue — was a great favourite of mine, and she and the other were worth £300 each. The tusker was worth £600, so the money loss to Government was considerable. /OOMAS EATING ELEPHANT- FLESH. 173 Next morning I went in a boat to examine the bodies. The news of the occurrence had spread, and I found about two hundred Joomas from villages near assembled on the banks of the river, with a flotilla of dug-out canoes and rafts. They had baskets and knives of every description, and were awaiting the arrival of some one in authority to give them permission to take the elephants' flesh, which they eat. They were like vultures watching a carcass until it is sufficiently decomposed to allow of a com- mencement being made. In the centre of the pool floated three leaden- coloured objects. These were our poor elephants. Their buoyancy was such that three men could stand on each without submerging them. The Joomas towed them ashore, and cut off their fore-feet for me, for making into footstools in remembrance of them ; and I then gave them permission to fall to, which they did with such a will that by next morning at the same hour not a vestige of the elephants remained. The boats and rafts had been laden with flesh, and even the bones had been broken into pieces and carried off to boil into soup (elephants' bones are solid and have no marrow). It was well the bodies could be turned to account instead of being left to poUute the air and water, as would have been the case in most parts of India, where natives will not eat elephants' flesh. Arrived at Eungamuttea, my chief labours were over. The trip had been very successful, and we had concluded our operations very expedi- tiously. Mahouts and grass-cutters came from Chittagong or volunteered from amongst the kheddah men, and every new elephant was entered in a roll and brought on to the strength of the Commissariat Department. They were then divided into lots of twenties under jemadars, and the whole number, with the tame ones, proceeded by gentle marches vid Chittagong to Dacca, a distance of 200 miles, under the supervision of the sergeant. Only two died on the way; the rest reached Dacca on 5th May. All the Europeans in the station assembled to see the cavalcade of about a hundred and thirty elephants arrive. Some calves had been born, but they had all died. Most of the new elephants carried their mahouts and their baggage. AH but a few of the quietest were still attached to the tame ones, lest they should take fright and cause accidents. Arrived in the Peelkhana, or elephant-stables, a picket was allotted to each, and their systematic training was commenced. They would be fit to march to the military station of Barrackpore, near Calcutta, at the end of the year, whence they would be allotted to the different military stations, and applied to light work in about two years. I left Dacca for Mysore in June '76, but I have recently heard of these elephants from the Commissariat Department. Sixteen died in the first year, 174 CASUALTIES. which is not a high rate of mortality for newly-caught elephants, and others would probably die before they were fit for active service. This shows how great a number of elephants is required annually to keep up the strength of the Commissariat Department even in one Presidency. The full strength of the elephant establishment in the Lower Commissariat Circle of Bengal is nominally 1000, and the annexed table shows the number which died in one year, and may be taken as a fair annual average. Many entered in the table, particularly in the Barrackpore, Dacca, and Assam columns, are newly-captured animals, and a considerable proportion of these are milk calves. I had expected to work the kheddahs in Bengal at the commencement of 1877, but circumstances arose which prevented it. Such operations as were conducted were but partially successful, owing to cholera breaking out amongst the kheddah men, and to the ravages of the great storm-wave which caused such terrible loss of life in Chittagong and the tracts along the north-east portion of the Bay of Bengal in November 1876. These causes rendered it difficult to collect men for the work, or to obtain fodder, and onJy thirty-six elephants were caught. [Table. CASUALTIES RETURN. 175 TVJ.0X ^ir50foe:rj*Tf.-i — cceC'-H »o ;c>ne»30.-i--< i \ o K 1 S 1 •JoSnBsqis -" : : i : i : : i : i : i i^ ! i i i •gnoiHTiS •ire^IooH :::::::::::: : :^ : : : : •BiT!a5{BqO :-H ::::::::: : : :::::: - •Bo^v •9J0dz8J :::::::::::: : :::::: fix •qSBquBZBH •Jo2nT!g •qji!3tuq9a i i i i :■- : i i i i i :-::::; 'i\ •M.oinionT I :::-":::: :^ : : :::::: 0^ •i^^BqMoo •^ o •.ilipaua :^ : : ! !^ : : i i-^ ; : : i : i-^ •KAi^qsaj •squp .p9q^ uiBssy :::(Nt^:-^:»^M— : :i<:'-i::: s ^ •sq^p -paqAI Boo^a •.^^ : CO rH \ standard drams. The advantages which will be secured by this unprecedentedly large charge will be apparent to those who understand that most admirable weapon the express. About 44 drams is the largest charge that has been used hitherto in the '450. Powder-measures supplied by various gunmakers differ considerably, and often bear about the same proportion to the stan- dard measure as the reputed quart does to the imperial. It is advisable, therefore, to have a. guarantee from gunmakers as to the actual amount of fiowder which their cartridges are capable of holding. SHELLS. 181 Baker says : " A hollow bullet fired from an express rifle will double up a deer ; but it will be certain to expand upon the hard skin of elephants, rhino- ceros, hippopotami, buffalo, &c., in which case it will lose all power of penetration. When a hollow bullet strikes a large bone, it absolutely dis- appears into minute particles of lead, and of course it becomes worthless." Two sportsmen. Captains E. and P., perhaps the best shots in Southern India, if the Bangalore rifle-meeting performances are a test, who have shot in the Billiga-rungun hills with me, have, after ample experience, denounced the use of the express on bison. On one occasion P. fired six times at a bull with a "500 express and hollow bullets : the sixth shot, wliich was in the head, killed it ; but the others, which were all accurately placed behind the shoulder, beyond sickening the beast failed through want of penetration. E. fired eleven shots amongst bison with both solid and hollow hardened bullets, with unsatisfactory results : one bull that was dropped, and again floored whilst struggling on to his legs, and left for dead whilst E. pursued the herd, got up, and was never seen again. If a solid hardened bullet be used with an express, the principle of the weapon, and the cause of its immense efficiency on soft-bodied animals, are lost, and the rifle becomes merely a hard-hitting smaU-bore. No one will dispute the sporting truism that " a good big 'un is better than a good little 'un ; " and both theory and practice sufficiently show that a hard-hitting large-bore, before which the largest bones are as those of chickens, is the proper weapon for hea^y game. My experience of shells has been too limited to allow of my saying much on the subject. What I have seen of them has led me to discard them myself as unnecessary, but I do not wish to condemn them. I have found Forsyth's swedged shells fairly effective in a 12-bore rifle; but Mr W. W. Greener advised me against having them for an 8 -bore he was making for me, on the ground of their not possessing sufficient stability for a large-bore and heavy charge. He recommended a steel-core bottle-sheU in preference. I tried three Eorsyth's sheUs, which I made and loaded carefully myself, with the above rifle (No. 8) and 6 drams of powder, at a target forty yards distant. Two of these flew into two pieces each ; these pieces struck three feet apart, and effectually frightened me from trying any more experiments. I think that with the express — which acts like an explosive bullet — for the lighter class of game, and with heavy solid spherical buUets (the only reliable bone-smashers) for the heavier class, sportsmen will find themselves able to do without shell-rifles of a calibre between the two. Supposing the young sportsman to have pro\dded himself with an efficient battery, I will now proceed to make a suggestion or two for his camp-management. 182 MALARIAL FEVERS. It -win be unnecessary for me to enter into details about equipage. Excellent hints on the subject of tents and kit may be found in many books on Indian sport, and in others devoted entirely to the subject. The great principle to be borne in mind in making arrangements for jungle-lifo is, that the sportsman should make himself and followers as comfortable as possible. Any amount of hard work may be done by all during the day if they have dry clothes and a comfortable dinner and bed at the end of it. Eoughing it when there is no necessity — and there seldom is nowadays in India — is a mistake which only the inexperienced fall into. There is rarely any reason why a sportsman should sleep without sheets, drink out of a tin pot, or dine off a box, though these are merely discomforts. In matters actually affecting the health of the party in jungle localities, it is suicidal not to know what are the precautions to be observed, or to neglect them. Malarial fever is the great obstacle with which the sportsman in Indian jungles has to contend ; but, though it is a dread reality, it is at the same time made more of a bugbear to the inexperienced than it need be. Mias- matic air, from its heaviness, lies and travels close to the ground, and it is probably not active during the day when the jungles are warmed by the sun. Cold and dampness are its great auxiliaries. It appears to be taken into the system by inhalation, and it is supposed the poison also exists in water contaminated by decaying vegetable matter. As evening closes in there is a raw feeling in the air in the jungles which the sportsman must perceive is inimical to health. Some jungle-tribes build their houses on platforms ten feet high, knowing by experience the advantage to health in being thus elevated. But as a moving camp cannot take this precaution, the miasma about the sleepers must be destroyed or dissipated. This is to be done by keeping up fires to windward. The pestilential exhalations are thus carried up in the current of lighter air, or are consumed. Small tents of thick material should be used for master and servants, as they are warmer than large ones. At night the jungle-people in each camp, or some of the sports- man's own men, should keep up a fire as close as possible to the tents, and so placed that the warm air from it may blow over them. WMlst within its influence it is impossible that malaria can touch the sleepers. Let the sports- man but go out of the circle of the fires during the night, and he will feel how cold and raw the air is compared to that within their genial influence. Every one must sleep weU off the ground. The sportsman's cot should be at least three feet high — raised by forked uprights if necessary — and he should sleep within mosquito-curtains.''^' For his servants, if nothing else • In some parts of India the nights are so sultry, even in the forests, that this would hardly be possible. It is doubtful, however, if miasma Ls abroad in such a temperature. PRECAUTIONS AGAINST MALARIA. 183 is available the tent-sacks should be stuffed with straw or dry grass ; these will raise the men above the dampness of the ground. Servants are exces- sively careless, and unless the sportsman see after them himself they will take no precautions on their own account. All rank vegetation close at hand should be cleared away, by burning if possible, and the camp should be situated on as high and dry ground as can be found, but must not be exposed to high winds. The sportsman should invariably change his clothes and boots if wet from rain or perspiration the moment he comes in ; not go out earlier, nor remain out later in the evening, than necessary ; and have his meals as regularly as possible. It is a good plan to take something, if only a few biscuits, with one, as in the heat of the chase one may lose the men who carry the luncheon-basket. Temperance in the use of liquor is of course absolutely necessary. Everything that tends to debilitate the system renders it liable to the effects of malaria. The sportsman whilst undergoing unusual exposure and hard work can ill afford to be careless in any respect. One frequently feels so well with the pleasant exercise and excitement of a jungle-trip that there is a tendency to excess or heedlessness. I always have the water for my own and servants' cooking and drinking boiled and cooled before using. I have been almost exclusively a water- drinker for years, and believe that no one need be afraid of any water if this precaution — or better still, distillation — be adopted. A small still is easily carried about, and the water of any puddle can then be used. The plan of putting brandy into water to kill the deleterious matter is admitted to be perfectly useless. If out early or late, a cheroot is an excellent precaution against breathing the miasma which is prevalent at those hours, or a torch of dried bamboos carried in the hand wiU effectually dispel the cold air. Exposure to dew must be particularly avoided. Some sportsmen take two or three grains of quinine daily whilst in feverish localities. It may do good and can do no harm, but it can be of little avail without every precaution in other respects. I was amused on one occasion by two friends who came to my camp for bison-shooting. They were imbued with a wholesome dread of fever, and had brought mth them a large bottle of medicine, in the averting powers of which they placed much reliance, and with which they frequently refreshed themselves. They went to the top of the BiUiga-rungun hills, and in the heat of the chase after bison stayed out in the jungle two nights, sleeping in improvised shelters hardly sufficient to keep off the dew, without a fire, and on the ground ! I had been unable to accompany them ; but when they returned and told me of their doings, and of the constancy with which they had 184 SYMPTOMS OF MALARIAL FEVER. applied themselves to their medicine, I assured them that aU the quinine mixture in the world would not counteract exposure such as they had andergone. They returned to their station in a great fright, and had hardly got there before they had such severe fever as almost sent them both to England. It is thus that fever often comes to be made the spectre it is to the inexperienced. One gets it through reckless carelessness, and speaks of the deadliness of the jungles he visited, whilst he might have lived in them in safety for a month with proper care. I presume malarial fevers are similar in most parts of India, and that the following observa- tions, though made particularly with regard to Mysore, will apply equally elsewhere : — Fever in Mysore is of two kinds : that prevailing at certain seasons in open country, where there are no jungles within many miles, and which seems due entirely to the sudden variations of temperature attendant on the changes of season ; and the more noxious kind, similar, but more severe, in its symptoms, contracted in jungle localities, and apparently the result of miasma or poison arising from decaying vegetable matter. These fevers are very seldom fatal to Europeans, except the latter in aggravated cases ; but they are most difficult to shake off, recurring at varying stated periods, often for many years. They debilitate the system, and may bring into prominence any other weak point the patient has. Amongst natives, on the other hand, malarial fevers are exceedingly fatal. Ear more succumb to them every year than to cholera and smaU-pox put together. As fever, however, is insidious in its working, and is not infectious, it causes little alarm, and comparatively little is heard of it. It appears to be owing to the greater natural strength of the European consti- tution that Englishmen withstand, or throw it off, where natives succumb, Nursing in the stages where the patient is inclined, through prostration, to do nothing but die quietly, also puts to right those who, if left as the native frequently is without suitable nourishment and attention, would fare little better than he does. Fever is most prevalent about the commencement and end of the rainy season. The alternations in temperature are then considerable, and the winds in the open country are chilly. In the jungles, the decaying vegeta- tion is stirred up by Light rains which are insufficient to wash it away. The jungles are most healthy during the hot weather, when the undergrowth has been burnt. This burning is the grand destroyer of all malaria, and the sportsman may tramp the then begrimed forests in perfect safety. Fever generally shows itself in a week or ten days after the person has been subjected to the influence that has caused it. It begins with lassitude INDIAN SERVANTS. 185 headache, loss of appetite, and pains in the limbs. Severe shivering fits follow, generally accompanied by vomiting. After a few hours of tliis, more or less, a hot fit, equally intense, commences, at the end of which the patient probably perspires freely (if steps have been taken to induce this great desideratum in fever treatment). The attack is then over for the time. It may recur the next, second, or third day. I have had perhaps as much experience of fever as any one, before I understood how to avoid it, and may briefly illustrate its course in my own case. Ten years ago I had my first attack. I was prostrated, with intervals of delirium, for a week, and had to take two months' leave of absence for change of air. For about three years fits occurred at gradually lengthening intervals, and of decreasing severity. They were induced by much exposure to the sun or night air, over-fatigue, or irregularity of any kind. I subsequently con- tracted fresh attacks, but these did not take such hold upon me as the first. One may become to some extent acclimatised to fever, as one never can to exposure to the sun. Though I think I might almost set up as a medical practitioner if I only had fever cases to deal with, as my experience in treating myself and followers has been of an extensive character, I will not lengthen mj remarks by going into that subject. Should a sportsman unfortunately contract fever, he will find admirable directions, in small compass, for self-treatment, in the medical portion of a small work entitled the Euro- Tpean in India. I may add one suggestion which, if I remember rightly, is not contained in the book referred to, that the vapour-bath, made with a vessel of boiling water placed under a chair, upon which the patient sits, the whole being enveloped in a thick blanket, will be found a valuable addition to the other treatment, and soon steams the chills of fever out of the sufferer's bones. A word for Indian servants, than whom there probably are not better in the world for camp-life. How delighted one's " boys " are when " going shooting " is the word ! They are cheerful and willing under great discom- forts, and with few appliances make their master as comfortable in the jungles as in headquarters. The manner in which a good camp -servant wiU serve up dinner, from soup to pudding, is astonishing. His cooking-range is but a shallow trench in the ground, in which is the fire, and over which the earthen pots simmer, the whole sheltered perhaps from a howling storm by a tree or a few mats. The sportsman soon finds that, if only from motives of convenience, it is necessary to look to his serv^ants' welfare. Englishmen in India are, as a rule, very kind to their servants, who become warmly attached to good masters' interests ; but for want of forethought 186 INDIAN SERVANTS. young sportsmen's followers are sometimes subjected to discomforts which do not arise from want of humanity, but of knowledge. For my own part, having resided so much amongst natives — often not seeing a European for months together — I feel that sport would not yield me one-half the plea- sure it does if my people did not enjoy it with me, and feel interested in their master's success. It would be unpleasant to think that they disliked my trips into the jungles, and probably with reason, if they were to be exposed to danger of fever. A rig-out of warm clothes and a blanket at intervals, with a small travelling allowance to compensate for the extra expense they are put to for their food, keep servants healthy and contented. If the marches are long, the sportsman's means of transport — usually carts in Southern India — should' be increased for the servants' convenience. Long foot-marches on cold nights or hot days soon knock up domestics accustomed to life in comfortable quarters. CHAPTER XV. ELEPHANT -SHOOTING. GOVERNMENT PROHIBITION REGARDING ELEPHANT-SHOOTING THE TRUE KING OP BEASTS — PECULIAR EXCITEMENT OP ELEPHANT - SHOOOHNG — DANGER OP THE SPORT — THE •WILD elephant's MODE OP ATTACK — STRUCTURE OP THE ELEPHANT'S HEAD — THE BRAIN — THE BEST SHOTS — GUNS FOR ELEPHANT -SHOOTING — SIR SAMUEL BAKER'a OPINION — SHOOTING ELEPHANTS BEHIND THE SHOULDER — THE FORMER METHOD OP SHOOTING WITH " JINJALLS " — THE ELEPHANT'S CHARACTER AS AN ANIMAL OF SPORT — CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THEY USUALLY ATTACK MAN — HOW TO FIND THE TUSKERS IN A HERD — THE ALARM - SIGNAL — ELEPHANTS' RUSHES — DANGER OP SHOUTING AT ELEPHANTS — A COURAGEOUS FEMALE IN THE CHITTAGONG HILLS — KILLS A MAN — CHARGES MY RIDING-ELEPHANT — FLOOR HER — ANOTHER CHARGING FEMALE IN KAKENKOT^ — SINGLE ELEPHANTS — THEIR HABITS — ELEPHANTS LYING- DOWN — THEIR SKILL IN RETREATING — HOW TO FOLLOW WOUNDED ELEPHANTS — DANGER OF SHOOTING ROGUE ELEPHANTS NOT GREATER THAN ATTACKING HERDS — TAKING OUT TUSKS — DEAD ELEPHANTS — NATIVE IDEAS ABOUT THEIR FLESH IK MYSORE— IN CHITTAGONG PREPARING FEET FOR FOOTSTOOLS. AS ol late years the shooting of elephants, except dangerous ones, has- been prohibited throughout India and Ceylon, I have felt doubtful about writing on the subject. But it is certain that in a few years the interdiction will have to be relaxed, as elephants are being preserved without corresponding measures being taken for their reduction by capture. Information on the subject may then be of some interest, so I propose to add my quota to what has already been -wTitten regarding this grandest of all field-sports. Who that has seen the wild elephant roaming his native jungles can deny that he is the King of Beasts ? Sir Samuel Baker says, " The king of beasts is generally acknowledged to be the Hon ; but no one who has seen a wild elephant can doubt for a moment that the title belongs to him in his own right. Lord of all created animals in might and sagacity, the elephant 190 THE CHIEF SHOTS. have a thorough knowledge of the structure of the head, and of the position of the animal's brain. To gain this he should examine a skull sawn ver- tically into halves, and, if possible, compare it with a living elephant's head ; these steps will fix the prominent internal and external points in his mind. Internally (fig. 1), it will be seen that the cranium consists of light cellular bone of very open construction. The walls between the cells are as thin as note-paper. The cells differ in size : the largest has a capacity of about two wine-glasses. There are no powerful bones, except one knob in front ; a walking-stick may almost be driven through an elephant's skull from the sides. The only vital portion of the head is the brain ; this lies low and far back. In a very large male elephant, say nine and a half feet at shoulder, its extreme length horizontally is twelve inches, and vertically six inches. Its shape is somewhat oval. It will be evident, on an examination of the skull, that if the brain be missed by a shot no harm will be done to the animal, as there are no other vital organs, such as large blood-vessels, &c., situated in the head. It thus happens that, in head-shots, if the elephant is not dropped on the spot he is very rarely bagged at all. A shot that goes through his skull into his neck without touching his brain may kill him, but it will take time. I have never recovered any elephant that has left the spot with a head-shot. The blood-traU for a few yards is generally very thick, but it often ceases as suddenly as it is at first copious. Elephants are some- times floored by the concussion of a shot, if the ball passes very close to the brain ; large balls frequently effect this. No time should be lost in finishing a floored elephant, or he will certainly make his escape. Many cases have occurred of elephants which have been regarded as dead suddenly recovering themselves and making off. The three chief shots at the elephant's brain are : the front (or forehead) shot ; the side (or temple) shot ; and the rear (or behind the ear) shot. The illustrations of heads in different positions will assist to explain them. Should the sportsman and the elephant be standing on tolerably level ground, and the elephant be facing the sportsman with its head in its natural position, a shot in the centre of the forehead towards the top of the bump at the base of the trunk, and about three inches higher than a line drawn between the eyes, will be instantly fatal. (Fig. 2.) Should the sportsman be to one side of the elephant, at right angles to it, a shot directly iato the ear-hole, in a line to pass through the opposite ear, or anywhere within the blank space indicated in fig. 2, will be instantly ■fatal. To obtain the indicated space, dra^i^ lines from the top and butt of .y V V THE CHIEF SHOTS. 191 the ear to the eye ; join the top and butt of ear by a vertical line as a base to the triangle. Of the triangle thus formed, about one-third of the area from the base is fatal. A shot nearer the apex will pass in front of the brain, if delivered at right angles with the elephant's course. The shot behind the ear is in the hollow just over the large bump or swelling at the junction of the jaw and neck. It must be taken at about an angle of 45° with the elephant's course, from behind. Wlien an elephant changes his position from any of those indicated above, the lines to the brain are of course altered. Thus an elephant charging with his head held high will have to be aimed at, from in front, a foot or so lower than when at rest as in fig. 2 ; and if taken at a half-face for the temple-shot, instead of at a right angle, the ball must enter nearer the apex of the triangle indi- cated in fig. 2 than for a right-angled side-shot. The shot requiring most accurate calculation is the shot to Idll a charg- ing elephant from in front. Figs. 3, 4, show the position in which the head is usually carried in attacking ; it is only lowered when the object of ofience is within a few yards. To reach the brain the bullet must pass through about three feet of curled trunk, flesh, and bone ; and sometimes the most powerful rifles, even a 4-bore and 12 drams, will not effect this. It is thus occasionally impossible to kill an elephant if the head be held very high, but very heavy rifles will generally either stop or floor him, or at least give him such a shock that he is glad to take himself off. I have known a female elephant to be killed by a shot through the roof of the mouth, that being the line to the brain from lower ground, when the head is held very high, and the elephant is coming down-lull. It is a fortunate circum- stance, however, that elephants do not always hold their heads in this all but impracticable position. I have never seen an elephant elevate its trunk in charging as it is com- monly represented to do. It is always so careful of that organ that, if it imagines there is any danger, it keeps it coiled up. The trunk, if upraised, would obstruct the animal's sight to a great extent, and no useful purpose would be met by the position. It would be more reasonable to suppose it outstretched towards the object of attack ; but it is never, in my experience, carried otherwise than tightly coiled. There can be no two opinions amongst those who have had experience in elephant-shooting as to the description of guns required in the sport. A very small bore, with sufficient penetration to reach the brain, wiU kill an elephant as efficiently as one of greater calibre, if its ball be lodged in the vital spot. Elephants have been bagged with 1 2 and 1 6 smooth-bores and 3 drams, and with the -500 and -450 (spherical gauges Nos. 38 and 50) 1V2 HEAVY BALLS FOR HEAVY BEASTS. expresses, with solid hardeued bullets. But these have been picked shots. As tiie sportsman cannot always hope for such, light guns should not be trusted in. It is not uncommon, however, to hear those who have made lucky shots, or have heard of their being made, decry heavy weapons as unnecessary burthens. The young sportsman, however, will do well to turn to the opinions of those really capable of advising on the subject. Sir Samuel Baker, after a life's experience with elephants and other heavy game, recommends " a single-barrel rifle to carry a half-pound projectile, or a foui-ounce, according to strength of hunter." I have adopted a modifi- cation of the latter — viz., a double-barrelled 4-bore, which is no heavier than a single would have to be made to carry the charge of powder ; it is smooth-bored. This affords the extra safety and execution insured by a double-barrel ; and as it is only used at close quarters, a smooth-bore is sufficiently accurate, and offers a great advantage over the rifle in reduction of friction in the projectile. If it is astonishing with what light weapons elephants may sometimes be killed, the shocks they withstand on occasions are equally surprising. I have fired a No. 4 spherical ball, driven by 12 drams of the strongest powder, through elephants' heads on three occasions without even staggering them. The narrowest escape I ever had in elephant-shooting was through failing to even stop an elephant with my No. 4. Sir Samuel Baker, in his Bijle and Hound, gives an instance of an ele- phant's taking four shots with a 4-bore and about an ounce of powder, whilst making repeated charges, before being bagged. My humble experience has satisfied me that even the biggest balls and largest charges of powder that can be employed are not always effectual in stopping a charging elephant ; and until an effective explosive shell is invented for the purpose, it appears that such contingencies as the above must be expected to occur now and then. An elephant may be killed by the temple-shot with even a 1 4-bore smooth-bore and 3 drams, but there is as much difference in the power re- quired to kill by a picked shot, and to stop a charging elephant, as there is to move a locomotive at rest, and to arrest it when at full speed. Men who can " do anything " with a 10 or 12 bore (occasionally heard of) are to be envied ; but ordinary mortals will do well to equip themselves against heavy game with weapons to compensate as far as possible for their inferior attain- ments. In my humble opinion, the largest possible guns that can be used should be used upon all kinds of big game. Indian elephants are seldom shot behind the shoulder, and though I have killed them thus with my 4-bore, I think it a pity to do so. It would be cruel to fire at them there with smaller bores. When an elephant JIN/ALLS. 193 can be approached to within a few yards, and dropped on the spot, it is hardly sportsmanlike to take a long shot, and risk wounding the animal uselessly. The guns called jinjalls with which elephants were shot by natives in former days, are simply small cannon, fired from a tripod-stand. Two which I have weigh 45 lb. each, and carry a round bullet of nearly half a pound. The charge used was about half a pound of powder ; native powder is not very strong, however. The guns are of native iron, the admirable softness of which alone prevented their bursting. A hunting-party consisted of four men — two to carry the gun slung on a pole, one the stands, and the fourth — the captain — to track, lay the gun, and to fire it. When the elephants were standing listlessly in thick cover at mid-day the gun was placed on the stands at about three feet from the ground, and directed anywhere on an elephant's carcass. It was fired with a touch-match, which gave the hunters two or three seconds to get away. It was usually fired within thirty yards' distance. The match being applied, every one ran for their lives, as the gun, being overcharged for its weight, always flew back several yards, and broken Hmbs were not unusually the result of failing to get clear. Elephants seldom escaped when wounded, and active hunters are said to have bagged five or six occasionally in a day. As a reward of £7 per head was paid for them by the Madras Government, this was a lucrative employment. There is no doubt that if this slaughter had not been prohibited years ago, the number of elephants would have been very much diminished at this day, and a continuation of it might soon have brought about their practical extinction in parts of Southern India. The elephant's character as an animal of sport has been variously repre- sented. Sir Samuel Baker considers it savage, wary, and revengeful ; Sir Emerson Tennent, the reverse. Both these views are, I think, extreme, and I apprehend that the truth lies between them. Though the elephant has little in his nature that can be called savage or revengeful, unless he is maddened by wounds or ill-treatment, he is certainly neither imbecile nor incapable, as Sir Emerson Tennent would have us believe, when he says '■' So unaccustomed are they to act as assailants, and so awkward and inex pert in using their strength, that they rarely or ever succeed in IdUing a pursuer who faUs into their power." Sir Emerson Tennent was not a sportsman, and apparently, from his writings, never in his life encountered elephants when roused to anger, which must be taken into consideration in accepting his view of the matter. In their wild state, if a single elephant, or a herd, discover the approach of man at a distance (by their sense of smell), they almost invariably move N 194 THE ELEPHANTS CHARACTER. off ; but should a man suddenly appear within a few yards of them, he will be charged perhaps oftener by elephants than by any other animals. But in this case the elephant's position is analogous to that of a timid man, who, with a stick in his hand, is suddenly confronted by a cobra. He would naturally strike at it in self-defence, though he might be glad to let it pass if it crossed his path at some distance. The elephant's whole character is pervaded by extreme timidity, and to this, rather than to deliberate daring, must be ascribed much of the charging when a herd is suddenly encountered. I consider it decidedly exceptional for any elephant, in a position where it has time for reflection and the option of retreat, to attack a man. Solitary elephants, which have occasionally made themselves troublesome by killing passers-by on main roads, have invariably been animals that have become accustomed to man, through their habit of frequenting fields and the neighbourhood of villages, and which, through being constantly molested by watchers, have become morose and dangerous. There have been notable instances of these elephants becom- ing both suspicious and revengeful, as stated by Sir Samuel Baker. In usually retreating before man, the wild elephant shows no inferiority in courage to other jungle animals, as they all retire from his intrusion. In jungles where elephants are not harassed, they are eminently unsuspicious and inoffensive. My own modest experience in elephant-shooting rests upon only about twenty elephants bagged. I lost several others when I first commenced, however, and I have had a good deal to do with troublesome animals, whilst driving them into the kheddahs, so that I have seen more of ele- phants under excitement than merely on the occasions when I have shot them. I may also say that most I have bagged have been picked ones, some of them proscribed as notoriously troublesome and dangerous animals, or they have been determined beasts met with in the herds whilst engaged in the capture of their fellows. I cannot understand any person's wilfully shooting female elephants, except as in Ceylon, where their numbers at one time had to be thinned, as they were becoming too numerous. Females, no doubt, give as good sport as males — in fact, they are always the first to charge ; but they carry no trophies, and the sportsman with any romance in his nature wiU let them pass if only in consideration to their sex. The art of approaching elephants successfully, and of picking out the par- ticular animal wanted amongst a large body, requires practice. When a large herd is grazing in detachments, as a large herd always does, each separate group has to be examined for the tuskers, and the sportsman is likely to be winded, and the alarm given, before the search is successful, unless he knows HOW TO APPROACH ELEPHANTS. 195 Ms work. In a small herd the difficulties are less, but as a rule the tuskers are not so fine as those with larger herds. When feeding, elephants will usually be found to be heading steadily in a certain direction ; the rear-guard should then be examined for the tuskers, as they seldom go in front. The most ordinary precaution will enable the sportsman and his gun-bearers to move about within a few yards of them, if in cover, as long as they keep the wind, which is the one thing needful to observe in stalking elephants. It is seldom that they cannot be approached to within ten yards for a shot. When herd elephants are at rest, they dispose themselves in scattered squads in close contiguity. There is then nothing to distract their attention as they doze, and they are more liable to observe danger than when engaged in feeding. On the least alarm they close up, and if their fears seem weU founded they make off, and the best tuskers, which are probably near (but are seldom found amongst the females), may escape without being seen. It is consequently often advisable to use patience and to remain at a distance till the herd is again at graze — sa}- after three o'clock in the afternoon — rather than approach elephants in cover during the day. I have never seen a tusker undertake to cover the retreat of a herd ; they take a line of their own invariably when danger threatens. The alarm of the presence of man is usually communicated by the ele- phant that discovers it by a peculiar short, shrill trumpet, weU understood by the others, and which the sportsman will soon learn to distinguish amongst all the other sounds made by elephants. AU stand perfectly still at this signal for some minutes, when, if they make up their minds that the alarm is well founded, they close up and move rapidly off. At other times, if the elephant that perceives danger discovers that it is very near, it moves off quickly without a sound. The alarm is at once taken by aU the others, and a beginner in elephant-shooting may find that the whole herd has been gone some time before he is aware that he has even been discovered. If attacked, the stampede of a herd is overwhelming : whilst running, some of the elephants often trumpet shrilly in alarm and anger; and if hard pressed, females with young calves will turn upon their pursuers without hesitation. It occasionally happens that elephants mistake the quarter from which danger comes, and during their rush to escape, the sportsman may be placed in great danger. When a herd stampedes it is impossible to teU for a moment, amongst the crashing of bamboos and tearing down of creepers from high trees, which way they are making, if they are hidden in dense cover. The best thing to do on all occasions is to stand still against a tree or bam- boo-clump ; to run is to risk being tripped up, and perhaps to be left sprawl- ing in the elephants' path, or to provoke a chase if they are close behind. 196 ELEPHANTS IN FLIGHT. Elephants are poor sighted, and so intent on making off when thoroughly- startled, that I have been almost brushed against without being discovered. The rapidly advancing line of huge heads and cocked ears, bobbing spasmod- ically up and down as the elephants come rushing on, levelling everything before them, is a trying sight at first, requiring some nerve, and the reflection that they are escaping, not charging, to stand. If circumstances ever occur to make a run unavoidable, the pursued sportsman should always take down-hill, and choose the steepest places at hand, as elephants fear to trust themselves on a rapid descent at any great pace ; up-hill, or on the level, a man would be immediately overtaken in rough ground. When a shot is fired at a herd unaccustomed to firearms, the whole fre- quently mass together and stand huddled in a heap, shrinking at each shot till the smoke and smell alarm them. There is no doubt that, in such cases, they believe the noise to be thunder close at hand ; the firing of heavy charges may easily be mistaken for the almost simultaneous flash and crash often heard in storms during the early rains. It is undoubtedly from the same belief that tigers not unfrequently return to eat at a carcass shortly after a shot has been fired at them by the ambushed native shikarie. Un- less they believed the noise to be something else than firearms, it is evident, they would not come back again. When a herd of elephants makes off, they go at a great pace for a short distance, but do not maintain it long before they settle into a fast walk, which they often keep up for ten or fifteen miles, if they have a wounded elephant and no young calves amongst them. The sportsman should run after them at once, as an ordinary runner can generally keep near them for two or three hundred yards, if the ground be fair. When elephants are close at hand, standing in indecision, no one should shout to turn them. A charge by one or more of them is almost sure to be made if they are suddenly startled in this particular manner. I have seen, and myself experienced, several instances of the danger of this. In Chittagong, whilst driving elephants into a stockade on one occasion, they approached the guiding-line of beaters too closely, when a man who was behind a small bush shouted at them within thirty yards. A female at once charged him ; the man fell, and with the pressure of her foot on his chest she split him open, killing .him on the spot. This elephant had a very young calf, from solicitude for which she became a perfect fury. I was lame at the time from the effect of a pummelling I had had a few days previously from a wild elephant, so was riding a tame one during the beat. The beaters on foot could not approach the elephants for fear of this particular female, so I rode towards her, when she charged my elephant. I fired my express A CHARGING FEMALE. 197 rifle pistol-fashion in her face, as she came on the off- side and I was astride on the pad and could not turn. This shot sent her off, but on further press- ing she again came on, this time from the front, when I rolled her oxev with the No. 8 and 1 2 drams in the forehead. This shot was too high, however, and she got up and made off, and cA'-entually made good her escape. In my early days at elephants I was once following four in the Kaken • kot^ jungles through a swamp of grass twelve feet high ; I thought one was a tusker I was in search of. I kept within twenty yards of their tails in the lane they made, till at last, seeing they were all females, I thought to have some fun with them, as I had always seen elephants run away on the lew occasions I had disturbed them, and I rashly gave a loud shout. They turned and curled their trunks up, but did not retreat. I saw I had caught a Tartar ; however, I gave another shout, throwing my sun-hat towards them at the same time. At this moment one hidden in the grass to my left front uttered a piercing scream, and rushed down upon myself and gun- bearers. She could not see us, nor we her, till she burst out ten feet in front of me into the path. I had just time to give her my Lang 4-bore and 1 0 drams in her face, without any particular aim. This fortunately dropped her ; but she got up as quickly as she went down, and, to my relief, turned and made off with the others. This elephant charged solely on the provoca- tion of a shout. The most interesting branch of elephant - shooting is the pursuit of single male elephants — either those which are quite solitary, or herd-tuskers when wandering apart from their companions. The latter usually join their herds by eight or nine o'clock in the morning, and great expedition must be used to overtake them before that time, as the noise they make whUst feed- ing guards the sportsman against stumbling on them unawares, and a close and favourable shot can usually be obtained. Purely solitary elephants cease feeding by ten o'clock ; they then generally stand listlessly in some thick cover, usually bamboo, or under a tree in high grass ; or they lie down in such places and rest. When lying down they snore, but not loudly; the sound coming through the long trunk has a metallic sound. They occa- sionally raise the ear that is uppermost and let it fall with a loud slap on the neck ; this sound is quite distinct from the flapping of the ears when the beast is standing up, and is well known to elephant-trackers. The habit of lying down to rest is much more common amongst ele- phants, wild and tame, than I have found people even with some acquaint- ance with them suppose. All wild beasts lie down during the day, and not unfrequently at night, and it is not easy to guess how the notion arose that elephants do so less than others. AH tame elephants, except a few timid 198 HOW TO FOLLOW WOUNDED ELEPHANTS. individuals that are nervous about the stray cattle, pariah-dogs, and jackals that often prowl round their pickets, lie down to sleep. The idea prevailed in old days that elephants had no joints and could not lie down. A good estimate of the calibre of a wild tusker may generally be arrived at by the impression of his tusk in soft soil. One that will admit five fingers in the groove is well worth following ; his tusks will be over 6 0 lb. the pair. In single-elephant shooting, a very remarkable circumstance, which the sportsman should be aware of as occurring in their retreat, is, that all noise often ceases after the first headlong rush of a hundred yards or so, and the novice may suppose the elephant has stopped, whereas he has merely sub- sided into a quick, noiseless walk, and though a person be close at hand, the brushing of the boughs against the beast's tough sides will scarcely be heard. I have lost more than one elephant through advancing cautiously when I thought the wounded beast had stopped, whilst he was rapidly putting him- self beyond the reach of pursuit. The noiselessness with which a whole herd also makes off on occasions when it suspects danger and seeks to avoid observation, is equally astonishing. A plan I always pursue in following wounded elephants if they cannot be overtaken in the first burst, and have to be followed far, is to send two jungle-men ahead on the track, and to follow with my gun-bearers a hundred yards behind. This is the safest plan for the trackers, as they can creep silently on and see or hear the elephant before he perceives them. An advance can then be made with a knowledge of the position of the enemy; but for all to approach together in the first place is Kkely to give the elephant warning, and he may do damage before his proximity is suspected. In all encounters with wild beasts it is more than half the battle to strike the first blow. I have seen aU but the most plucky trackers scatter and flee before an unexpected attack by a wounded wild animal ; the effect is that of a sur- prise, and the success is with the side that effects it. A Sholaga was killed on the Billiga-rungun hills some years ago when out with two sportsmen ; an ambushed tusker (wounded) suddenly rushed out, the trackers fell, and one was trampled to death on the spot. Had they been sent forward to make their own observations this would not have happened. As to there being any greater danger in shooting rogue elephants than herd-tuskers, as is usually supposed, I have much doubt. In the first place, in single-elephant shooting the having only one animal to deal with is an immense advantage. There is little danger of being run over by acci- dent, as in a mob ; and it will be found that, in charging, single elephants, though perhaps more liable to attack in the first place, are not more deter- mined than members of herds. A female with a young calf is infinitely TAKING OUT TUSKS. 199 more likely to attack a man, and to do so persistently, than nine-tenths of male elephants. If some solitary animal, which has been accustomed to lord it over field-watchers and helpless travellers, is met, the unexpected novelty of a battery opening upon him is Hkely to disconcert him, and, like all bullies, he is demoralised by a reverse. A man-eating tiger is not more dangerous to hunt than any other ; and in my experience, and from all I have heard, rogue elephants, when the tables are turned on them, are not more determined than others. When a tusker has been secured, his tusks may either be hacked out, or left for about ten days, when they can be drawn out without much trouble. If the tusks are to be cut out, the flesh along the nasal bones up to the eye must be removed and the tusk-cases split with a hatchet, but the tusks are usually somewhat blemished in the process. The best pair of tusks I ever bagged were 4 feet 11 inches and 5 feet respectively in length (when taken out), 16^ inches in circumference at the gums, and weighed 74| lb. the pair. A dead elephant is soon a disgusting spectacle. The carcass sweUs to an enormous si^e, the legs on the side which is uppermost becoming stiff, and projecting horizontally by its distension. Many hundreds of vultures collect on the neighbouring trees, or fight for a seat upon the carcass, awaiting the time when they shall be able to make a commencement. This is not for at least six days, when the carcass bursts, and collapses with rottenness. By this time it is crawling with millions of maggots, and has become whitewashed with the droppings of the filthy but useful birds. The spot resounds with the buzzing of innumerable flies, and the stench is so great as to be easily perceivable at half a mile to leeward. Wild hogs not unfrequently feed upon the carcass, as I have seen by their tracks ; and I think it is not unlikely, as stated by natives, that tigers do so occasionally. Wlien the vultures are able to commence, the carcass is reduced to a pile of bones and a heap of undigested, masticated grass (the contents of the stomach), in a few hours. Large though the amount of flesh is, it is soon disposed of by the hundreds of ravenous birds, whose croaking, hissing, and flapping, as they feed and fight, may be heard for a considerable distance. If the stench is overpowering before the carcass is devoured, it is almost worse when the birds have left. The whole neighbourhood is pervaded with the most pungent odour of guano, and the site of the recent disgusting feast is trampled into a puddle by their feet. In Mysore even the lowest classes of natives, who have no objection to carrion, will not eat the flesh of the elephant. They imagine it to be very 200 ELEPHANTS' FLESH. heating, and believe that many of the vultures which feed on it die. In cutting up an elephant they think it necessary to oil their hands and arms, believing the blood will cause serious skin affections. It was not till my men had seen me at work up to my elbows, and unoiled, that they would dispense with the precaution. In Chittagong the hill-people were glad to get elephants' flesh, and always carried away every morsel of those that died during our hunting operations. One, which I had had covered with earth, as it died inside one of the kheddahs, and would have interfered with our work, was exhumed after we left and eaten by the Joomas. Elephants' feet make unique footstools ; the fore-feet being round, are better adapted for this purpose than the hind, which are oval. The feet should be cut off a few inches below the knee, and the bones and flesh must be taken out. This is hard work, and strong knives are necessary. It facilitates the operation to slit the foot down behind, and sew the cut up afterwards ; but this is not absolutely necessary, and is better avoided if possible. The feet should, when cleaned, be well rubbed inside and out with arsenical soap, and folded away for convenience of packing. They will keep in this state till the sportsman's return to headquarters, when they must be softened by many hours' soaking in warm water ; they are then to be rubbed again with arsenical soap. After this they should be placed in the sun, filled with sand, and aU loss by shrinking prevented by fre- quent ramming. When thoroughly hard and dry the sand must be removed and the feet stuffed with coir. The nails should be scraped tiU quite white, and the skin should be covered with a coating of lamp-black. Both skin and nails should then be varnished, and the top of the foot covered with panther's skin, or with velvet or other raaterial, secured round the edge by large-headed brass or silver nails, and a velvet band. Small feet make good cheroot-boxes for the table with a mahogany tray inside, partitioned off for different sizes, and a mahogany or silver lid, surmounted by a small silver elephant to lift it off by. They can also be made up into tobacco- boxes, ink-stands, small boxes for a lady's table, &c. CHAPTER XVI. INCIDENTS IN ELEPHANT-SHOOTING. CAMP AT POONJOOR— WANT OP RAIN — MOVE CAMP — A TIGER IN A SHOLAQa'o HUT— SHO- LAGA TRACKERS — A TROUBLESOME COUGH — FIND ELEPHANTS — MANOEUVRE TO GET A SHOT — KILi A TUSKER— I NARROWLY ESCAPE AN INGLORIOUS END — JUNGLE-TRACKERS — MY YOUTHFUL TRACKER GORRAVA — THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HITTING AND BAG- GING— PERSEVERANCE — THE KAKANKOTE ROGUE — HIS HABITS — KILLS TWO TRAVELLERS — KAKANKOTi — THE CUBBANY RIVER — FOREST — KURRABAS — THEIR HABITS, FOOD, APPEARANCE, DWELLINGS — GARROW AND CHITTAGONG WILD TRIBEs' DWELLINGS — KORRABAS' METHODS OF CATCHING WILD ANIMALS — THE FLYING SQUIRREL — ETHNO- LOGY OF THE KURRABAS — OLD POOJAREE — JUNGLE TRIBES* FEa.R OF ELEPHANTS — I REACH k1kaNK0T:6 to hunt the ROGUE— news op him — TRACK HIM — HEAVY RAIN — FIRE AT THE ROGUE — WILD ELEPHANTS' RUSHES — THE ROGUE ESCAPES— MELAN- CHOLY REFLECTIONS. IT was in July 1870 that I had obtained ten days' leave of absence, which it was my intention to devote to a bear and bison shooting expedition at Poonjoor. I had already sent on my tents and servants from Mysore, and on the day before my leave commenced I managed to be at Atticulpoor, on the extreme limit of my district, so as to commence shooting without loss of time. I spent the day in casting bullets and making other preparations, and in viewing with pleasant anticipation the Billiga-rungun hills, stretching before me in a grand blue line. The day was delightfully cool and cloudy, and the highest peaks were often hidden in the mists. With my glass I ■could see a mass of rocks away on the left, twenty miles distant, where I had captured a pair of tiger-cubs two months before ; also the valley where I had shot my first bison, and other places endeared to me by similar recollections. Having taken some coffee and biscuits early next morning, I jumped into my trap with my guns, which the horsekeeper held whilst I drove. 20:i CAMP AT YRRLSARIGA. and started to Poonjoor. The road was very rough, often merely a track, but I had a fiery Pegu pony and a light and not valuable dog-cart, so we' lost no time by the way. I saw large numbers of pea-fowl and jungle-fowl^ and a few jackals, but no large game. At Poonjoor I found my old sport- ing companion, Bommay Gouda, awaiting me. I could have hugged the old fellow ; how I envied him for living always in the jungles ! My tents were ready pitched, and breakfast on the table, so it did not take long to make a start in search of bison. Bommay Gouda could hold out no very bright prospects of sport, as he said there had been a deficiency of rain, and the bison and bears were in the hills, where it was impossible to get at them without a well-organised expedition. "We walked about, up hill and down dale, for many hours without seeing anything, and returned in the evening rather disheartened. During our ramble we saw the prints of a stag sambur that had been pursued by a tiger ; this had occurred some days before, after a night's rain. The tiger had evidently failed in the chase. Every bound of both animals was twelve or fifteen feet. There were numerous tracks of elephants, but they were forbidden game. It was evidently useless remaining at Poonjoor, as game was scarce, so by Bommay Gouda's advice I made arrangements to march next morning to- Yerlsariga, a Sholaga hamlet five miles along the foot of the hills. At daybreak Bommay Gouda led the way to our new ground, through fine forest, in which we crossed picturesque streams ; these, though shallow, were clear and rapid, and formed frequent small cascades. My shooting-tent and camp-equipments were carried by men, and I selected a spot to pitch my habitation under a tree close to the Sholagas' huts. These dwellings are very snug and neat : they are only about five feet high inside, and seven feet in length and breadth ; the door is three feet high and two wide. The Sholagas turned out of a couple of houses for my servants, who made themselves very comfortable. I may here mention that two years after this time a tiger was shot in one of these two huts by Bommay Gouda. The animal made its appearance near the village in the middle of the day, whereupon many of the Sholagas fled into their huts, the others- into the jungle near. The tiger showed no intention of molesting the people, and composed himself under a cart which two Mussulmans had driven to Yerlsariga to load with bamboos. As he seemed inclined to re- main there for an indefinite time, one of the Shdlagas ran to Poonjoor for Bommay Gouda, who had an old matchlock. When Bommay Gouda arrived he took a deliberate shot at the tiger, but missed, and the animal betook himself into one of the huts, which was open and untenanted. A Sholaga 1 "^HOLAGA TRACKERS. 205 very boldly shut the door with a long bamboo, and by making a hole through the wattle - and - dab wall Bommay Gouda got another shot and killed this strangely-behaved tiger. There is no doubt that it was suffering from some disease or hallucination which rendered it oblivious to what was going on. It was described as being apparently stupefied. I have known somewhat similar cases of wild animals being found in an uncon- scious and incapable state in the jungles. Bommay Gouda had with him a good Sholaga tracker and his son by the time I had pointed out the camping-ground, and we set out. The Shdlaga reported bison as scarce, bears more so (owing to want of rain), but ele- phants, he said, were numerous, and gave them trouble in guarding their little plots of cultivation from their nocturnal visits. There seemed to be little hope of sport except with elephants ; and as they were evidently very destructive, I determined to put in force the clause of the prohibition against shooting them, which provides for cases where they are a burden to the cultivators, and I gave the word " Forward ! " to the delighted Bommay Gouda. He had been an elephant -hunter in days gone by, and was thoroughly imbued with the pecuKar enthusiasm of the sport. He always said, ''Anay lydrU, dhorS lydrU" (elephant-shooting is the sport for gentle- men). So tremble, ye elephants, wherever ye are, for men are on you? tracks whose eyes would not miss the print of the tiniest deer. The Sholaga and his son, a lad of fourteen, led the way towards a dense belt of jungle three miles distant, where they said the elephants were generally to be found. I rode a pony until we got within a mile of the place ; we then advanced cautiously. Presently, in crossing a sandy nullah, the trackers pointed to the tracks of what appeared to me to be about half-a-dozen elephants, but they explained that there were between forty and fifty, and that the prints had been made early that morning. In tracking, nothing is more difficult to a novice than to estimate with even approximate accuracy the number of individuals in a herd of elephants. Sometimes they travel in single file (when marching any distance), and the uninitiated might be excused for believing that but a single elephant had passed, where fifty would be nearer the number ; and, on the other hand, a small herd will, by feeding for some time within a small area, often leave signs which lead the inexperienced to suppose that a much larger number has been there. Experienced trackers can tell pretty accurately at a glance how many animals the herd contains. I always fortify myself with breakfast or luncheon before going into action — one does not know when one may have an opportunity of getting anything again that day; so whilst I was laying in some cold fowl and '204 A TROUBLESOME COUGH. bread-and-butter, the trackers took their snacks of ragi-bread. This viand is not more seductive to the taste, nor pleasant to the eye, than an old shoe- sole, but it is the common travelling food of the working classes in Mysore, when they have not time to prepare a regular meal. Bommay Gouda, who had the ordering of the attack, now sent on the two Sholagas, whilst he, myself, and Jaffer, who carried my second rifle, followed. The men with the tiffin-basket and pony were left behind, with orders to join us when they heard shots. We had only gone a short dis- tance when a faint trumpet away to our left attracted our attention. The ■elephants were in the cover where the Sholagas expected to find them, so we hurried on with less caution, as they were at some distance. I found it necessary to send the old Sholaga tracker back to join the men with the pony, as he began to be troubled by a cough, which I knew from consider- able experience of natives would break out at the most inopportune moment. I found out subsequently, in other hunts, that the old fellow was always similarly afflicted when we got near formidable game ! He confided to me, after we had been longer acquainted, that he was not so active as he once was, and that he mistrusted his powers of escaping from an elephant by flight ; and as his duty was really over when he brought me and my gun-bearers up to game, I gave him standing permission to fall back before fighting commenced, which proved a panacea for his malady. The elephants were in a thick piece of jungle through which a sandy nullah wound its way ; it was about fifteen yards wide, quite dry, with high banks. Hiding ourselves on the side from which we approached, we heard the elephants feeding in the thick jungle on the opposite bank. The branches of trees were bent down now and again, or an occasional trunk was raised to reach the tender leaves, but as it was nearly mid-day the elephants were quite hidden from view. Occasionally a squeak of pleasure from the young ones, or deep grumblings from the big ones, were heard. I had never been near wild elephants before, and I felt the pleasurable excitement that attends a young sportsman's first encounter with new and formidable game. We sat in cover for some time, hoping the elephants would make a move, but they seemed inclined to rest in their cool retreat, and showed no sicms of emerging from it for some time. At last I could no longer restrain my wish to see an elephant in his wild haunts, so whispering to Jaffer to keep near with my second rifle I got quietly into the nullah, and walking noiselessly over the soft sand, brought my head to the level of the opposite bank. I peered through the bushes ; it was much easier to see under than through them, and my eyes were immediately greeted with the sight of the legs and feet of several elepliants. One was T\7tliin eight yards of me. WE FIND THE ELEPHANTS. 205^. Drawing myself up behind a small tree, I stood on the bank with my rifle ready. I could just distinguish the head of the owner of the nearest pair of colossal understandings. Suddenly it struck me that the elephant was watching me, as its head was turned in my direction, and I expected to hear a shriek and a rush forward. I kept my rifle to my shoulder, intending to fire both barrels, and if I failed in flooring it, to jump down into the nullah, and with the second rifle stand on the opposite bank. However, as I waited, my heart thumping against my ribs, the huge head swung lazily to one side and back again, showing the half-closed, dozing eye. The elephant was a female. As my intention was to get a tusker I left her in peace, and getting quietly down, delighted with my first close peep at wild elepliants, I re- gained the other bank, intending now to wait till the herd should move into better ground. Jaffer, though a plucky fellow, had, like his master, never seen elephants till now, and was not sorry to be relieved of his duty of standing in the nullah with the second rifle, as he was afraid some of the herd might come up it and take us in rear. We sat down and held a long consultation, when presently it struck us that the elephants were very quiet, and when Bommay Gouda and I recon- noitred their late position we found that they had moved off. It is remarkable how quietly a herd of elephants will slip away, and how little trace they leave of the passage of their huge bodies. These must have obtained a slant of our wind ; but as this herd * was constantly in the habit of visiting cultivation, near to the habitations of man, it did not go far. We followed immediately, and shortly entered thinner jungle, inter- spersed with large trees, where we came up with the elephants marching sedately along, a few of the young ones wandering to right and left as food tempted them. It was now about three o'clock in the afternoon and near their feeding-time. They looked so different from tame elephants : instead of being black, as the latter are from frequent washing, they were reddish, owing to the dust with which they had covered their bodies. I scanned them eagerly for a male elephant in vain, till the gleam of a pair of tusks through a bush caught the quick eye of the lad Gorrava, and presently out stalked a tusker ! He was not a large elephant, and by any but a young hunter might have been passed unmolested, but his tusks settled him as my victim. It was very difficult to approach this particular elephant, as the herd was now scattered to browse, and whilst avoiding one we were liable to be * I captured these elephants in June 1874, as related in Chapter X., within a mile of the place where I encountered them on this occasion. «J06 MANCEUVRE TO GET A SHOT. seen or winded by another. However, at last we got to the banks of the ravine to which the elephant had by this time made his way. We were here nearly discovered by a small female which came from behind us, and was apparently intending to cross the nullah near us ; she luckily, however, turned off, or we should have been seen or winded, and the whole herd would have been alarmed. Following the main body, in which was the tusker, along the bank of the nullah, we reached a large tree with an open space in front. The nullah bounded the space on the opposite side, and on the right and left ; in fact, we and the elephants were on a tongue of land surrounded by the nullah, excepting in the direction from which we had come. About thirty elephants were collected here, and amongst them was the tusker. There were four or five other smaller tuskers, but none worth shooting. They sauntered about unsuspicious of danger, caressing each other affectionately, and enjoying their fancied security. At last they made a inove to cross the nullah ahead, where a steep path about five yards wide led down into it and up the other side. I saw that this was the place to out off the tusker, but the difl&culty lay in preventing stray elephants taking our wind and giving the alarm. Ab the herd jostled each other in the nar- row passage I was delighted to see the tusker loiter behind, and ho entered the pass amongst the last. I now ran quickly across the open space, about fifty yards in width, and entered the path at the heels of the r^ar-guard. Nothing could be seen but seven huge sterns in a line as their owners walked down the incline to cross the nullah. I was within ten feot of their tails, but quite lost to all sense of danger in the excitement of the moment. I had read and re-read Sir S. Baker's delightful tales of elephant-shooting in Ceylon, till I fancied the sport was much easier, much less dangerous, than I subsequently found it to be. I kept my eye on the tusker who was in the middle of the line, and was wondering how I was to get a shot at his brain, when, as luck would have it, some vegetable attraction overhead tempted him, and he raised his head to reach it with his trunk. I had beforehand fixed the fatal spot in my mind's eye, and catching sight of his temple I fired. For a moment I could see nothing for the smoke, but heard a tremendous commotion amongst the elephants that were in company with the tusker. Stepping a little aside, I saw their huge heads all turning towards me, their ears outspread, and their trunks curled up in terrified astonishment. Being a novice in the sport, I felt for the moment that I was in real danger. Jaffer was at the top of the pass instead of being at my heels, for which I afterwards gave him a severe lecture. I stood my ground however, determined if any of them charged to fire at the foremost and to run to Jaffer for the second rifle ; that SHOOT MY FIRST ELEPHANT. 207 failing, the case would have been rather bad. However, charging was far from their thoughts ; right about, quick march, was more to their fancy \ and with shrieks and trumpets away they went, some to the right, some to the left, joined by the whole herd in one headlong race up or down the nullah. But my tusker remained stone dead upon his knees ! The triumph of such a success, attained unassisted and in my first inexperienced attempt, quite transported me. Oh that one could retain the freshness of one's first conquests in subsequent enterprises ! Of what account were toil, expenditure of all my spare cash, danger undergone, and past ill-luck, in that blissful moment ? My game had been outwitted by careful stalking and a due admixture of caution and adventuring of our persons. The whole herd was now in flight. I had succeeded beyond my wildest hopes ! My bullet had reached the tusker's brain, and in sinking down he must have been supported by the bodies and legs of the elephants between which he was wedged in ; thus he still remained on his knees though quite dead. ■ He retained his kneeling position for some minutes, when by the gradual subsidence of his carcass he heeled over, and fell heavily on to his side. I narrowly escaped being crushed between him and the bank as he sank, just springing out of the way in time. It would have been a fine thing indeed if, after bagging my first elephant, I had fallen a victim to the collapse of liis carcass ! As a rule, jungle-tribes only know the country thoroughly well in the immediate vicinity of their dwellings, but within this limit every path, pool, salt-hck, and favourite cover, is familiar to them. They can thus usually tell where an animal will be found at any hour. Hence it is most desirable to have them with a party whilst hunting in their respective localities, as they are often able to save time by leaving the trail and leading the sports- man by a more direct route to the place where the animals he is in quest of are. It was for this reason that Bommay Gouda had brought the old Sholaga and his son along with us. The son had a pleasant and intelligent face for a Sholaga — they are generally hideously ugly — and I took a fancy to him at once. Young though he was he tracked the elephants skilfully, and behaved boldly. And now, eight years later, Gorrava is one of my favourite jungle-men, and is employed in the kheddahs. We are confHres against the bears, bison, &c., and many a good day's work have we done " since first we met." Gorrava is tall, lithe, and active, with the lightest step, the quickest eye, and the best judgment of the many good trackers I know. That confidence between a sportsman and his hunters, so essential to good and enjoyable shooting, has long been established between us. I have perfect trust in Gorrava's ability to work out any trail, whilst he knows 208 REMARKS ON LARGE- GAME SHOOTING. that I never fire at random, and thereby render futile the care he has taken to bring me up to game. Much judgment, only to be acquired by experience, is necessary for success ija large-game shooting. When an animal is suddenly pointed out to the young sportsman his first idea is that it will vanish in another moment, and his impulse is to fire at any part of it visible. Thus, though .liost jungle-shots are within fifty yards, and it is not difficult to hit an animal at that distance, some sportsmen are as often unlucky as successful in eventually getting it ; for there is a great difference between hitting and lagging. Unless the ball of even the most powerful rifle be well placed behind the shoulder, or in the head or neck, a stricken beast will frequently travel for miles ; and through the intervention of night, or a heavy shower that obliterates its tracks, it may be lost. It is more sportsmanlil